The parents and the doctor have no high quality research to point to that show these procedures are effective, so these procedures are unethical.

>That’s between the child, their parents, and their doctor.

Interesting, so a child can't consent to sex, but they can consent to genital surgery? What's your rationale for that?

>does not affect the other kids around them

Kids influence each other. This has been understood for at least 3000 years. A few years ago the trans rate was 1 in 10000, according to the DSM, and now it's about 1 in 50 (or more). But reddit thinks that this is biology and not peers influencing one another. Because of reasons.

I just posted a link to a NY Times article here. Yes, it's happening.

Do I understand you correctly that you think that this is bad for teenagers to be getting this sort of surgery?

edit: and, downvoted for posting sources. Whatever happened to the party of science? Did that get boring or something?

There are plenty of example on right wing sites, which you will probably simply reject, despite them having videos, source tweets, etc. Left wing sites have been ignoring the issue, though the NY Times just ran this piece. A few key bits:

"Michael is part of a very small but growing group of transgender adolescents who have had top surgery, or breast removal, to better align their bodies with their experience of gender. Most of these teenagers have also taken testosterone and changed their name, pronouns or clothing style."

So, drugs with permanent affects, and surgery on minors.

"Genital surgeries in adolescents are exceedingly rare, surgeons said, but top surgeries are becoming more common. "

Rare, but apparently even the NY Times is saying they're happening. And "top surgery", aka double-mastectomies, are "becoming more common".

"some patients come to regret their surgeries."

This is pretty big for the Times to say this, as not too long ago people said that detransitioners didn't really exist.

"Dr. Gallagher, whose unusual embrace of platforms like TikTok has made her one of the most visible gender-affirming surgeons"

A surgeon is directly advertising to teens on tiktok. Reddit loves to hate on pharmaceutical companies advertising their drugs, but apparently a doctor advertising to vulnerable youth is fine.

"[in one study] Roughly one-third of those who underwent surgery reported ongoing loss of nipple sensation...Most patients were surveyed less than two years after their surgeries, and nearly 30 percent could not be contacted or declined to participate."

This is a study they point to as showing success, a study where 30% have negative side effects and where 30% of the participants dropped out, and where there was no real long-term follow up. This fits the pattern in that studies that show support for this are low quality.

> There are rules that make it so that minors can’t just go have gender changing surgery

One would think, but hospitals around the country have been exposed as doing these procedures. It's happening, and unfortunately, it's seen as a right-wing extremist thing to want to shut it down.

> when they want to express kindness to others.

There are increasing stories of girls avoiding appropriate feminine health care due to discomfort with the idea that going to a doctor for feminine concerns conflicts with their identity. Given this, are you sure it's kindness to go along with these ideas? Is it more kind to help kids live a healthy life over the long term?

> Literally no harm is being done

Well, a small percentage of kids are pursuing meds and surgery for gender, and while unpopular with reddit, the truth is that there is no robust research based evidence to support that sort of thing. So yes, that's harm. It's also odd that suddenly, out of nowhere, it's become the thing for young people to declare that their gender identity is some absolutely critical thing, and it's unclear how this helps society, or how it helps these kids in their life. (this group also has high mental health issues). So yes, it's ok for a school to try to put the brakes on this. People who think that putting the brakes on this is bigotry or evil are the exact reason why we need to put the brakes on this.

>Are they the majority of the community

No one says they're the majority, but we're up to about 1 in 50 kids identifying as trans, up from 1 in 10,000 a few years ago.