If Jimmy is now going by Cindy, that’s a social cue of transitioning.

You say I’m using hyperbole in the same comment as this. You do know it’s possible to question gender without changing your name, right?

I did use hyperbole to make my point, but only in how bluntly it would be said. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say there are shitty, but not abusive enough to lose their kids, parents out there, and I do think there are kids out there who would rather ask questions of other adults in their lives. I am making this argument about the edge cases, because I think the argument “this will only fuck over a small percentage of people” is a shit take. So is “teachers are government employees who should act as interchangable robots that kids can’t trust or confide in.”

There’s a gap between questioning and transitioning. Kids need people they feel safe talking to. Kids need to be able to ask questions about the world without feeling like they’ll be punished. You mentioned in other comments about programs to reduce abuse, but what about something as simple as:

Mr Teacher, I have questions about what it means to be a boy or girl. I don’t want to ask my parents because they get mad when the topic comes up on the news.

Well, little Timmy, you shouldn’t have told me that because I now need to legally tell your parents. Hope you’re ready to feel unloved just for asking a question, nerd.

My two biggest suggestions are to focus on the local area and build outward as needed, and to know what your central tension is.

The first one is simple enough. Building a town and a goblin cave is easier than a planet and the realm of super magical evilness.

For the second one, central tension can be thought of as an underlying theme in your world. For example the main tension in my world is safety and stagnation vs uncertainty and progress. The gods keep us safe, but that also means we have no need to struggle and grow. Even though the players aren’t really aware of that even being a theme of the game yet, just knowing it myself can inform what kinds of characters and plots I set up as I continue to build more. When you know what the main conflict is at a more abstract level, you can see how certain characters might be on one side or the other without realizing.

I’d personally take a break and mix things up. See if someone else wants to DM, try a different game system, or even just hang out and play board games for a while. You can’t push through burn-out, and neither can the players.