I'm honestly truly sorry for all of the pain and confusion and loss of time, friends, and mental health you went through, and presumably still are.

And I really hate to add to the burden of a fellow tran, but you owe the community more than just your own catharsis. A true apology must include an effort to make the community whole as well. A mea culpa is simply insufficient. You (and others, and especially Herzog) did genuine harm to us.

I ask that you commit to not just rebuilding yourself, but dedicate yourself to healing the wounds you caused.

May you find yourself, your community, and your cause.

100% what @1 said. It sounds like you invested a lot of time and energy into promoting harmful views, please bring that same energy or more into supporting the community. Also, welcome back and congratulations on taking a step towards self-acceptance.

So Schevers was trans, then decided no, not trans, then decided, yes again trans.

I'm not sure what lesson I am supposed to draw from this essay.

This is a 3 year old article about a nearly 7 year old article.

There’s so much to unpack here

@1 & 2
Assigning penance?

Welcome back, I forgive you. Keep loving yourself, you know what's right for you. I won't assign penance but you konw what you did, lol

I really appreciated the author sharing this story - I only wish they would have reached out to Katie Herzog to incorporate her thoughts as well (intentional or not it felt like the author was ascribing thoughts to Katie - would have been best to directly quote her).

@8 lmao at "not a right-wing website." They're literally funding lawsuits against any providers they can who provide trans care. Their parent website lists a list of donors to Planned Parenthood with the effort to shut the clinic down and links to anti-abortion sites.

People make mistakes. Sometimes people pursue medical treatments that don't help them -- I pursued an elective back surgery that ended up making my issues worse. To try and use those people suffering to push a right-wing agenda to shut down Planned Parenthood and make transition impossible to access for people who consent to it is duplicitous and evil.

So I really shouldn't believe anything I read in the Stranger.

Including this.

Got it.

The author of the detrans article went on to a career in anti-trans activism after The Stranger let her go. She’s never been interested in presenting a fair picture of either gender affirming care or the detrans experience. She pushes a very specific and sensationalistic point of view that is not supported by any published research into this subject.

@13 I recommend listening to a recent interview with Katie - my impression is folks project their own bs on Katie (but decide for yourself)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-queer-community-kicked-me-out-ft-katie-herzog/id1531229449?i=1000648663308