Cut: Daughters of the West – Alteration & Exploitation of Children is an anti-transgender 2023 film about the ex-transgender movement, with a focus on gender affirming surgery for youth.
Background
The film premiered on April 15th in Phoenix, Arizona as a fundraiser for The Gavel Project, an “anti-woke” non-profit moving from fighting COVID policies to fighting “gender affirmation policies in schools (e.g., policies promoting the sexualization of our children, including hormone therapies and reassignment surgeries for children).”
Synopsis
According to Esler:
Cut explores the impact of the current transgender craze on girls by diving into the history of plastic surgery. […] The film investigates the moral and cultural precursors that have enabled transgender ideology to thrive. Before the rise in puberty blockers, hormone therapy and double mastectomies, there was an exponential increase in teenage girls seeking breast augmentations and labiaplasties. Cosmetic surgery, and feminist icons flaunting sexual liberation, handed girls the power to permanently alter their bodies, based on trends and self diagnosis. Now, pre-teens have spiralled into a mental health crisis that coincides perfectly with the introduction of smartphones, social media and gender theory. Is this the cultural and historical legacy we have handed to girls on the precipice of womanhood. Filmmaker Simon Esler weaves the voices of experts, outspoken citizens and detransitioners into a cultural fever dream that asks: What has happened to the daughters of the West?
People
Production/Crew
- Simon Esler (writer-director)
Interviews
Blurbed by
- Scott Armstrong
- Landon Starbuck
- Justin Deschamps
Recommended organizations
- MOM Army
- The Truthful Therapist
- The Gavel Project
- Parents of ROGD kids
- Thoughtful Therapists
- Genspect
- Gender Dysphoria Support Network
- Advocates Protecting Children
- Partners for Ethical Care
- Gender Dissent (in Canada)
- Gender Dysphoria Alliance
- Our Duty
- Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine
- Transgender Trend (UK)
- Sex Change Regret
- Conservative Therapy Directory
- Jackson Bone Law
- Detrans United
- 4th Wave Now
- Gender Health Query
- GETA Gender Exploratory Therapy Association
- TReVoices
- Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans
- Wait Until 8th
Resources
Cut (daughtersofthewestfilm.com)
IMDb (imdb.com/)
Vimeo (vimeo.com)
Abel Garcia is an American ex-transgender activist. Garcia gets money and attention by making it more difficult for others to get trans healthcare.
Background
Garcia was born in 1997. According to Garcia, this is the timeline:
- 2009 (age 12) began thinking about transition
- 2015 (age 18) began looking for help to transition and found a therapist, attending sessions for over a year
- 2016 (age 19) moved out of the family home and began transition
- 2017 (age 20) legal name and gender change
- 2018 (age 21)
- got breast implants; was initially happy, had regrets a few months later
- turned away from that “lifestyle” following a “salvation from God”
- began looking for help to “detransition”
- 2019 (age 22) found a new therapist
- 2020 (age 23) had implants removed and began socially “detransitioning”
- 2021 (age 24) planned follow-up surgery to remove unwanted breast tissue
Ex-transgender activism
Since embracing religious conservatism, Garcia is featured in a number of anti-trans projects, including the 2023 film No Way Back.
Garcia has been interviewed by gender critical activists including
Garcia has been interviewed by other ex-trans activists including:
Garcia has been interviewed anti-trans-front groups including:
Garcia appears in the 2023 anti-trans media piece DETRANS by PragerU.
References
Astor, Maggie (May 16, 2023) How a Few Stories of Regret Fuel the Push to Restrict Gender Transition Care. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/us/politics/transgender-care-detransitioners.html
Fell, Kelly (Nov 8, 2022). Venus Rising With Detransitioner Abel Garcia. Venus Rising / The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zwytvt5bPsA
Cole, Chloe (April 20, 2023). Detransitioner Abel Garcia speaks in ATX on detransitioning as a male. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK_gad4nR0Y
Hernandez, Drew (Nov 2, 2022). DETRANSITIONED: The Abel Garcia Story. FRONTLINES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXxQ48XbNvE Part Two https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lW0XNJPnZ9s
Partners for Ethical Care (Oct 26, 2022). First Do No Harm Unity Rally- Detransitioner Abel Garcia Speaks Out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnkOn0i8LuI
Ortiz, Brittany (January 18, 2022). Abel Garcia: Conversion Therapy and Medical Detransition with Detrans Man. A Slightly Twisted Female https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gROhaA9uHeo
Brewer, Erin (Jul 11, 2022). Transjacked: Abel Garcia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thEXWfLOg5U
PragerU (October 25, 2023). DETRANS: The Dangers of Gender-Affirming Care. https://www.prageru.com/video/detrans
Resources
Trans Data Library (transdatalibrary.org)
Twitter (twitter.com)
YouTube (youtube.com)
Instagram (instagram.com)
Detrans Foundation is a website run by anti-transgender therapists. It is part of the “ex-transgender” movement.
Background
The Detrans Foundation website was founded in April 2022.
Key people
Anti-trans article list
Detrans Foundation’s recommended reading list features many key figures in the ex-trans movement:
Resources
Detrans Foundation (detransfoundation.com)
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The International Association of Therapists for Desisters and Detransitioners (IATDD) is an anti-transgender front group. Its members are key figures in “gender critical” anti-transgender activism.
IATDD supported the “ex-transgender” movement, people who describe themselves as “desisters” and “detransitioners.” They sell their services to parents who do not want their children to make a gender transition, known as the “parental rights” movement.
Background
Like many of these official-looking “associations,” it was just a website, part of a web farm of similar sites run by a small fringe group of therapists supporting anti-transgender efforts.
The site went online in December 2020 and went offline in January 2022.
Key people
- Stella O’Malley, founding member (2020ā2022)
- Sasha Ayad, founding member (2020ā2022)
- Jerry T. Lawler, founding member (2020ā2022)
- Kirsty Entwistle, founding member (2020āDecember 2021)
- Anna Hutchinson, founding member (2020āDecember 2021)
- Anastassis Spiliadis, founding member (2020āDecember 2021)
- Lisa Marchiano, member (2021ā2022)
Resources
IATDD (iatdd.com) [archive]
Regret is rare among people who make a gender transition. In 27 studies totaling 7,928 surgery patients, the regret rate was about 1%: “Pooling data from numerous studies demonstrates a regret rate ranging from .3 percent to 3.8 percent. Regrets are most likely to result from a lack of social support after transition or poor surgical outcomes using older techniques.”
A 2024 study from Perth Children’s Hospital in Perth, Australia found low regret rates among minors:
In this cohort study of 548 individuals with closed referrals to a pediatric gender clinic, 29 (5.3%) reportedly reidentified with their birth-registered sex before or during assessment. Two of these individuals reidentified during medical treatment, which corresponds to 1.0% of all patients who initiated medical treatment.
Cavve et al. (2024)
Sometimes a person who makes a change in gender identity or gender expression will make more changes later. That is a key goal of our political movement. You should be able to change your gender identity and expression as often as you want.
There is no shame in questioning your gender and not being sure what to do. As with most big life choices, making a gender transition is a leap of faith, and it is good to look before you leap! No one wants to live a life of regret, whether it is regret about not transitioning sooner, or regret after making a gender transition. The best way to lower the chances of regret is to think carefully about what will give your life fulfillment.
Many people see gender changes on a spectrum. Some people only see them as a binary. You can always transition in any direction, and it is not all or nothing. Every person should feel free to be themselves in their own way. That can change over time. There is no shame in changing your identity or expression more than once. It is not a “failure” to change direction. It is not bad to change your mind. Many of us support you no matter what you choose. We want you to live a life full of purpose and joy. We will fight for your right to be your true self.
Most people who make more gender changes have no regrets about their earlier transition. The choices you make and the actions you take always carry some risk. Some people will feel they made a mistake. It is important not to focus on your mistakes. We all make them, even on big things. When you feel you made a mistake, you have to let it go, forgive yourself and others, and move forward. When you dwell on your mistakes and regret, you are looking backwards to the past.
Being transgender is hard. It is difficult for many people to reach their expectations for transition. They may be dissatisfied with the results or unwanted side effects from medical transition. They may have a hard time moving through the world because of how they look or act. They may have a hard time with acceptance at work, school, or home. It is important to consider the experiences of people who regret transition when deciding what is right for you. Most people who discuss their regrets do so because they want to help others avoid the same regret.
Making more changes
Gender transition is mostly social. All social changes can be changed more than once. All legal changes like name or gender marker can be changed more than once. Many medical changes can be changed more than once. If you undertsand the possible benefits and side effects, it is OK to try hormones or hormone blockers for a little while and stop. Because surgery is a significant step, you need to be very sure before you have surgery. Experts who reviewed 27 studies with a total of 7,928 patients who had surgery found a pooled prevalence of regret of just 1%.
Researchers at Cornell University looked at peer-reviewed studies published between 1991 and 2017:
We identified 55 studies that consist of primary research on this topic, of which 51 (93%) found that gender transition improves the overall well-being of transgender people, while 4 (7%) report mixed or null findings. We found no studies concluding that gender transition causes overall harm.
What We Know Project (2018)
The ex-transgender movement
Of the estimated 240 million trans and gender diverse people worldwide, there are only a few dozen public ex-trans activists worldwide. Each person in the core group of ex-trans activists in the media is literally one in a million.
Most people who decide to make more gender changes still support transgender people. Some just want to share their stories. They want others to learn from their experiences. Even most people who regret making a gender change feel it should be an option for others.
In rare cases, a person who has regret about a gender transition also decides to get money or attention by joining the “ex-trans” movement, also called “political detransition.” Some work to limit or even end access to trans health services for others. Some even work to take away trans people’s other rights. They usually blame others for their transition instead of taking personal responsibility for their own decisions.
The people they blame can include:
- Supportive family
- Supportive friends
- Supportive educators
- Supportive transitioners
- Supportive organizations
- Supportive strangers
- Supportive media (especially social media)
- Supportive therapists
- Supportive healthcare providers
In other words, they often blame the people who tried to help them.
Political strategy
The ex-trans movement focuses on these controversial concepts:
“Desistance“
- Typically used for children, this usually means someone who stopped identifying as transgender before taking medical or legal steps.
“Detransition“
- Typically used for adults, this usually means someone who took social, medical, and/or legal transition steps, then took more steps in another direction later.
Litigation
- Ex-trans activists often sue healthcare providers to make money and to have a chilling effect on options for our healthcare.
Historic ex-trans activists
Despite their small numbers, ex-trans activists have been a cisgender media fixation for nearly a century. Some notable older “ex-trans” people include:
Ex-trans people often join the movement following a political or religious conversion. For others, they get involved as a form of attention-seeking behavior, or as a way to make money. Beginning in 2021, the fringe ex-trans movement began to get more politically organized through connections with other conservative and fascist movements.
Confirmed ex-trans activists
The following people have engaged in ex-trans activism and have independently confirmed identities. They are ordered by their real surnames, with fake names and handles also listed.
- Kasey Emerick / “KC Miller” / “dyke_in_denial”
- Charlie Evans / charlie_sci / DetransAdv
- Laura Reynolds
- Heath Atom Russell
- Ememlie Schmidt / “Emelie” / Emmie / SullivanStar221 [Twitter] [YT]
- Laura Perry Smalts
- Oliver Squire / “Oli London” / “OliLondonTV”
- Amanda Stewart
- Daisy Strongin / “Daisy Chadra”
- Phillip Martine Suarez-Hamilton / “OfTheFutureArt” / “Estella”
Unconfirmed ex-trans activists
Many alleged ex-trans activists use fake names and usernames, making it impossible to confirm their claims independently. The following people claim online to be ex-trans activists.
General Twitter/X accounts
Media bias
People who express regret are vastly overrepresented in the media. They are often presented the way “ex-gays” used to be presented and are primarily uplifted by conservative and gender critical media figures.
References
Thornton SM, Edalatpour A, Gast KM (2024). A systematic review of patient regret after surgery- A common phenomenon in many specialties but rare within gender-affirmation surgery. The American Journal of Surgery https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2024.04.021
Reed, Erin (April 26, 2024). Landmark Systematic Review Of Trans Surgery: Regret Rate “Remarkably Low.” Erin in the Morning https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/landmark-systematic-review-of-trans
Astor, Maggie (May 16, 2023). How a Few Stories of Regret Fuel the Push to Restrict Gender Transition Care. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/us/politics/transgender-care-detransitioners.html
Cavve BS, Bickendorf X, Ball J, Saunders LA, Thomas CS, Strauss P, Chaplyn G, Marion L, Siafarikas A, Ganti U, Wiggins A, Lin A, Moore JK (2024). Reidentification With Birth-Registered Sex in a Western Australian Pediatric Gender Clinic Cohort. JAMA Pediatrics https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.0077
Statista (2023). Share of people identifying as transgender, gender fluid, non-binary, or other ways worldwide as of 2023, by country. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1269778/gender-identity-worldwide-country/ ” three percent of respondents from 30 countries identified themselves as transgender, non-binary/non-conforming/gender-fluid, or in another way. “
What We Know Project, Cornell University (2018). What does the scholarly research say about the effect of gender transition on transgender well-being? (online literature review), 2018. https://whatweknow.inequality.cornell.edu/topics/lgbt-equality/what-does-the-scholarly-research-say-about-the-well-being-of-transgender-people/
We identified 55 studies that consist of primary research on this topic, of which 51 (93%) found that gender transition improves the overall well-being of transgender people, while 4 (7%) report mixed or null findings. We found no studies concluding that gender transition causes overall harm.
Narayan SK, Hontscharuk R, Danker S, Guerriero J, Carter A, Blasdel G, Bluebond-Langner R, Ettner R, Radix A, Schechter L, Berli JU (2021). Guiding the conversationātypes of regret after gender-affirming surgery and their associated etiologies. Ann Transl Med 2021;9(7):605. https://doi.org/10.21037/atm-20-6204
-https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HpGRzJ5nc7gecyXUKVRdCeXS1TYXe0w12A7Y9I2JIsE/edit#gid=0
Media
Keffals (April 27, 2022). CRINGING at Incredible DETRANSITIONER grift https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QqS8eaE57U
Vaush (October 13, 2022) The Detransitioner Grift https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om_a-iSRMjY
Archival resources
sexchangeregret.com [archive]
helpmereversemysexchange.org [archive]
trans-detransition.com [archive]
tradingmysorrows.com [archive]
sexchangeinfo.com [archive]
Dysconnected: The Real Story Behind the Transgender Explosion is a film made by people from several factions of the anti-transgender movement, including ex-transgender activists, parental rights activists, gender critical activists, and conservative Catholic/Protestant activists.
Background
The film is distributed by Catholic publisher Ignatius Press. It’s produced by Runaway Planet Pictures and Don Johnson Media.
The film had its world premiere October 8, 2022 at the Freed Theater in Garden Grove, California.
Synopsis
According to Johnson:
Over the past few years, a transgender tsunami has swept the nation, completely overtaking the medical, educational, and counseling industries, and forever altering hundreds of thousands of young girlsā lives. What is going on? How did it come to this? Who is behind it? And what is coming next? Filmmaker and father Don Johnson traveled the country to find out.
Dysconnected is about exposing the truth behind the gender ideology industry, one that allows children to make life-altering decisions for themselves without any parental consent, explores why there is an explosion of young girls identifying as transgender, seeking to understand why the medical and counseling industries are not pushing back on gender ideology, and highlighting stories of people who have detransitioned.
People
Filmmakers
- Donald J. “Don” Johnson
- Kendra Johnson
- Kevin Wandra
Participants and supporters
Resources
Dysconnected (dysconnectedmovie.com)
IMDb (imdb.com)
Ignatius Press (https://ignatius.com/disconnected-dism/)
Don Johnson Media (donjohnsonmedia.com)
Runaway Planet Pictures (runawayplanetpictures.vhx.tv)
“Shape Shifter” is the stage name of July R. Carlan, an American accountant and ex-transgender activist who gets money and attention by making it harder for others to get trans healthcare.
Background
July Roxella Carlan was born on July 11, 1990. Carlan had a “consensual” sexual experience at age 11 and came out as gay to unaccepting parents at 16.
At age 22 in graduate school, Carlan learned about nonbinary identities and booked an appointment at Fenway Health in Boston on November 15, 2012. At the initial consultation, Carlan described a pattern of high-risk sexual behavior as well as incidents of anti-LGBT discrimination and assault. Carlan also expressed a desire to become pregnant.
Affter signing an informed consent form on December 27, 2012, Carlan began hormones via Fenway Health. In a follow-up appointment in March 2013, a therapist noted Carlan’s āinternalized transphobia,ā because Carlan wanted to ābe seen as more than a trans woman.ā
By mid-December 2013, Carlan reported inconsistent use of hormones in order to regain sexual function and engage in high-risk sexual behavior. In December 2014, Carlan reported:
- depression and anxiety
- seeking validation through sex
- struggles with sexual compulsivity and hopes that GRS will reduce sexual urges
- did not want to take hormones in order to enjoy sex
- could not find a job in finance and had ābegun a career in strip dancingā
In the first half of 2015, Carlan had multiple therapy sessions and received clearance for bottom surgery.
After getting elective bottom surgery as an adult, Carlan “realized I was just a castrated man.” Carlan has sometimes identified as a “homosexual transsexual,” a term promoted by anti-transgender activists.
On or about May 10, 2022, at age 31, Carlan publicly announced plans to make additional gender changes. Carlan no longer identifies as a trans woman, “but as a gender-non-conforming man.” Carlan reportedly just liked feminine clothing and makeup.
Carlan is a Certified Public Accountant in Massachusetts. Carlan is in a relationship with a “sugar daddy” who is nearly 50 years older. Howard Carlan (born December 6, 1941) goes by “Cat Man” in their videos.
Anti-transgender activism
Carlan has regret about taking some medical gender transition steps and has found an anti-trans audience who wants to amplify these rare cases of regret.
In 2022, Carlan testified against healthcare for trans youth before the Florida Board of Medicine.
In addition to numerous media appearances about regret, Carlan has also been critical of trans athletes and supports misinformation and conspiracy theories about trans healthcare.
On October 12, 2023, Carlan filed a lawsuit against Fenway Community Health Center. On March 28, 2025 Judge Myong J. Joun entered a decision that “Fenway is dismissed from this action.”
On April 2, 2025, Carlan filed an appeal.
References
Justia (April 2, 2025). Carlan v. Fenway Community Health Center, Inc., et al. Case No. 25-1315. https://dockets.justia.com/docket/circuit-courts/ca1/25-1315
Staff report (November 13, 2023). MA Lawsuit Claims Trans Medical Care is Gay Conversion Therapy. Assigned Media https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/ma-lawsuit-trans-care-gay-conversion
Mitra N. Forouhar. Shape Shifter v. Fenway Health. https://mnf-law.com/lawsuits/ pdf: https://mnf-law.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/ShapeShifter-v-Fenway.pdf
Sapir,Ā Leor; Figliolia, Joseph (November 8, 2023). Medicine with a āTransgender Bias.ā City Journal https://www.city-journal.org/article/medicine-with-a-transgender-bias
Court Listener (Oct. 12, 2023). CarlanĀ v.Ā Fenway Community Health Center, Inc. 1:23-cv-12361, (D. Mass.) https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67878127/carlan-v-fenway-community-health-center-inc/
Carlan v. Fenway Community Health Center, Inc. US District Court for the District of Massachusetts, Case 1:2023cv12361 https://rilawyersweekly.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2023/11/Carlan-v.-Fenway-Community-Health-Center.pdf
Gordon, James (August 27, 2022). ‘I was brainwashed by the trans community’: Detransitioner reveals he regrets having his penis removed and says woke doctors didn’t warn him of negative consequences because it would be ‘bad for business.’ Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11151433/Detransitioner-says-brainwashed-having-gender-reassignment-surgery-woke-doctors.html
“Shape Shifter” (June 22, 2022). The Boy Who Shifted Shapes: A Detransitionerās Story. Reduxx https://reduxx.info/opinion-the-boy-who-shifted-shapes/
Sum News (November 2016). New Members. mscpa.org https://digitaleditions.sheridan.com/publication/?i=355533&p=20&view=issueViewer
Media
Daniel Moon (April 6, 2024). Shape Shifter: The DE-TRANS Truth. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnOL1Lx_jW4
Soft White Underbelly (March 23, 2023). Ex (Detransitioning) Trans Woman interview-Shape Shifter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsbtaXqfg1o
Cat Cattinson (December 6, 2022). “Being trans wasn’t my authentic self.” – Interview with Shape Shifter, detrans man. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lB_m8f60tr4
Tomi Lahren – Outkick (November 21, 2022). Trans āShape Shifterā doxxed by LGBTQ community, Michael Farren performs & Trumpās return to Twitter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LGXnptuKYE
The Get Better Researcher (October 31, 2022). Detransitioner Shape Shifter Florida Board of Medicine Testimony. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ko_MJln6c_4
Transparency with Aaron Kimberly and Aaron Terrell (August 29, 2022). EP46 – Owning Male Femininity – with Shape Shifter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoUE23la-uo
Blaire White (July 3, 2022). Detransitioner: “My Penis Is Gone Forever & I Regret it” | Emotional Interview. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRh80xSI8QQ
Arielle Scarcella (June 5, 2022). “I Miss My Penis” : Brave Detrans Men Speak Out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrRLpJ1uIzw
Benjamin Boyce (June 4, 2022). When Transition Goes Wrong | with Shape Shifter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MorvzXI2uw
Jubilee (April 2, 2023). Should Minors Transition? Detransition vs Trans | Middle Ground. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl0LZZFos-g
Resources
CPA Directory (cpadirectory.com)
X/Twitter (x.com)
- ShifterofShapes [deleted]
YouTube (youtube.com)
GoFundMe (gofundme.com)
reddit (reddit.com)
Instagram (instagram.com)
TikTok (tiktok.com)
No Way Back: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care is anti-transgender propaganda focusing on the ex-transgender movement. It is directed by Laura VanZee-Taylor and produced by Penka Kouneva. The 2023 project is controversial for including convicted sex offender David Arthur Kendall as one of the original ex-trans activists featured.
Background
The project was originally titled Affirmation Generation: The Lies of Transgender Medicine.
It is produced by Panacol Productions dba PKS, Inc. [Penka Kouneva Studios] and is released by Deplorable Films. Prior to No Way Back, Deplorable has distributed three propaganda pieces criticizing progressive racial policy and one criticizing progressive firearm policy.
Synopsis
Via their promotional materials:
Detransitioners Michelle, Laura, Cat, David, Joel and Abel tell the stories of their gender distress, transgender medicalization, and subsequent detransition. Without diagnostic clarity or mental health evaluations, their doctors quickly affirmed them as ātransgender,ā and mindlessly ushered them along the path of medical transition. (The āgender-affirming careā is the only treatment recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics.) These young people were harmed irrevocably by the doctors they trusted. AFFIRMATION GENERATION demonstrates how the āone-size-fits-allā medicalization ā the āgender-affirming careā ā has failed these patients.
The stories of the detransitioners are examined by twelve leading experts with decades of clinical practice treating gender-distressed patients: psychotherapists Lisa Marchiano, Sasha Ayad, Stella OāMalley, physician-scientist Lisa Littman, endocrinologist Dr. William Malone, MD; Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist Stephanie Winn, sociologist Dr. Michael Biggs, pediatrician Dr. Julia Mason, NYT best-selling writer Lisa Selin Davis, and LGB activist & lifelong Liberal Democrat Joey Brite, among others. The 90-minute documentary cites 45 peer-reviewed medical and journalist articles.
People
They describe themselves as “life-long West Coast liberal Democrats in the entertainment industry. To take credit for this passion project would, at the very least, risk our careers.”
They collaborated with anti-trans group LGB United to make it available after it was deplatformed by Vimeo in 2022.
Organizations
Filmmakers
Ex-transgender activists:
Note: Joel Koss appears in the film but has denounced it.
“Parental rights” activists
AMC screenings and cancellation
AMC promoted one-day-only screenings of No Way Back on June 21. Cielo Sunsarae of the Queer Trans Project led a successful campaign to get the screenings canceled.
References
Factora, James (June 15, 2023). AMC Theatres Is Hosting an Anti-Trans Documentary During Pride Month. them. https://www.them.us/story/amc-theatres-no-way-back-documentary
Osborne, Duncan (June 17, 2023). Anti-trans film nixed after facing backlash. Gay City News https://gaycitynews.com/anti-trans-film-nixed-no-way-back/
Prestigiacomo, Amanda (June 18, 2023). AMC Theatres Cancels De-Transitioner Film Following Trans Groupās De-Platforming Campaign. Daily Wire https://www.dailywire.com/news/amc-theatres-cancels-de-transitioner-film-following-trans-groups-de-platforming-campaign
Emmons, Libby (June 17, 2023). EXCLUSIVE: Producers of ‘No Way Back: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care’ speak out after AMC Theaters cancels film screenings. Post Millennial https://thepostmillennial.com/exclusive-producers-of-no-way-back-the-reality-of-gender-affirming-care-speak-out-after-amc-theaters-cancels-film-screenings
Stone, Sasha (June 18, 2023). AMC Pressured to Pull a Film Labeled āAnti-Trans.ā Awards Daily https://www.awardsdaily.com/2023/06/18/amc-pressured-to-pull-a-film-labeled-anti-trans/
Dawes, L.E. (February 17, 2023). Opinion | Filmmaker: I believed in gender affirming care. Then I saw what happened to my son. Dallas Morning News https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2023/02/18/i-made-a-film-about-transgender-kids-that-doesnt-align-with-my-politics/
New York International Film Awards (2023). Finalists January 2023: Affirmation Generation, Director L. E. Dawes https://newyorkinternationalfilmawards.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/02/FINALISTS-NYIFA-January-2023.pdf
Buttons, Christina (February 22, 2023). Vimeo Deplatforms Another Documentary Critical Of āGender-AffirmingĀ Care.ā Daily Wire https://www.dailywire.com/news/vimeo-deplatforms-another-documentary-critical-of-gender-affirming-care
Osborne, Matt (February 20, 2023). Affirmation Generation: The Lies Of Transgender Medicine. The Distance https://www.thedistancemag.com/p/affirmation-generation-the-lies-of
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5s1pg7UByoU
-https://twitter.com/2022affirmation/status/1646924000126439424
-https://twitter.com/GrownTomboy/status/1634249769135792128
-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkzBEM5RLis
https://jdiff2023.eventive.org/films/642365131dc3780039a95c6a
Resources
No Way Back (nowaybackfilm.com)
Affirmation Generation [original site] (affirmationgenerationmovie.com)
Deplorable Films (deplorablefilms.com)
Twitter (twitter.com)
Vimeo (vimeo.com)
Ky Schevers is an American writer and activist who left the transphobic “ex-trans” movement. Schevers states on the Reclaiming Trans website:
Ky Schevers played a significant role creating and promoting the radical feminist detrans womenās community. Under the name CrashChaosCats, she wrote, made videos, presented workshops and gave media interviews in order to talk about her experiences detransitioning and promote anti-trans feminist ideology. Eventually she became disillusioned with the radical feminist movement and recognized her detransition as a harmful anti-trans conversion practice. She writes now to raise awareness of the harms of ideologically motivated detransition and the role transphobic detrans communities play in organized transphobia.
Background
Gender critical troll Katie Herzog featured Schevers prominently in a widely criticized 2017 article about “detransition” that appeared in The Stranger. Schevers is given the pseudonym “Cass” in Herzog’s piece. For seven years, neither Herzog nor The Stranger updated the original piece or covered the subsequent developments. In 2024, The Stranger republished Schevers’ 2021 update.
Schevers was also mentioned in the 2018 profile of ex-trans activist Carey Callahan in the documentary that accompanied the transphobic Atlantic piece on “detransition” by Jesse Singal. Schevers is called “CrashChaosCats” or “Crash” in that publication.
Herzog claimed that many people in the ex-trans movement “detransition” because they have a harder life from less social acceptance:
That may be true for some detrans peopleāespecially trans women, who generally have a harder time passing and who lose the benefits inherent with appearing male in societyābut it wasn’t the case for Cass, a 31-year-old detrans lesbian in California. Cass was severely bullied as a gender nonconforming kid and says transitioning actually made life easier. She started taking testosterone at 20, and her community was largely supportive. She didn’t have a hard time finding work or people to date. “People were definitely nicer to me after I transitioned and they saw me as a man instead of a butch dyke,” Cass said.
Three months before Cass started taking testosterone, her mom committed suicide. “Transitioning was kind of a survival strategy,” Cass said. And that worked for a while, but over time, she started to sense that her dysphoria was rooted more in the trauma of her mother’s death and her own internalized misogyny than in gender identity. As an adolescent, she had been masculine, butch. “I got a lot of very harsh, negative messages about what it meant to be a woman,” Cass said. “It got to the point where I couldn’t see myself as a woman without feeling the horror other people felt toward me. Living as a man provided a kind of refuge until I was ready to dive into all that.”
When she was ready, Cass, like Jackie, looked online for advice, and she met a woman a few years older who had detransitioned. Her experiences were the sameāfrom childhood bullying and internalized misogyny to the sense that transitioning hadn’t really solved her dysphoria at all. They became friends, talking over the course of a few months, and then, after nine years living as a man, Cass came out as a woman.
It’s been four years since Cass detransitioned. She changed the gender marker on her driver’s license back to female and asked her friends and family to call her by her birth name, but she still passes as male, with a deep voice and a shade of hair on her cheeks.
“Psychologically, it was harder to detransition,” she said. She compares it to the process of working through her mom’s suicide. “It involved a lot more dealing with my trauma and facing the self-destructive parts of myself. It’s not fun, but it’s worth it.”
Cass still hasn’t told the health-care providers who helped her through her transition about the change. In some ways, she faults them for enabling her transition, even though it’s exactly what she wanted at the time. She writes about her experience online, and in one post, she says that a favored therapist “helped me hurt myself. That definitely wasn’t her intention but that’s still what happened. This contradiction is difficult to face and understand.”
In addition to her writing, Cass recently started posting videos to YouTube, where there are a growing number of detransitioning confessionals. In one video, which has been watched nearly 900,000 times, a young man reflects on his decision to detransition after living as a woman. He’s beautiful and androgynous, with long lashes framing bright-blue eyes. “I’m not like every other boy,” he said. “I can accept that now.”
There’s an offline community of detransitioners as well: In 2014 and 2015, Cass led a workshop on detransitioning at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. (Michfest, as it was known, had a contentious history with the trans community due to its long-held “women born women” policy. The festival closed after nearly 40 years in existence in 2015.) Last year, Cass and 15 other detransitioned women got together on the West Coast for a weekend of workshops, meditation, and shared experience. Cass thinks it was the first gathering of its kind.
In the comments, Schevers wrote in 2017:
As one of the detransitioned women (“Cass”) interviewed for this article, I want to say I’m happy with how it came out and am glad women like me are finally getting more representation. I think it’s a very balanced and well researched piece of writing and best of all gives a marginalized group of people a chance to be heard. I’m very excited that detransitioned people are getting more opportunities to speak about our own experiences rather than having other people talk about what they think we are and what we mean. This is one of few articles out there that actually represents my life as a detransitioned woman.
I’m dismayed but not surprised by how some people are reacting to the issues this piece has raised. My life is not transphobic and making lives like mine more visible is not transphobic either. Reading that experiences like mine should not be talked about in public is infuriating. I get to be open and honest about my life and I get to work to make my experience and community more visible. There are people out there who need to know that there’s resources and support for them if they end up detransitioning. They need to know they’re not the only ones.
I made a video in response to the article and people’s reactions to it that can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuI5rBWDā¦
I would encourage people to also watch videos other detrans women made in response: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqN_9rM8ā¦
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN6N6F6Aā¦
Since leaving the ex-trans cult
Schevers later teamed up with Lee Leveille to form Health Liberation Now! It is “a free, trans-run resource analyzing the social and political forces acting in opposition to health liberation for transgender, detransitioned, retransitioned, and gender diverse people, as well as those questioning their gender. We pair these analyses with collections of proactive resistance strategies that community organizers can use in pursuit of trans health liberation.”
References
Schevers, Ky (June 24, 2024). The Reality Behind the Story I Told The Stranger. The Stranger https://www.thestranger.com/queer-issue-2024/2024/06/05/79545098/the-reality-behind-the-story-i-told-the-stranger
Urquhart E (February 1, 2021). An āEx-Detransitionerā Disavows the Anti-Trans Movement She Helped Spark. Slate https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/02/detransition-movement-star-ex-gay-explained.html
Schevers K (December 20, 2020). Detransition as Conversion Therapy: A Survivor Speaks Out. An Injustice! Magazine https://aninjusticemag.com/detransition-as-conversion-therapy-a-survivor-speaks-out-7abd4a9782fa
Herzog, Katie (July 3, 2017). A Response to the Uproar Over My Piece, āThe Detransitioners.ā The Stranger. https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2017/07/03/25262759/a-response-to-the-uproar-over-my-piece-the-detransitioners
Herzog, Katie (June 28, 2017). The Detransitioners: They Were Transgender, Until They Werenāt. The Stranger. https://www.thestranger.com/features/2017/06/28/25252342/the-detransitioners-they-were-transgender-until-they-werent
Resources
Health Liberation Now! (healthliberationnow.com)
Reclaiming Trans (reclaimingtrans.com)
Medium (medium.com)
X/Twitter (x.com)
Muck Rack (muckrack.com)
WordPress (wordpress.com)
- Reclaiming Trans
- reclaimingtrans.wordpress.com
- CRASHCHAOSCATS (2013-2019, removed 2020)
- crashchaoscats.wordpress.com [archive]
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration isĀ here.
Grace Branham is an American “ex-transgender” activist.
Branham served as treasurer for anti-trans organization Gender Care Consumer Advocacy Network (GCCAN).
Background
Branham earned a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in 2018 and a graduate certificate from University of Kansas in 2022. Following a stint at a dog daycare facility, in 2022 Branham took a job at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis as an animal research technician.
From the GCCAN site:
Grace Branham is a post-operative detransitioner who received gender care from the ages of 15 to 21. S/he did not feel adequately supported by providers before, during, or when ending treatment and believes all consumers deserve high-quality care whether they are considering transition, in the process, or detransitioning. S/he hopes GCCANās work will help providers better understand the varied experiences of consumers so they may better serve sexuality- and gender-diverse communities.
References
Alumni spotlight: Grace Branham. IU Department of American Studies. https://americanstudies.indiana.edu/about/alumni-grace.html
Resources
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
Gender Care Consumer Advocacy Network (gccan.org) [archive]
- Who We Are [archive]
- gccan.org/who-we-are
S. Ding Lab (sdinglab.wustl.edu)
