 There's so many parallels between the gay rights movement and the trans right movement in particular. There's parallels between the tactics used by the opposition to demonize these LGBTQ plus people and You would think that because there's so many similarities because this is all part of the same community The people who were wrong about gay rights who have changed their minds Would realize that oh my god This is headed in the same direction where I'm gonna be on the wrong side of history And maybe I should stop fighting and just learn to embrace people's dignity and human rights But no because what we've learned throughout the course of the last couple of decades is history repeats itself and Even if we kind of just heard these same arguments a mere 10 15 years ago We're hearing them once again because history sometimes repeats itself right after it just said what it said not too long ago so one parallel certainly is the Ex gay and the detrans movement So what the right is trying to do is de-legitimize trans people in the same way that they tried to de-legitimize gay people You de-legitimize gay people by claiming that this is a choice Really, you're not born gay you chose to be gay and we can de-convert you by giving you conversion therapy Now this is happening with trans people and a lot of people don't know about this A lot of cis people don't know about this But there is a de-transition movement where people who were formerly trans like ex-gays come out and say I'm no longer trans, but one of the darlings of the de-transition movement has come out and said Actually, all that stuff that I said about de-transitioning I take it all back. I'm actually trans as ABC News explains Kai Shevers is fighting back against the anti-trans movement She once took pardon Shevers was assigned the sex of female at birth and later chose to start gender-forming care by taking testosterone to transition from female to male in Her mid-twenties. She stopped taking testosterone though in the years that followed while she continued to explore and question her gender Later falling into an online anti-trans group of de-transitioners people who once did but no longer identify as transgender Now Shevers says she has re-transitioned Identifying as trans masculine and gender queer which means she identifies with both genders Shevers uses she and her pronouns, but heavily identifies with masculinity as defined by the LGBTQIA plus health education center states She says she considers herself to be part of the transgender community when Shevers initially stopped taking testosterone She sought out advice and companionship in online forums about de-transitioning in this virtual community Is where she began to adopt anti-trans beliefs that misogyny and a patriarchal society caused her to initially Transition from female to male in blog posts YouTube videos interviews and workshops She spread and promoted these beliefs these posts became a popular tool for anti-trans activists looking to discredit the trans community in the name of feminism and Similarly, we've seen a lot of ex-gays come out and say Actually, I'm gay. I Mean this is something that continues to happen Because believe it or not I know that Republicans don't like to think about this But it's really hard to exist as an LGBTQ plus person in the United States. You are constantly force-fed Self-hate you're taught to hate yourself from the second you realize you are who you are You know when I was a young gay man I immediately hated myself the second that I realized that I might be a little bit different So this is what they teach you and usually once you come to love and accept yourself It's hard to go back but propaganda and getting involved in this weird community that Kai found herself in Sometimes that's all it takes and you end up getting radicalized and you go back to hating yourself But ultimately what matters is you arrive at the correct conclusion and that is love and acceptance of yourself Now this whole detransition movement is something that is being used by the right to delegitimize trans people But as we're gonna learn here It's not actually that big LGBTQ nation explains the number of people reporting detransition is small According to a study this year from UCLA's Williams Institute 1.3 million adults in the United States identify as transgender or 0.05% of the population another 300,000 youth ages 13 to 17 do as well of those who transition about 8% report Detransitioning according to a 2015 survey by the National Center for Transgender Equality and most 62% of that 8% said detransition was temporary a 50-year survey in Sweden revealed about 2% of the trans population regretted undergoing gender-affirming surgery in other words 92% of trans people do not detransition So this is not one of those things where oh Everyone's just identifying as trans because it's a fad no when they are diagnosed with gender dysphoria and they transition doctors by and large are getting this correct now of the majority of people who Do detransition? It's temporary But why is that why come out as trans? Go back into the closet detransition and then come out as trans again Well, there's a number of factors a 2021 study by lgbt health finds that 82.5% Of those who detransitioned did so not because they regretted their decision But due to external factors such as pressure from family discriminatory school environments and increased vulnerability to violence and sexual assault in other words if society Accepted them and didn't treat them poorly. They wouldn't have been pressured into detransitioning But for the individuals that do detransition The right uses those anecdotes to push this idea that being trans is a choice or it's a fad and really Young people are being radicalized into this gender ideology and they're being taught to be trans because that's what's cool When in actuality that's not happening a long-term study which followed 317 trans children between the ages of 3 and 12 found that the overwhelming majority of them Still identified as transgender after five years and only 2.5 of them reverted to the gender that they were assigned at birth So in conclusion, this is not something that's being pushed On your children. This is not something that's a fad for your teenager or adults They're not just coming out as a trans because they see it as a trend And they want to be cool or special They're coming out as trans and non-binary because that's who they are And if some of them the small number of them to transition, it's usually temporary because they're not in a space Well, they're safe enough. I mean a lot of queer people gays included They aren't able to come out and be themselves because they're in a predicament where that could endanger their lives For example, I didn't come out until I was in my 20s because I was afraid that living with my parents I would be kicked out. Thankfully that was not the case when I came out But some people are not in predicaments where they can come out or if they do come out They have to hide who they are and the same is true for trans people So when you hear about this detrans movement, don't let the right use this as a justification to delegitimize and demonize trans people It is not a trend. It is a real thing And the best that we can do for all of humanity is just be respectful And accept when people tell us who they are. That's it. It's not that difficult to use the proper pronouns It's not that difficult to just accept Who these people are just embrace them and love them because like you and I They're just human beings that want to live period end of story