Maya Forstater

Do go on...

Providing genuine support services to allow self identified trans people, including children, explore their identity and inform them of their options (including surgical options) surely is the best approach both medically and psychologically. Your statement and question...

Ensuring that children who are experiencing mental distress get support to explore what is causing it and how it might be addressed is surely a better place to start. Children self diagnosing as transsexual is a new, rapidly growing and little understood phenomena.

That is the starting point unless your alleging that medical service providers are jumping straight to surgical options. My understanding is that transsexual only applies post-operatively - as such self diagnosis would be reserved to self indentification as transgender.

i.e transsexual = person proposing to/ undergoing/undergone social or medical transition A child that experiences gender dysphoria may or may not grow up to be transsexual.

Protecting children's rights and supporting mental health does not require changing birth certificates to the opposite sex

It can when the experiences around presentation of birth certs has a disproportionate negative effect on a child.