1. Are there any meaningful distinctions between the ‘T’ and the other identities represented in ‘LGBTQIA+’? What makes it unique, and what makes it similar?
2. If the American Psychiatric Association was inaccurate or outright wrong to classify trans identification as a mental disorder in an earlier edition of the DSM, how do we know they’re not wrong now by emphasizing incongruence as the problem?
3. If gender is merely a social construct, and gender identity is about one’s psychological sense of self, then why do we feel we need to do anything drastic, expensive, or risky to the body, if the body doesn’t actually tell us anything normatively about our true identity?
4. If anti-trans bigotry is a conservative and/or religious phenomenon, then how do you explain the dozens and dozens of non-partisan, non-religious, science-backed organizations that oppose “gender affirming care,” or at least question its efficacy?
5. Since suicide rates for Gen Z are up across the Anglosphere, and not just in America, is it possible that a significant proportion of the suicidality among trans youth isn’t primarily a function of gender issues, but other psychological comorbidities?
6. Why have people suddenly become so anxious about acknowledging biological differences between males and females, even if we disagree on the topic of gender expression?
7. If enlightened society is interested in transparency, understanding what’s happening, and “following the science,” why have mainstream media outlets so seldom been willing to report dissenting voices about gender-affirming care from within the medical and scientific community? Relatedly, why are people within major medical, educational, and scientific institutions who even question the efficacy of “gender-affirming care” denied promotion, tenure, and publication, and in some cases, terminated?
8. We’re often told that America is backwards, always behind Europe on social progress. So, what do we make of multiple European countries—quicker to the gender-affirming care arena than America—backtracking on the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, etc.? What do they know that we don’t?
9. If the astronomical rise in transgender-identification and gender dysphoria diagnoses is due solely to broader cultural acceptance, and not any kind of social contagion, why are we so sure that social acceptance of a practice necessarily makes it healthy, true, or wise?
10. Are the stories of detransitioners (whose numbers are rapidly increasing) deserving of a hearing, documentation, and taking into consideration as we try to understand the ramifications of “gender affirming care”?
Excellent and well thought out questions! Great tools for intelligent interaction and discussion. Thank you, Jackson!