I’m not sure why so many of us, at one time or another,find ourselves in such dense thickets of thought about this but let me try&find the nearest secateurs of common sense&help you out of these tangles. You’re making a serious accusation about a concern @jk_rowling has raised https://twitter.com/jolyonmaugham/status/1280769400048582657

Conflating homosexuality with a medical condition is something homophobes used to do,not progressives.There’s no direct comparison between being gay&being a trans person in the process of transitioning. You dont need lifelong medication to be gay. You dont need help from doctors

In order for children to transition they expressly need the help of clinicians&as such they deserve quality medical care. They also need the utmost thought over the kind of care they are receiving. An opinion about that care is not a judgement about the children involved

It is a scrutinisation of the medical profession. An establishment that does an enormous amount of good but also really drops the ball sometimes. You’re suggesting that criticising their authority is akin to homophobia. You’re not standing up for minors,here, though you intend to

Instead you are standing up for the bodies that govern their care&implying only transphobes would fail to do the same.Your belief that those bodies are infallible doesnt make it so. Later, You go on to justify your position with an appeal to the authority JKR is challenging

That isn’t a rebuttal.We must all do better than that if we want to find the best answers. You can read the science for yourself. Look at the meta analysis of studies on puberty blockers&read the conclusion that concedes the evidence in their favour is nonetheless of low quality.

Look at studies that discuss,for example,altered perception of time,effects on white matter,impact on operational memory,or ask questions about consequences for the bones&cognitive abilities of these children.Just as a start.Look at the evidence&state again the science is settled

I do not believe you can,or would.The more one reads on this,the more one must conclude there is a great deal we still don’t know and that we need to. Look, also, at the specific treatment of precocious puberty. Evaluate the differences in how drugs are being used in both cases.

All of this, too, is before one must reckon with some fundamental questions such as whether or not the deliberate sterilisation of a minority is moral and in what circumstances it is. These are big, ethical questions that can’t be hand-waved with accusations of bigotry, or bias.

Ppl from within the medical profession are now stating concerns similar to JKR’s both about lack of evidence&transitioning homosexual children.If the weight of their authority is what transforms a concern into something worthy of notice, you must still engage with these concerns

Some of us have been on the sharp end of the medical profession. We know how patient groups can fall between the cracks. We respect doctors but recognise them as human, like us all. We understand the importance of impeccable science when the lives of children are involved.

If wanting the best for dysphoric children, whether trans or otherwise, is now to be considered a form of transpbobia then every decent person in the world must surely qualify under that new and rather ungenerous definition.

@JolyonMaugham I realise that you may not look at retweets automatically so I’m tagging you in.