How on earth can the average 3 year old recognise their gender identity when they are not even acutely aware of their biological sex and everything that implies?
They are aware of their biological/physical sex and they can certainly begin to be aware of gender roles as well. That is the age where they also become fully aware of their gender identity. Being transgender doesn't have much to do with someone's relationship to gender roles... it's more so about their personal perception of themselves. A trans man feels like a man regardless of the gender roles expected of men. There are feminine trans men and masculine trans women, it simply depends on the person just like cisgender people.
How can a 3 year old feel uncomfortable with their anatomy?
Gender identity is fully formed around the age of 3. As a child becomes aware of their gender, they may have a gender incongruence that leads to gender dysphoria. A young female child with gender dysphoria might ask their parents when she's going to grow a penis. Many trans children initially assume that they are going to go through the puberty of their gender because they don't realize that they are actually the opposite sex. They may have dysphoria regarding their physical anatomy when it doesn't match how they see themselves.
. . . Okay? I still don't understand how gender is an "experience".
As a cisgender man, your experience of gender is that you feel like a man and you really don't have a problem with your gender at all. It is hard to explain what it would be like to be transgender because it is a completely foreign thing to cisgender people, I don't truly understand what it feels like. But trans people have a gender incongrueince which leads them to become acutely aware of their gender identity. Most people really only feel their gender when there is a problem. Trans people have a big problem because their self perception doesn't match their body or the way that other people see them. A cisgender person's body matches their self perception so they don't experience any problems with their gender... but if someone who feels like and identifies as a man suddenly wakes up one day as a woman, they would most likely start to experience gender dysphoria over this.
Again, studies on this subject are still very sparse and majorly theoretical.
No they're not. There have been various studies that focus on the transgender suicide rate and they find that transitioning is the main factor that drastically lowers suicide rates in trans people. They also find that when trans people are allowed to transition in an accepting and supportive environment, their suicide rate becomes equal to the cisgender population... and trans people's mental health and well being becomes equal to the general cisgender population.
I never said treatment was stagnating, I merely stated that we should surely be able to offer better options.
Transitioning is consistently the best option and it has been the only thing shown to effectively treat gender dysphoria. What do you mean by better option?... The best option would be the thing that alleviates gender dysphoria and transitioning is what does that. Treatment is continuously getting better over time as different forms of transitioning become available and people are able to have a personally tailored transition that is most suitable for them. There are various options for transitioning available.
Nothing else besides transitioning has worked to benefit transgender people... forcing trans people to live as their biological sex leads them to commit suicide and have terrible mental health/well being. Living as their biological sex or "accepting" it can't be an option for alleviating gender dysphoria because it does not alleviate gender dysphoria at all... it worsens it. What other options are there besides, living as their birth sex and living as their gender? All we can do is find ways to make living as their gender better because that is the only option that is beneficial to them in alleviating gender dysphoria and having a happy, healthy life. And people are finding ways to make it better.
Not every trans person will be able to transition. Not every transitioned trans person will be able to pass and assimilate. What about them?
If someone is unable to fully transition for various reasons, they usually have to make do with whatever form of transition they can actually do. If they are unable to have HRT, they would have to get by with only a social transition. They can still wear different clothing and change their name and pronouns without HRT. There are different aspects of transitioning and a social transition is something that most trans people are able to do. Some trans people do not transition for various reasons and that's fine too... it depends on what's best for each individual person in their specific situation.
You see, this is why I firmly believe that this is a mental illness.
Gender dysphoria is a medical disorder, not a mental illness... it's a disorder because it involves clinical levels of distress that impede daily functioning. Having a gender incongruence is a part of natural biological variation and some people are simply born that way and they are not mentally ill. Transgender people are of sound mind... the only way a person can be allowed to medically transition in the first place is if they demonstrate that they are mentally healthy and can make a rational decision for the correct reasons.... trans people can do these things. If there is any sign of mental instability, then they would not be approved for any medical transitioning.
Why reclassify GID as a sexuality disorder when the problem is not with their biological sex, but in their psychology?
Because the problem is not with their psychology. Having a gender incongruence doesn't mean you have a psychological problem... you can be perfectly mentally healthy and have a happy life, it's a part of normal biological variation. Trans people's endocrine systems run better when they are able to have HRT. Many trans people are depressed for years of their life until they start taking hormones... once they begin taking the right hormones that their brain needed, their depression goes away... that's a common experience. Trans people feel physically better when their brain and body are aligned... when they are running on different hormones. People's brains are what contain their entire identity and personality. Your entire core sense of self is within your brain. Would you rather someone perform a brain surgery on you to change your entire personality and sense of self or would you rather align the rest of your body to what your brain says it should be? It's far easier to change the body than the brain in the first place, and that's what actually works to alleviate gender dysphoria. Like I already said, people have already tried treating gender dysphoria through forcing trans people to live as their birth sex or mentally "accepting" it, but it simply doesn't work and it has the opposite of the desired effect, it's harmful and not helpful. You can't mentally condition someone to become a certain gender or to stop being a certain gender because people's gender identity is a part of their core identity and sense of self. It seems unethical to try to change someone in that way simply because they are different.
Toddlers, young children and even teenagers preferring the stereotypes of the opposite sex ultimately means nothing if there is no link between those gendered objects and biology.
Being transgender has nothing to do with stereotypes... As I said, there are many trans men who are stereotypically feminine and trans women who are stereotypically masculine in their interests but that doesn't stop them from being transgender or feeling like a man or a woman. Gender identity is an internal perception of yourself, it has nothing to do with gendered objects or roles in society. There are also plenty of cisgender people who do not align with stereotypical gender roles... they still feel cisgender. There are men who enjoy wearing makeup (which is stereotypically feminine), that doesn't make them women, they still feel like men and perceive themselves as male.
