I have to ask myself why the obsession about people being fertile. I'm fertile in the sense that I could father a child if I wanted to and if a hypothetical woman agreed to cooperate.

But I've never had a child, and I never imagined that I would, at least since I was aware of how it all worked biologically.

From quite a young age, say 14 or 15, I realized that's not how my life was going to roll. I wasn't wrong about that.

Nobody's ever questioned my choices. Nobody's ever screamed, "Hey, you cisgender gay men are harming the human population because you're choosing not to have children."

Because of course, we're not harming the human population, which is spiking into dangerously high numbers even without most of us participating.

Of course, I understand the argument is that a child might
change their mind later in life, and then regret not being able to reproduce.

Well, freezing eggs and sperm for later use is optional but reportedly typical for many trans people as they begin transition. (Not that all transition care stops egg or sperm production.)

So, usually, trans people who want to be fertile can choose to be fertile.

On this issue, it seems to me that the answers at the debate didn't acknowledge any kind of autonomy on the part of actual trans people in terms of choosing or not choosing reproduction.

It's almost as if trans people were indeed, in the candidates' minds, soccer balls rather than human beings with free will and independent agency.