Evan Urquhart

...but that doesn't mean they're a trans person trying to suppress themselves. Of course those spaces will also attract trans people who for one reason or another can't accept themselves and are trying to "overcome" being trans by absorbing anti-trans ideology and practices.

Different kinds of people end up in transphobic detrans subcultures for different reasons. Some are trans people trying not to be trans, some are detrans people looking for help who pick up transphobic views, some get into ideology to get a sense of purpose. It's complicated.

There are parallels between transphobic detrans communities and ex-gay groups but there are also differences. Both the similarities and the differences are important to note if you want to criticize and resist transphobic detrans communities and narratives effectively.

Won't disagree with any of this, but I would add that "ex gay" communities may not have been much different. What the general public remembers about ex-gays is that many prominent ones turned out to be gay, and either recanted or were found to be having gay sex on the dl.

But, that doesn't mean that every single member of the community was really gay. There were people with mental illness- OCD manifesting as intrusive fears that they were gay as one example. And, likely, people who were a little bi but able to put that part of them aside.

What we remember is all the gay hypocrites, but human beings are never so straightforward. It was a lot of gay hypocrites/self-hating gays and then some other people who were there for complicated reasons.

Those are good points. In my research on ex-gay people and conversion therapy, it does sound like most people involved experience same-sex desires they are trying to suppress. Many were people who grew up very Christian and had little contact w/ gay communities.

A lot of ex-gay people can't find a way to be both gay and Christian, so they suppress their sexuality and embrace a religious identity. I think some "ex-trans" detrans people do something similar with feminism instead of Christianity. That was part of my deal.