The Detransitioners Have Arrived. They Are Not Your Personal Army
A report from Detrans Awareness Day 2025
Exulansic underwent “gender affirming menstrual suppression.” As a result, her bones were not taking in enough calcium during the critical adult female developmental window. She also has rib flare, a consequence of binding. So does Maia the Peace Poet, who never had menstrual suppression. Neither of them had a double mastectomy like Laura Becker or Chloe Cole.
Elle Palmer has lingering effects of testosterone, most notably her voice, but she never had surgery. Of the detransitioners listed so far, Abel Garcia is the only male. While he had breast implants for a time, he never had bottom surgery. Then there is Forrest Smith, who had an orchiectomy (removal of his testicles) and breast implants. None of their stories is exactly alike.
The only thing they share at all is the story they had believed about themselves being transgender. It was a story they heard from others, whether online or in person, that those people believed about themselves. Belief in being transgender is the thing that led to their harm.
The gender industry offered them customizable options, hence they all received individuated harm. There is no single detransition story because the ‘gender journey’ was prostletyzed to them as a choose-your-own-adventure story.
Last week, Genspect organized Detrans Awareness Day 2025 in Washington, DC. “It was an opportunity to network with other detransitioners and get insight into the ways that you and each other were harmed by talking to each other and reflecting on your own experiences,” Exulansic says.
As they compare symptoms of their various medicalizations, they put the pieces together about what happened to themselves. “What’s been great about Detrans Awareness Day is that we’ve all been able to see each other’s changes over time, as we get further and further away from the time that we were trans,” Exulansic says.
They also form real friendships, sharing more than just a narrative of detransition. Over the three days that the detransitioners let me hang out with them around the nation’s capital, I witnessed their comradery for myself. I could also see them making a real difference.
“Detransitioners are not only being heard, but they are actually being listened to in a way that’s going to create lasting change,” Laura Becker tells The Distance. Officials from the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services told her “this gender issue is a top priority in both of these departments.”
Becker says that Secretary of Education Linda McMahon “seemed moved” to learn that the college-age demographic, 18-25 years old, “is the most vulnerable” to transgender medicalization. Both McMahon and HHS officials told Becker that this priority was “coming from the top,” meaning President Donald Trump.
“The highest departments in the land are very concerned about what is going on and they have task forces in place or are shortly forming them to start working on some of our asks,” Becker tells The Distance. “Right now, they’re working on a task force to perform a systematic review of the evidence for pediatric gender affirmation.”
Thanks to the detransitioners, Americans are getting their own Cass Review. In my own conversations on Capitol Hill, it was evident that the care and concern of Republicans, staffers, and conservatives that I met was real. They were listening. They were interested. They were learning.
Detransition is here to stay, the number of detransitioners will only grow. Elections have consequences. One consequence of the second Trump presidency will likely be a powerful new organizing force on the right, a constituency of detransitioned Americans and their families.
Democrats have brought this upon themselves. They were warned. They risked this outcome and now they seem ready to double-down on their risks. The biggest problem that Democrats will face in confronting the new power of detransitioners is that they all have different stories.
Once introduced to American politics, no single, convenient explanation will rationalize the detransitioner out of the conversation because the only thing they ever shared was a false belief that their bodies were wrong. They did not come from the right. They did not come from Russia. They did not come from Mars. They were made by an idea that is simply false.
What makes gender ideology dangerous is the story it tells. People who believed that story, who were harmed by it, and rejected that story, are dangerous to the story. The mere existence of detransitioned people creates cognitive dissonance in people committed to the ideology of transgenderism. They prove it was never true just by existing.
But the detransitioners are not your personal army, either. They will always defy your expectations, so it’s best to have none. Relax and listen, you will learn a lot. Try to boss them around and you will regret it instantly.
The ‘gender critical’ social media loudmouths that insist on defining who the ‘real’ detransitioners are, who turn nasty when detransitioners resist their ideological programming, were not in Washington last week. Those people get no credit for turning any tides. They deserve zero kudos for any legislative or regulatory results in Washington.
All credit for the changes happening now belongs to the detransitioners themselves, and to Genspect for organizing the event that brought everyone together. I was disappointed that Dr. Miriam Grossman was unable to appear as scheduled, but otherwise it was a perfect morning program.
Then the detransitioners did the rest themselves, lobbying anyone who would listen. Detransition advocacy is American citizen lobbying at its best. They don’t need to be told what they need, or what they should want. They know what they need. They just want you to listen.
Seven Red Flags That Detransitioners Cannot Unsee In Jon Uhler
Responding to a chat question in his YouTube livestream this past Sunday, self-styled “safeguarding expert” Jon Uhler argued that his trustworthiness should not be an issue for detransitioners.
"The ‘gender critical’ social media loudmouths that insist on defining who the ‘real’ detransitioners are, who turn nasty when detransitioners resist their ideological programming, were not in Washington last week. Those people get no credit for turning any tides. They deserve zero kudos for any legislative or regulatory results in Washington."
It's hard to know the players without a program. I follow the opposition to gender ideology quite closely, yet I have no idea who the "gender critical social media loudmouths" you're referring to are. Please name some names.