We live in a world that wants people to fit into boxes. We check those boxes every day, and though we check some ourselves, most are checked by other people. But what if you don’t fit comfortably in societies neat little boxes? Well, there’s a box for that too!

On Tuesday, Sept. 24, South’s Turning Point USA organization hosted a talk by Chloe Cole, a woman who transitioned to male at age 12 and detransitioned back to a female within five years. Cole unchecked the box that was checked for her at birth, checked a different box and then made the unique decision to check the birth-assigned box again.

Cole considered herself to be a “tomboy,” so experiencing a precocious puberty was jarring. She was 8 when her body started changing and felt uncomfortable with these changes from the start. She wanted the changes to stop. She found a community of like-minded individuals online, and “felt influenced by social media” to join the LGBTQ+ community as a transgender male. 

Cole’s transition started at age 12, when she began taking commonly prescribed puberty blockers and testosterone. By age 16, she had undergone a double mastectomy, and by age 17, she had detransitioned and was living her life as a girl again. She feels strongly that her case was mishandled by the medical profession and that her parents were coerced into giving permission for the transition. She said that she was “experimented on” and has many medical problems linked to her gender affirming care. She asserts that many of these issues will last her lifetime. Ultimately, she found that the more she tried to live as a male, the more she felt like she “was putting on a mask every day.” Now, Cole travels the country telling her story and carries the perspective that gender affirming care for minors should be illegal, and the state of Alabama agrees with her. 

Alabama is not alone; 25 other states have passed similar bans. In April of 2022, the state of Alabama ratified the Child Compassion and Protection Act into law, eliminating gender affirming care for minors. Enforcement of the law was blocked by a lawsuit brought by the parents of transgender children in the state. This past January, a federal appeals court lifted the ban on enforcement, and Alabama can now enforce the prohibition on puberty blockers and hormone treatments for minors. 

According to the National Library of Medicine, transgender youth not receiving gender affirming care are more than twice as likely to experience depression as their cisgender counterparts. Also, more than 80% of transgender youths not receiving gender affirming care have considered suicide. The Journal of American Medicine (JAMA) reports that “receipt of gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones, was associated with 60% lower odds of moderate or severe depression and 73% lower odds of suicidality.” JAMA implies that lack of care is expected to make the former statistics worse.

Cole uses her individual experience and anecdotal evidence to posit that the opposite is true. She has found a lot of support and a tribe of detransitioned people to help her champion her cause. However, we must always remember that individual truth is not always aligned with what is true for all of society. The transgender people in attendance were adamant that Cole’s opinions are in the minority, and statistics show that they are correct. The National Library of Medicine reports that less than 10% of people who at some point lived their life as transgender had regret resulting in a decision to detransition returning to their birth gender.

Knowing that I was writing an article on the event, the transgender attendees wanted to make sure that I also spoke of the good things about their transitions, how they felt more like themselves, and how they finally feel truly seen. I left them talking excitedly about their transitions, the support they are getting and the community they have found.

Whether we agree with Cole or not, the message here is that she had the space and the wherewithal to make the choices that were right for her. Cole is able to live her truth, which should be exactly how we all are able to live.