When I was a child and suffering from numerous mental health issues, I learned about transgenderism. Vulnerable and in distress, I was given false hope by the pseudoscientific idea that I could become a boy.
Encouraged by doctors that this could solve my issues and alleviate my unhappiness, I began a medical journey to make a "female-to-male transition" that left enormous physical and emotional scars. It did not solve my problems, but rather created new ones.
My breasts are gone and what’s left in their place feels numb or painful. I haven’t decided which is worse - I miss one when I experience the other. Unnecessary prescription hormones have damaged my voice, my skeletal structure, and my hormonal system.
This is my truth, my experience, my life.
It was hard to come forward and talk about my experience. I am attacked viciously online by the same trans community that love bombed me when I attempted to transition. Yet I have chosen to share my story out of love and concern for vulnerable children and teens who might be going down the same path I did.
I don’t want suffering, confused teens to cut off their breasts thinking it will bring happiness. I don’t want sexual assault survivors to think that they can magically morph their female bodies into males and never feel vulnerable again, as I once thought.
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Today, I expect online bullies to attack me and call me names. But I do not expect reputable newspapers to do so for all their readers to see. However, in June, that’s exactly what happened.
In the June 12 issue of the Santa Fe Reporter, ahead of the one-year anniversary on June 16 of New Mexico’s HB 7 taking effect, Independent Women’s Forum paid for an advertisement featuring my story.
New Mexico’s HB 7 forbids public entities and associated individuals from "restrict[ing] or interfer[ing] with a person’s ability to access… gender-affirming health care." Essentially, this bill discourages anyone from telling young people like me about the risks associated with attempting to medically "transition."
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They want children’s "gender identity" affirmed – regardless of how fleeting or how serious the underlying issues that are causing the wish to transition are. I know from experience how this can backfire on vulnerable youth and inflict irreversible, lifelong harm.
The ad in the Santa Fe Reporter included a QR code linking to IWF’s Identity Crisis documentary series, which tells my story and the stories of numerous others who experienced transition and ultimately "detransition." I think it’s information that children and their parents deserve to have.
Following IWF’s advertisement, the Santa Fe Reporter reportedly heard from activists and others who disliked it. That’s hardly a surprise. I hear from people all the time who prefer I stay silent and call me names rather than have an honest conversation about the dangers of cross-sex hormones and surgery for trans-identifying youth. I wouldn’t have been surprised if letters to the editor to that effect were published.
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But that didn’t happen. Instead, publisher Julia Goldberg issued a large, full-color apology for running the advertisement, promised not to run further advertisements from IWF, and labeled our work "an online anti-transgender misinformation campaign." That claim is blatantly false. Nothing in this series is anti-transgender. Nothing is misinformation.
Unsatisfied, the Reporter then published what it entitled a "Teachable Moment," in which it labeled our work at IWF "anti-transgender," and part of an "ongoing attack on transgender lives."
Unbelievably, the story compares IWF’s advertisement (about whether teachers should face liability in the classroom) to White supremacy. It portrays IWF as in favor of the "eradication of trans people." It then states that the Southern Poverty Law Center "includes IWF" in an "anti-LGBTQ pseudoscience network."
By labeling IWF’s basic educational resources – real stories from trans-identifying minors – as "anti-transgender," the Santa Fe Reporter destroys any opportunity for common ground and understanding.
I won’t back down to bullies. I’ll keep speaking out and telling my story because I care about vulnerable young people. I don’t want them to suffer like I have.
