Today Jamelle Bouie wrote a column about human dignity and trans people. It’s not a bad topic for a progressive writer on a deadline even if it is a bit well-trodden by this point. Still, it’s a bit odd to see him taking on this topic. It’s not his usual cup of tea.

Over the past year, we have seen a sweeping and ferocious attack on the rights and dignity of transgender people across the country.

In states led by Republicans, conservative lawmakers have introduced or passed dozens of laws that would give religious exemptions for discrimination against transgender people, prohibit the use of bathrooms consistent with their gender identity and limit access to gender-affirming care.

In lashing out against L.G.B.T.Q. people, lawmakers in at least eight states have even gone as far as to introduce bans on “drag” performance that are so broad as to threaten the ability of gender-nonconforming people simply to exist in public…

There is plenty to say about the reasoning and motivation for this attack — whether it comes from Trump, Gov. Ron DeSantis in Florida or Gov. Greg Abbott in Texas — but the important thing to note, for now, is that it is a direct threat to the lives and livelihoods of transgender people.

And because this is Jamelle Bouie we quickly go from recent history back to the 19th century and a discussion of Frederick Douglass. He concludes:

Put plainly, the attack on the dignity of transgender Americans is an attack on the dignity of all Americans. And like the battles for abortion rights and bodily autonomy, the stakes of the fight for the rights and dignity of transgender people are high for all of us. There is no world in which their freedom is suppressed and yours is sustained.

And that’s it. There is no real discussion of any particular issue and no nuance whatsoever in his handling of what dignity for trans people would look like other than completely and total agreement with whatever demands are made upon the rest of us.

If you’ve read as many Bouie columns as I have then you’re already used to the reaction to many of them in the comments. Quite often it’s a string of Hosannas for whatever brilliant point they think he’s made. But that’s definitely not the case today. Today the commenters are pointing out that he’s missed a few things. Here’s the top comment from a reader in Florida:

When it comes to dealing with trans people, I think most Americans are willing to live and let live.

However, I also think most Americans do not accept drag shows for children; puberty blockers for children; trans men competing in women’s sports; schools and teachers who promote sexual identity change without notifying parents, etc.

What consenting adults do with and to each other is nobody’s business; what is done with and to children and other minors is society’s business.

The comment with the second highest number of upvotes is from a reader in Pittsburgh:

I am a gay man, but I think there needs to be a step or two back taken from what has become the politicization of medical treatment for children who may be transgender. Several years ago, a family living on a street in my neighborhood announced by way of a transgender flag that appeared on their porch that their eight-year-old until then son had recently informed them that he is trans. Since then, children of three other families living on our block have had such an epiphany. Four trans children on one block in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania? I think not.

And it keeps going like this. Here’s the next comment from a reader in Minnesota:

Being transgender is not a problem. Biological males competing in women’s sports is a problem, at least after Middle School. I also have concerns about physical transitioning at a young age, before a person has reached adulthood. We do not consider people under 18 to be mature enough to vote, drink or have sex with an older person, yet want to make an exception when it comes to undergoing surgery or medical treatment that is in many cases irreversible.

There was a response to that last one which I think sort of sums up the opposing viewpoint (including Jamelle Bouie’s view I suspect):

Gender identity is different than any of the activities that you mention. We need to believe people when they express their identity.

It is exceptionally rare for a person to “change their mind” on this. We should not hold trans people – even younger ones – hostage to this notion that they do not know themselves.

Children are not property.

It’s true children are not property but they are in the care of their parents until they become adults or until they are separate from a parent by death, divorce or the courts. This casual idea that 14-year-olds know what’s best for them could only be uttered by someone who knows very few 14-year-olds. Another reader also took issue with the idea that teens rarely change their minds:

Exceptionally rare? Tell that to the kids at my kid’s middle school.

There are kids who have gone from boy to non-binary to trans girl to a host of genders I can’t even make sense, like “demi girl.”

Then there are biological girls who say they’re non-binary and then say they are trans boys. But they show up to school in mini-skirts, tight shirts revealing cleavage, and makeup!

One middle school my kid attended had 15% trans-identifying kids. The other had 25%. These numbers are just through the roof.

Kids change clothes, nicknames, hairstyles, cliques, and identities throughout middle school and high school. This is how they find themselves.

I don’t mind that they’re playing around with gender, as long as it doesn’t negatively impact others — like biological boys being in the girls’ locker room or in sports, or kids being expected to track every single pronoun change or use neo-pronouns.

But definitely we shouldn’t be giving irreversible medical treatments to kids just because they hit a point where they say they’re trans.

One last response, this one from a reader who is clearly a fan of Bouie’s work and who still managed to offer a critique with a more nuanced view than Bouie’s own:

Jamelle,

Another excellent column, thank you.

We should never be insulting or denigrating in our speech, period.

However, for those of us that do have concerns about youth under 18 undergoing surgery at a time in life when angst and confusion is fairly common, we do need to find ways to speak, and be heard, respectfully about those concerns.

I remember when my own younger sister began to become a well endowed young woman around age 12 or 13. She found that transition upsetting and tried to hide it and felt ashamed.

As a brother, I tried to make her “feel” better about her change, but, she told me once: “I want to just cut these things off”. Then, she started crying.

I was shocked by her angst and her being repelled by her own body.

Fortunately, my Mom, also a well endowed woman, would go into her room at talk to her and calm her down.

Long story short, my sister has two beautiful children and has been married for many years to a man who, I am sure, did not mind her well endowed state.

BUT, what if my Mom, instead of quietly assuaging my sisters normal angst about puberty, had taken her to a doctor to cut off her breasts? The doc would do it because, hey, it makes big money.

Would that have been the correct path?

We need to be able to express our concerns about young people making irreversible surgical change at a turbulent time in their life and we need to be able to say that might be parental poor judgement.

Lots of people have concerns about how this issue intersects with children (including their own). That doesn’t mean those people are monsters. On the contrary, many of them are just parents who realize they have a broader view of the path ahead then is possible for a kid watching TikTok videos on trans identity.

Update: Just saw this. I wasn’t the only person who had a negative reaction to this column.

You'd have no idea that trans people are now covered under the 1964 Civil Rights Act; or that there are actual substantive issues here in this lazy, dumb piece of virtue signaling. https://t.co/60kk17xaGn

— Andrew Sullivan (@sullydish) February 10, 2023