Recent polling is showing that large majorities of Americans don't support the mistreatment of trans youth, despite all the toxic rhetoric. The language out of state legislatures on the issue is so over-the-top, so dehumanizing, that I think most Americans see it for it is.
If I could add just a quick observation to your excellent commentary:
GOP "multilation" rhetoric is both dehumanizing and wrong. In every state legislature debating the banning of gender-affirming care for trans youth, lawmakers decry surgery on teenagers, attempting to horrify the public about "genital mutilation."
But the thing is, surgeons in the United States do not perform genital surgery on transgender minors. Medical professional organizations don't recommend it. Insurance companies will not pay for genital surgery on transgender minors. WPATH, the international body that sets medical standards for trans healthcare, does not approve of genital surgey on transgender minors. Trans advocates have never called for genital surgery for transgender minors.
Yet for some reason, state lawmakers all over the U.S. grow red-faced over the issue. Conservatives fill my own comments sections and inboxes with accusations that I support "mutilating" children.
This is ignorance, in some cases willful, in some cases manufactured.
It's true that a handful of transgender boys aged 16 and 17 in the U.S. have received top surgery, meaning breast removal, and that's worth talking about. But it's not genital mutilation, it's very rare, and health care professionals make persuasive arguments that in rare cases it's the right thing to do.
The truth about gender-affirming surgery for trans people in the U.S. is that even most trans adults find it very hard to access. It's expensive, rarely covered by health insurance, and (this surprises a lot of people who don't know trans folks) often not a major life goal for trans people.
For trans children, surgery isn't even on the radar, yet the GOP is weaponizing a nonexistent practice intentionally — to frighten, to disgust, and to dehumanize.
