I’m not going to argue against any laws that bring trans-rights out of line with what is available to any other person in society. A liberal society should not discriminate on the grounds of any given characteristic.

However, I wouldn’t be an argumentative penguin if I didn’t have an argument. There’s another realisation here, nanely that allowing tattoos at such a young age is wrong. Many of the things that I held to be evidently true at 15, are not true now. Im glad I didn’t get tattoos at that age – although my brain may adapt and convince me they were right choice (brains do this) part of me would know they weren’t.

I change. Human psychology is complicated and the brain doesn’t stop developing until around 24. There are complicated things happening across adolescence for all children and doubly so for trans children too. This is further complicated by the time limited nature of hormonal changes.

My concern with the way the discourse is going is that we are removing protections for children under a wave of pro-trans not being seen to be transphobic. Children and young adults should be protected by the nation state and that means really considering what as a society we can do and what we can’t. The case of Keira Bell over in the U.K.is one that’s caused a lot of upset…. But is essentially what happens if you fast track someone from gender dysphoria into transitioning.

In those instances we aren’t talking about a T-shirt you can take off. We aren’t even talking about a tattoo of your favourite thundercat you can have changed into something more relevant with a couple of hundred dollars. We’re talking about life altering surgeries and irreversible treatments costing hundreds of thousands.

We owe it to all our children to make sure that we are careful. Nothing about transphobia or trans-activists and the way they speak to each other promotes this. The two sides have stopped listening in their quest to be heard and its trans-children and vulnerable girls (mostly) who are caught in the ideological cross fire.

The two sides fuel each other and nuanced positions (it sounds like the Governor had such a position) get lost in the melee. Moderation and discussion are the order of the day, not splitting the world into vice and virtue…. Done equally by both sides.