If not for transphobia, 'what kind of conversations could we be having'?

Three years ago, Charlie Jane Anders wrote this:

"Republican state legislatures seem to be locked in a competition to see which can be the cruelest to trans youths."

(Of course, it's gotten worse since then.)

When a kid comes out as trans, they've already done a lot of self-examination.

"Often, it may appear that trans kids and adults emerge fully formed, like Athena from the brow of Zeus, when in reality we’ve spent endless hours trying to make sense of our selves. The moment we reveal the end result of our self-discovery to the world, we face microaggressions, outright hostility and discrimination."

Of course, there's always more to do. Kids "need time to explore their identities and personalities," so why such "extraordinary scrutiny and intervention from the government"? "It’s beyond heartless to expect young trans and gender-nonconforming people to navigate this challenge while also being the objects of a national outbreak of paranoia."

"Take the North Carolina bill, which would require teachers and other authority figures to spy on young people and report any signs of “gender nonconformity” to their parents or guardians. Even if no teacher ever contacted anyone’s parents, everyone would still be aware that their clothes, hair and habits could be singled out at any time.

“Everybody is under surveillance when we have these restrictive ideas about gender,” says Raquel Willis, a trans activist and writer who founded Black Trans Circles. Even cisgender children and adults would be “boxed out of a human experience, because they are told they have to act a certain way.”

Anders says she wonders: "What kind of conversations could we be having about growing up trans and gender-nonconforming if we didn’t have to argue constantly against a manufactured panic and a wave of authoritarianism?"

"Opinion: We should celebrate trans kids, not crack down on them, Charlie Jane Anders, Washington Post, April 12, 2021.