In practice, these hotels become full of mentally ill, drug-dependent, and sometimes violent people, to the point where most people actually do feel safer in a tent.

You can police things, but it’s not an easy problem. Where do you draw the line? Zero tolerance? As soon as someone has an angry outburst, or is caught with drugs, they’re back on the streets? Then you get back where you started pretty quickly.

The Supreme Court is only involved because a state passed a law banning these treatments, and someone brought a case against the state saying the law is unconstitutional. Deciding which laws are unconstitutional is like the main purpose of the Supreme Court.

But I guess what you’re saying is why is the state passing these laws, which is a fair enough question. The Supreme Court says they are allowed to, and they are the authority on which laws are allowed, so I expect the states will keep doing this sort of thing until the voters tell them not to.

Plato did try to warn us that democracy was a terrible idea.

That’s funny, most of my existential crises revolve around how impermanent my body is.

I don’t think that’s a belief I hold: I support people changing if that’s what they want. But not all the people who experience gender dysphoria choose to change, and it would be nice to make life easier for them as well!