At a recent King’s event hosted in the City Room, Dr. Talcott had the audacity to invite a group of filmmakers who had a barely controversial opinion: doctors should not encourage prepubescent children with woefully undeveloped brains, emotions, and relationships to seek life-altering sex transitions via hormone therapy or surgery. A minority of students in the audience only had one question: how dare you? Despite 80+% of the audience agreeing with the documentary, we chose to interview 3 people who had a different point of view. This event was covered in a hard-hitting piece by our up-and-coming daughter publication, The Empire State Tribune.

Perhaps most offensively, at least to my roommate and other friends of mine that I interviewed, parents depicted in the documentary called their children who were often younger than 10 years old, by the name that they had given them less than a decade earlier. This “dead naming” can be quite traumatic for a young child, especially when paired with other common traumas of early childhood, like not being invited to Jessica’s sleepover or leaving your homework at home.

McKenzie Duckling, my roommate and a staunch supporter of a child’s right to sex organ transplants, said that she found the documentary overwhelmingly offensive, “I was a kid once, and now I am thinking I might be transgender. So this little documentary totally denied me my right to exist on this campus. It’s one thing for an adult to decide to transition. A child, however, is so pure and innocent. They may not even know what sex is. And since they could not possibly understand the ramifications of their decision, doctors should be forced to honor their underdeveloped wishes without delay, otherwise they could be convinced to change their mind by a parent or other person who cared for their well-being. I cannot believe that these pediatric nurses and the children’s parents think they know more about a child’s development than I do!” 

Mx. Duckling bravely organized a protest in which participants showed up in light pink attire and sat quietly to completely disrupt the event. “Honestly, it was heartbreaking, the parents’ influence over their child’s development, I mean.”