Children are entrusted to parents by God. Children bear God's image and possess inherent dignity, but their capacity to exercise agency develops gradually. Until then, parents act as trustees. Parents must discern what best serves a child's well-being and protect them from premature, life-altering decisions---including (and perhaps especially) regarding sex and gender.
This protection is best reinforced through decentralized and voluntary mechanisms. Schools, camps, and clinics should operate with contractual transparency, requiring explicit parental consent for any counseling, data collection, or medical referrals related to sex and gender. Professional accountability also plays a role. Medical boards, hospital ethics committees, and malpractice law create civil liability for providers who bypass parents or pressure minors into experimental interventions. In a free market of education, competitive accreditation and insurer standards raise expectations. Expanding educational freedom through private schooling, homeschooling, and other market innovations allows families to choose environments that align with their convictions, rather than being bound to centralized curricula.
Civil society and innovation further strengthen these safeguards. Churches, mutual-aid groups, and legal defense organizations can publish model policies, provide counsel, and defend families when institutions overreach. The market also develops tools---family accounts, parental controls, verification systems---that enable oversight without government surveillance. Together, these mechanisms preserve liberty and empower parental rights, reserving coercion only for clear instances of aggression.
This question is from Faith Seeking Freedom: Updated & Expanded, available in paperback, PDF, and Kindle.