EPISODE 106: Detransition Awareness: Beyond Identity & Political Narratives

Title: 106 — Detransition Awareness: Beyond Identity & Political Narratives

This episode is dedicated to spreading awareness about the existence and experience of detransitioners — those who pursued a medicalized gender transition and later came to feel it wasn’t the right path for them. The detransitioner community is growing faster than ever as more young people realize they received inadequate and inappropriate healthcare.

The complex experience of detransition is not at all captured by the political identity being defined in the public discourse on the topic, and the real hardships involved seem to be entirely lost as an openly acknowledged possible outcome of the medical transition pathway, a primary outcome of the gender affirming model of care.

You will hear Sasha and Stella talk about how the detransition process is often a reckoning with reality. They speak about their experience working with detrans individuals and how it’s not as simple as “landing on detransition marks the end of a medical process or experience.” It is more of the beginning of a massive psychological process. It is not always a straight line with a clear destination. And it certainly involves a complicated and unique experience for each person. There are so many unknowns, particularly about the long-term medical implications in the aftermath of transition, so we’re learning as we go, seeking to better understand, empower and support the experience for detransitioners as well as others experiencing distress beyond transition.

In this conversation, you will also hear Stella and Sasha share about the launch of BeyondTrans.org. A new project of Genspect, dedicated to meeting the specific needs of detransitioners, as well as those who are in a more uncertain space. Some people feel distressed about their transition. Many others feel more ambivalent. Some detransition. Others may not physically detransition, but their minds have detransitioned: they’ve moved on from an ideology that led them to believe they could become another person, and they’ve come to realize that this ideology can cause harm. Beyond Transition was established to offer comprehensive help for the varying needs of different groups impacted by medicalized gender transition.

Links:
You don’t have to be Irish to be Irish —    • You Don't Have to be Irish to be Irish  
Beyond Transition Website — https://beyondtrans.org/
Book Cynical Therapies — https://criticaltherapyantidote.org/n...
Breastfeeding Regret Paper — https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/...
Pinned tweet — https://twitter.com/redrobin9000/stat...
Reddit detrans —   / detrans  
Autobiography in Five Short Chapters (an excerpt from There’s a Hole in My Sidewalk: The Romance of Self-Discovery; © 1977 Portia Nelson)
https://palousemindfulness.com/docs/a...

If you liked this episode, more episodes you might find interesting:
15 — One Detrans Voice: a Conversation with Carol—   • EPISOE 15  - One Detrans Voice: a Conversa...  
45 — Helena Part I: Social Justice, Fandoms & FTM Gay Boys—   • EPISODE 45 - Helena Part I: Social Justice...  
46 — Helena Part II: Advice for Parents from a Former Trans Kid—   • EPISODE 46 - Helena Part II: Advice for Pa...  
89 — Ritchie's Detransition: The Myth of Adult Invulnerability—   • EPISODE 89 - Ritchie's Detransition: The M...  
92 — Brian Belovitch: From Boy to Girl to Woman to Man—   • EPISODE 92 - Brian Belovitch: From Boy to ...  
99 — Detransitioned & Damaged by the Dutch Protocol: Teiresias—   • EPISODE 99 - Detransitioned & Damaged by t...  

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Chapters
00:00 Show Open
01:10 Conversation begins
02:20 Genspect launched Beyond Trans
06:32 Sasha and Stella contributed to a new book
10:10 Introduction to this episode’s topic
15:20 The harsh reality of biological sex crashes down
23:00 Everything is so politicized which makes healing difficult
31:50 Autobiography in five short chapters
40:00 The detrans experience isn’t necessarily unique
48:10 We are really learning as we go
53:40 What does the public misunderstand about detransition?