I can empathize with them if they have the sort of parents that refuse to let them have actual hobbies/interests so they are stuck living online after school, or who refuse to let them do age appropriate independent things like taking the bus or walking to a park, the mall, the library, etc.. I can empathize with them if they have the types of parents that micromanage them into only being friends with an approved list of classmates who are just as socially awkward and won't help them grow into being competent and successful adults. I can empathize with them feeling that desperate clawing feeling of needing to grow as a person and can sympathize with seeing transition as a means to put their foot down and start asserting a sense of self around adults who fail to grasp what adolescence is.*

But that stops the minute I remember there are actual gay teenage boys these little shits go to school with that have to put up with their harassment, that have to put up with them infesting the one (if any) age appropriate space for a gay teenager to be in to find other same-sex attracted peers, etc. I didn't start the GSA in my high school for it to lead to future gay and lesbian teenagers being the punching bags of these straight kids.

*While writing this, I realized that I feel that puberty blockers are poetically in line with the ways many of these parents are raising their kids. One stops the body from growing with long-term consequences (issues with bone density, physically underdeveloped, etc.) while the other stops the spirit from growing with long-term consequences (lack of support network, lack of a sense of self, etc.).