Listening to a child is not the same as medicating them

What I was trying to say there is that listening is not a prescription. When a child tells you something about who they are, the first thing that happens is a conversation, not a clinic appointment. Puberty blockers come much, much later, after a great deal of exploration, support, and time. The idea that affirming a child's feelings fast-tracks them to medication is simply wrong, and it is doing real harm, because it stops parents from doing the one thing their child actually needs first: hearing them. Believing a child costs nothing and risks nothing. Refusing to hear them costs everything.