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Spruce's avatar

I'm autistic myself, and I wish puberty blockers had been an option back when I was younger. Not so much for gender issues (though I maintain that autistic people should have their own genders, for exactly the reasons you mention, and go as non-binary in places that insist on a gender but allow more than two options) but because puberty does icky stuff with your body that is extra stress and anguish on top of everything else you're already trying to figure out. Being able to delay it for a while would have been great for my mental health.

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Victor Thorne's avatar

I disagree with you where you suggest not to allow potential trans men to transition, but to allow it for potential trans women. I think the same standards should be applied to both. The reason for this is that, frankly, people increasingly know what to look for, the individual themselves knows what to look for, and with any perception beyond looking at the pitch of one's voice and the presence or absence of facial hair, it is pretty easy to tell trans men apart from biological men. Further, trans men who transition after puberty are not generally going to have most of the markers of physical masculinity that cause certain men to be more successful, more respected, better paid than others, and are going to be smaller and weaker such that they are in much more danger if they are ever in a situation where a physical fight could arise. They will also be more likely to have low status in their social groups, if they are associating outside of LGBT circles; outside of the personal benefit, the desire to fit in and resemble one's family, the desire to physically pass, etc., the social, romantic, and professional success of an individual who resembles a typical male will tend to be quite a bit higher than that of an individual who resembles a small, weak, and neotenous male.

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