https://www.tumblr.com/quasi-normalcy/713980848528080896/and-if-you-had-asked-me-even-back-then-whether-i

@fandomsandfeminism:
Only about 2% of high school athletes are awarded ANY sports scholarship to college.

This idea that sports, especially lucrative and dangerous high school football, are some wonderful godsend that will propel underprivileged kids to a better life is by and far not true.

I’m not saying we ban tackle football, but 1. It’s a good comparison to the trans kid issue since it is MUCH more dangerous and wide spread than puberty blockers. 2. We absolutely should be making changes to the rules of football (ESPECIALLY at a high school and college level) to make the sport less dangerous, even if that makes it…I dunno, less entertaining for adults to watch.

@genderqueer-rat:
‘m going to contribute to the conversation specifically with respect to foot ball even disregarding the excellent comparison for a moment. I’m not trying to derail but… In high school and college, football is an extremely lucrative venture. For the schools, and their coaches. Rarely, if ever do the children (PLEASE remember they’re children) involved see a cent of the tremendous revenue they bring in, and the likelihood they’d be able to turn it into a career is infinitesimally small. Additionally, this is a sport that – like the military industrial complex, disproportionately affects children of color who come from financially insecure backgrounds who are desperate to receive scholarships. Children are getting serious brain damage, not being compensated fairly if at all, and are subject to ASTONISHING amounts of racial discrimination and ableism even if they get to a professional level.

Children take out insurance policies on their own bodies.

The number of transgender children who suffer traumatic brain injuries or are permanently disabled due to hormonal suppression or transition? 0.

If this was all about protecting children from irreversible bodily changes that would negatively affect them for life, all of these “concerned parents” would be looking at very different things.

But white reactionaries who want to control the bodies and limit the agency of their children indefinitely don’t care about any of the values their words imply — at least when you are assuming they mean for those values to be applied universally rather than just “I get everything I want, and the lesser people do everything I want, and thank me for it”.

More citations in link.