Film Premier: The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters
I was curious to see who would come to this movie in the Bay Area. Whose community was this?
“Are you here for the film premier?” I said to the tall woman in the lobby watching me come in.
“I am. I’m the filmmaker,” she said, as she moved on to greet a friend. Her bio said she had been a critical care nurse, a hospital administrator and senior level nursing manager. She was now president of The Center for Bioethics And Culture Network which covered cloning, trans humanism and CRISPR gene splicing technology as well as my pet topic—the medicalizing of children in the name of gender identity. Her previous film Transition: Why The Rush? is well worth watching for its efficient 50 minute overview of the situation exposing all the unfounded reasons why children are being urged to transition. You can view it for free.
The theater filled up with largely middle aged and parent aged couples. The film packed a powerful punch in the similarities of the women’s stories, their identity confusion and the ease with which they got medical treatment to change sex. It even had an upbeat ending.
In the Q & A afterward, one of the detransitioners, Cat, who was being interviewed earlier, together with a mom of a now detransitioned teen, Erin, answered questions. When asked what schools were pushing gender ideology, Erin said “what school isn’t? They even have gender math now with word problems. Middle schools are now teaching children about phalloplasties” she told us.” She said the movement was child driven and was linked to the dissolving of parental rights since 2012 when a law passed prevented therapists from sharing information with parents about child clients as young as 12.
Someone asked how many detransitioners there are. She quoted the one source I, too, had watched—a Reddit site for detranstioners to discuss their concerns. Last year it was 17,000. Now it is 38,000 with 60 new members a day, she said. Only detransitioners can chat on it and they are telling similar stories to the ones we had just seen. She urged parents to pay attention and start going to school boards. She had quit her job in order to devote full time to this work. I had read some of her writing about helping her daughter to desist.
When the program ended I waited to talk to Erin. I introduced myself as a second wave feminist and member of the LGB. I asked her why parents went along with this. She became quite animated, telling me that parents weren’t doing their job, they want their child to like them, they want to be the cool parent. Then she took her phone out of her jacket pocket and said “When we gave them this, we abdicated our rights as parents.” You’ve seen The Social Dilemma then, I said. Of course she had. Connecting with her was a shot in the arm for both of us. I was the only representative of the old lesbian feminist leadership there as far as I could see. My mentors having refused to join in the fray, mostly from not understanding the problem. Erin lived on the peninsula, too, so we swam in the same highly intelligent, progressive milieu being taken by this cult. That’s what she called it, a cult.
When I moved aside to let her talk to others who had been listening in, I turned around and saw Cat by herself. I gave her a big smile and thanked her for contributing her story, talking to her as if we were peers. She was a working musician living in Grass Valley and, at 31, was the oldest of the three detrans women. “Your song in this film made it pop,” I told her. I had introduced myself same as I did to Erin. I mentioned the memoir she had said she was going to write. “I’ve just finished mine,” I said and her eyes lit up as she asked me where she could get it. Of course I had a copy in my bag and I pulled it out to give to her. She didn’t have any cash on her, she said. “Take it as a gift for the work you are doing here,” I said happy to have found the person I wanted to give the book to. She looked at the title and was even more excited as she too was interested in going off grid. “I’m so looking forward to reading this,” she said. “Enjoy,” I said as I took my leave.
Outside I saw the filmmaker again talking to a woman who led a youth group. I stopped to thank her for her film and tell her of my own writing on the topic. “Next we need a film about what’s going on in the schools,” I told her. “People are refusing to believe how gender identity is being pushed in the schools.” The youth group leader told me she couldn’t believe it, listening to the kids talk. “This is being introduced to kids way too young,” she said. “Adults are talking to kids about their genitals,” she said looking at me as if the world had gone mad for not recognizing that this was wrong. I completely agreed with her as we walked out into the night air disoriented, trying to remember where we parked our cars.
Labels: cult, culture, gender, transgender, women