Let's start with the least controversial statement that I've ever made - at least, I hope so. Kids can't consent. There's a reason why statutory rape is a crime. There's a reason why a forty-year-old having sex with a fifteen-year-old ends up in jail even if the fifteen-year-old said "yes." We understand that kids lack the capacity to adequately give consent. I sincerely hope that I'm not going to strike controversy with this. If you're a member of NAMBLA (Not the North American Marlon Brando Look-Alikes), please feel free to mute me.
The point is that we understand that before a certain age, kids can't consent. Are the laws perfect? Of course not. But, there's a solid reason for the existence of those legal parameters.
Okay, now I'm going to piss people off.
I actually read the bill that was passed in Arkansas regarding medical practice regarding trans youth. Every time I have to read a bill, I emerge from it a little pissed off - there's a reason why I'm not a lawyer - I usually want to read something more interesting.
Again, is the bill perfect? Absolutely not. Far from it. But, the reporting on it being flatly transphobic is an exercise in journalistic malpractice.
Both CNN and CBS both referred to the bill as a hate law. The ACLU followed suit. The media outlets slid in that the law includes "reversible procedures" which, for anyone who reads above a sixth grade level, should indicate that the bill also includes irreversible procedures; which, of course, it does.
At the very least the part of this bill that shouldn't be controversial is the part that says that children who were assigned male at birth shouldn't be allowed to be castrated before the age of eighteen.
Yes, fight the bullshit in the bill; but, don't fight the part that says that we can't permanently alter our kids' genitals.