Is the Left endorsing conversion therapy for trans children?

In a surprising editorial published in TheWashington Post, transgender activists and psychologists Laura Edwards-Leeper and Erica Anderson are now advocating for “gender-exploratory therapy” for trans-identified youth before rushing into puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and sex-change surgery. Shades of what we conservatives have been saying for years!

Except that when we said it, we were vilified as bigoted transphobes who wanted to implement the barbaric and primitive practice of “conversion therapy.”

But when pro-trans psychologists say, “Many of our health professionals are affirming kids too quickly in their trans identity,” they are now enlightened thinkers whose views should be embraced with respect. How ironic.

To be absolutely clear, Edwards-Leeper and Anderson remain staunchly opposed to people like me (and you?).

They write, “Together, across decades of doing this work, we’ve helped hundreds of people transition their genders. This is an era of ugly moral panic about bathrooms, woke indoctrination, and identity politics in general. In response, we enthusiastically support the appropriate gender-affirming medical care for trans youth, and we are disgusted by the legislation trying to ban it.”

So, we are still the really bad guys in their eyes.
But what cannot be denied is that they are witnessing all too many horror stories of young people who have destroyed their lives, and as psychologists and activists, they cannot be silent any longer.

They claim that the medical profession is at fault, as stated clearly in the title and sub-title of their editorial: “The mental health establishment is failing trans kids. Gender-exploratory therapy is a key step. Why aren’t therapists providing it?”

The op-ed starts with the story of Patricia, who at 13 told her parents she was actually a boy.

When her parents brought her to a therapist, rather than perform an in-depth assessment of Patricia’s mental and emotional health, on the very first meeting, “the therapist simply affirmed her new identity, a step that can lead to hormonal and eventually surgical treatments.”
This is all too common, with absolutely heartbreaking and disastrous, long-term results.

Thankfully, the parents brought Patricia to another therapist, “one who was more curious and less certain, one who listened closely. After a year of exploring who she was, Patricia no longer felt she was a boy. She decided to stop binding her breasts and wearing boys’ clothes.”
Yet, that is the very thing we have been advocating for years, urging parents, therapists, and others to do their best to help the children find wholeness from the inside out.

Unfortunately, “A flood of referrals to mental health providers and gender medical clinics, combined with a political climate that sees the treatment