Is it moderate to want the U. S. government to force detransition on healthy, mentally-healthy adults who successfully underwent a medical transition many years, even decades, ago? Detransitioner Prisha Mosely is an advocate for forced detransitions at all ages, but she self-describes as a moderate. This morning, a sympathetic Washington Post profile did little to provide context for readers to question the flattering self-characterization of Mosely’s extreme views. In one early paragraph, reporter Molly Hennessy-Fiske even mischaracterizes Mosely’s advocacy to ban all forms of legal and medical transition for all trans people, of any age.
This paragraph suggests that the extreme limits on gender-affirming care Mosely advocates for are limits on “medication and hormone treatments for minors,” but further down the story gradually clarifies the true extent of her political demands. Mosely actually opposes all hormonal and surgical treatments to change secondary-sex characteristics, for people of any age. She is calling for laws that would force her own choice, detransition, on every trans person in the U. S. And that’s not all.
The Post’s profile follows Mosely through a day of activism, but not activism in support of bans on gender-affirming care. Instead, her lobbying on the day in question is in support of a law that would take away the ability of trans people to change their drivers’ licenses and other documents, and even reverse gender marker changes for those who previously accessed them. A similar forced outing law was passed in Kansas, and Mosely, a Michigan native, had traveled to Texas to try and spread forced outing far and wide.
Like other profiles of detransitioners, the Post devotes space to some of what Mosely says about her detransition, but omits more complicated topics such as whether Mosely’s gender dysphoria has actually gone away. It quotes Mosely as crying, saying, “I lost my voice. I lost my chest. I don’t know if I’m going to be able to have kids. I feel like no one wants to date me or love me because I’m ruined.”
This is surely something Mosely deeply feels, but she has also tweeted publicly about her struggles with wanting to retransition, likening ongoing gender dysphoria to a battle against addiction. In June, she tweeted about “wishing for retransition sometimes like someone who was addicted to a drug for years.”
Testosterone and other hormone treatments have no physically addictive effects, but many detransitioners have spoken of their ongoing struggle with gender dysphoria. This group includes many prominent detransition activists such as Chloe Cole and Daisy Strongin, but politically active detransitioners’ lifelong struggle against gender dysphoria is rarely mentioned in news accounts. Mosely seems to see her gender identity as similar to that of an addict, a temptation to be fought against over the rest of her life. This resembles the narratives of ex-gay movement, most prominent in the 1990s, which publicly claimed that prayer could turn gay people straight, but in support groups presented the struggle against same-sex attraction as a lifelong burden for gay folks.
In the transgender community, medical treatment is sought because of its success in lessening or greatly diminishing gender dysphoria, allowing trans people to feel comfortable and happy in bodies that once caused them immense pain. This is what Mosely wants to ban, instead mandating that every person with gender dysphoria join her in choosing not to treat it with medical means.
The real question at issue is whether zealots like Mosely should be allowed to mandate that everyone with gender dysphoria follow their path of self-denial and lifelong pain. Stories like the Post’s obscure this, ducking the tough issues and presenting detransitioners as more moderate, and more sympathetic, than their extreme views deserves.
I really think that it’s irresponsible on the right’s & even mainstream media’s part to platform people like Prisha. Every time she speaks, she looks like she’s on the verge of a mental breakdown. I really don’t think she’s in a stable spot to be putting herself in the spotlight like this. I think she’s putting herself in the spotlight as a way to distract her from doing the real work: Processing her detransition. She really should focus more on processing her detransition than getting involved with activism that is focused on taking away gender affirming care resources, especially from trans youth. She needs to stop this & focus on getting her life together. But that’s the thing, anti trans orgs can’t let her get her life together. That would mean she will no longer to useful to them anymore since they can’t easily manipulate an emotionally vulnerable person. It’s really disgusting in my eyes.
> Is it moderate to want the U. S. government to force detransition on healthy, mentally-healthy adults who successfully underwent a medical transition many years, even decades, ago?
Is the implication here that it’s moderate to want the U.S. government to force detransition on mentally unhealthy adults? Like even if my psychiatrist says my symptoms are reasonably well-controlled, the government should still take my hormones away because I have a serious mental illness?
It’s certainly not the implication I intended- I don’t think treatment should be banned for anyone. This is a personal medical decision, and a matter of personal freedom even beyond that. Any adult capable of consenting to any other treatment should be allowed to transition, young people it’s slightly trickier but at the very least they should be able to transition with their family’s support.