'All else being equal, it's better to avoid long-term hormone therapy and major surgery that removes a lot of tissue...'

That seems like good advice when you're trying to help your gender dysphoric pre-adolescent child.

But no!

To even raise these serious physical and psychological concerns makes you a transmisogynist hater! A disgusting evil hater, says (the major paragon of progressive tolerance) Professor of Political Science Scott Lemieux at Lawyers, Gays and Marxists, "Hateful Cranks, CanCon Edition":

Most of you probably haven’t heard of Margaret Wente, who I think Canadian journalism received in exchange for Charles Krauthammer and a hack to be named later...

Well, don't worry if you haven't previously heard of Margaret Wente, because Lemieux's here to assure you that she's a certified reactionary hater™!

Keep reading at the link (via Memeorandum).

And then, when you come down from the ecstasy of your two-minute hate, go over and read what certified reactionary hater™ Margaret Wente actually wrote, for example:

Suddenly transgender kids are everywhere – in the news, on Dr. Phil and in your neighbourhood. School boards have developed detailed transgender policies. Clinics to treat transgender kids have sprung up. A condition that used to be vanishingly rare, perhaps one in 10,000 children or less, now seems common. In a random sampling of 6th- to 8th-graders in San Francisco, kids were asked if they identified as male, female or transgendered – 1.3 per cent checked off the transgendered box.

What’s going on? To find out, I sat down with Dr. Ken Zucker, one of the world’s foremost authorities on gender identity issues in children and adolescents...

Gender dysphoria (formerly known as gender identity disorder) means being at odds with your biological sex. It’s not the same as being born with ambivalent genitalia, or being gay. The popular shorthand is “being born in the wrong body,” although that formulation probably does more harm than good. Sex-reassignment treatment is appropriate for some (although by no means all) adults who are unhappy with their gender identity, and some go on to live significantly happier lives.

But for kids, especially younger ones, the issue is much more problematic. Gender confusion is often temporary. About three-quarters of little kids who have issues with their gender – boys who want to be princesses, girls who throw their dresses in the garbage – will be comfortable with it by adolescence, according to Dr. Zucker. (Many of them will grow up to be gay or bi.) Gender confusion can also be a handy label for whatever ails a child (or her family). That’s why Dr. Zucker takes a watch-and-wait approach. He even advises parents of princessy six-year-olds to say, “You’re not a girl. You’re a boy.”

And in the hotly politicized world of gender politics, that makes him, in many people’s eyes, a dangerous reactionary. They argue that a child’s identity must be honoured, and that treatment should start sooner rather than later. They equate the watch-and-wait approach with the widely discredited practice of reparative therapy, which was a failed effort to turn gay kids straight. With the advent of powerful new drugs that delay puberty, the stakes in this debate are even higher. Start them early on puberty-blocking drugs, and their eventual transition will be easier. But which kids? What if you’re pushing them on a path they don’t need to go down? At what point do you start taking life-altering decisions for a child that will have enormous physical, social and emotional consequences?

Alice Dreger is a bioethicist and professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. She calls herself an (im)patient advocate who prefers evidence to ideology. She is a strong supporter of transgender rights. But she thinks the pendulum has swung too far.

One reason is that social norms have dramatically changed. It is now fashionable to embrace your diverse child. Parents who encourage their kids to change gender “are socially rewarded as wonderful and accepting,” while parents who try to take it slow “are seen as unaccepting, lacking in affection and conservative,” she says.

These days, parents who don’t like the slow-and-careful answer can shop for another one. Ms. Dreger is highly critical of what she calls the “hasty clinics,” which are happy to help a kid transition right away. “Parents don’t like uncertainty,” she says. “They’d rather be told, ‘Here’s the diagnosis, and it’s all gonna turn out fine.’” Teenagers can find fast help, too. Plenty of doctors are happy to help them out with hormone treatments just for the asking.

For some people, including some adolescents, transgender treatment is lifesaving. But these treatments are neither simple nor benign. They may, among other things, retard maturation, suppress your growth or render you sterile. And in the end, medical science cannot create a body that makes you forget you were born the other sex. “Some kids need it, but for the kids who don’t, it’s dangerous,” she says. “All else being equal, it’s better to avoid long-term hormone therapy and major surgery that removes a lot of tissue.”

Oh, preferring evidence to ideology? That is so evil you certified reactionary hater™!

I mean omg! How dare you use medical science? Only certified reactionary haters™ would dare to question the nurturing, loving politically correct zeitgeist of childhood transgender-norming movement! Traditional parents concerned about their child's emotional and physical well being? Certified reactionary haters™!

But hey, be sure to read the whole thing, you certified reactionary hater™: "Transgender kids: Have we gone too far?"