I was surprised to read that Sweden legalized gender reassignment treatments way back in 1972! In that country, at least, it has been realtively socially acceptable for some time already.

We’ve had that in Germany for a long time as well. The first “transsexuals law” was passed in 1980.

The issue is that back then it was about clear cases. I.e. adults who had been diagnosed a long time ago and who had undergone surgery. Hence the legalities merely followed medicine and the “if you have a penis, you’re a man” conclusion still worked perfectly.

The current culture war isn’t really around those “classic” transgender people. Even transphobic people J.K.Rowling accept these people with their new gender. But now we have a lot of people who change their gender without surgery and people who change it at a much younger age. That makes issue less clear cut.

Anyway, yes, the politics are a huge problem and indeed muddying the water here. Making medical decisions outside a doctor’s office leads to problems.