Back in January, a producer at 60 Minutes reached out. She was gathering information for a segment focused on young detransitioners, and was determined to learn all she could and get the story right. She was understandably hesitant about covering a topic that’s been aggressively censored in the mainstream media. By the time the segment aired, the focus of the piece had taken a turn — Gender ideologists had caught wind of the segment in March, and after putting pressure on the network, gender ideology propaganda was given the floor. Detransitioners were cut short. Nonetheless, this small step was still a major step. After all, much effort has gone into ensuring that detransitioned youth remain invisible. And although the time allotted to detransitioners was abbreviated, the opposition still condemned 60 minutes for giving them any time at all.
As expected, GLAAD vilified 60 Minutes for allowing detransitioners a forum to speak. Six years ago, GLAAD formally announced that they had dropped “Gay & Lesbian” from their name, thenceforth to be known only as GLAAD, explaining that the name change was to reflect their new work more accurately… Given that the statistical majority of so-called “trans youth” would otherwise grow up to be gay — if allowed to grow up and reach full cognitive brain development — the move to drop “Gay and Lesbian” from their name does actually reflect, quite accurately, the way they’ve turned their backs on LGB youth.
GLAAD started off a seven part Twitter thread stating, “Tonight @60Minutes @LesleyRStahl aired a shameful segment fearmongering about trans youth. Parents of trans youth could walk away with the false belief that young people are being rushed into medical transition. That is simply untrue.” However there are mounds of evidence proving it is true, and that young people are being greatly harmed.
GLAAD‘s statement went on to promote the medicalization of “trans youth” and advised the public to trust the medical industry — even though most of these youth would otherwise grow up to be LGB, and the medical industry, along with Big Pharma, have a long dark history of putting profits before patients. GLAAD further expressed disapproval towards raising concerns where the safety and well-being of kids are concerned, and discouraged anyone from considering the collateral damage (traumatized young people, physically and emotionally scarred). They stated, “As the piece noted, every major medical association supports affirming, age-appropriate care for trans youth and the guidelines for that care are safe and well-established. And yet, the majority of the story was devoted to ‘raising concerns’ about youth accessing that care.”
Everyone should be raising concerns. 75% of kids who experience “gender dysphoria” (confusion regarding gender expectations), would organically grow up to be LGB, and 85% would organically grow up to be LGB or straight. That’s 85% who would desist, and a small minority, 15%, that would persist. These numbers change drastically with each step of social and medical transition — We’re currently in the midst of a massive human rights scandal.
While a great number of young people have come forward to say they were deeply harmed, corporations that were once set up to protect LGB youth — like HRC, ACLU, and GLAAD — have done all they can to sweep them under a rug.
Garrett, a young gay man, a detransitioner who was given airtime on 60 Minutes, has been very open about what happened to him. Surgeries were performed on him between the ages of 21 and 22 — This is before he would’ve had a chance to reach full cognitive brain development. The prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain that forms identity and understands repercussions, doesn’t fully form till after 25.
Yet toddlers are being labeled, as young as 1, children are being medicalized, as young as 8, and double mastectomies are being performed on children, as young as 12. LGB youth are particularly in danger of being medicalized before they have a chance to reach full maturity. Garrett, who was ‘treated,’ before most car rental companies would be willing to rent him a car, has said, “Everyday I wake up and am reminded of the fact that I was allowed an orchiectomy – removal of the testicles – only around 3 months into my transition.” A week after getting breast implants, Garrett became suicidal for the first time in his life.
After noting that 60 Minutes shifted the focus of the segment, Garrett wrote “While I’m still not completely happy with the 60 Minutes piece that came out, I understand that they likely did the best they could after getting so much hate/backlash after it was leaked in March. I’m still so thankful that detrans stories were shown on such a huge platform.”
More than 30 detransitioners were interviewed for the segment. And even though detransition was pushed to the side, gender ideologists felt their demands were not met — That giving young detransitioners any airtime at all, was unacceptable.
ACLU lawyer, Chase Strangio, began a 5 part thread with, “60Minutes, Lesley Stahl, Alexandra Poolos, and Collette Richards knew exactly the harm they were causing with last night’s segment. They knew it was the wrong moment and a dangerous, unaccountable and limited angle. But they did it anyway. That’s on all of you.” Strangio went on to say, “Remember that most trans kids in extreme distress never get the care they need. Over 10% of trans kids are pushed out of K-12 because of extreme harassment.” To be clear, “K” refers to kindergarten — so here Strangio is referencing 4 to 6 year-old children that are deemed to be transsexuals.
Grace Lidinsky-Smith, a young bisexual woman — a detransitioner who speaks openly about her trauma on social media and through her blog — was grateful just for the chance to be heard through a major platform. She wrote, “I want to say that I’m really grateful to 60 Minutes for airing some detransition stories to a national audience. It was the first US coverage of its kind and that is huge and important.”
It was huge — a milestone in what’s been an uphill battle. For years, desisters and detransitioners have been shamed, ignored and silenced. When Chiara Cannan, a lesbian desister, wanted to tell her story back in 2019, we couldn’t find anyone on the left willing to publish it. She knew she’d be (incorrectly) dismissed as right wing, were she to publish through the only publications that were willing to publish a story like hers at the time, so we started The Velvet Chronicle.
The way 60 Minutes was slammed for allowing detransitioners to be heard, demonstrates precisely why we had to build new platforms from the ground up. Major platforms have to consider what it’s worth to get a story out, how many major advertisers will pull funding, and how many powerful organizations and figures will put their reputations at stake. But with smaller platforms raising awareness in recent years, and gaining support from respected celebrities like JK Rowling, mainstream media is getting ready to get ahead of the turning tide.
60 Minutes, giving detransitioners a modest amount of airtime, is a major game changer in the US. While feminists, largely in the US and UK, lead the way in creating awareness and change, when it comes to US law, we face a much bigger challenge… The US is about 40 times larger than the UK, and we have to tackle changes in 50 separate states, a federal district (Washington, D.C.), and five territories, each with their own set of rules. Coverage, through liberal-leaning mainstream media in the U.S., has been hard to gain, for several years now, due to censorship — All the while, those who’ve followed this scandal have watched in horror as the tremendous human rights violation, of predominantly LGB youth, has been heavily promoted.
Going through comments that attacked 60 Minutes, Watson, a vocal bisexual detrans advocate, interpreted the underlying messages — “Don’t tell ‘shameful’ detrans stories, because it might concern parents.” “Don’t tell detrans stories, because we’re an ‘absurdly tiny fraction.’” She writes, “I, and many other detransitioners, receive threats of violence, rape and death simply for sharing our stories. For having the AUDACITY to SPEAK… Detrans people should not have to put up with this. Nobody should. We should not be shamed or threatened into silence simply for speaking out. For daring to admit the truth – that transition harmed us.”
Rachel, a lesbian detransitioner, that was included in the 60 Minutes segment, wrote, “I’m going to attach a vague warning about this [60 Minutes] piece: This isn’t what it started out as. It has evolved into something else. But, hopefully, it still highlights some of the issues and gets people to talk more openly.” In response to GLAAD, she wrote, “You literally bullied your way into the detrans narrative until our voices were cut and silenced.”
In response to a Pink News article that begins, “Laverne Cox has condemned CBS’ 60 Minutes for a ‘dehumanising’ segment that platformed [detransitioners] ….” Carol, a vocal lesbian detransitioner, writes, “Dehumanizing ? You know what’s dehumanizing , not being allowed to even tell your story or be recognized by any of the organizations that are supposed to care about your human rights.”
Helena, a bisexual detransitioner, wrote, “in light of recent revelations about how much activist pressure was against @CBSNews trying to get the @60Minutes episode about detransition taken down, i am very thankful to them for airing it despite making so many changes to appease the activists.” Helena has worked to create visibility for the D community through Pique Resilience Project, founded by herself and three other same-sex attracted women, now in their early twenties — Dagny, Chiara and Jesse. On their youtube channel, they talk about the major influence that social media had on them.
However, in their statement, GLAAD claimed that the implication (on 60 minutes), that social media can have an influence on kids, was “dangerous and at the same time ridiculous.” They then condemned 60 minutes for giving a platform to young detransitioners “who try to sow doubt” when it comes to medicalizing, sterilizing, and performing surgeries, on young people like them — such as surgical or chemical castration, hysterectomy, or penectomy… or as GLAAD calls it, “trans-affirming healthcare“. They wrap with a request that people learn to “support and affirm trans youth from actual medical authorities.”
Plenty of medical experts are currently fighting against the medical assault of nonconforming youth, despite threats to their careers and laws put in place to silence concerns. Medical testimony given in a recent UK case, has kicked off some changes where it comes to the medicalization of nonconforming youth.
Daisy, a detransitioner and advocate, who appeared in the 60 Minutes segment, has a YouTube channel where, in 2020, she explains that transitioning left her suicidal with regret. The popular channel kicks off 6 years ago, in 2015, with an announcement that she’s “transgender” and follows her path to realizing (around her 21st birthday), that she had to detransition.
Despite the startling number of lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth coming forward, expressing so much loss, pain, and regret, organizations (that still claim to represent the L, the G, and the B), continue to ignore and silence our concerns. They’ve chosen to spin false narratives, fall back on buzz words, and pump out propaganda instead. The harm that’s been done to our community is immeasurable. The harm that’s been done in general, the staggering ripple effect, is unreal. This period in time, this horrific Orwellian chapter, will not age well. Someday, people will be shocked that they were ever sold on the idea of slicing off the sex organs of kids who don’t conform — it’ll seem as barbaric as scooping out a bit of the brain, and as cruel as electroshock therapy. The Age of the Transsexual Toddler will be a distant nightmare. But the eerie echo of feel-good propaganda will remain — a reminder of how easily humanity can be sold on the inhumane.
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جوليا ديانا — JD Robertson is an award-winning author, and journalist. You can follow her on Twitter.