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Blood will be on your hands. I was a trans kid. My parents did not allow me to have treatment, nor did they respect my identity. I was extremely suicidal, even attempted once at age 12, but in the end I managed to hang on in the hopes I would be able to get treatment and find people who would accept me as trans. Now I am a trans adult. I am receiving hormone therapy, and have been for a long time. The people in my life call me by my preferred name and pronouns. Customers and coworkers perceive me as my correct gender instead of my birth one. My body feels like it belongs to me. I have never been happier. An old friend I lost contact with attempted suicide three times due to transphobia from their family. One day, they stopped responding to my messages. They were 14 years old. Adults and children alike deserve the best and most appropriate healthcare. Adult trans people have to jump through hoops to get trans affirming care already. It is much harder for children. Children and their parents are given information and go through long periods of study and discussion to make sure that transition is the right choice. Transition is not done easily or taken lightly. It is not dangerous or poisonous. Trans affirming care saves lives. If you do not listen to us, more people will die. More children will die. Children who have only known discomfort in their body, children who know being themselves could get them isolated, bullied, even abused. This study by the National Library of Medicine which reports a 60% lower chance of depression and 73% lower chance of suicide in children who receive trans affirming health care. Study 1: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35212746/ A second study reports a 66% reduction in youth suicidal ideation and a 76% reduction in suicide attempts. Study 2: https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-015-1867-2 According to the National Library of Medicine, trans affirming surgeries ALONE have a 1% regret rate. This regret rate is even lower than the regret rate of laser eye surgery. Not to mention the higher regret rates of other procedures such as knee replacement surgery, which has an almost 20% regret rate. With a regret rate of nearly 1 out of every 5 patients, wouldn't knee replacement surgery be a better candidate for pushback than trans affirming care? An 18 year old can go to war. An 18 year old can buy a gun. An 18 year old can get body modifications and tattoos. An 18 year old can get irreversible cosmetic surgeries. An 18 year old can make all of their own medical decisions. If ean 18 year old can make all other medical decisions without resistance, why not trans healthcare? If you're so concerned about children being mutilated, you should cry out against corrective sex surgeries on newborn intersex people. Yet you turn a blind eye to that. Bodily autonomy is a fundamental human right. Once you set a precedent for restriction, you may not like where it leads down the road.