Narratives of transgender regret have been prevalent in anti-trans media. A recent 90,000 response survey of trans people, however, shows most people are satisfied with transition.
As a scientist and a trans person, I’m so EXHAUSTED from fighting misinformation on this issue. Is the science ENTIRELY “settled”? No, and yet NO part of medical science is entirely settled, as any scientist knows. And we don’t see these people campaigning to end other healthcare like cancer treatments, which also aren’t entirely settled science. Or perhaps a more apt comparison would be banning cancer treatments *for a specific minority*, considering treatments banned for trans people are often still available for cis people. It’s unbelievable.
Claims that trans healthcare is “experimental” are lies — we absolutely have the data to safely recommend GAC to people who need it. As for what we don’t know? The answer is to fund more research, not to ban it, obviously.
These anti-trans disinformation campaigns are a concerted effort to lay cover for trans eradication, and frankly they are winning. Political detransitioner tears are apparently a lot more sexy than data science, to the detriment of us all.
I'm 65 years old. I transitioned, M to F, in 1993. I lived quite successfully as a woman for 30 years. These days I go by either name, don't try to "pass", and respond to ma'am or sir...as long as I'm being addressed reasonably respectfully.
I have not "detransitioned". My body is not going to change back to the original configuration, nor would I want it to.
I list my gender on fb as nonbinary.
99.% of my fb friends are cisgender lesbians. They know my story.
Due to age, poor health, and simply being rather jaded at this point in my life, I am no longer romantically/sexually active.
I still have fun, in a less physical way, and I'm perfectly content with my life. I have zero regrets.
Maybe I'll start writing again, but I just haven't felt the urge lately.
Thank you, Erin, for your good and much needed work.
This really reminds me of a quote I heard once. "Conservatives live in hypotheticals, liberals live in reality."
Most of the things Republicans hand-wring about are based on hypotheticals and imagined situations. Liberals and progressives tend to look at the world, judge evidence, and try to form their views based on those observations. A conservative says that hypothetically a good guy with a gun stops a bad one. Liberals look at actual statistics and see if that's true. Conservatives bemoan the potential for trans desistance, and write entire laws based on hypothetical situations. Liberals look at the actual numbers and assess accordingly. This is also a reason Republicans are completely blind to historical parallels to their recent attempted genocide. The average rank-and-file Republican would be aghast and instantly dismissive about comparisons between their party and 1930s Germany. But that's because they don't live in reality; they live in the land of assumptions, gut feelings, and hypothetical situations. It's also why when asking about trans bathroom access, Republicans only ask hypothetical questions and completely ignore actual statistics.
To be a modern conservative is to fundamentally have completely surrendered to the sin of Pride. If you are a conservative, you value your own gut feelings and half-reasoned hypotheticals over real-world evidence, actual historical examples, or the opinions of experts. Conservatives claim to worship God, but the only god they worship is themselves. They are the arbiter of truth. If reality disagrees, reality is wrong. They literally choose to live with the attitude of some ancient Greek deity. And that's when they're not just literally worshiping Satan, which they do every time they embrace a message of hatred. It's a sad truth that most Evangelicals worship Satan, not God.
Hey, *this* trans woman doesn't need surveys, politicians or pundits to tell her she's happy :D The past year has just been magical, in spite of all the bullshit aimed at us, I feel like I get stronger and more confident. I find more and more allies. Just traveled with my partner through Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas, out for the first time as my true self... scary but I refuse to be erased. Unfortunately we had to boycott those states and spent no money on food or entertainment, but were happy to support New Mexico which is both trans friendly and a beautiful state. Surprisingly nobody gave us trouble, I feel like a handful of people with an axe to grind are stirring up all this anti-trans sentiment, and it does a disservice to the citizens of those states for politicians to waste so much time and energy targeting our community, instead of working on real problems we all face.
This article confirms what we already knew: that the vast majority of trans people live happy, fulfilled lives free of regrets after their transition. It also shows that, properly administered, gender-affirming care is good, solid medical care that should always be protected and available, and in the domain of patients and doctors only, not politicians. The key with this study is for it to get proper airtime in the media. Already, I’m seeing headlines that say something like “Large survey of trans people reveals some surprising findings” when really a proper headline should read that trans care is overwhelmingly good, regret-free medical care.
As someone that started transitioning during the Trump administration, with all the anti-trans bullshit back then (a fraction of what we're dealing with now), I felt 1000% percent better after starting HRT.
My wife and I had multiple discussions about what it would mean, where the world was heading, and how transitioning would affect our lives. We had no idea how bad it would get with all the anti-trans legislation. I'm lucky to live in a deep blue state with trans protection laws. But even if I lived in a red state...
I regret nothing (and told that survey as much).
My only regret in life is that I waited so fucking long to figure it out and do something about it.
I participated in that study, and I am ALIVE and happier than I have ever been in my life, a life that might have been cut short had I not been able to access care.
Today I saw that there is an exhibit of the AIDS quilt available to view and I remember listening to the elders in my gay community talk about how they felt invisible as everyone around them died and nobody did anything and how they finally made them listen with the help of a visual aid that they COULD NOT IGNORE. We need to do that too.
Yes, yes, they scrape the barrel looking for those detransitioners too. They can always find a sour-puss in the bunch, but using it as a weapon against us has been the most disgusting part of what is happening these days.
They are owning our narrative because mainstream media won't find us happy campers and only want to disprove everything. Letting the goonies dominate our media. What is this concerted effort about really? Why are they so afraid of us? I'm a really cool guy and they're not humanizing us. Making us out to be pedophiles and bullshit is the crime of the century.
We're not bothering anybody, but here they all come trying to push an agenda that isn't even ours onto us. Looking like WWII when they pushed us out of Nazi Germany. If you have Netflix, check out the documentary called 'Eldorado' and you will see what these GOP sickos are up to. If they bother me, though, I will take their proverbial heads off one at a time.
I got to do a talk for over 65 doctors/surgeons from all over this country, interested in caring for trans people last August. It was awesome and they loved us. Asked lots of questions and got the training of their lifetime before the 3 of us got there. Started on Friday morning. I think it went on until noon on Sunday. I was so grateful they wanted to know and now these other horrible people are raining on that day.
Oh, I've got other days, because I'm blessed to have a small part in training VA interns about us as well. It's also elective and they come out for us. Got chosen for a talk with a very large corporation that I will leave unnamed. Also got to talk during some training with Emory about trans people. I'm only 1 man with public speaker training and can't get to people fast enough.
Politics is trying to force the medical industry to abandon us. NOT MORAL, NOT RIGHT, UNJUST!
The scientist in me has one little nitpicky point: we can’t conclude anything about detransition from this survey, as the methodology states the survey was only “open to binary and nonbinary transgender people aged 16 and older.”
I agree that it seems telling that detransitioners are hard to find, but that could be for any number of reasons; we simply don’t know.
Simply put, gender affirming care saved my life. It saved the lives of many of my friends. Idk why that is so difficult to accept. Of course people report being happier and satisfaction.
Will the NYT's admit to throwing trans people under the bus to bolster their claim that they aren't always on the "liberal's side" or are they going to argue that they are in fact THAT stupid?
Paul's initial response to Erin suggests they are going with-"squirrel!"
I recently researched the numbers of adolescent girls who have breast augmentation/reduction surgeries during the teen years. No one mentions this. The numbers are pretty astonishing. No one bats an eye at this. Surely they are influenced by the culture that insists on the perfect sized breasts for cisgender teen girls. Are we sure they are old enough to consent to this? Some of them change their minds later on and have the augmented breasts reduced. Shouldn't these children be protected from these horrible surgeries that they might someday regret? Anybody see any irony here?
I recently researched the numbers of adolescent girls who have breast augmentation/reduction surgeries during the teen years. No one mentions this. The numbers are pretty astonishing. No one bats an eye at this. Surely they are influenced by the culture that insists on the perfect sized breasts for cisgender teen girls. Are we sure they are old enough to consent to this? Some of them change their minds later on and have the augmented breasts reduced. Shouldn't these children be protected from these horrible surgeries that they might someday regret? Anybody see any irony here?
As a scientist and a trans person, I’m so EXHAUSTED from fighting misinformation on this issue. Is the science ENTIRELY “settled”? No, and yet NO part of medical science is entirely settled, as any scientist knows. And we don’t see these people campaigning to end other healthcare like cancer treatments, which also aren’t entirely settled science. Or perhaps a more apt comparison would be banning cancer treatments *for a specific minority*, considering treatments banned for trans people are often still available for cis people. It’s unbelievable.
Claims that trans healthcare is “experimental” are lies — we absolutely have the data to safely recommend GAC to people who need it. As for what we don’t know? The answer is to fund more research, not to ban it, obviously.
These anti-trans disinformation campaigns are a concerted effort to lay cover for trans eradication, and frankly they are winning. Political detransitioner tears are apparently a lot more sexy than data science, to the detriment of us all.
I'm 65 years old. I transitioned, M to F, in 1993. I lived quite successfully as a woman for 30 years. These days I go by either name, don't try to "pass", and respond to ma'am or sir...as long as I'm being addressed reasonably respectfully.
I have not "detransitioned". My body is not going to change back to the original configuration, nor would I want it to.
I list my gender on fb as nonbinary.
99.% of my fb friends are cisgender lesbians. They know my story.
Due to age, poor health, and simply being rather jaded at this point in my life, I am no longer romantically/sexually active.
I still have fun, in a less physical way, and I'm perfectly content with my life. I have zero regrets.
Maybe I'll start writing again, but I just haven't felt the urge lately.
Thank you, Erin, for your good and much needed work.
-weezi-🙏💖🙏💜🙏🌄
100 out of 90,000 is statistically insignificant. That amounts to 0.009%.
The plural of anecdote is not data.
This really reminds me of a quote I heard once. "Conservatives live in hypotheticals, liberals live in reality."
Most of the things Republicans hand-wring about are based on hypotheticals and imagined situations. Liberals and progressives tend to look at the world, judge evidence, and try to form their views based on those observations. A conservative says that hypothetically a good guy with a gun stops a bad one. Liberals look at actual statistics and see if that's true. Conservatives bemoan the potential for trans desistance, and write entire laws based on hypothetical situations. Liberals look at the actual numbers and assess accordingly. This is also a reason Republicans are completely blind to historical parallels to their recent attempted genocide. The average rank-and-file Republican would be aghast and instantly dismissive about comparisons between their party and 1930s Germany. But that's because they don't live in reality; they live in the land of assumptions, gut feelings, and hypothetical situations. It's also why when asking about trans bathroom access, Republicans only ask hypothetical questions and completely ignore actual statistics.
To be a modern conservative is to fundamentally have completely surrendered to the sin of Pride. If you are a conservative, you value your own gut feelings and half-reasoned hypotheticals over real-world evidence, actual historical examples, or the opinions of experts. Conservatives claim to worship God, but the only god they worship is themselves. They are the arbiter of truth. If reality disagrees, reality is wrong. They literally choose to live with the attitude of some ancient Greek deity. And that's when they're not just literally worshiping Satan, which they do every time they embrace a message of hatred. It's a sad truth that most Evangelicals worship Satan, not God.
Hey, *this* trans woman doesn't need surveys, politicians or pundits to tell her she's happy :D The past year has just been magical, in spite of all the bullshit aimed at us, I feel like I get stronger and more confident. I find more and more allies. Just traveled with my partner through Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas and Kansas, out for the first time as my true self... scary but I refuse to be erased. Unfortunately we had to boycott those states and spent no money on food or entertainment, but were happy to support New Mexico which is both trans friendly and a beautiful state. Surprisingly nobody gave us trouble, I feel like a handful of people with an axe to grind are stirring up all this anti-trans sentiment, and it does a disservice to the citizens of those states for politicians to waste so much time and energy targeting our community, instead of working on real problems we all face.
This article confirms what we already knew: that the vast majority of trans people live happy, fulfilled lives free of regrets after their transition. It also shows that, properly administered, gender-affirming care is good, solid medical care that should always be protected and available, and in the domain of patients and doctors only, not politicians. The key with this study is for it to get proper airtime in the media. Already, I’m seeing headlines that say something like “Large survey of trans people reveals some surprising findings” when really a proper headline should read that trans care is overwhelmingly good, regret-free medical care.
As someone that started transitioning during the Trump administration, with all the anti-trans bullshit back then (a fraction of what we're dealing with now), I felt 1000% percent better after starting HRT.
My wife and I had multiple discussions about what it would mean, where the world was heading, and how transitioning would affect our lives. We had no idea how bad it would get with all the anti-trans legislation. I'm lucky to live in a deep blue state with trans protection laws. But even if I lived in a red state...
I regret nothing (and told that survey as much).
My only regret in life is that I waited so fucking long to figure it out and do something about it.
I participated in that study, and I am ALIVE and happier than I have ever been in my life, a life that might have been cut short had I not been able to access care.
Today I saw that there is an exhibit of the AIDS quilt available to view and I remember listening to the elders in my gay community talk about how they felt invisible as everyone around them died and nobody did anything and how they finally made them listen with the help of a visual aid that they COULD NOT IGNORE. We need to do that too.
Yes, yes, they scrape the barrel looking for those detransitioners too. They can always find a sour-puss in the bunch, but using it as a weapon against us has been the most disgusting part of what is happening these days.
They are owning our narrative because mainstream media won't find us happy campers and only want to disprove everything. Letting the goonies dominate our media. What is this concerted effort about really? Why are they so afraid of us? I'm a really cool guy and they're not humanizing us. Making us out to be pedophiles and bullshit is the crime of the century.
We're not bothering anybody, but here they all come trying to push an agenda that isn't even ours onto us. Looking like WWII when they pushed us out of Nazi Germany. If you have Netflix, check out the documentary called 'Eldorado' and you will see what these GOP sickos are up to. If they bother me, though, I will take their proverbial heads off one at a time.
I got to do a talk for over 65 doctors/surgeons from all over this country, interested in caring for trans people last August. It was awesome and they loved us. Asked lots of questions and got the training of their lifetime before the 3 of us got there. Started on Friday morning. I think it went on until noon on Sunday. I was so grateful they wanted to know and now these other horrible people are raining on that day.
Oh, I've got other days, because I'm blessed to have a small part in training VA interns about us as well. It's also elective and they come out for us. Got chosen for a talk with a very large corporation that I will leave unnamed. Also got to talk during some training with Emory about trans people. I'm only 1 man with public speaker training and can't get to people fast enough.
Politics is trying to force the medical industry to abandon us. NOT MORAL, NOT RIGHT, UNJUST!
Great article Erin, as always!
The scientist in me has one little nitpicky point: we can’t conclude anything about detransition from this survey, as the methodology states the survey was only “open to binary and nonbinary transgender people aged 16 and older.”
I agree that it seems telling that detransitioners are hard to find, but that could be for any number of reasons; we simply don’t know.
More people regret knee surgery and hip replacements
Facts don’t matter to them
Simply put, gender affirming care saved my life. It saved the lives of many of my friends. Idk why that is so difficult to accept. Of course people report being happier and satisfaction.
Will the NYT's admit to throwing trans people under the bus to bolster their claim that they aren't always on the "liberal's side" or are they going to argue that they are in fact THAT stupid?
Paul's initial response to Erin suggests they are going with-"squirrel!"
I recently researched the numbers of adolescent girls who have breast augmentation/reduction surgeries during the teen years. No one mentions this. The numbers are pretty astonishing. No one bats an eye at this. Surely they are influenced by the culture that insists on the perfect sized breasts for cisgender teen girls. Are we sure they are old enough to consent to this? Some of them change their minds later on and have the augmented breasts reduced. Shouldn't these children be protected from these horrible surgeries that they might someday regret? Anybody see any irony here?
I recently researched the numbers of adolescent girls who have breast augmentation/reduction surgeries during the teen years. No one mentions this. The numbers are pretty astonishing. No one bats an eye at this. Surely they are influenced by the culture that insists on the perfect sized breasts for cisgender teen girls. Are we sure they are old enough to consent to this? Some of them change their minds later on and have the augmented breasts reduced. Shouldn't these children be protected from these horrible surgeries that they might someday regret? Anybody see any irony here?