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Yes, this is my complaint with Jesse: he ends this piece by blasting Republcians for wanting to ban GAM for kids, but does not (it seems to me) have an actual reason for opposing such a ban.

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This is one of my ongoing nits with Jesse, who I really enjoy reading - he seems to frequently feel the need to trumpet his lefty bona fides in ways that often seem a bit ham-fisted

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Well, there's a difference between not having a reason and not having a better alternative.

The reason is that a blanket ban on child GAM could potentially be an overcorrection that harms legitimately trans kids.

However, until we can reliably tell the difference between lifetime gender dysphoria and temporary "it's just a phase" gender dysphoria, a temporary moratorium on child GAM does seem prudent to me as well.

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We can't reliably tell the difference, and the prospects for ever being able to do so are very dim. Just think through the experimental protocol that would be needed for such a verification (I've outlined it in another comment).

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yeah I've wondered myself how the hell you'd ever maintain a proper control group.

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I vote for return to responsible criteria: strict diagnosis, a year of living as the opposite gender, no medical treatment before 18.

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