Surely this varies by the person. But according to the professionals in the fields of physical and mental health, who unlike us are actual experts at answering these questions, they can be. And there are guidelines used by medical professionals (in both physical and mental fields) to make that determination.So the question is actually simple. Is a 10/11 year old boy or girl mentally and emotionally capable of making the decision to get surgery a decade later?
What the Science on Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Kids Really Shows
Laws that ban gender-affirming treatment ignore the wealth of research demonstrating its benefits for trans people’s health
www.scientificamerican.com
"Major medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the Endocrine Society, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Psychiatric Association, have published policy statements and guidelines on how to provide age-appropriate gender-affirming care. All of those medical societies find such care to be evidence-based and medically necessary."
The two phrases I want to emphasize there are "evidence-based", meaning the scientific method has been applied and a consensus exists among professionals, and "medically necessary" which means there must be a vast improvement of outcomes without sufficient risks of side effects or negative outcomes to offset it.
Without even speaking to the individual in question? Without understanding the circumstances? Without any examination of any kind? Are you at all trained, educated or qualified to make that determination? Have you ever even watched a trans child grow from infancy to 10 or 11 to see how they behave? Because the experts have. Most have seen many. Formerly die-hard, anti-trans people have changed their opinion after watching their own child to through it so if you haven't I'm not sure why you think you're qualified.I say no.
What about if someone is born with both sets of reproductive organs? How old do they need to be before you think they have a say in what gender they are? Generally that assignment surgery is done at birth without their consent or input at all. You must have a problem with that too?
You say no. Is that "evidence-based"? How many people were in your study? How many formed the control group? How many times was your study replicated and by whom? Did they reach the same conclusions and find the same results? When outcomes are significantly improved, what negatives and at what percentage do they occur to render gender-affirming care not "medically necessary"? If your opinion is "evidence-based", what percentage had negative incomes that outweighed the positive outcomes? What percentage had positive outcomes too? Again, how big was your control group and how often were your results replicated?
Perhaps most importantly, in your own studies, what do you do that differed from the studies conducted by American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the Endochrine Society, et al to generate different results? Why do you think those changes matter and are relevant? Which peers validated those claims? And why didn't you publish in a scientific journal? Or did you, and if so, which journal?
But if you haven't conducted a study, what makes you think your opinion is more valid than those of the experts? What evidence do you have to support your opinion? Have you even raised children?