The situation for college students, at least a certain segment, is that people with the transgender identity are far more common than they once were. That's the base reality, not the product of any ideology. And whatever it's point of origin, this reality for these isn't going to change.
Now, you can object to various qualities of current gender ideologies and I'm not necessary uncritical myself. But these ideologies also mechanisms for accommodating the ability of transgender people existing minimally in the world. If someone intends to simply discard entirely these processes, they are essentially taking aim at this ability of transgender people to minimally exist.
It's active question, to say the least. Transpeople today have a significant and growing chance of being murdered for being trans [1]. The attention put on this by the right wing also has resulted in violence masculine-appearing women.
It should be noted that the Economist was talking about debate concerning whether transwomen should be put in men's or in women's prisons. How much do you think that's a matter of survival for these people?
I'd love to see the details of gender ideology, the complex choices involved with hormones and surgery, etc debated more deeply but when the "debate" allows the question "should we allow these people to continue living?", you will see people willing to completely shut down discussion.
[1] https://www.hrc.org/resources/fatal-violence-against-the-tra...