Woman Who Detransitioned Calls On Congress To Ban Gender Confirmation Healthcare For Minors — Transcript

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1. 0:00in here and for your courage Miss
2. 0:01Scanlon Miss Cole You're Next and you
3. 0:03can begin
4. 0:09my name is Chloe Cole and I'm a new
5. 0:11transitioner
6. 0:12another way to put that would be I used
7. 0:14to believe that I was born the wrong
8. 0:15body
9. 0:16and the adults in my life whom I trusted
10. 0:18affirmed my belief
11. 0:20and this caused me lifelong irreversible
12. 0:22harm
13. 0:23I speak to you today as a victim of one
14. 0:25of the biggest medical scandals in the
15. 0:27history of the United States of America
16. 0:29I speak to you in the hope that you will
17. 0:32have the courage to bring the Scandal to
18. 0:33an end and ensure that other vulnerable
19. 0:35teenagers children and young adults
20. 0:37don't go through what I went through
21. 0:41at the age of 12 I began to experience
22. 0:43what my medical team would later
23. 0:45diagnose as gender dysphoria
24. 0:47I was well into an early puberty and I
25. 0:51was very uncomfortable with the changes
26. 0:52that were happening to my body
27. 0:54I was intended I was intimidated by male
28. 0:56attention and when I told my parents
29. 0:58that I felt like a boy in retrospect all
30. 1:01I meant was that I hated puberty that I
31. 1:04wanted this newfound sexual attention to
32. 1:06go away
33. 1:07that I looked up to my brothers a little
34. 1:09bit more than I did to my sisters
35. 1:12I came out as transgender
36. 1:14in a letter I sent on the dining room
37. 1:16table
38. 1:17my parents were immediately concerned
39. 1:19they felt like they needed to get
40. 1:20outside help from medical professionals
41. 1:22but this proved to be a mistake
42. 1:24it immediately set our entire family
43. 1:26down a path of ideologically motivated
44. 1:28deceit and coercion
45. 1:30the gender specialist I was taking to
46. 1:32taking to see told my parents that I
47. 1:35need to be put on puberty blocking drugs
48. 1:36right away
49. 1:37they asked my parents a simple question
50. 1:40would you rather have a dead daughter or
51. 1:42a living transgender son
52. 1:45the choice was enough for my parents to
53. 1:46let their guard down and in retrospect I
54. 1:49can't blame them
55. 1:50this is the moment that we all became
56. 1:51victims of so-called gender affirming
57. 1:53care
58. 1:54I was fast tracked onto puberty blockers
59. 1:56and then testosterone
60. 1:57the resulting menopausal like hot
61. 1:59flashes made focusing on school
62. 2:01impossible
63. 2:02I still get joint pains and weird Pops
64. 2:04in my back
65. 2:05but they were far worse when I was on
66. 2:07the blockers
67. 2:08a month later when I was 13 I had my
68. 2:11first testosterone injection
69. 2:13it's caused permanent changes to my body
70. 2:15my voice will forever be deeper my
71. 2:18jawline sharper my nose longer my bone
72. 2:21structure permanently masculinized my
73. 2:23Adam's Apple more prominence my
74. 2:25fertility unknown
75. 2:27I look in the mirror sometimes and
76. 2:30I feel like a monster
77. 2:34I had a double mastectomy at 15. they
78. 2:36tested my amputated breast for cancer
79. 2:38and I was cancer-free of course I was
80. 2:40perfectly healthy
81. 2:42there was nothing wrong with my still
82. 2:43developing body
83. 2:45or my breasts other than that as an
84. 2:47insecure teenage girl I felt awkward
85. 2:50about it
86. 2:51after my breasts were taken away from me
87. 2:53the tissue was incinerated
88. 2:55before I was able to legally drive I had
89. 2:58part I had a huge part of my future
90. 3:00Womanhood taken from me I will never be
91. 3:02able to breastfeed I struggled to look
92. 3:05at myself in the mirror at times
93. 3:08I
94. 3:09still struggle to this day with sexual
95. 3:11dysfunction and I have massive scars
96. 3:13across my chest and the skin grafts that
97. 3:16they use that they took of my nipples
98. 3:19are Weeping fluid today and they were
99. 3:21grafted into a more masculine
100. 3:22positioning they said
101. 3:24after surgery my grades in school
102. 3:27plummeted everything that I went through
103. 3:29did nothing to address my underlying
104. 3:31mental health issues that I had and my
105. 3:33doctors with their theories on gender
106. 3:34thought that all my problems would go
107. 3:36away as soon as I was surgically
108. 3:37transformed into something that vaguely
109. 3:39resembled a boy
110. 3:40their theories were wrong the drugs and
111. 3:43surgeries changed my body but they did
112. 3:45not and could not change the basic
113. 3:46reality that I am and forever will be a
114. 3:49female
115. 3:50when my specialist first told my parents
116. 3:52that they could have a dead daughter or
117. 3:54a live transgender son I wasn't suicidal
118. 3:58I was a happy child who struggled
119. 4:00because she was different
120. 4:01however at 16 after my surgery I did
121. 4:05become suicidal I'm doing better now but
122. 4:08my parents almost got the dead daughter
123. 4:09promised to them by my doctors my
124. 4:12doctors had almost created a very
125. 4:14nightmare they said they were trying to
126. 4:16avoid
127. 4:17so what message do I want to bring to
128. 4:19American teenagers and their families
129. 4:21I didn't need to be lied to
130. 4:23I needed compassion
131. 4:25I needed to be loved I need to begin in
132. 4:28therapy to help me work through my
133. 4:29issues not affirm to my delusion that by
134. 4:32transforming into a boy it would solve
135. 4:34all my problems
136. 4:35we need to stop telling 12 year olds
137. 4:37that they were born wrong
138. 4:39that they are right to reject their own
139. 4:41bodies and feel uncomfortable with their
140. 4:42own skin
141. 4:43we need to stop telling children that
142. 4:45puberty is an option that they can
143. 4:48choose what kind of puberty they will go
144. 4:49through just they can choose what
145. 4:51clothes to wear or what music to listen
146. 4:53to puberty is a Rite of Passage to
147. 4:56adulthood not a disease to be mitigated
148. 4:59today I should be at home with my family
149. 5:02celebrating my 19th birthday and instead
150. 5:04I'm making a desperate plea to my
151. 5:06elected my elected representatives learn
152. 5:09the lessons from other medical scandals
153. 5:11like the opioid process
154. 5:13to recognize that doctors are human too
155. 5:15and sometimes they are wrong
156. 5:18my childhood was ruined along with
157. 5:20thousands of deep transitioners that I
158. 5:21know through our networks this needs to
159. 5:24stop you alone can stop it enough
160. 5:27children have already been victimized by
161. 5:29this barbaric pseudoscience please let
162. 5:32me be your final warning thank you