‘Detransition Awareness Day’ Highlights Those Embracing Their True Identity

March 12, 2021 was the first ever “Detransition Awareness Day,” created by a coalition of groups and individuals “to raise awareness and break down the stigma around detransition.” The term “detransition” refers to the process people go through of stopping a “gender transition” – trying to live as the opposite sex – and embracing their bodily sex. 

As part of the day, dozens of detransitioners shared their stories on Twitter and YouTube. Keira Bell was one of those sponsoring the event. She grew up in a troubled home, as Mercatornet.com reported: “Her father walked out when she was four, leaving her and her sister in the care of her alcoholic mother. At 14 she was a miserable tomboy who didn’t fit in with the girls or the guys.”

Bell said, “I just stayed at home, locked in my room, playing video games. … I was so uncomfortable with my body and puberty and becoming a woman.”

After finding some transgender activists on YouTube, she thought, “That’s me. I need to do this, to medically transition to make myself better and live my life as I’m supposed to.” Bell sought help from a doctor, who referred her to the Gender Identity and Development Service (GIDS) in London, the only clinic for gender-confused children in the United Kingdom.

GIDS is part of the Tavistock and Portman National Health Service (NHS) Foundation Trust, a mental health organization based in London. After just three one-hour appointments, Bell was prescribed puberty blockers, which gave her hot flashes and caused difficulty sleeping, symptoms similar to menopause.

According to the American College of Pediatricians (ACPeds), puberty blockers may cause depression, emotional instability, and emotional disturbances related to suicide. The organization said that use of Lupron, a commonly used blocker, “has also been associated with and may be the cause of many serious permanent side effects including osteoporosis, mood disorders, seizures,  cognitive impairment and, when combined with cross-sex hormones, sterility.”

As Dr. Michelle Cretella, Executive Director of ACPeds, told The Daily Citizen, “Puberty is not a disease. Puberty is a critical and natural developmental phase that can be life-saving for gender incongruent youth.” Children who take these drugs, she said, “can never get back the time of normal biopsychosocial development that was stolen from them.”

Later, Bell was given opposite-sex hormones, which caused her voice to deepen and facial hair to grow. Finally, when she was 20, she had a double mastectomy. But Bell had doubts about what she had done to her body, and she didn’t want to tell her family she’d made a mistake.

She finally stopped taking male hormones at age 22 and began the process of detransitioning. She said, “I don’t know if I will ever really look like a woman again. I feel I was a guinea pig at the Tavistock, and I don’t think anyone knows what will happen to my body in the future.”

Bell joined a lawsuit against the Tavistock to protect children from these experimental treatments, becoming a key witness and the lead plaintiff in the trial. The lawsuit was started by Sue Evans, a registered nurse and psychiatric nurse who worked at GIDS, and by “Mrs. A,” the mother of an autistic, gender-confused 15-year-old girl.

While the suit moved forward, Britain’s NHS quietly changed its guidance on puberty blockers for children, stating, “Little is known about the long-term side effects of hormone or puberty blockers in children with gender dysphoria.” The new guidance also said, “Although the GIDS advises this is a physically reversible treatment if stopped, it is not known what the psychological effects may be,” and, “It’s also not known whether hormone blockers affect the development of the teenage brain or children’s bones. Side effects may also include hot flushes, fatigue and mood alterations.”

In Dec. 2020, the High Court in London ruled in Bell’s favor, blocking the Tavistock clinic from offering puberty blocking drugs to children under the age of 16. The court said, “There will be enormous difficulties in a child under 16 understanding and weighing up this information and deciding whether to consent to the use of puberty blocking medication. It is highly unlikely that a child aged 13 or under would be competent to give consent to the administration of puberty blockers.”

The court also said that for minors over the age of 16, clinicians should seek the authorization of a court before offering opposite-sex hormones and surgery. The ruling has been appealed, with a hearing scheduled for June 23rd.

From 2009 to 2020, the Tavistock saw a huge increase in the number of children seeking to “transition” to the opposite sex, and the clinic is under fire for moving children forward so quickly towards dangerous and experimental drugs, hormones and surgery.

Bell is not alone in detransitioning and pushing back against transgender ideology. Not the Bee and P.J. Media were the only two media outlets that The Daily Citizen found reporting on Detransition Awareness Day. The woke media ignored the event. 

Not the Bee said, “This is what courage looks like,” as it listed tweet after tweet from those who transitioned; suffered health problems or realized they’d made a mistake; and went back to embracing their bodily sex.

In a YouTube video, Sinead Watson, one of the sponsors of the day, shared her experience, “I had injected testosterone for four and a half years, I underwent a double mastectomy, only to very gradually realize over time that I had made a massive mistake and wanted to detransition.” Watson said those who “experience transition regret are subject to an utterly undeserved stigma.”

“We are bullied and insulted and silenced whenever we try to share our experiences online,” Watson said, adding that she’s not telling her story to harm transgender-identified individuals, but to see better care for those struggling with these issues and to show support for those with transgender regret.

Those moving out of transgenderism to embrace their true identity deserve our compassion and prayer, especially as they leave the transgender community where they often found acceptance and understanding.

Resources:

The Focus on the Family Broadcast “Becoming the Woman God Made Me to Be” tells Linda Seiler’s story of finding healing in Christ and embracing her true identity as a woman.

“‘Trading My Sorrows’ — A Story of Healing from Transgenderism” is about Walt Heyer, who endured numerous surgeries to look like a woman but is now living as a man.

On March 23 and 24, a Focus on the Family will broadcast “The Journey Back to My True Identity,” featuring Walt Heyer’s story, along with KathyGrace Duncan who identified and lived as a man for 11 years. 

Focus on the Family’s Transgender Resources page offers help for those struggling with this issue, or for their family and friends.

The ministry also offers a free consultation with Focus on the Family’s Counseling Department. Those seeking help can call 1-855-771-HELP (4357) weekdays from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (Mountain Time), or complete the Counseling Consultation Request Form. Individuals contacting the department should be prepared to leave contact information for a counselor to return a call.

Photo from Twitter