Detransition Awareness Day 2024

March 12th marks an important day in the calendar—Detransition Awareness Day. This annual observance serves a crucial purpose: it shines a light on the experiences of those who have detransitioned, fosters a deeper understanding and dismantles the stigma associated with detransition.

In many ways, the word ‘detransition’—just like the word ‘transition’—is a misnomer. These terms suggest that an individual can somehow transition from one entity to another, and then, through detransition, reverse the process. We can do neither. We are born in our bodies and as our bodies. Of course, we can change our bodies; we can add and take away bits, but ultimately, we die when our bodies die.

The E. E. Cummings poem ‘pity this busy monster, manunkind’ often comes to mind when I think of medical transition. Cummings highlights the inevitable alienation from the self when we delve too deeply into technology and then finishes with the powerful line: ‘listen: there’s a hell of a good universe next door; let’s go.’

Every time I read this line, I wonder, would I go? If I was offered a safe passage to another universe, would I gather my family with me and head off into space? Or would I stay here, plagued by doubt and dreams of an unlived life?

Many young people have been offered a similarly bewitching choice: to become another person. And some of them jumped at the chance, only to find that they could not leave themselves behind. You’re stuck being you, and I’m stuck being me. It’s often very difficult, but then, like a long marriage, it can also be quite beautiful as the years go by, and, ever so slowly, many of us grow accustomed to ourselves, warts and all.

A person who has detransitioned has streched the limits of their existence and confronted the constraints of their flesh. They have tried to become someone else and then they ran out of road and realized that they needed to go in a different direction. Not the road back—no one can step into the same river twice—but another road that evolves as a result of their experiences. For this reason, we do not call our therapeutic initiative a program for ‘detransitioners’; instead, we called it ‘Beyond Trans.’ This program offer funding for therapy and free support groups for people who have, on one level or another, moved beyond transition. Some of these people have detransitioned physically and psychically, some remain within their transitioned outer self, but their minds have moved way beyond transition. They are no longer on the yellow-brick road hoping to one day change into another person; they are instead coming to a reckoning with themselves. This is a dreadfully difficult process, and the individual may require a lot of kindness and support. Try as we might, we cannot separate the body from the mind.

Early in 2022, I wondered aloud to some people who had detransitioned about holding an awareness day. It turned out that there had already been one on March 12^th 2021, so Genspect ran with it and hosted its first Detransition Awareness Day webinar on March 12^th 2022. Handing the mic to detransitioners, we offered a platform for detransitioners and anyone else who was beyond trans to tell their own stories. The event was a success in terms of engagement and funded the launch of our Beyond Trans initiative that was established the following June. Sinéad Watson was the hero of the night, as I was supposed to host but suffered a random, unexpected power cut right in the middle of the webinar. Sinéad kept the show on the road as I scurried around looking for a power source. Other highlights of this event were Michelle Alleva’s extraordinary presentation about what the doctors missed when they recommended medical transition to Michelle and Helena’s fascinating talk about the role of fan fiction for female adolescents who fall deep into the idea that they are really gay boys.

The momentum continued into 2023, with another webinar on Detransition Awareness Day. Ritchie Herron, one of the strongest advocates for detransitioners, has often mentioned how he was deeply moved by Detrans Awareness Day 2022, and so it felt especially meaningful to speak to him on Detrans Awareness Day 2023. If you haven’t already, we urge you to also take the time to watch Jasmine’s account of how she trusted the adults when she was a child and ended up medically transitioning and then detransitioning when she reached young adulthood. The session provided a platform for detransitioners to voice their experiences, offering invaluable insights into their reasons for transitioning, the lessons they’ve learnt about the gender healthcare industry, and their perspectives on what healthcare professionals and the broader community need to understand. Ritchie Herron’s point that detransition would be better described as ‘recovery from transition’ drives this point home.

Beyond Trans is a groundbreaking service that extends financial support for therapy and offers free therapeutic programs to individuals grappling with feelings of distress or uncertainty regarding their transition. To date, Beyond Trans has supported more than 100 detransitioners and others who are beyond trans. We have offered practical guidance and career advice and life support to many more. We have also learnt a lot over these last two years. We have learnt that many are not suited to therapy; that therapy, just like transition or detransition, is not and never will be a panacea; and that there are many ways to recover from transition. Some do it on their own, some with friends. Some people learn to assimilate the sadness, some continue to feel bereft.

We have little reliable research and there are no Standards of Care for detransitioners. So we can only do our best in our own very fallible manner. Nothing is perfect and no one has a solution. With Beyond Trans we attempt to do our part in mitigating the harm that’s been caused. It’s not nearly enough and vast levels of further help and extensive additional support is urgently needed.

We continue to learn more about this minority within a minority and the Beyond Transition survey we carried out late in 2023 offered some insight into how some people have benefited from the Beyond Trans service. The age range of respondents who have used the Beyond Trans service is large – it went from 21 to 48 years old. The most common age range was between 26 and 29. The most common countries were the USA, the UK, Canada, Ireland, Poland and Norway. Some respondents offered testimonials.

‘Jay’ commented:

I honestly don’t think I can find words to describe the impact on my life. Your support has given me the tools to regain control of my life, understand the complex web that led me down this path, process the grief and find myself again.

An anonymous respondent commented:

It allowed me to talk about my regret without feeling like it wasn’t allowed. It also helped me realize my situation isn’t nearly as dire as it seemed. It gave me hope. I am forever grateful.

Luke’s comment was poignant, ‘I don’t regret transition. Because there’s no point.’

As we look ahead to Detransition Awareness Day, Tuesday, March 12th 2024, we are embracing a new approach to sharing these important stories. This year, we are offering a suite of different articles, interviews, animations, presentations, and artwork from Beyond Transitioners throughout the day so that each individual can express their creativity and insight in whatever format resonates most with them. We hope you join us in helping to bring attention to the complicated nature of moving Beyond Trans on #DetransAwarenessDay, whether through likes, shares or in whatever way you can.

For those interested in contributing or learning more about the submission guidelines, please visit our dedicated page at https://beyondtrans.org/events/

Please follow this link if you would like to support our work: https://www.gofundme.com/f/genspect-healthy-approach-to-gender