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Well this is basically my stance. If trans is just a weird progressive sect (a modern skoptsy), whose sacraments are puberty blockers and HRT and whose initiation rituals are top and bottom surgery, that would be one thing.
But that means dropping the pretense that these things are anything other than sacraments and initiation rituals. When a surgeon conducts a circumcision on a man suffering from phimosis, that is a necessary medical intervention. But when a rabbi or imam circumcises a male infant, no one claims that this procedure is being conducted out of medical necessity, and so should it be here. That means:
It also means that, just as the children of Jehovah's Witnesses can be taken into care if their life is in jeopardy as a consequence of their parents' religious beliefs (at least in some jurisdictions; apparently not Idaho), the state can take trans children into care if their welfare is in serious jeopardy as a consequence of their parents' beliefs.
I genuinely believe a huge proportion of children in the Anglosphere who have received these interventions over the past twenty years would not have done so if their status as sacraments and initiation rituals had been more clearly communicated to their parents. I think "HRT, elective mastectomies, vaginoplasties etc. are still available for true believers who really want them – but no medical organisation is claiming they are medically necessary interventions, and caveat emptor if you decide to pay for them out of pocket" is a compromise that would suit most people. I imagine a lot of medical bodies might eventually hit on this solution via convergent evolution if the pace of detransitioner lawsuits keeps up. A recurrent complaint in said lawsuits is that patients and their parents felt their physicians had knowingly misled them about the efficacy or medical necessity of these interventions. It'll be much harder to win a malpractice suit if the defendant can prove that they offered the patient these interventions, but made perfectly clear to them that these are elective procedures and made absolutely no affirmative claims as to their efficacy in ameliorating mental distress.
I think the key is I don't think there is a real difference you are drawing. What or why people hold these beliefs is irrelevant. They do. Whether there is some counter-factual world in which a Christian informed that their beliefs are made up would become an atheist and therefore would have allowed medical treatment for their child instead of prayer doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if they were brainwashed as a child, sent to a religious school or handed a pamphlet, it doesn't matter if a trusted pastor converted them, or an online message board. It doesn't matter if their beliefs are true or not.
Either you have to treat the belief as enough or not. Once you start getting into judging whether the belief is well founded, or what tactics you can use to spread your beliefs then we're back while we started.
Guilt tripping is one of the fundamental methods of ensuring compliance to religion (cf. Catholicism) so just because Trans ideology is a religion doesn't mean they can't guilt trip or browbeat people. Likewise people have been taken into care for not being raised in the correct religious beliefs and so on. Faith healers are allowed to advertise. You are drawing (or trying to draw) a bright line between faith and medicine that is actually very blurry.
Either these are reasonable tactics for both trans ideology and religions or they are not.
Are people allowed to morally browbeat people into doing X? Clearly yes. Therefore trans activists should be allowed to as well. Most health insurance covers elective circumcisions at least partially, and even government healthcare does in the majority of states. As for separation of church and state the whole Intelligent Design issues shows that religion will certainly attempt to get their beliefs taught in schools by hook or by crook, so again Trans ideology gets the same treatment. They can try and may fail or succeed.
There is nothing to say a medical organization can't have its advice based upon its beliefs. And in fact plenty to say they can. Jehovah's Witnesses have networks of doctors who specialise in Bloodless Medicine and Surgery, which recommend not using blood products and crucially launder their beliefs by claiming this is better. (or more charitably because they really believe it is better, because their beliefs inform their medical thinking), so a trans-activist doctor can certainly tell a family transitioning their kid is better whether it is or isn't.
The below text at the bottom is from Penn Medicine for reference. Now substitute in "People who choose transition surgery often experience positive outcomes through..." Also note they don't mention anything about the downsides or risks of not using blood products. Interesting isn't it? Like the people writing it have their medical preferences informed by their beliefs and are allowed to simply just tell people that.
I am sure you see my point. If you asked one of these bloodless doctors about whether you should get surgery with a transfusion or without what do you think they would tell you? If you ask a trans activist doctor whether transition is a good treatment for your dysphoric kid what would they tell you?
You're drawing a line for trans treatment that is not drawn in other places. Doctors can just tell you bloodless surgery is better, because their beliefs inform it. Even if you can find other doctors who will say the opposite. Your insurance will just pay for you to have bloodless surgery because it is part of your religious beliefs. Even though it might be riskier. and so on and so forth.
Let me be clear, I think trans treatments much like bloodless treatments are likely to be a mistake and that the children going through each will be harmed more than the alternative. I think both are stupid almost certainly false beliefs. But I think they should be treated the same way. Either activist doctors are allowed or not. Currently if there is a religion that believes blood transfusions are wrong they are allowed to have doctors that also believe this and will (literally) evangelise it. So the trans ideology should get the same treatment. People and parents get to decide which nonsense they want to believe. They remain the final arbiter. Whether they are brainwashed by a pastor, a bloodless doctor or a trans-activist doctor doesn't matter. Either they get to act on their beliefs or not.
I do certainly agree if a trans treatment results in death or the high risk of it, then the state should intervene. But as in Idaho and 33 other states, apparently the religious do not agree with me. So again "their rules fairly enforced". If belief is enough for them to allow a child to die then belief is enough for me to allow parents to transition children. It's isolated demands for rigor and hypocrisy all the way down.
Not from you to be clear, I don't imagine you have much say over Idaho laws or the extensive lobbying thereof. You seem to have a much more structurally coherent position.
"Advantages of bloodless medicine for patients and providers Blood-conservation techniques improve the management of a patient's blood and reduce strain and costs on regional and national blood supplies.
People who choose bloodless surgery often experience positive outcomes through:
Faster healing and recovery Fewer reactions from stored blood Lower chance of infections No chance of receiving the wrong blood in error Hospitals and health-care organizations benefit from reduced:
Blood storage-related issues Costs related to maintaining blood inventory Demand for blood and blood products Risk of blood transfusion errors"
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