As conservatives continue their relentless attack on trans rights, they default to weaponizing the experience of those who detransition against the rest of the trans community. By twisting the narrative of detransitioning, they misrepresent the valid experiences of those who detransition and further isolate them from the rest of their community.

“Detransphobia” is the idea that people who detransition face marginalization and oppression. Some trans people fear that legitimizing stories of detransitioning may feed into the stereotype that trans people can’t make decisions about their own bodies. Detransitioners make up a small percentage of the trans community. And yet, conservatives care deeper for narratives of negativity than every experience of positivity. Not every person who detransitions has a painful experience.

To truly understand detransitioning, we must acknowledge the experiences of those who detransition, but raise the voices of detransitioners who support the trans community.

Chloe Cole

19-year-old famous right-wing detransitioner Chloe Cole visited the U this fall. She spoke on her experiences with transition and childhood. Cole experienced sexual harassment and alleged medical malpractice and is now being paraded around to push a political agenda. What happened to Cole was awful and the adults in her life failed her.

The conservative right weaponizes Cole and the left demonizes her. Weaponizing Cole won’t do anything. It only makes her an unnecessary scapegoat for detransphobia.

But demonizing Cole doesn’t help either. At the end of the day, Cole is a 19-year-old girl. She is an artist, someone’s child and someone’s friend. She’s a person. We must both acknowledge what she experienced and condemn the actions she’s chosen to take.

Cole’s experiences are valid, but they don’t give her the right to invalidate others.

Anti-trans detransitioners contribute to the stereotype of trans people being groomers. By allowing Cole to speak on campus, the U leans into these stereotypes.

The stories of detransitioners matter. But the story Cole tells is not the only detransitioner narrative.

The Untold Story

We are constantly bombarded with stories of detransitioners who regret their transitions and accuse the transgender community of harming them. The conservative right wants us to believe gender-affirming care is akin to “permanent mutilation.”

But what about the stories we don’t hear?

A U student, who chose to remain anonymous for safety reasons, described their experience as someone who detransitioned. In high school, they identified as a trans man. But now they identify as gender nonconforming.

“I wasn’t around a lot of transgender people. I was under the impression that it was a sliding scale between male and female. I didn’t realize people identified between the two. That lack of comprehension led me to socially transition,” they said.

“The only pressure I felt to embrace one specific identity came from very well-meaning cis people. It wasn’t until I’d connected more with the transgender community at large that I had room to explore these identities,” they said. It was connection and knowledge about being transgender that allowed them to realize what they identified as. It wasn’t isolation or hate.

“I want to emphasize that the paranoia around transgender regret is about community,” they said.

They described that those who have detransitioned and turned towards transphobia are lacking in the community. This student believes those like Chloe Cole couldn’t find support from those around them. They believe they found the support they wanted and needed with the conservative right.

Students Speak Out

“I like to compare [gender-affirming surgery] to heart transplants,” U student Max Rhineer said. “It’s incredibly gruesome and terrible and people die many a time from it, but we still do it, because the people who it helps vastly outweigh the people who it doesn’t help.”

And they’re right. The dangers of gender-affirming surgeries are very real but most major surgeries are dangerous.

U student Julia Thomas said “Gender-affirming care as a minor saved my life. Trying to make it illegal for trans kids to get the healthcare that they need is really wrong.”

In an open letter to Young Americans for Freedom, Emma Reid, U student and employee of Project Embrace, wrote “You’re scared of trans people and what we’ll do. We’re scared of the next generation of conservatives and what they’ll do.”

Banning gender-affirming healthcare out of fear closes our ability to have a dialogue with each other. Demonizing those who detransition casts a bad light on the transgender community.

Listen to Cole’s story. Empathize with her. But don’t let her voice drown out all the voices of those whose lives improved since their transitions. Don’t let her voice drown out those who detransitioned and didn’t use it as an excuse to become transphobic.

Gender-affirming care not only gives transgender people the power to transition, but it also allows those who change their minds the ability to detransition. Gender-affirming care gives all of us the power to embrace who we are and gives us the freedom to make mistakes and grow. It serves everyone.

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@MorganChampine