News
Over the last several weeks, there have been multiple articles on the once rare and under studied topic of detransition.
Charlie Evans is a bisexual woman and is starting a detransition advocacy organization. This is an article by Evans on Medium:
“The medicalization of gender non conforming children, and the vulnerability of lesbian youth”
More from her can be found here https://medium.com/@charlie.evans
This is a link to the crowdfunded page for the detransition advocacy organization:
“The Detransition Advocacy Network”
And a petition asking the public health service in Britain to study and support detransitioners:
“Support Detransitioners at the National Institutes of Health”
Two articles about detransition and Charlie Evens:
'Hundreds' of young trans people seeking help to return to original sex”
“Why is the progressive world so hostile to detransitioners?”
Evans identified as male for nearly a decade, but then changed her mind. And Evans is not alone. She says she has been in touch with hundreds of other young people who have detransitioned, mostly people in their early 20’s. Some of these individuals have had full gender reassignment surgery, and regret it. All are trying to figure out how to move forward and live happy, healthy lives.
There is a new detransition resource in Sweden:
“För mer kunskap och stöd kring detransition”
This is a Dutch documentary on detransition:
“Transgender Regret - A Dutch Documentary”
Below is a video of a story of a detransitioned woman who fit the definition of DSM-5 gender dysphoria from childhood and transitioned as an adult. She believes transition helped prevent her from committing suicide but also run from her butch identity:
“Thoughts of a detransitioned woman”
A personal story of homophobia and transition regret:
“I Spent a Year as a Trans Man. Doctors Failed Me at Every Turn”
At the time, you wouldn’t have been able to tell I was gay just from looking at me. I had long, blond hair, wore makeup, and carried myself rather femininely. But in my head, I knew I was gay—though I was more of a self-loathing gay.
The truth is, I didn’t like gays, and didn’t want to be associated with them. Yet there I was, dating only other girls…
At age 18, I started seeing a bunch of transgender men’s “success stories” on Instagram. The trans men talked about how something had always “felt off” with them, and they said people couldn’t tell they had been the opposite sex after their transition.
Their stories all seemed to have a happy ending—and it made me rather jealous.
Here I was getting frowned upon for holding hands with my girlfriend in public, feeling like I’m constantly being judged by everyone, while transgenders could date their same-sex significant other while looking like the opposite sex.
I resented that and began to envy the transgenders. I looked into it for myself.
Stonewall UK added to the discourse by attempting to debunk some recent narratives emerging about detransition and attributing it to transphobia. These points run contrary to most recent stories about detransition. Many deransitioners claim they never report their detransition to any official entity and that they feel transition was a mistake:
”Dispelling myths around detransition”
Jesse Singal, who has been reporting on the contentious issue of pediatric medical transition and detransition, discussed some problems with the Stonewall UK statement on his personal blog:
”LGBT People Deserve Accurate Information From LGBT Organizations: But they aren't getting it”
The blog is behind a paywall, but he posted some of his commentary on social media:
Andrew Sullivan is joining the ranks of LGB people who are concerned about tranistion regret in LGB and other youth. He has written an article about detransition called “The Hard Questions About Young People and Gender Transitions:”
The widespread consensus today is that detransitioning is so rare even mentioning it borders on transphobic. But in reality, absolutely no one knows how rare detransitions are currently — the small set of research studies detransition skeptics present as evidence that it is very uncommon all come from vastly different contexts, in some cases decades-old, and arguably don’t capture what’s going on in 2019. These women live every day with the consequences of their decision: tenacious facial hair (one has to shave every three days) and body hair, deeper voices, permanently enlarged clitorises. They also suffer from the effects of “binding,” i.e. wearing a breast corset of sorts, to flatten their chests, so they can pass more easily as men. “I have back issues, lower lung capacity, and permanent dents around my shoulders,” one told me. “Every now and again, I have to push a rib back in to breathe,” another recounts. “I have permanent bruising,” another explains. “Serious back issues,” says another, who cannot carry a backpack for long without pain. “We get ‘sir’ed at Dunkin’ Donuts every time,” one joked…
By their own accounts, they had been adamantly trans in their teens. “I was the student trying to get a professor fired because he wouldn’t allow theyand them to be used for a singular person in my papers … I threatened my parents and friends with suicide. It became part of my identity to be suicidal. I screamed at my parents about this, even though I knew I wasn’t going to kill myself.” One went by the pronouns xe and xer and flew into a rage if she was misgendered. Once they had transitioned, and felt miserable nonetheless, they felt that this too was just part of being transgender. One talked of “the hunger to suffer.” Another spoke of “using your pain to validate your own destruction.”
A website called Canadian Gender Report has posted an informal survey of the r/detrans sub Reddit. Given that there is no formal attempt to study detransition at this time, informal surveys such as this one, and the one referenced, are the only efforts available to help understand this population.
References:
Canadian Gender Report. (2019, October 17). From trans to detransitioner – what can we learn from this growing trend? Retrieved from https://genderreport.ca/detransitioners-what-can-we-learn/
Evans, C. (2019, Septmember 9). The medicalization of gender non conforming children, and the vulnerability of lesbian youth. Medium. Retrieved from https://medium.com/@charlie.evans/the-medicalization-of-gender-non-conforming-children-and-the-vulnerability-of-lesbian-youth-10d4ac517e8e
Emmons, L. (2019, October 10). Why is the progressive world so hostile to detransitioners? The Post Millennial. Retrieved from https://www.thepostmillennial.com/why-is-the-progressive-world-so-hostile-to-detransitioners/
Lockwood, S. (2019, October 5). 'Hundreds' of young trans people seeking help to return to original sex. Sky News. Retrieved from https://news.sky.com/story/hundreds-of-young-trans-people-seeking-help-to-return-to-original-sex-11827740
Russell, N. (2019, October 8) What The First Nonbinary American Wants The Supreme Court To Know About Transgenderism. The Federalist. Retrieved from https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/08/what-the-first-nonbinary-american-wants-the-supreme-court-to-know-about-transgenderism/#.XZyM1mqNpSM.twitter
Singal-Minded. (2019, October 9). LGBT People Deserve Accurate Information From LGBT Organizations. Retrieved from https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/lgbt-people-deserve-accurate-information
Stella, C. (2016, September 3). Female detransition and reidentification: Survey results and interpretation. Retrieved from https://guideonragingstars.tumblr.com/post/149877706175/female-detransition-and-reidentification-survey
Stonewall UK. (2019, October 9). Dispelling myths around detransition. Retrieved from https://www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us/news/dispelling-myths-around-detransition
Sullivan, A. (2019, November 1). The Hard Questions About Young People and Gender Transitions. New York Magazine. Retrieved from http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/11/andrew-sullivan-hard-questions-gender-transitions-for-young.html?utm_medium=s1&utm_campaign=di&utm_source=tw
Thoughts of a detransitioned woman. (2019, September 27). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=aVse3ZKD9hA
Wright, S. (2019, October 7). I Spent a Year as a Trans Man. Doctors Failed Me at Every Turn. The Daily Signal. Retrieved from https://www.dailysignal.com/2019/10/07/i-spent-a-year-as-a-trans-man-doctors-failed-me-at-every-turn/