so once again british terfs are working hard to erase trans young people, their rights, their needs, and their existence, so i'm going to tweet a bit about being a trans young person to try put some reality into the conversation

I came out as a trans man when I was 14. No one tried to make me come out - in fact before I came out I had resigned myself to not coming out til I was an independent adult. No one tried to force me to medically transition. No one did anything but me.

No one convinced me I was trans. I heard about and learned about trans people from other people my age, did my own research online into what that meant, sought other stories from other trans people. It was all self-directed. It was all voluntary.

When I came out, my parents didn't rush to make me transition. We talked about it a lot. I explained what I wanted, long term - to change my name (gender recognition wasn't legally possible yet), to go on T, to get top surgery. We both knew those things wouldn't happen tomorrow.

But those were my long term desires. We started small - they used my name, they treated me as I wanted to be treated, they bought me a binder. 6 months later I came out at school. It was over a year after I came out that my name was legally changed - a simple, reversible process.

I did not gain access to HRT until I was 16 - two years after coming out. In order to do so I had to talk to two psychiatrists, both of whom had to recommend me for HRT, and then been seen by an endocrinologist who also made sure I knew what was going on.

Key things to remember so far. 1 - these things happened because my parents agreed to them. I could not have done anything without parent consent. 2 - HRT is generally not accessible to people under 16, especially in Ireland and the UK.

3 - there was two years between me coming out and going on T. Two years in which I did my research, my parents connected with other parents of trans kids, and we reached a point where we understood what T would mean for me and how it would work.

There was no fast track here. There was no "coaching". I simply had to wait. I simply had to let strangers pry into my life and identity in order to access these services. 16 is the age of medical consent in Ireland. I had a right to make this choice myself.

A year later I had my gender marker changed. This took months, parent consent, doctor letters, and a court appearance. No fast track. No quick way. Just stress for me, as a 17-year-old, who had better things to worry about.

I waited another two and a half years, til I had finished secondary school, to have top surgery. It was not accessible to me as a minor, nor is it accessible to 99% of trans youth. I was an adult making a conscious informed decision, as I had every right to do.

I have now been out for 6 years. Every major step in my transition has been spaced out by at least a year. Every step has involved the support of my family. There has been no quick and easy way to navigate this.

Trans young people need this. They need the right to make choices about their bodies and futures. HRT and blockers at in the teenage years can make a world of difference for emotional wellbeing and confidence in appearance for those who want it.

My life did not start until I got on T. I spent all of my time feeling awkward and out of place and wrong. I never saw myself. It was beyond teenage awkwardness, it was a sense of truly not belonging to the world as I was. I stood out in crowds of boys my age as an outlier.

Over four years later and when I tell people I'm trans, they're always surprised. No one assumes I don't fit in with men my age anymore. That has allowed me to feel good and feel free and feel natural.

It's been nearly two years since I had top surgery and I have never felt so purely alive. To feel my skin against my shirt, to feel the sun on my skin, to feel my lungs expand to their fullest without restriction has let me live in peace.

Transition is lifesaving. Transition is slow. Transition is vital. Trans young people grow up to be trans adults - but they don't grow up at all when you viciously attack them at every turn and deny them their rights at every opportunity.