Ky Schevers

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.

I'm not sure, but I strongly suspect the ex-gay picture might have looked a bit different in the 90s, when I was in high school and first read about the movement. I remember stories about men who used a lot of drugs and had mental illness who felt taken advantage of by gay men.

Yeah, there are definitely cases like that. They just seem on the rarer side from what I've read, though granted there is not a ton of in-depth research into ex-gay groups. People also learn to tell particular stories once they join those groups, so there's that to consider too.