I sincerely appreciate having concern for adolescents — a notoriously malleable and unhappy demographic, but it also sounds like you’re regurgitating rhetoric that you heard somewhere else.

I will gladly assume the best of you, and believe that you care for and fear for young people with shrunken frontal lobes, making life-altering decisions in a society where no matter what one chooses, they will be judged harshly for being different.

Again, I just suggest that people slow down, and recognize that unless you’re personally living it, you probably have no idea what it would feel like. As a result, our lens of understanding is inherently limited. It’s blurry - clouded by all the other “opinions” we’ve heard.

Factor in a limited (but evolving) scientific understanding of human psyche, hormonal development, etc., and the most rational “conservative” scenario is that it’s too soon to know anything.

So I return to the systems that drive me. Compassion. Patience. Listening. Curiosity. Love. If someone is willing to tell me what their life is like, the least I can do is listen.