I’m gonna touch this one. Teen suicide is the most horrible thing imaginable, and we all need to do whatever we can to prevent it.  The pain and dissociation from one’s own body is very real. That said, the dominant trans paradigm says suicidal ideation is solely the result of transphobia and the lack of parental support for “transition.” But maybe, just maybe, some of these young people want to die because 21st century society is giving them the message that they cannot be, cannot live legitimately and happily in the bodies they have. That if they don’t like “girly” things or are “sissy boys” they must insist upon a medical diagnosis that will commit them to a chronic, expensive health condition involving lifelong drug treatment and repeated plastic surgeries;  that they will have to live like Type 1 diabetics, requiring treatment for the rest of their natural lives. That they are being taught to dissociate. How can that not contribute to a sense of hopelessness and despair?

We on the left cannot allow all the questions about transgenderism to be hijacked by the radical, theocratic right. This is not about sin and hellfire. This is about rational thinking and the courage to question progressive dogma.