something that frequently gets missed in discussions about kids and medical transition is the fact that kids are constantly having medical interventions forced on them without their consent and, in I’m sure many cases similar to my own, against their express wishes. i do wish there was more of an effort to unite discussions about the rights of trans kids and discussions about the rights of disabled kids (although I realize the framework I’m looking for here does exist: youth liberation). but specifically we should be focusing on how disabled kids (and all kids!) deserve autonomy when it comes to receiving medical treatment.
this is an objectively small example in the scheme of things (and frankly in my own childhood medical history…) but when i was a kid i had a painful and uncomfortable jaw realignment device glued in for a solid year and to this day i still do not know if it was “medically necessary” or if “medical reasons” were invoked to hide the fact that it was primarily cosmetic (and yes, I’m aware of the blurry overlap between “cosmetic” and “medically necessary”, particularly when it comes to orthodontics). the way they explained it was that my jaw in its pre-treatment state (minor underbite) would cause me significant pain and difficulty chewing and dental issues, etc. etc.
well, I didn’t have jaw pain/instability until the device was installed and I continue to have jaw pain/instability to this day. and who’s to say whether I would have had the same symptoms had I not undergone “correction”, but the point is that all the reasons I received for why I needed the device ended up being null and void because the things happened anyway. I don’t care if they would have been “worse” without intervention because I did not have the power to decline it.
you know what I don’t regret? my transition. you know what I do regret? many (arguably most) of the medical treatments i received as a child.
if I had been able to transition as a teen, I think I could have avoided a lot of grief. children’s lack of autonomy is the underlying issue and I wish more conversations on the topic of childhood transition were framed in terms of youth lib and expanded to include disabled kids.
