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detransition

Telling the Whole Story: A Closer Look at the Detrans Women in When Children Say They’re Transgender

Many articles about detransitioning present an incomplete and misleading view of the detrans community by failing to address the beliefs and politics of its members. An example of this is Jesse Singal’s Atlantic article When Children Say They’re Transgender which features three detrans women, Max Robinson, Carey Callahan, and Cari Stella. Robinson’s and Callahan’s stories are told in much greater depth than Stella’s, who is briefly mentioned and quoted. In the article, they are presented as women who used to think they were trans, transitioned and later came to detransition and believe that they had underlining issues that they wish had been explored. They are cited as a reason for requiring more psychological assessment before allowing people to transition. While the article mentions that there is a growing community of detransitioned women, it doesn’t mention that many in this community believe and promote transphobic radical feminism. All of detrans women featured in the article were at least sympathetic to transphobic feminism if not enthusiastic proponents of it. All of them knew each other, promoted each others’ work and engaged in organizing and activism. Additionally, they all have connections to anti-trans organizations such as FourthWaveNow and some have worked with anti-trans researchers and conversion therapists.Read More »Telling the Whole Story: A Closer Look at the Detrans Women in When Children Say They’re Transgender

Detransition Awareness Day: Inconvenient Truths and Community Building

Apparently today, March 12th is Detransition Awareness Day. Today is supposed to be a day for informing people about detransitioning in the name of creating more and better resources. Well then, here are some things I want people to be aware of concerning resources for people who detransition and why they’re in the state that they are today.

As someone who played an important role in creating one of the first communities and support networks for detransitioned women, who worked in that community for close to seven years, I have a lot of regrets now. I and others in that community made many bad, misguided choices that lead to the formation of a detrans community that is better at radicalizing people into transphobic ideology than it is with helping people access the resources they need to live a good life. We created a community that often encouraged people to use their trauma to attack the trans community and trans healthcare rather than helping people heal and get on with their lives.Read More »Detransition Awareness Day: Inconvenient Truths and Community Building

I’m A Trans Person That Helped Found a “Detransition Advocacy” Organization

Content note: This post and several of its links involve several sensitive topics, including but not limited to transphobia, homophobia, ableism, and childhood sexual abuse. They’ve been added as evidence of the connections between groups. Read with caution and take care of yourself as needed.

On December 1st, the landmark ruling on the British case Bell v. Tavistock sent shock waves throughout the world. After a several year long battle, the new claimant Keira Bell won her case against the only gender clinic in Britain providing care to trans youth, doing so in collaboration with GIDS whistleblowers Susan and Marcus Evans. As a result, all British minors under age 16 must receive a court order before getting puberty blockers or gender affirming hormone therapy, adding to an already arduous process that takes years to dredge through.

For trans people in the UK, especially trans youth, this is obviously bad news. The crux of the argument was that Keira Bell was young and wasn’t given adequate information, therefore being incapable of providing informed consent for gender affirming care. What’s worse, these same supporters are pushing for it to be implemented in other countries, including the United States, and there’s already calls to “moderate” information in schools and online in attempts to counteract social contagion. And, to top it all off, Stephanie Davies-Arai of Transgender Trend (and, by extension, Bell) is pushing to expand the ruling to ages 18–25, arguing that college education and culture is transing vulnerable young adults.

What people don’t know is that this isn’t a one-off case. Small, international networks of well-connected activists and health professionals are using their credentials, social and economic capital, and personal experience to harm trans and detrans people who lack access to evidence-based supports for our health outcomes and any resulting trauma when that goes awry. They take genuine concerns about medical neglect or malpractice in transgender health care and twist them into claims that we’re “too delusional to know what’s good for [us]” and therefore have to be cleared by shrinks and courts or, worse, subject us to conversion therapy during our most vulnerable points. And I’m sorry to say I had a hand in it.

Read More »I’m A Trans Person That Helped Found a “Detransition Advocacy” Organization