The latest Republican-led spectacle, “Detrans Awareness Day,” is nothing more than another dangerous attempt to undermine transgender rights, weaponizing a subset of people to justify sweeping, harmful policies that attack the entire transgender community while DOGE “staffers” loot American data. Like clockwork, conservative lawmakers and anti-LGBTQ+ groups have coalesced to use de-transitioners as political props to justify bans on life-saving gender-affirming care and to manufacture fear around the legitimacy of trans identities.
Let’s be clear: The vast majority of transgender people who receive gender-affirming care experience improved mental health and well-being. Study after study has shown that regret among those who transition is exceedingly rare—just one percent or less of trans people choose to detransition due to actual regret. But facts don’t matter when your goal is to systematically erase a community under the guise of “protecting children.”
This latest crusade against human rights is part of a well-funded, far-right effort to roll back progress. Many of the “detransitioners” championed by the GOP have been exposed as grifters—either never actually identifying as trans or deliberately misrepresenting their experiences to fit a preordained narrative. Figures like Chloe Cole, a favorite among far-right lawmakers, have testified in multiple GOP-led hearings advocating for the elimination of gender-affirming care for minors.
These detransitioners were given lucrative platforms in right-wing media not because they represent a movement but because they serve as valuable pawns in a broader campaign to justify policies that strip trans people of fundamental rights.
We’ve seen this strategy before. The radical right loves to elevate voices that reinforce their agenda—particularly those with proximity to privilege. Caitlyn Jenner, for example, has long used her status to push policies that harm other trans people while remaining insulated by wealth and white privilege. Now, conservative activists elevate select detransitioners to claim trans youth are being “groomed” or coerced into transition.
Let’s talk about the facts: Puberty blockers — the very medical intervention conservatives claim is permanently disfiguring teenagers — are entirely reversible. They have been used safely for decades, and their primary function is to give young people time to explore their gender identity before making long-term decisions about medical transition.
In reality, many trans youth face immense barriers to accessing affirming care, often after years of careful deliberation with doctors, therapists, and family members. Children, their families and their doctors have made decisions about medical care for centuries, and we should all be clear about why politicians, not medical doctors, are attempting to legislate genocide. It’s a test case to relegate some among us to second-class citizens while the most privileged among us hoard more resources.
The notion that educators and counselors are pressuring children into being transgender is absurd. Trans identities have existed across cultures and history long before social media, gender studies programs, or so-called “woke indoctrination.” What is new, however, is the level of institutionalized discrimination trans people face today. Trump’s latest executive order restricting federal support for gender-affirming care is part of a larger strategy to erase transgender people from public life.
Teenagers who can live authentically with the support of their families, schools, and communities have far better outcomes than those forced into closets built by bigots, societal pressure, and government mandates. Trans youth who are affirmed in their identity experience significantly lower rates of depression and suicide. They do better in school. They go on to lead successful, fulfilling lives. With love, access to health care, and support, they thrive.
And yet, the Republican playbook continues to focus on limiting trans youth’s access to support systems—banning them from sports, censoring books that tell their stories, and rolling back their legal protections. The hypocrisy is astounding. The same movement banning discussions of race, gender, and LGBTQ+ identities in schools under the pretense of “parental rights” is now advocating for the government to overrule deeply personal medical decisions made by families and doctors.
The fear-mongering surrounding trans identities is more than just political theater—it has real-world consequences. Hate crimes against transgender people are rising, and policies that deny access to care increase the likelihood of mental health crises, homelessness, and unemployment. The Trump administration’s relentless attacks on trans rights—including banning trans people from military service, stripping gender identity from federal protections, and restricting access to legal gender markers—are part of a broader authoritarian agenda.
Detransitioners deserve the same compassion and space to share their stories as anyone else, but their existence should not be weaponized to strip rights away from an entire population. If Republicans truly cared about mental health, they would focus on reducing the staggering rates of suicide and violence against trans people, not fabricating crises to justify their next wave of oppressive legislation––such as the deliberate dismantling of Medicaid, which directly threatens access to gender-affirming care and mental health resources so many trans lives depend upon.
Trans people have always existed, and they will continue to exist, regardless of inflammatory rhetoric and policies that seek to erase mention or reference of them. As Transgender Day of Visibility approaches, we should celebrate the strength and resilience of trans people in the face of relentless attacks and remain steadfast in ensuring they have the rights, protections, and opportunities they deserve. None of us can know freedom unless and until trans people know freedom.
Trans people do not need to be debated. They need to be protected. The same is true for all of us.
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Dr. David Johns is CEO & Executive Director of National Black Justice Collective