How only a few people are being used to push a sinister agenda
Let's start simply.
What is Detransitioning?
Detransitioning is when someone who identified as transgender takes steps to undo or reverse a medical transition.
This can occur due to a wide variety of factors. They might have had an underlying mental health issue, they might have been pressured by their family or friends, or, in many cases, they might find they were not a binary gender, and be actually re-transitioning to their new target gender.
All of these are completely valid.
How common is detransitioning?
0.3%. Less than 1%. Of that 0.3%, about 50% say it's not due to true regret, but the challenge and social pressures that transitioning comes with being too much to handle. So half of that 0.3% actually fully regret transitioning.
How many transgender people exist in the USA?
1.6 Million. There are over one and a half million people who openly identify as transgender in the united states.*
What does that mean?
0.3% of 1,600,000 is 4,800. Less than 5 thousand people. Half of which were either peer pressured to detransition or realized they were nonbinary. Less than 2,500 people want to decide the rights of 1,600,000 others.
But isn't that wildly unfair?
Yes. Yes it is.
Why is this happening?
A leaked batch of emails show Extremist Christian Nationalists are working to take advantage of as many of those 2,400 people as they can. It's part of a decades-long effort to further their hate-filled agenda. You can download the leaked emails here.
But how did you get those numbers?
There are dozens of studies reviewing hundreds of thousands of cases of transgender individuals' levels of transition regret. Many of those studies are listed in the Works Cited below.
So Now What?
Let me be clear. DO NOT ATTACK DETRANSITIONERS. Individuals failed by the system, or who got lost in the cracks, or found ways to circumvent safeguards are not the problem. They deserve help just as much as transgender people seeking transition.
The problem is those who would exploit them and their pain to harm others.
Do your own research. Look at the number of participants in each study. Be wary of who is publishing what. Look at what other studies they cite. But look at everything you consume with a critical eye. Even consider taking logic and critical thinking courses to help build your skills.
In a world ever increasingly fraught with propaganda and hate, it's important to hone critical thinking, logic, and analytical skills. Those looking to restrict rights prey on heightened emotions and clouded thinking. Learning to fact-check is a necessary skill in the modern day.
On top of that, more research needs to be done. Less credible sources claim up to 8% of transgender individuals regret medical transition. This would make things like hormone blockers and social support even more important, and arguably necessary. Allowing more time and support in gender exploration would allow for those who decide they are not transgender to figure that out before they ever encounter surgery.
*The number I used comes from a data set of individuals who openly identify as transgender from the ages of 13 and older. Metric provided by Williams Institute School of Law. This does not account for still-closeted individuals or children under 13.
______________________________________________________________________________________Works Cited
““Under His Wings”: Leaked Emails Reveal an Anti-Trans “Holy War.”” Vice.com, 21 Mar. 2023, www.vice.com/en/article/7kxpky/leaked-emails-reveal-an-anti-trans-holy-war. Accessed 5 June 2024.
Alstott, Anne, et al. Yale.edu, 2024, openyls.law.yale.edu/handle/20.500.13051/18393?show=full, http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13051/18393. Accessed 5 June 2024.
Carole Tanzer Miller. “Regret after Gender-Affirming Surgery Is Largely a Myth, Experts Say.” Healthday.com, 2 Jan. 2024, www.healthday.com/health-news/mental-health/regret-after-gender-affirming-surgery-is-largely-a-myth-experts-say. Accessed 5 June 2024.
“Gab Founder Andrew Torba Wants to Build a Christian Nationalist Internet.” Vice.com, 29 Sept. 2022, www.vice.com/en/article/wxnpz5/gab-andrew-torba-christian-nationalist. Accessed 5 June 2024.
“How a Few Stories of Regret Fuel the Push to Restrict Gender Transition Care (Published 2023).” The New York Times, 2024, www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/us/politics/transgender-care-detransitioners.html. Accessed 5 June 2024.
Jedrzejewski, Breanna Y, et al. “Regret after Gender-Affirming Surgery: A Multidisciplinary Approach to a Multifaceted Patient Experience.” Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery/PSEF CD Journals, vol. 152, no. 1, 29 June 2023, pp. 206–214, journals.lww.com/plasreconsurg/abstract/2023/07000/regret_after_gender_affirming_surgery__a.41.aspx, https://doi.org/10.1097/prs.0000000000010243. Accessed 5 June 2024.
maia arson crimew. “The Emails - 2600 Pages of Hate.” Maia :3, 8 Mar. 2023, maia.crimew.gay/posts/the-emails/. Accessed 5 June 2024.
Media, TransLash. ““Detransition Pseudo-Science and Misleading Examples”: Animated Short.” TransLash, June 2023, translash.org/detransition-pseudo-science-and-misleading-examples-animated-short/. Accessed 5 June 2024.
News Medical. “News-Medical.” News-Medical, 29 Dec. 2023, www.news-medical.net/news/20231228/Johns-Hopkins-researchers-find-minimal-regret-after-gender-affirming-surgery.aspx. Accessed 5 June 2024.
Pauly, Madison. “Inside the Secret Working Group That Helped Push Anti-Trans Laws across the Country.” Mother Jones, 8 Mar. 2023, www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/03/anti-trans-transgender-health-care-ban-legislation-bill-minors-children-lgbtq/. Accessed 5 June 2024.
Sasha Karan Narayan, et al. “Guiding the Conversation—Types of Regret after Gender-Affirming Surgery and Their Associated Etiologies.” Annals of Translational Medicine, vol. 9, no. 7, 1 Apr. 2021, pp. 605–605, pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33987303/, https://doi.org/10.21037/atm-20-6204. Accessed 5 June 2024.
Science X. “Researchers Find That Regret Is Rarer than Believed among Patients Who Undergo Gender Affirming Surgery.” Medicalxpress.com, Medical Xpress, 28 Dec. 2023, medicalxpress.com/news/2023-12-rarer-believed-patients-gender-affirming.html. Accessed 5 June 2024.
thisisloyal.com, Loyal . “How Many Adults and Youth Identify as Transgender in the United States?” Williams Institute, 10 July 2023, williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/. Accessed 5 June 2024.
Thornton, Sarah M, et al. “A Systematic Review of Patient Regret after Surgery- a Common Phenomenon in Many Specialties but Rare within Gender-Affirmation Surgery.” the American Journal of Surgery, 1 Apr. 2024, www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0002961024002381, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2024.04.021. Accessed 5 June 2024.
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