bookshelf or lion so it's a stupid analogy. There is a spectrum for gender. There always has been. When we were growing up you had effeminate guys and rough and tumble guys guys. We all knew and could see the difference, but didn't spend much time thinking about it (other than calling the effeminate guys "fags"... which was not our generation's finest moment). Now I think we overthink this, but there still are guys who are more masculine and guys who are more effeminate. At the extreme end of the effeminate scale are guys who feel like women. While the mental health outcomes of guys who feel like women (and vice versa) are not great, and the suicide rates are many times higher than the population as a whole, transgenders who receive gender affirming care as a whole have better mental health outcomes than transgenders who do not. So they do need a mental health professional.... just not one that tells them "you're mentally ill, you're a guy, so please act like it".