In 2018, Stella O' Malley, arguing against puberty blockers said, on Irish radio: "People would say, "Well then they have to contend with big shoulders & a big jaw," but that's just looks, and there's plenty of women...I've got big shoulders & I'm tall." (Guest and host laugh) 1/

You think, maybe they just don't understand? "It's just looks"?! No-one could be that callous, right? In the same interview the host says, "I've spoken to a number of trans people and they say puberty is hellish," and Stella says, "Yes, having gender dysphoria is hellish." 2/

So, they do get it, but they chuckle anyway.

She offers this crumb of comfort:

"You can always transition when you're 18."

And what will that mean at 18 for a trans woman?

Painful surgeries, painful hair removal etc. and the pain of things that can never be changed. 3/

No interview about trans lives should be conducted without trans representation. Can you imagine a cis woman saying "It's just looks" "I'm tall" "I have big shoulders," and two cis people chuckling, while a trans woman who has gone through the wrong puberty is in the studio? 4/

And this is all based off Stella saying she identified as a boy when she was a kid, and was distressed by puberty, but she says that that distress was fully cured at 16 by a friend who gave her a good haircut, and a subsequent compliment from a lad in a chipper. Seriously. 5/

I will never in my life understand the hypocrisy of saying that broad shoulders, height, a strong jaw, facial hair etc. for a trans girl is "just looks" - get over it, like - while also saying that, for a 16-year-old cis girl, a haircut was a momentous moment in her life?! 6/

At the very least, a trans person would have been instantly able to point out that hypocrisy, but instead, two cis people chuckled, and carried on discussing trans people for another 15 minutes, without anybody there to stop them, and say, "This is wrong." 7/

For me, this is akin to a straight person going on the Irish radio in early 2015 and saying that gay people can get married, they just have to marry someone of the opposite sex, and chuckling.

It's that level of a lack of empathy for the lived experience of other people. 8/

This week, in the UK, it became very difficult to access puberty blockers on the NHS, because people like Stella "my life was changed by a haircut" O' Malley, managed to convince judges that the hell of the wrong puberty for trans kids was more ethical than puberty blockers. 9/

That review will be appealed, and it will be overturned, because people who would never be so callous as to say "It's just looks" "I have big shoulders too" to a trans kid, are going to fight it, and they're going to win, because it's wrong, it's cruelty, and it cannot stand. 10/

In the interim, kids are going to suffer in a way that a good haircut and a nice compliment won't be able to fix, in a way they might not survive. The very least you can do for those kids is to have someone represent them on the radio/TV when you're talking about them. 11/

In Ireland, in the same way that we stood up against people who cruelly said, "They can travel," to women and girls who needed abortions, we should stand up to people who say "It's just looks" to women and girls who also need healthcare, and often have to travel too. 12/

We said that, "We stand in Awe of all Mná," (The Irish for women) because we believed in the bodily autonomy of women. That's feminism. Trans Mná are Mná, and if you can't stand up for their bodily autonomy, their healthcare, in 2020, then you have abandoned your principles. 13/

And if you do support trans people, don't sit on the sidelines while cis people (with, admittedly, good hair) pontificate about how trans people should just accept their bodies as they are, in the same way that religious men argued that women should just accept pregnancy. 14/

We either believe in people's right to bodily autonomy, or we don't.

We either believe that a 13-year-old who gets pregnant, or a 13-year-old trans kid, should be able to access the healthcare they need, have control over their own bodies, or we don't. 15/

And if you say that the chance of regretting a decision for some girls should stop all girls accessing trans healthcare, then you don't believe in bodily autonomy, because you have to accept that argument against providing abortions for teenage girls too. 16/

We all recognise that pregnancy has lifelong consequences. Well, similarly, so has the wrong puberty for trans kids.

All people should have the right to choose, and we shouldn't let people dismiss those rights with "you can travel" or "it's just looks" or "you're too young." 17/

You might not believe that abortion is "right," but you can still support the right to have an abortion.

Similarly, you might not believe that transition is "right," but you can still support the right to transition.

Because, above all, you believe in personal freedom. 18/

As with all issues like this, nobody is asking you to have a gay marriage, to have an abortion, to transition etc. you're just being asked, to not block other people's right to choose that for themselves, to support their right to live their lives in peace. 19/

They're not hurting you, don't hurt them, and that means not supporting, tacitly or otherwise, people who callously, hypocritically dismiss trans people's right to bodily autonomy with "it's just looks."

On the Left, especially, we're supposed to be better than that. 20/