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Notes -
IF being the big honkin' signal here. A 12 year old may be confused and frightened about the changes puberty is wreaking on their body. 14 is still young and impressionable, and if they've been putting puberty on hold for two years, they might not be sure about reversing course when school, parents, doctors and everyone has been affirming them in their new identity. 16 is still young, but it's older that there's a better chance the kid really knows and has made up their own mind and can understand the risks.
What really puts me off is the 'experts' claiming that 2 year old kids can definitely know their gender identity. I've mentioned this before, but I work at a childcare centre and I've heard a 4 year old explaining to his granny that he was not a boy, he was a robot. Now, if parents just roll with it and don't make a big deal one way or another about "Susie doesn't want to wear dresses, she wants to wear jeans" then fine. It's the anxious parents who get chivvied into it by activist teachers and online advice that your kid will kill themselves if you don't affirm their true gender identity that make bad decisions.
Or things like this proposed bill in California, which is heavily amended but which does look to be trying to extend the meaning of "child abuse" to "doesn't affirm child's gender identity". Custody battles are already nasty enough without dragging in "Your Honour, my ex should not have custody or visitation rights because they are a child abuser because my kid is trans and they don't accept that".
(Amended sections in bold):
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