LOS ANGELES—In front of a towering JW Marriot Hotel in the LA Live entertainment and shopping area of downtown Los Angeles, a small group of people gathered on March 12 holding handmade posters in recognition of the second annual “Detransition Awareness Day.”
Inside the hotel, Human Rights Campaign held a dinner event that brought together active members and supporters in the Los Angeles area to raise funds for what the group’s website communicated as the “fight for LGBTQ+ equality.”
“They claim to leave no one in the LGBTQ community behind but have clearly chosen to ignore this population, as it challenges their narrative,” said a demonstrator who goes by the pseudonym Gigi LaRue to The Epoch Times.
Detransitioners are people who either took cross-sex hormones and/or had surgeries to change their bodies to appear as the opposite sex, only to regret those decisions and attempt to reverse the process.
A key component in the transitioning process is what’s known as puberty blockers, which are legal in the state of California to be administered to children as young as 13 with parent permission.
Detransition Awareness Day was created by Keira Bell, a prominent UK detransitioner who filed landmark legal action against a UK gender clinic to challenge the idea that children can consent to such hormone drugs. The court found it was “doubtful” that 15-year-olds and younger children could comprehend the consequences of this treatment.
LaRue said: “Lots of us believe this is a maladaptive coping mechanism for puberty and is fueled by homophobia, social media influence, and the heavy messaging from gender ideology being taught in school. We are not approaching this from a religious or partisan perspective but from a human rights perspective.”
LaRue was joined by several members active in the LGBTQ+ community who are opposed to encouraging children to take puberty blockers or undergo gender reassignment surgery.
According to the website, the day is about resiliency, dispelling the belief that detransitioners do not exist, and communicating to the world that they should not be ignored.
“So when I was 12, I kind of realized something wasn’t right. I knew I was autistic, but I felt like there was more to it than that, and I thought this was the right decision to make in transitioning,” said Ellie, a woman detransitioning back to her original sex as a female.
“I started testosterone on my 18th birthday, and then when I decided to make the transition, I just thought oh God, I made a mistake. I messed up, I messed up!”
Ellie found a community of detransitioners online and noted that what she was going through was not uncommon, but said there’s a lot of fear about speaking openly about detransitioning.
“I think people are just afraid to speak out because there’s so much backlash.”
Shortly after Ellie finished speaking, LaRue lifted a loudspeaker and led her small group with the chants “detransitioners exist” and “self-love is not surgery.”
Most pedestrians walking by casually acknowledged them while some took fliers communicating the existence of detransitioners—until one woman took out her phone to film them.
“I feel really sorry for you!” she exclaimed while walking into the hotel. “I feel really sorry for you all!”
LaRue seemed unfazed by the altercation.
“Maybe it starts a conversation and making sure people are aware of people like Ellie and others who are detransitioning; it’s not about being anti-trans,” LaRue said to The Epoch Times.
“I think that’s how it’s been interpreted, but it’s really more about adequate health care for people who are suffering.”
On LaRue’s right was Belissa Cohen, an LGBTQ+ activist who said she arrived in front of the hotel area to support detransitioners.
“So many LGBT people have been convinced that they need to medicalize and put themselves into a medical closet made out of their own bodies,” Cohen told The Epoch Times.
“We are so ready to welcome detransitioners back. ... We have done this in the past, and we’re just opening the conversation, and we’re here to welcome anybody who wants to talk to us.”
A large recent increase in minors stating that they are now transgender alarmed demonstrators like LaRue who are keen on creating opportunities to encourage people to be confident with the body they have.
“We’re here because today is the second Detransition Awareness Day, March 12, where we honor people who have detransitioned for whom medical transition was not successful,” LaRue said.
“They are a very underrepresented group, with their voices pretty much being silenced.”
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