Watson

The biggest reason society is so interested in the minuscule amount of detransitioners is transphobia. That part of us seeks to undermine what trans people have been saying forever: that transition improves lives. It wants to prove that wrong and feed the transphobic narrative.

And it’s not a conscious transphobia for a lot of people. Like racism or homophobia, this isn’t something many of us are aware we carry around because we’ve been taught to. We were raised on it, so we have it and have to un-learn it.

Regret rates and detransition rates lie at 1% or less, depending on the study. As far as life-changing decisions go, that’s an exceptionally low number. So why the fixation? Sadly, because proving trans people wrong would make some cis people more comfortable.

Going further, the trans population is a tiny slice of the general population. And a tiny slice of that detransitions or expresses some type of regret over medical decisions. And yet major media is all over this lately. Why does this deserve the attention it’s getting?

We need to examine our fixation on detransitioners. It’s not that they shouldn’t have a voice - they absolutely should. But for every detransition story, the media should be covering 99+ stories of trans people who are glad they transitioned.