“from the second i woke up in the operating room i knew it was a mistake. … everyone was congratulating me and saying how happy they were for me, but i didn’t share their enthusiasm. it felt like I had just jumped off a cliff and everybody else was standing on the cliff, looking at me on the rocks below, and clapping. my mom took a picture right after i got out of surgery – of me with the bandages wrapped around my chest… i was literally crying because it was so horribly painful.”
Gut-wrenching.
There is no other way to describe these words from an anonymous 15-year-old girl who described herself as the “youngest patient” on whom her doctor had ever performed a double mastectomy.
The reason she went through this? At the time, she thought she should be a boy.
Now, just 9 months post-operation she sees the truth that “I wasn’t a man, I wasn’t male…” and she feels, in her own words, “chagrined.”
And she’s not alone.
About two years ago, Irreversible Damage author Abigail Shrier wrote in her book about a social media (Reddit) page for detransitioners – people who “transitioned” to living as the opposite sex and have since reversed course. At the time that Shrier wrote, the thread had 7,000 members. Today, the group has almost 30,000 members.
Today is Detrans Awareness Day, a day launched in part by an English girl named Keira Bell.
Keira was just 15 when she began conversations to pursue transgender interventions. In her own words:
“After a series of superficial conversations with social workers, I was put on puberty blockers at age 16. A year later, I was receiving testosterone shots. When 20, I had a double mastectomy. By then, I appeared to have a more masculine build, as well as a man’s voice, a man’s beard, and a man’s name: Quincy, after Quincy Jones.”
Over time, Keira came to regret her decision, and eventually to detransition – and even to pursue a lawsuit against the clinic that provided her chemical and surgical interventions. This week, a report revealed that the clinic’s services were “not a safe or viable long-term option” for minors.
At Family Policy Alliance, we believe that minors should be protected from transgender interventions across the board. These interventions can result in sterilization, permanent voice and appearance changes, scarring, and more. No child should make that choice.
That’s why we launched our Help Not Harm campaign: We want to help hurting kids and bring them the hope they need, not harm them with hormones and surgeries.
Last year, Arkansas became the first state to protect minors from transgender interventions. We want to see similar protections across the United States. If you agree, visit our Help Not Harm Summit to learn more about the truth of this issue – and find out what you can do to help.
For the least of these,
Meridian Baldacci
Director, Strategy
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