I am going to be spending next week with family members who are very vocal about their feelings on the transgender community. Where/how can find resources to educate myself? I know the topic will come up and I would like prepare myself somewhat.
It would be good to understand the recommended treatment program that is implemented for trans youth (hint: it's not surgery).
What is definitive is that care for trans youth saves the lives and well being of the people who have access to it. You can easily find creators on Youtube or TikTok who will talk about their experience firsthand, whether they received treatment when they were young, or wished that they did.
On the "permanence/regret/detransition" angle that people are concerned about: there's a stat that someone else can probably post, but the rate of "regret" of gender confirming care is significantly lower than many common cosmetic procedures. Detransitioners are a small minority, and transphobic detransitioners who are outspoken about being "tricked" or something are even smaller still.
Other likely thing is bathroom stuff, but like most transphobia it gets nonsensical fast since the only way for that to work is for someone to think "I can always tell" which is always false false false.
Detransitioning stats can be a bit hard to get because of how easy it is to do depending on how far you have transitioned. For example for me, I'm pre-HRT so if I was to detransitioning it would involve cutting my hair, stop shaving my body hair, changing clothes and changing my name back. I, or anyone else in a similar situation, would never be caught in a survey looking at detransitioning.
And, surprise transphobes, not everything is supper permanent. Most things are pretty easily reversible. Even after HRT a lot of the changes are reversible. They just take more effort. The only things I'm aware of that are not very reversible are surgeries. Whichs why someone is usually pretty far along in transition before the medical community allows you to get one.
Adding on to this, you can find stats about high rates of "desistence" among children and youth with GID(C) diagnoses (I'm not sure what that become in DSM-V when GID became "Gender Dysphoria"). However, these stats need to be understood in the context of what the criteria for GID(C) are--they're incredibly broad. Any mildly gender-non-conforming child can fit the criteria if their parents dislike their gender non-conformity (there's a quasi-conspiracy theory that it was a backdoor to "treating" "pre-homosexual" kids after the removal of homosexuality from the DSM). It's no shock that most of these kids don't grow up to be trans--they mostly weren't making a statement about their gender identity in the first place!
[Daryl Hill] insisted, GID is not a mental disorder at all. More than anything else, the criteria described reflect “the distress often experienced by parents” who have become “preoccupied with the negative aspects” of their son’s or daughter’s behavior as the child struggles to make sense of gender-related feelings
So honestly, you won't convince anyone by arguing with them. In the face of transphobic family, what you're best doing is simply showing that your support is strong and unflinching.
"I don't want to argue about this with you. I value trans folk and stand with them. I'm not going to debate their rights with you."
Here you go. Best trans resource on the internet. 2 years into being trans and 6 months into hormones, i found this site and learned a lot more about myself.
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