Medicalised.
Young people who would grow up gay risk being steered towards medical transition.
Many lesbian and gay adults were gender-nonconforming children.
We do not accept that a child can be born in the wrong body, or that a masculine girl or feminine boy needs to change their body to become more like the opposite sex.
How it can happen
A lesbian who never got the chance to find out.
A gender-nonconforming girl who is attracted to other girls may not yet understand herself as a lesbian.
If her distress about being female is understood through a male gender identity instead, social transition may be followed by medical intervention.
Her same-sex attraction hasn't changed. But within her new identity, it may now be understood as heterosexual.
The path
- A gender-nonconforming girl, distressed about being female
- Distress understood as a male gender identity
- Social transition
- Puberty blockers and hormones
At each step, exploring whether she might simply be a lesbian becomes harder, and under this bill, legally riskier.