You gave us the universal principle of 'respect other people's wishes'. That applies to *everyone*, not just transgender people. You need to defend this principle in regards to *everyone*, not just transgender people, elsewise it is not a universal principle.
So in other words, I need to explain to you how basic human interaction, common sense, and English works. Cool.
There are about three different levels of carrying out this very basic, 3rd grade level principal. You can respect others wishes...
A) Because you know what they are since they have explicitly told you so
B) By looking at the evidence and applying Occam's razor
C) By assuming based on basic human nature
Choice A doesn't need further explaining
If choice A is not an option because the individual you are interacting with hasn't made their wishes explicitly clear, then you use clues to figure it out and apply until informed otherwise. Like for example when a trans women walks into a room with a wig and a dress on.If you have any common sense within you then you can very easily figure out their preferred pronoun is "she".
Choice C is the most basic and what all human beings do in any situation where we don't have specific clues... We assume. Based on our own life experiences it's not difficult to tell what people tend to want. If someone is struggling to carry a bunch on things and is walking up to a door you can use your common sense to tell you that person would like for you to get the door for them.
All human interaction involves some combination of these three "levels". You use them every single day.
Why do you need me to explain this to you?
Therefore, (1) respect isn't solely about wishes (despite you previously arguing it), and thus (2) it's possible to respect someone without adhering to their wishes (as shown by the "or" for my definition of respect).
1) I never argued it was "solely" about respecting others wishes. I literally just broke down for you what "the most" means according to the English language.
2) Yes, as I already explained, it's possible to respect someone without adhering to their wishes, because respect can come in other forms. But it's not possible to respect someone while you're disrespecting them.
You don't get to pretend one aspect of respect wipes out disrespect. That's like saying a man who brought home flowers to his wife is "treating her good" while ignoring that he gave her a black eye the night before.
As far as why respecting someone else's wishes is the most basic form, that's because this is what it involves the overwhelming majority of the time in real life. The vast majority of the time we are not in position to violate the rights of others, so this is not generally what people are talking about.
And for the umpteenth time let me remind you how absurd your argument is... You are claiming you are respecting these people while outright disregarding all 3 aspects of your own definition;
Rights? No, you don't believe they should have the right to decide what happens to their own bodies
Feelings? No, you're calling them mentally ill because of how they feel
Wishes? No, you think anyone who regards them is evil
Your position here couldn't be any more opposite of the position you claim to hold.
If a terrorist wished to blow up a shopping center, would it be disrespectful to call the police or bomb squad to thwart that wish of his/hers?
Yes. But disrespect comes with a negative connotation that doesn't apply here. Disrespect is to act towards someone without regard for their wishes, feelings or rights. So if you are not regarding them, you are not respecting them.
Would you respect terrorist's plot to blow up a shopping center? No - Then you would disrespect them.
This is 3rd grade level stuff.
Again, I'm using the science as a premise to reach my conclusions.
The conclusions you are reaching have nothing to do with science, so your whole argument is invalid at the outset
Therefore, it's probably not a good idea to perform irreversible, costly surgeries on people that don't help them.
It wasn't your idea, you didn't perform the diagnosis, and it's not your body. What's at issue here isn't the success rate of the surgery, it's about who has the right to make that decision. Not only are you injecting yourself into something that has absolutely nothing to do with you, but then you have the nerve to pretend you're respecting them by doing so. Wow.
You claimed that my argument was "bigotry".
No, I claimed your argument is apparently fueled by bigotry, because only a negative emotional reaction to these people can explain the absurdities you are engaging in.
Should transgender teenagers, who often simply grow out of transgenderism, have the "freedom" to perform basically irreversible transgender reassignment surgery, drastically altering their puberty and making it super hard to ever somewhat resemble their biological sex ever again?
Your answer to this is currently yes.
No, it's not, because your portrayal of what actually happens (which I broadly support) is cartoonishly silly.
Teenagers don't just walk into a medical clinic, ask for surgery, and walk out that afternoon with a new set of genitals. This decision involves the teenager and their parents consulting with a team of doctors who have to go through a barrage of beurocratic processes to determine what type of care is recommended and approved. I can in theory be swayed to still be against it, but honestly, I just don't care because no matter the result what you're advocating for is to remove the individual, their parents, and their doctors all from the equation so you can make that decision for them. I am just not deluded enough and narcissistic enough to think I'm going to sit here in Google and teach myself this issue so well that I will be able to decide what's best for the individual than the individual and the team around them.
BTW I'm curious, do you consider yourself a freedom loving conservative patriot?
You need to provide studies for the points you make.
Respect is the default position. Your position violates the default position, therefore the onus is on you to prove why everyone else should move from the default position. You've failed to do so.
I don't need a study to prove that. Your studies do not address the conclusion you're trying to prove. 100 invalid connections do not amount to one valid one.
