Don't beat yourself up – he's not exactly the most lucid writer in the world, after all, and trying to make sense of troon logic can cause psychic damage over time.
The whole thread is especially confusing, because he's being so weaselly. He can't bring himself to properly name what he is writing about (
irreversible life-altering surgeries on healthy children) because at some level even Tony recognizes that he has to pretend that that isn't happening. He
can't pretend it isn't happening, though, because he has to write about it. But the pretense has to be maintained, as much as possible.
So in the first tweet in the thread he can only bring himself to type out the unnatural phrase "trans surgeries <18." Why not just write "trans surgeries for minors"? It's like he's hoping that extra few seconds it takes to parse the awkward phrasing will mute people's disgust response, or at least stop them thinking "Wait, I thought that wasn't happening?"
And then look at all these tweets where he fails to clarify exactly what he is talking about (
irreversible life-altering surgeries on healthy children). What "policy", Tony? Bans on what
type of care?
Now look how vague he continues to be, even while tweeting about a screenshot that actually mentions the subject ("surgery for minors.") Even then, Tony must awkwardly obfuscate by referring to a headline about opposing "trans surgeries" (for whom?). It's like he can't bring himself to even type out a decent euphemism for what he's defending (again,
irreversible life-altering surgeries on healthy children), even though he is writing a whole Twitter thread about it.
I guess the hope is that his audience doesn't think too hard about it either. Biden is banning Trans Care of some kind or another, and That is Bad, and if you look too closely or ask questions, you're a bigot.
(I also love how he was so eager to tie "trans healthcare" to abortion--because he's a woman, you see!--that he forgot to ask himself
how that's going for them lately)
I would note that in Tony's blog piece, he does not provide any source for the claim that " However, Levine actually opposed lowered age limits in favor of a more conservative approach that kept the age at 18+ except for some individualized circumstances." Tony just made this claim up and declared that it was true.
The fucking sentence doesn't make sense! "A more conservative approach." More conservative
than what? In what way? How is an approach that allows surgery on minors
more conservative than one that bans it?
Approaches don't become "more conservative" simply because you add the words "more conservative" in front of them, Tony! Although I suppose you also think calling yourself a woman turns you into a woman, so maybe we shouldn't be surprised.