When I began the Detransitioners series for National Review, I expected to hear stories of regret and resentment. I anticipated learning about the nasty side effects of “gender-affirming” care.
But when NR gave me the freedom to dig into the issue without fear or favor, what I unearthed was beyond my wildest imagination.
Before the patients I interviewed went under the knife for mastectomies or began taking cross-sex hormones, they already carried deep scars from childhood. They had experienced intense psychological trauma at a young age.
From exposure to hardcore pornography at four years old to rape by a father at five years old to homelessness following domestic abuse in adolescence, the horrors they endured would be enough to break anyone. Their developing minds were so utterly shocked by what they’d experienced that they felt incongruity with their bodies. Suicidal ideation and self-harm were common themes. They weren’t just questioning their gender; they were questioning their very reality.
Instead of helping them heal, the medical complex kicked them while they were down. Desperate to get rid of the pain, the victims clung to the promises of surgeons and therapists that hormone therapy and reconstructive surgery would fix what was broken inside.
Once they had the injections and the procedures, there was no going back: their voices permanently lowered; their genitals permanently disfigured; their breast tissue permanently numb; their sexual function permanently inhibited.
Eventually, the reality of what had been done to them hit like a ton of bricks. But it was too late. We think it’s important to keep telling these stories. So we hope that you will consider supporting our work exposing these medical interventions as part of our ongoing webathon.
I heard a lot about autism from the detransitioners. Most of them were placed on the spectrum as children, explaining their sensory discomfort with puberty, exacerbated by inappropriate sexual attention from their peers. A finding little discussed by gender activists is that people who identify as transgender are six times as likely to be autistic as those who don’t struggle with gender dysphoria, according to a 2020 study.
Continued…
Approved ~ MJM
