But I, perhaps surprisingly to people here, think there needs to be a much more honest discussion about transgenderism, its incidence, and what should be done before transition is allowed to occur.

I am deeply unsettled by the idea of allowing a 12 year old to make such a choice. I am also unhappy with the result that many trans women will have permanently masculine physiognomies if we bar that sort of transition entirely. I simply don't know what the appropriate answer here is, but I'm quite certain it's neither flippantly allowing these life-altering changes with minimal oversight nor discounting the existence and importance of the phenomenon entirely.