Carey Callahan is an American therapist and prominent member of the ex-transgender movement. Despite being 30 years old when deciding to take hormones for nine months before stopping, Callahan was extensively featured in the 2018 Atlantic article, “When a Child Says She’s Trans” by Jesse Singal.
Callahan is also a founder of the Gender Care Consumer Advocacy Network (GCCAN), a group of activists with regrets about aspects of their gender transitions. GCCAN campaigns against current trans healthcare protocols, demanding more gatekeeping from therapists.
Callahan apparently does activism under the name Carey Callahan and works as a therapist under the names Carrie Maria Callahan, Carrie English, and Carrie Callahan-English.
Background
Carey Maria Callahan was born May 1, 1982. Callahan earned a bachelor’s degree from the The Ohio State University in 2004. After college, Callahan worked as a union field organizer, then as a counselor and educator at Marilyn G. Rabb Foundation, Lyon-Martin Health Services, and The Emily Program.
In June 2012, at age 30, Callahan came out as genderqueer and began therapy. In October 2012 Callahan began a course of bimonthly intramuscular testosterone injections. In March 2013, Callahan moved to San Francisco, but had trouble finding work. Callahan soon decided that the issue was “not a trans thing, but a trauma thing” related to past trauma, including a sexual assault in college. Callahan stopped testosterone in June 2013 and socially transitioned again about a year after that in 2014.
Callahan moved back to Ohio, earned a Master’s degree from the University of Akron in 2018, then worked at OhioGuidestone as a therapist from 2018 until May 2021. Callahan is married to lawyer James P. English (born 1977), and they are raising their child (born 2021).
In 2022 Callahan stated via email: “I sought out an affirming therapist when I should have been much more responsible about investigating the symptoms I was experiencing before seeking testosterone.”
Ex-trans activism
Callahan’s stated goal is “greater emphasis on and programming for those of us who explore but do not arrive at a trans identity.”
Callahan previously collaborated with Ky Schevers, another ex-trans activist who left the ex-trans movement because of “the role transphobic detrans communities play in organized transphobia.” In 2019 Callahan helped create Gender Care Consumer Advocacy Network (GCCAN). Callahan stated via email in part:
My focus when organizing GCCAN was on democratic decision making within the group and I wasn’t careful like I should have been about making sure Ky’s partner understood I was passing information on to the board for transparency’s sake, not trying to steer the group into supporting harmful legislation. I thought when we got the chance to vote against working with a ROGD parents group our decision making process was working. While I believe my intent and work was misunderstood, I can see how I was creating that risk.
Callahan’s email concluded, “It’s very sad to me that I wasn’t able to do more to steer detrans people away from being used as pawns.”
In 2019 Callahan spoke on a panel organized by anti-trans extremist organization Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF). The panel also included moderator Traci Nally and gender critical panelists Corinna Cohn and Nina Paley. Callahan discussed a 2017 USPATH presentation and a similar canceled presentation at Philadelphia Trans Wellness Conference. Callahan criticized informed consent and pediatric transition, promoted ex-trans media like Pique Resilience Project, and directed attendees to a since-deleted article titled “Advice for gender dysphoric teens” that contained links to other recommended ex-trans resources.
In 2023 Callahan testified in opposition to Ohio House Bill 68, a proposed law banning gender affirming healthcare for minors (the “Saving Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act”) and banning transgender athletes competing in sex-segregated sports in Ohio high schools, colleges, and universities (the “Save Women’s Sports Act”). Callahan’s testimony concluded:
“I am begging you to stop attacking trans healthcare and trans people. I am begging you to stop referencing detransitioners such as myself as a justification for attacking trans healthcare and trans people. You arenât protecting children from becoming a detransitioner like me. You are exiling good people from our state, traumatizing kids and families, and working hard to make Ohio a less safe place to raise kids. You are doing real harm to me personally, to my neighbors who live a cul de sac up, to the lovely trans kids I know, to the lovely discerning kids I know, to the doctors and therapists who have put in the years of education and experience to improve peopleâs quality of life. Please drop this misguided experiment and use your elected positions to help Ohioans live good lives. Thank you.”
Ohio House Bill 68 passed in 2024, banning gender affirming care for minors.
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“Jack Molay” is the pen name of a transfeminine activist living in Norway. Molay established the blog now known as Crossdreamers back in 2008, after Molay experienced an existential crisis caused by gender dysphoria. Molay says the idea was to establish an arena for discussing cross-gender erotic fantasies in an open and positive way, getting around the stigma associated with such fantasies.Â
The term crossdreaming was originally coined as an alternative to the stigmatizing term “autogynephilia.” Even though the term crossdreaming has been presented as a neutral, and purely descriptive term (not referring to a particular explanation for such fantasies) Molay has personally dismissed the “autogynephilia” theory as a stigmatizing, sexist, pseudoscience. Instead they view crossdreaming fantasies as a natural expression of gender variance, dismissing strict binaries of sexuality and gender.
Molay has done a lot of research on crossdreaming in different groups of queer, nonbinary and transgender people, documenting, for instance, crossdreaming among people assigned female at birth (as reflected in the slash and yaoi subcultures). He has also looked into crossdreaming in historical sources, discussing, for instance, crossdreaming in the Kama Sutra and in Medieval poetry. By doing this they have undermined the idea that such fantasies are only found among “straight men.”
Molay co-founded the Crossdream Life internet forum in 2011, a place where gender variant people may discuss any form of queer, trans and nonbinary fantasies, gender expressions or identities.
Molay also runs Trans Express, a Tumblr blog covering transgender and nonbinary news and issues, which seems to be particularly popular among younger trans and queer people. As of 2019 this blog has more than 13,000 followers.
Jack Molay is a pseudonym, and they have not come out publicly as trans under their legal name. They have not transitioned, but argue that this is not to be understood as an example of what other trans people ought to do. They support trans people’s right to get the necessary support for transitioning. One might argue, though, that the fact that Molay has not transitioned may partly explain why the crossdreamer community is particularly popular among trans and queer people who are in the process of exploring their gender identity.
Molay is married to another queer activist, known as “Sally Molay” online.
Be Scofield is a transgender American activist critical of new religious movements. Scofield has characterized the progressive wing of the transgender rights movement as a âcult.â
Background
Scofield was born on October 29, 1980 and grew up in Naples, Florida. As a young adult, Scofield produced three albums of dance music under the name MC2000: Spiritual Awakening (1999), Musical Evolutions (2000), and Pyscho [sic, also sometimes styled correctly] (2000).
Scofield graduated from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in psychology/philosophy in 2006, then briefly attended the California Institute of Integral Studies before dropping out.
Scofield then worked at a yoga studio and ran a weekly âecstatic danceâ event called Metta Dance. After founding the education project Mettaversity and marketing project mettawebdesign, Scofield did marketing for sites GreenMedInfo.com and GreenMedTV.com while running a number of sites, including decolonizingyoga.com.
In 2011, Scofield came out as “trapped in the wrong body” and raised $1,640 in a crowdfunding campaign to cover gender transition costs. In 2013 Scofield earned a master’s degree in divinity at Starr King School.
Around 2018, Scofield began writing articles about alleged manipulative or abusive practices in new religious movements.
Scofield was banned from the platform Medium in July 2018 for violations including âmultiple instances of unverified and uncorroborated claims against individuals.â
Criticism of trans activism
In 2021, Scofield got involved in criticizing the transgender rights movement. Scofield specifically decries the âtactics used to silence Jesse Singal,â a writer known for laundering anti-transgender extremism into mainstream media outlets. Singal has parlayed attacks on transgender people into a lucrative career netting hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Singal has been âsilencedâ into dozens of subsequent media appearances as an expert on transgender people, usually in the place of actual medical and legal experts.
In a comparison using the ACLUâs 1978 defense of a march by Nazis in Skokie, Illinois, Scofield frames criticism of Jesse Singal as a First Amendment issue: âWhen the totalist left decrees something ideologically wrong or hateful, that should be the impetus for the speech to be protected, not censored.â If a privately-owned platform or publication decides not to publish someoneâs writing, that is not a First Amendment issue. If activists warn the public about biased people negatively influencing trans rights, that is not censorship.
In a remarkable analogy, Scofield likens Jesse Singal to Martin Luther King, and media watchdogs like GLAAD to the FBI. Scofield condemns Singal’s critics as working âto silence, ruin and derail people and ideas deemed dangerous, or ideologically wrong.â This is exactly why Singal is a once-in-a-generation problem. Singal’s masterful use of the Dregerian narrative has brainwashed followers like Scofield into believing progressive leaders of the transgender rights movement are akin to J. Edgar Hooverâs FBI, and Jesse Singal is akin to the persecuted thought leader of a civil rights movement.
Staff report (March 6, 2003). Students protest Iraq War. Fort Myers News-Press
Scofield, Be (October 28, 2011). Living Out Loud: Iâm Transgender.Tikkun http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2011/10/28/living-out-loud-im-transgender
Briedis et al. v. Scofield, Washington State 19-2-05077-28 https://dockets.justia.com/docket/washington/wawdce/2:2019cv01494/277812
Baxter, J (May 30, 2019). The Misdeeds of Be Scofield and the Mysterious Orcas Island Death of Carla Shaffer. https://baxtersjournal.com/index.php/2019/05/30/the-misdeeds-of-be-scofield-and-the-mysterious-orcas-island-death-of-carla-shaffer/ [archive]
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 womenâs 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 peopleâespecially trans women, who generally have a harder time passing and who lose the benefits inherent with appearing male in societyâbut 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 sameâfrom 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.
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=SuI5rBWDâŠ
I would encourage people to also watch videos other detrans women made in response: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqN_9rM8⊠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN6N6F6AâŠ
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
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
Kate Bornstein is a nonbinary American author, playwright, and performer. Bornstein’s important work on gender theory helped lay the groundwork for the resurgence of trans rights and culture in the 1990s.
Background
Bornstein was born March 15, 1948, grew up in Asbury Park, New Jersey and graduated from Brown University in 1969. Bornstein joined the Church of Scientology, moving into high ranks before leaving in 1981. Bornstein transitioned in 1986 and began doing theatre in San Francisco.
In 2012, Bornstein was diagnosed with lung cancer, saying it had been cleared for two years in 2015.
Bornstein is the subject of the 2014 documentary Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger. Bornstein appeared with Caitlyn Jenner on the reality show I Am Cait.
Books
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us. ISBNÂ 978-0679757016.
Nearly Roadkill: An Infobahn Erotic Adventure. Â ISBNÂ 978-1852424183.
My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely. Â ISBNÂ 978-0415916721.
Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws. ISBNÂ 9781583227206.
Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation. ISBN 9781580053082.
A Queer and Pleasant Danger: A Memoir.
My New Gender Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving World Peace Through Gender Anarchy and Sex Positivity. ISBNÂ 978-0415538657.
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us (Revised and Updated). ISBNÂ 978-1-101-97461-2.
Dianne Ranae Berg (born 1964) is an American psychologist. Berg’s work has focused on transgender and gender diverse adults and youth. She also studies compulsive sexual behavior and nonconsensual sexual behaviors.
She is a member of the Child and Adolescent Committee of WPATH.
Background
Berg grew up in Moose Lake, Minnesota. Berg was a standout volleyball player at University of Missouri, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in 1985. Berg earned a PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Sexual and Gender Health.
She serves as an Assistant Professor at University of Minnesota. She and Katie Spencer are Co-Directors of the National Center for Gender Spectrum Health, a division of the Institute for Sexual and Gender Health. They developed the Gender Affirmative Lifespan Approach (GALA).
2018 Atlantic article
Berg was quoted in a 2018 Atlantic article by Jesse Singal on the ex-transgender movement. Similar to the ex-gay movement, the people who promote the medicalized concepts of âdesistanceâ and âdetransitionâ believe that being trans is a disease that can resolve on it own or through medical intervention. Proponents of these loaded terms make several assumptions that are not value-neutral and therefore not scientific.
Singal later presents Berg and fellow clinicians Laura Edwards-Leeper and Erica Anderson as therapists who have âconcernsâ that more affirming care for minors may lead to negative transition outcomes:
Clinicians are still wrestling with how to define affirming care, and how to balance affirmation and caution when treating adolescents. âI donât want to be a gatekeeper,â Dianne Berg, a co-director of the National Center for Gender Spectrum Health, at the University of Minnesota, told me. âBut I also worry that in opening the gates, weâre going to have more adolescents that donât engage in the reflective work needed in order to make sound decisions, and there might end up being more people when they are older that are like, Oh, hmmânow I am not sure about this.â
[…]
âUnder the motivation to be supportive and to be affirming and to be nonstigmatizing, I think the pendulum has swung so far that now weâre maybe not looking as critically at the issues as we should be,â the National Center for Gender Spectrum Healthâs Dianne Berg told me.Â
References
Singal, Jesse (July 2018). When a child says sheâs trans. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/07/when-a-child-says-shes-trans/561749/
Spencer KG, Berg DR, Bradford NJ, Vencill J, Tellawi G, Rider GN (2021). The Gender Affirmative Lifespan Approach: A developmental model for clinical work with transgender and gender diverse children, adolescents, and adults. Psychotherapy, 58(1), 37-49. https://doi.org/10.1037/pst0000363
Munns R Dickenson J, Candelario-Perez L, Kovic A, Rider GN, Berg D, Coleman E, Girard A (2021). Psychotherapies in the treatment of CSBD. In R. Balon & P. Briken (Eds.), Compulsive sexual behavior disorder: Understanding, assessment, and treatment (pp. 109-128). American Psychiatric Association. ISBN 978-1615372195
McGuire J, Berg D, Catalpa J, Morrow QJ, Fish JN, Rider GN, Steensma T, Cohen-Kettenis PT, Spencer K (2020). Utrecht Gender Dysphoria Scale â Gender Spectrum (UGDS-GS): Construct validity among transgender, nonbinary, and LGBQ samples. International Journal of Transgender Health, 21(2), 194-208. https://doi.org/10.1080/26895269.2020.1723460
Bradford NJ, Dewitt J, Decker J, Berg DR, Spencer KG, Ross MW (2019). Sex education and transgender youth: âTrust means material by and for queer and trans people.â Sex Education, 19(1), 84-98. https://doi.org/10.1080/14681811.2018.1478808
Strang JF, Janssen A, Tishelman A, Leibowitz SF, Kenworthy L, McGuire JK, Edwards-Leeper L, Mazefsky CA, Rofey D, Bascom J, Caplan R, Gomez-Lobo V, Berg D, Zaks Z, Wallace GL, Wimms H, Pine-Twaddell E, Shumer D, Register-Brown K, Sadikova E, Anthony LG (2018). Letter to the Editor. Revisiting the link: Evidence of the rates of autism in studies of gender diverse individuals. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 57(11), 885-887. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaac.2018.04.023
Bradford NJ, Rider GN, Catalpa J, Morrow QJ, Berg DR, Spencer, KG, McGuire J (2019). Creating gender: A thematic analysis of genderqueer narratives. International Journal of Transgenderism, online ahead of print May 25, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1080/15532739.2018.1474516
Catalpa JM, McGuire JK, Fish JN, Bradford NJ, Rider GN, Berg, DR (2019). Predictive validity of the genderqueer identity scale (GQI): Differences between genderqueer and transgender individuals. International Journal of Transgenderism. 10.1080/15532739.2018.1528196
Milhausen RR et al, Eds. (2019). Handbook of sexuality-related measures (4th ed.). Routledge. ISBN 978-1138740846
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Cheryl Chase is the pseudonym of Bo Laurent an American activist associated with internet troll Denise Magner and historian Alice Dreger. All three were involved with Intersex Society of North America prior to its 2008 dissolution.
Cheryl Chase, the intersex activist, told me that transsexuals frequently join intersex groups because they are convinced that they are also intersexual. In most cases, they are not.
Background
Chase’s self-reported personal and medical history is murky and often contradictory. She claims she had multiple names starting at birth:
Sidhbh Gallagher is an Irish plastic surgeon practicing in the United States. Gallagher is known for performing masculinizing top surgery.
Background
Sidhbh Treasa Gallagher (pronounced “sive”) was born in ~1981 and grew up in Louth and Dundalk, Ireland. Gallagher earned an undergraduate degree from University College Dublin. In 2006 Gallagher studied at Emory University, then did a residency at Abington Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia from 2007 to 2012. Gallagher did plastic surgery training at Indiana University School of Medicine. In 2016 Gallagher took a surgical appointment at Eskenazi Health Transgender Health & Wellness Program in Indianapolis.
Gallagher relocated to Miami, Florida in 2019 and founded Gallagher Plastic Surgery and Gallagher Med Spa.
Gallagher is known for promoting on social media, particularly TikTok.
University Gender Affirmation Surgery (universitygenderaffirmationsurgery.com) [archive]
“Chloe Cole” is the stage name of Chloe Brockman, an American ex-transgender activist. Similar to the ex-gay movement, ex-trans activists get money and attention by making it harder for others to get trans healthcare. Many claim to have been cured of being trans via “desistance” or “detransition.”
Background
Chloe Elise Brockman was born July 27, 2004.
Brockman’s mother is Jocelyn V. (Torrecampo) Brockman (born 1968), a perioperative nurse who has worked for Kaiser Permanente. Jocelyn Brockman married Jeffrey Allen “Jeff” Brockman (born 1971), an IT entrepreneur who was raised in a Mormon household.
Chloe Brockman has four adult siblings: Jacob, Chelsea, Maddie, and Calvin. At this time, it’s unclear if they are a blended family. It is possible some of the children were fostered or adopted. It appears that Jocelyn also has a family connection to Donald Lee Tre Davis (born 1970).
Chloe Brockman grew up in Manteca, California. As a child, Brockman had two cleft palate repair surgeries.
Brockman had an “emotionally troubled” childhood that included several assessments and diagnoses:
September 12, 2012 (age 8): “disruptive behavior disorder”
November 26, 2013 (age 9): “encounter for school problem”
October 9, 2015 (age 11): “attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder” (ADHD)
According to self-reports, Brockman came out as trans after exhibiting gender-diverse behavior starting about age 9, around the time puberty started. Brockman created an Instagram account at 11. In May 2017, at age 12, Brockman wrote a letter to both parents, asking to be referred to as a boy and by the names Ky or Chi.
On November 30, 2017, Brockman had a consultation with an endocrinologist who advised against beginning hormone therapy. The family sought a second opinion on Brockman’s insistence and gave legal consent for medical transition.
In early 2018, at age 13, Brockman began a medical transition under the care of endocrinologist Lisa Taylor, with puberty blockers followed by testosterone injections starting a month later.
At age 14, Brockman’s chest was groped at school by a bully. This traumatic event led to daily use of a chest binder. Brockman asked Taylor for a referral to plastic surgeon Hop Le. Brockman then had a psychological evaluation with Susanne Watson, who recommended honoring Brockman’s request for top surgery.
Amid the pressure of trying to help their troubled child, Brockman’s parents filed for divorce in 2019.
Brockman began using the given name Leo and was encouraged to attend classes with a family peer group of other transmasculine minors. Brockman’s surgery occurred following parental consent. On June 3, 2020, Brockman underwent top surgery a month before turning 16. During COVID quarantine in the summer of 2020, Brockman started to have “regrets” before discontinuing hormones in May 2021. According to the 2023 lawsuit, Brockman “became intensely suicidal for the first time and prone to emotional outbursts.” Elsewhere in the lawsuit, they claim Brockman was exhibiting “passive suicidal ideation” around the time Jeff and Jocelyn filed for divorce (which it appears they never finalized).
Brockman failed out of high school as a senior and had to get a California High School Proficiency Exam Certificate instead. As failure, isolation, and rejection took their toll, Brockman was radicalized by conservative edgelord online culture. Anti-transgender activism soon followed. This brought Brockman to the attention of Harmeet Dhillon and other conservative or fascist activists, who began showering Brockman with money and attention.
April 19:Do No Harm Foundation’s Stanley Goldfarb announces launch; later funds some of Brockman’s activism
May: Testifies against gender-affirming care in Ohio
June 28: Testifies against gender-affirming care in California (SB107)
July: Turns 18
July: Testifies against Medicaid coverage for trans healthcare in Florida
July 13: Registers imperfectlyme.org
July 15: Creates GoFundMe
July 24: Conservative IT entrepreneur Steven Corpus “Steve” Beddoe registers the corporation Trenderz LLC in California as part of the domain and GoFundMe marketing campaign. “Trender” is a slur in toxic online communities to describe people who allegedly make a gender transition because it’s trendy.
September: Supports “Protect Children’s Innocence Act” by Marjorie Taylor Greene
September: Testifies against California becoming a sanctuary state for children seeking gender-affirming care
September 28: Interview with David Freiheit of Viva Frei
January 6: Interview with Drea Humphrey of Rebel News
January 12: Profile on The Daily Signal
January 12: Interview with Kevin Roberts for The Heritage Foundation
January 24: Testifies in support of Utah ban on gender-affirming care for minors (House Bill 132)
January: Speaks at “Teens Against Gender Mutilation Rally” in Tennessee
January: Speaks at Parents on Patrol panel “Stolen Innocence: A Panel on the Insidious Ideology Infecting Your Children’s Education”
January 31: Testified in support of Tennessee House Bill and Senate Bill 1 banning gender affirming care for minors
February 6: Interview with Megyn Kelly
February 6: Profile on Independent Women’s Forum
February: Supports Idaho ban on gender-affirming care for minors (House Bill 71,); her appearance was financed by conservative Idaho Freedom Foundation
February: Testifies in favor of Kansas ban on gender-affirming care for minors (Senate Bill 233)
February 17: Testifies in favor of South Dakota HB 1080 banning gender-affirming care for minors
February 21: addressed the Florida House Health & Human Services Committee
March 3: Appears on a panel at Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC)
March 12: Appears with six ex-trans activists in Sacramento for “Detransition Awareness Day”
March 28: Interview with Charlie Kirk and Jack Posobiec
April 17: Appears at Dartmouth Republicans event in New Hampshire
April 20: Testifies in favor of New Hampshire Parental Rights Bill
May 2: Testifies in favor of Louisiana ban on gender-affirming care for minors (House Bill 463)
April 19: Testifies in favor of New Hampshire Bill SB272 banning gender-affirming care for minors
May 26: Testifies in favor of House Bill 454 banning gender-affirming care for minors
2023 lawsuit
On February 22, 2023 conservative lawyers filed suit in California, alleging Brockman was a victim of medical negligence.
Plaintiff
Chloe E. Brockman a/k/a Chloe Cole
Defendants
Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, Inc.
Permanente Medical Group, Inc.
Lisa Kristine Taylor, MD, a pediatric endocrinologist
Hop Nguyen Le, MD, a plastic surgeon
Susanne E. Watson, PhD, a clinical psychologist
Does 1 through 50
Brockman’s lawyers
Charles S. LiMandri
Paul M. Jonna
Robert E. Weisenburger
Harmeet K. Dhillon
John-Paul S. Deol
Jesse D. Franklin-Murdock
Mark E. Trammell
The lawyers claim Brockman has had these conditions:
pornography addiction
disruptive behavior disorder (diagnosed September 12, 2012)
encounter for school problem (diagnosed November 26, 2013)
ADHD (diagnosed October 9, 2015)
general anxiety
social anxiety
speech difficulties
depression
pubertal struggles associated with significantly increased negative emotions
body dysmorphia and serious self-image concerns
symptoms of an eating disorder
learning disabilities
autism spectrum symptoms
a cleft palate for which surgery had been performed
concerns about being sexually abused or raped, that eventually materialized into a sexual assault
exposure to only negative aspects about being female, without any discussion of the positive aspects of being female, including menstrual cycles, pregnancy, childbirth, male domination, and similar distorting ideas
difficulty at school
trouble with social interaction and learning
social troubles
severe distress
ongoing confusion regarding her gender
suicidal ideation
They put forth the “social contagion” model that claims Brockman was misled by LGBT activist groups and transgender social media influencers.
They also make the common ex-trans claim: “The fact that Plaintiff detransitioned after the so-called treatment establishes res ipsa loquitor that Plaintiff was not transgender.”
Suratos, Pete (February 23, 2023). Kaiser Permanente sued over hormone therapy.NBC Bay Area https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/kaiser-permanente-sued-over-hormone-therapy/3164935/
San Joaquin County Superior Courts (May 14, 2019). Jocelyn Brockman v. Jeffrey Brockman Stockton Family Law Courthouse, Judge Robin Appel presiding. https://unicourt.com/case/ca-sj-jocelyn-brockman-vs-jeffrey-brockman-565410
Masters, Hamilton Matthew (January 30, 2022). Proud Boys and LGBTQ rights supporters face off in Murfreesboro. Nashville Scene. https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pithinthewind/proud-boys-and-lgbtq-rights-supporters-face-off-in-murfreesboro/article_4434885c-a0c7-11ed-9435-df49b232d251.html
Herner, Hannah (October 21, 2022). Anti-Trans rally led by Matt Walsh brings right-wing media stars to Nashville. Nashville Scene. https://www.nashvillescene.com/news/pithinthewind/anti-trans-rally-led-by-matt-walsh-brings-right-wing-media-stars-to-nashville/article_62c08340-5160-11ed-81bb-53478d4387aa.html
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 GCCANâs work will help providers better understand the varied experiences of consumers so they may better serve sexuality- and gender-diverse communities.
