[Editors’ note: All the examples in this article were sourced from publicly available posts on social media, generally from at least semi prominent accounts. With that said, we have made no attempt to verify the stories of the posters, nor to identify those who choose not to share their real names in their posts. We did this because we determined that the potential harm done by unintentionally doxing these individuals outweighed the advantages of potentially verifying parts of their accounts, but because of this the Horn cannot claim to have independently verified any particular details of these stories. Additionally, readers are asked to make no effort to dox the owner of any account mentioned in this story, as if writing a story on such sensitive topics predictably got people doxed, then the media could not in good conscience publish such stories, which would cause us to miss critical aspects of issues such as detransitioning, where society can least afford to have barriers to the accurate dissemination of unfiltered information]
On Twitter, I happened to find a tweet of a YouTube video called “Ramblings of a detransitioned woman.” I looked at the profile and noticed the tag #Detrans. I was honestly surprised this was a trend, so I decided to look into it. I found a few stories that interested me. Given that it’s more common to see the media celebrating and affirming the transitioning process, it is not surprising that these stories seem to be hidden away and in their own small niche of the internet.
Looking into these stories was a little heartbreaking for me. It seemed to me that these people regretted their decision. I saw the physical effects of transitioning and what these individuals sacrificed in an attempt to cure their gender dysphoria. There is a growing amount of detransitioners in the transgender community. These detransitioned individuals are a small minority of those who undergo the procedure, but they should not be ignored, unlike some proponents of transitioning suggest. Please indulge me by listening to a few of these detransitioning stories I found interesting.
@ImWatson91
@ImWatson91 is a Twitter account of a detransitioned woman. She comes from Scotland and has her own YouTube channel– which is the source of the video I mentioned earlier. It’s quite a long video, but if you just want to know her story, there is a shorter Youtube video called “Sinead Watson, detransitioned woman, on devastating impact of gender clinic’s ‘affirmative model’” from the Labour Women’s Declaration channel. In the video, she describes her upbringing, finding online transgender content, becoming convinced transgenderism would solve her mental health problems, and finally going through surgery. She tries to stay professional, but, by the end of the video, you can sense her frustration. She is justifiably annoyed with the gender clinic because it didn’t challenge her self-diagnosis of gender dysphoria and allowed her to get a double mastectomy.
If you watch the video and close your eyes, you would think a man was talking. I think that’s the most depressing part as you can physically hear the toll testosterone has taken on her body. Her tweets are often brash. She is fighting against an issue that has deeply impacted her, and portrays herself as someone who will tell you how it is. From what I can find, she does support individuals transitioning and living their own lives, however, she believes we need to make sure more people don’t regret transitioning and keep kids away from transitioning.
Chloe Cole
Another post I noticed from this trend was from Heidi Harris, who is the host of the Heidi Harris Show. It shows an article from The Stream called “The Bravery and Brilliance of Detransitioner Chloe Cole.” In this article, she mentions how she had autism and how that has been linked to gender dysphoria. Chloe Cole also has her own Twitter account. In her bio, she mentions she was a former trans kid, started puberty blockers at 13, had a double mastectomy at 15, and would eventually detransition at the age of 16. A more thorough explanation of her life can be found in the Youtube video “Detransition: The Wounds That Won’t Heal | Chloe Cole |” from the Jordan B Peterson channel.
It is a long video, but she discusses how she slowly transitioned, believed she was a transgender male, and realized she made a mistake. One of the interesting talking points discussed in the video was her actual transitioning therapy. She does talk about how her parents were with her during this process, and did their best to support her, but they were also hesitant to help. Her parents were convinced she needed this treatment. She was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and therapists told her family there was no other treatment. They also stated Chloe would be more at risk of suicide if she did not transition. In short, they were giving the equivalent of the “rather have a living son or a dead daughter?” dilemma. She portrays this as her parents were manipulated to give consent for this treatment. Because of that choice, Chloe lives in regret and pain.
u/AmaterasuXOX
I never thought I would use the internet’s most trusted source, Reddit, for an article, but here I am. Looking at other social media, I found the subreddit called r/detrans and one of the interesting stories posted was from an account called u/AmaterasuXOX. Their post is called “Just a general rant on dysphoria, obsession and transgenderism.” It’s a bit long, but there is a lot of emotion in it in a way which suggests she deeply cares about the transgender community. At the start, she talks about herself and claims she was “basically groomed” by the transgender community. She would later identify as a transgender male, but soon her gender dysphoria faded. The main focus of her frustration in the post is the societal push she received to transition. Based on her experience, she sees transgender communities push individuals from just being tomboys to actually transitioning. She believes this is divisive and dehumanizes the opposite gender. At the end of the day, she sees a negative societal influence on individuals with gender dysphoria.
That’s a general summary, but she had a few interesting points I have never really considered. Let me ask you a few questions. Why do you think more feminine men or masculine women are drawn towards transgenderism? u/AmaterasuXOX believes society does not accept individuals that are a little more feminine or masculine than their given sex. Society now pushes individuals to transition so they can fit into another community. What can we do to solve this issue? She believes in a simple answer: to teach self-love. Specifically, we should teach people to learn how to love their “perfectly healthy body parts” before altering them.
@Lfromthenorth
@Lfromthenorth is a Twitter account of a feminist lesbian who almost transitioned, and a majority of her tweets are written in Finnish. She posted a Twitter thread about her transgender story, but I had to use google translate to read her tweets. So, there is a possibility of mistranslation. When she was younger, she thought she was a transgender male because she was more masculine and liked women. She contacted an organization about transitioning but then moved abroad, stopping her transition therapy. She realized if she had not moved, she would have been stuck with her trans identity and gone through treatments.
Looking through her more recent tweets, she deeply cares about women being their true selves. She isn’t afraid to speak her own mind and say what she believes to be the truth. To quote her,
“Olen mieluummin miestenvihaaja, transfobi ja ‘vääränlainen homo,’ kuin valehtelija,” or I should say, “I’d rather be a misogynist, a transphobe, and the ‘wrong kind of gay’ than a liar.” To continue, she tweets about how women can be masculine, but this “does not make them a man or boy.” She calls out how gender roles can and should be broken, but an individual’s gender cannot be changed.
Summary
We went on a slight world tour with these stories, but they aren’t the only ones. We have websites like Post Trans and DeTrans Voices that have more stories of individuals who grew out of their gender dysphoria and regretted their decisions. Looking at them, we find a similar trend. People are just confused, feel alone, and don’t fit in. In these stories, they sound as if they were helpless and unable to escape their own mind. Not that they didn’t have any power, but they were falsely led by transgenderism with a promise to solve all of their problems. I did my best to keep my personal views out of this article and just show their stories. Hopefully, you gained new insight or found these stories interesting.
