Are transgender people the gender they say they are?

[DaleCooper]

Lol, Sam Harris isn't alt-right. He's eggheaded enough to bury himself in hypotheticals and lose sight of real-world implications when he talks to people like Charles Murray, which is a totally fair criticism of Harris, but he's not alt-right. If Sam Harris, an anti-Trump liberal, can be considered an alt-righter then we're basically back to the "Bernie would be conservative in Europe" argument and everyone to the right of him is a fringe extremist.

[DaleCooper]

HRT has permanent effects on the body, whereas puberty blockers only have debatable debilitating side effects.

Puberty has permanent effects on the body. If you're fine with forcing trans people to go through with puberty and deal with those permanent effects for the rest of their lives, then I don't believe you when you say you long for the day when trans healthcare is more sophisticated, and I don't think you're arguing in good faith when you start talking about trans voices to other trans people.

I don't have much to say about the broader conversation here, but you've been using a lot of language that reflects a certain turn that the activism has taken recently, and I find it a bit concerning. You refer to puberty, which is a completely normal and healthy bodily process, as though it's a horrible disease. In an earlier post you referred to bodies being "ravaged" by puberty  Basically, I fundamentally reject the notion that a body's natural development is something to condemn, hate, or fear, and it's a very dangerous thing to tell young people. Growing up is tough enough as it is without hearing from prominent voices in the media and medical establishment that the body you were born into is "wrong" and is unacceptable unless a dramatic medical intervention is staged.