Trans declarations

Jim Fuge (Letters, November 28) asserts that in order to identify as a trans woman the person must have gone through rigorous psychological and medical testing and surgery. Not so nowadays.

Any person whose child wishes to transition will know that that child is immediately affirmed as the gender they claim they to be. There is little or no psychological counselling before hormones are offered. And as for surgery, it appears that many biological males wishing to be known as women are perfectly content to remain intact, sometimes not even availing of hormone treatment.

I am not anti trans; I believe that everyone has a right to live peacefully and happily in whatever way they choose. However, I am worried about the huge increase in young people declaring that they are trans. And I am worried about the erosion of our rights as natal women. We don’t want to be known as ‘‘cis’’ and we want our spaces respected. Women have fought too long and too hard for our rights to relinquish them without a fight.

Gay Johnson, Auckland