Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender (CAN-SG) is an anti-transgender front group. It is part of an anti-trans web farm of similar sites. YouTube designates their videos as “conversion therapy content.”
Following a 2023 Department for Education draft guidance regarding gender questioning children, CAN-SG members expressed conditional support for the draft. Signatories were:
In March 2024, CAN-SG held a conference in London called “Do No Harm.” It featured many key opponents of healthcare for trans and gender diverse youth.
The event was held at 30 Euston Square, the headquarters of the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP). Following protests from members and the public, RGCP requested that CAN-SG remove all references that suggested RCGP were involved or endorsed the event, which was reportedly booked by Searcys, the venue’s event manager.
RCGP leaders stated:
The RCGP is one of 20 health organisations that have signed a memorandum of understanding opposing conversion therapy, so we were very vocal opponents of the Governmentâs proposal to ban the practice for lesbian, gay and bisexual people in England and Wales but not for trans people. When the document was updated to include gender identity, we worked with other signatories to ensure the memorandum was clear that being opposed to conversion therapy did not mean opposing appropriate clinical and psychological interventions for trans and gender-questioning people and that it is entirely possible to deliver a ban on conversion therapy that protects all LGBTQ+ people.
CAN-SG (December 31, 2023). Letter: Parents must hold schools to account on gender.The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/commentisfree/2023/dec/31/parents-must-hold-schools-to-account-on-gender-observer-letters
Resources
Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender (can-sg.org)
Pamela Buffone is a Canadian software executive and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Pamela Neely “Pam” Buffone earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Ottawa in 1993 and a master’s degree from Western University in 1998.
Buffone and spouse Jason Buffone have a child and live in Ottawa.
Anti-transgender activism
Buffone’s child reportedly became “distressed” during a first-grade lesson about gender identity and expression. After complaining to the school, Buffone filed a discrimination case. The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal held a hearing in 2022, after which the case was dismissed/
Buffone founded anti-trans news site Canadian Gender Report and is an advisor to Genspect. Buffone lists all the usual anti-trans sources on Canadian Gender Report:
Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans (PITT) is an anti-transgender activist organization focused on the “parental rights” faction of anti-trans activism.
PITT is supported, in part, by anti-trans group Genspect.
Key people
Josie Alexander, RN (Oregon)
Dina Samuels (east coast)
PITT published the 2023 book Parents with Inconvenient Truths about Trans. It was edited by Josie and Dina with a foreword by Stella O’Malley of Genspect.
Regret is rare among people who make a gender transition. In 27 studies totaling 7,928 surgery patients, the regret rate was about 1%: “Pooling data from numerous studies demonstrates a regret rate ranging from .3 percent to 3.8 percent. Regrets are most likely to result from a lack of social support after transition or poor surgical outcomes using older techniques.”
A 2024 study from Perth Children’s Hospital in Perth, Australia found low regret rates among minors:
In this cohort study of 548 individuals with closed referrals to a pediatric gender clinic, 29 (5.3%) reportedly reidentified with their birth-registered sex before or during assessment. Two of these individuals reidentified during medical treatment, which corresponds to 1.0% of all patients who initiated medical treatment.
Sometimes a person who makes a change in gender identity or gender expression will make more changes later. That is a key goal of our political movement. You should be able to change your gender identity and expression as often as you want.
There is no shame in questioning your gender and not being sure what to do. As with most big life choices, making a gender transition is a leap of faith, and it is good to look before you leap! No one wants to live a life of regret, whether it is regret about not transitioning sooner, or regret after making a gender transition. The best way to lower the chances of regret is to think carefully about what will give your life fulfillment.
Many people see gender changes on a spectrum. Some people only see them as a binary. You can always transition in any direction, and it is not all or nothing. Every person should feel free to be themselves in their own way. That can change over time. There is no shame in changing your identity or expression more than once. It is not a “failure” to change direction. It is not bad to change your mind. Many of us support you no matter what you choose. We want you to live a life full of purpose and joy. We will fight for your right to be your true self.
Most people who make more gender changes have no regrets about their earlier transition. The choices you make and the actions you take always carry some risk. Some people will feel they made a mistake. It is important not to focus on your mistakes. We all make them, even on big things. When you feel you made a mistake, you have to let it go, forgive yourself and others, and move forward. When you dwell on your mistakes and regret, you are looking backwards to the past.
Being transgender is hard. It is difficult for many people to reach their expectations for transition. They may be dissatisfied with the results or unwanted side effects from medical transition. They may have a hard time moving through the world because of how they look or act. They may have a hard time with acceptance at work, school, or home. It is important to consider the experiences of people who regret transition when deciding what is right for you. Most people who discuss their regrets do so because they want to help others avoid the same regret.
Making more changes
Gender transition is mostly social. All social changes can be changed more than once. All legal changes like name or gender marker can be changed more than once. Many medical changes can be changed more than once. If you undertsand the possible benefits and side effects, it is OK to try hormones or hormone blockers for a little while and stop. Because surgery is a significant step, you need to be very sure before you have surgery. Experts who reviewed 27 studies with a total of 7,928 patients who had surgery found a pooled prevalence of regret of just 1%.
Researchers at Cornell University looked at peer-reviewed studies published between 1991 and 2017:
We identified 55 studies that consist of primary research on this topic, of which 51 (93%) found that gender transition improves the overall well-being of transgender people, while 4 (7%) report mixed or null findings. We found no studies concluding that gender transition causes overall harm.
Of the estimated 240 million trans and gender diverse people worldwide, there are only a few dozen public ex-trans activists worldwide. Each person in the core group of ex-trans activists in the media is literally one in a million.
Most people who decide to make more gender changes still support transgender people. Some just want to share their stories. They want others to learn from their experiences. Even most people who regret making a gender change feel it should be an option for others.
In rare cases, a person who has regret about a gender transition also decides to get money or attention by joining the “ex-trans” movement, also called “political detransition.” Some work to limit or even end access to trans health services for others. Some even work to take away trans people’s other rights. They usually blame others for their transition instead of taking personal responsibility for their own decisions.
The people they blame can include:
Supportive family
Supportive friends
Supportive educators
Supportive transitioners
Supportive organizations
Supportive strangers
Supportive media (especially social media)
Supportive therapists
Supportive healthcare providers
In other words, they often blame the people who tried to help them.
Political strategy
The ex-trans movement focuses on these controversial concepts:
Typically used for adults, this usually means someone who took social, medical, and/or legal transition steps, then took more steps in another direction later.
Ex-trans activists often sue healthcare providers to make money and to have a chilling effect on options for our healthcare.
Historic ex-trans activists
Despite their small numbers, ex-trans activists have been a cisgender media fixation for nearly a century. Some notable older “ex-trans” people include:
Ex-trans people often join the movement following a political or religious conversion. For others, they get involved as a form of attention-seeking behavior, or as a way to make money. Beginning in 2021, the fringe ex-trans movement began to get more politically organized through connections with other conservative and fascist movements.
Confirmed ex-trans activists
The following people have engaged in ex-trans activism and have independently confirmed identities. They are ordered by their real surnames, with fake names and handles also listed.
Many alleged ex-trans activists use fake names and usernames, making it impossible to confirm their claims independently. The following people claim online to be ex-trans activists.
People who express regret are vastly overrepresented in the media. They are often presented the way “ex-gays” used to be presented and are primarily uplifted by conservative and gender critical media figures.
References
Thornton SM, Edalatpour A, Gast KM (2024). A systematic review of patient regret after surgery- A common phenomenon in many specialties but rare within gender-affirmation surgery. The American Journal of Surgeryhttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2024.04.021
Cavve BS, Bickendorf X, Ball J, Saunders LA, Thomas CS, Strauss P, Chaplyn G, Marion L, Siafarikas A, Ganti U, Wiggins A, Lin A, Moore JK (2024). Reidentification With Birth-Registered Sex in a Western Australian Pediatric Gender Clinic Cohort. JAMA Pediatrics https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.0077
We identified 55 studies that consist of primary research on this topic, of which 51 (93%) found that gender transition improves the overall well-being of transgender people, while 4 (7%) report mixed or null findings. We found no studies concluding that gender transition causes overall harm.
Narayan SK, Hontscharuk R, Danker S, Guerriero J, Carter A, Blasdel G, Bluebond-Langner R, Ettner R, Radix A, Schechter L, Berli JU (2021). Guiding the conversationâtypes of regret after gender-affirming surgery and their associated etiologies. Ann Transl Med 2021;9(7):605. https://doi.org/10.21037/atm-20-6204
Prisha Mosley is an American ex-transgender activist. Mosley gets money and attention by making it more difficult for others to get trans healthcare.
Background
Abigail Mosley was born February 14, 1998. Mosley’s parents are Christine Ann Bourgeois-Mosley (born 1968) and Mark Stephen Mosley (born 1962).
Mosley claims to have had “rapid onset gender dysphoria” at 12. Mosley was sexually assaulted at age 14 or 15 (versions differ).
According to Kelsey Bolar at Epoch Times:
Mosleyâs parents were both against her âtransitioningâ as a minor. But because her mother suffered from alcoholism and her own history of mental illness, Mosley âthrew awayâ much of what her mother said. Her father wasnât sure what to do. Mosley describes him as having a âprove it attitude.â He told Mosley to make her own appointments and see what the professionals recommended.
Mosley then took numerous steps without parental assistance. Mosley socially transitioned in 2013, then over the next two years convinced each parent to consent to medical transition steps. Mosley began hormones at 17, in 2015.
Mosley began using the name Charlie Samael Mosley. As an adult, Mosley chose to get top surgery, in 2016. In 2017, Mosley was allegedly “lured to Florida” by trans peers and got engaged to a trans person, but they later broke up.
Mosley moved to Michigan to attend Ferris State University.
Mosley stopped taking hormones in 2022 and began fundraising for breast reconstruction, but ended up using the money for other things. According to Bolar:
After detransitioning in Florida and leaving an unhealthy relationship she was in with another individual who identified as transgender, Mosley moved to Big Rapids, Michigan, to pursue a job at a local dispensary. It was supposed to be a relaxed environment, but she said she got fired for crying every day. Mosley has since started school but can only take courses online because she doesnât feel comfortable being seen.
Anti-transgender activism
On October 2, 2022, Mosley posted a YouTube video originally titled “I ruined my life.” In it Mosley claims that “some people in the trans community, and the transmedicalists, and the doctors really really target the most vulnerable of us.”
In that vulnerable state Mosley was then targeted and groomed by conservative and fascist activists. They showered Mosley with money and attention. Because regret is so rare, Mosley got flown around the country to testify against healthcare for trans and gender diverse minors in states where Mosley does not live:
Louisiana HB463
Ohio SB68
Texas HB 1686
South Carolina
Texas SB14
Indiana SB480
Florida Board of Medicine
Mosley is heavily invested in metaphors of disease and impairment, identifying as disabled and diseased (mentally ill). This is a kind of attention-seeking behavior.
Mosley’s alleged diseases and health problems include:
anorexia (cured)
transgender (cured)
depression
anxiety
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
borderline personality disorder (BPD)
“psychosis”
“delusions”
“permanent damage to my back and ribs”
“severe vaginal atrophy”
“painful genitals so severe I can no longer use tampons”
“never had a normal period”
“chronic pain”
“I live in a painful body that no longer belongs to me”
muscle and fat redistribution left me with “constant burning pain”
“hurts to hold myself up”
“clumsiness”
“my chest is numb except for the occasional zapping pain”
“joint pain for the rest of my life”
“my back and joints ache constantly”
“lost the ability to sing”
“painful to speak for long periods”
“most likely infertile”
“large painful shoulders”
“I’m no longer able to regulate my own hormones”
“pain tolerance is lower”
“overgrown heart”
“increased risk for heart attack and stroke”
“doctors have abandoned me”
“doctors blackmailed my parents”
“missing pieces of my nipples”
need “at least three more traumatizing surgeries”
“I will never be able to feed my children”
Mosley does not seem to take much personal responsibility for these life choices, especially those made as an adult. Until there is some personal responsibility taken, Mosley is doomed to remain a miserable victim cultist.
Jordan Campbell, Ron Miller, Josh Payne, and Daniel Sepulveda are the founders of Campbell Miller Payne, PLLC (CMP), a firm focused on suing providers of trans health services. They and Envisage Law in Raleigh are representing Mosley in litigation against the people who tried to help Mosley, and CMP also represents ex-trans litigant Soren Aldaco in Texas.
Ritchie Herron is a British ex-transgender activist. Herron gets money and attention by making it more difficult for others to get trans healthcare. Herron uses the handle “TullipR” online and frequently appears in conservative or fascist media.
Background
Richard “Ritchie” Herron was born on May 25, 1987. Herron is a child of divorce who claims to have been bullied at school.
After spending time on UK-based The Angels forum, Herron purchased hormones as an adult from a private pharmacy. At age 25, Herron began transition and began using the name Abby. In 2018, at age 30, Herron got vaginoplasty. Five years later, at age 35, Herron made additional gender changes, largely due to dissatisfaction with vaginoplasty results.
Herron is a Newcastle-based civil servant.
In June 2022 Herron claimed lawyers in Liverpool were preparing a legal case against Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust.
Ex-transgender activism
Similar to the ex-gay activists of the 20th century, people like Herron get money and attention by claiming to be no longer trans.
Herron is heavily invested in metaphors of disease and impairment, identifying as disabled and mentally ill. This is a kind of attention-seeking behavior. Rather than take personal responsibility for life decisions made as a 30-year-old adult, Herron chooses to blame those who tried to help.
Herron’s alleged disorders, diseases, “comorbidities,” and maladies include:
“depression, OCD and latent homosexuality”
autism
“hated myself because I am gay”
“an ear infection that led to deafness”
a series of breakdowns
substance misuse issues
“no skill or co-ordination”
Here is how Herron describes the surgical results and complications:
ânearly bled to deathâ
“It literally looked like an animal had got on my crotch and it just went to town on it”
“like my arsecrack has been extended all the way to the front”
“under constant supervision for ongoing complications related to the deeply invasive surgery”
feel mostly nothing in “my flesh cavity” aside from “occasional stabs of pain”
crotch is numb, âshell-shockedâ
scars “still sometimes weep” and “occasionally become inflamed and cause crippling pain”
“my body aches”
“lifelong pain”
Herron claims these long-term problems:
“killed my confidence”
cannot walk long distances
cannot ride a bike
infertile
incontinent
canât use the toilet properly
“takes ten minutes to empty my bladder”
sex drive “is long gone”
“reliant on synthetic hormones”
“lifelong medical patient”
Herron has discussed ex-trans activism in conservative or fascist outlets that include National Review, Rebel News, Daily Mail, Daily Record, Spiked, The Lion, World News Group, The Times, The Critic, The Washington Examiner.The Telegraph, The Christian Institute, Christian Post, and Christian Broadcasting Network.
Herron also frequently appears on channels featuring anti-trans content:
Kerschner works for anti-trans hate group Genspect.
Background
Helena Elise Kerschner was born July 24, 1998 in northern Kentucky and grew up in the Cincinnati area. Kerschner’s parent Magdalena E Kerschner (born 1960) is a physician who ran a pain clinic. Kerschner’s parent William P. “Will” Kerschner (born 1959) was an executive at a large consumer goods company. Both are retired.
Kerschner had a childhood of immense privilege and was involved in figure skating and other expensive hobbies like horse riding. As a teen, Kerschner was a compulsive Tumblr user:
[…] By the time I was thirteen, I was isolating myself, self-harming, and had developed an eating disorder. In eighth grade, I lost touch with most of my school friends, and was too self-conscious and preoccupied with my eating disorder to put myself out there again. I started skipping school, spending lunch in the bathroom, and in general just keeping my head down, trying to get through the day unnoticed.
[…] When I was fifteen, I was introduced to gender ideology on Tumblr and began to call myself nonbinary. Over the next few years, I would continue to go deeper and deeper down the trans identity rabbit hole, and by the time I was eighteen, I saw myself as a âtrans manâ, otherwise known as âFtMâ. Shortly after my eighteenth birthday, I made an appointment at a Planned Parenthood to begin a testosterone regimen. At my first appointment, I was prescribed testosterone, and I would remain on this regimen for a year and a half. It had an extremely negative effect on my mental health, and I finally admitted what a disaster it had been when I was 19, sometime around February or March 2018.
[…] Between sharing photos, drawings, and fanfiction, these girls were posting about their lives and going into deep detail about their struggles. Many were social outcasts like me, also struggling with things like self-harm and eating disorders. Finding a community of such like minded people felt amazing, and I quickly began spending nearly every waking moment on Tumblr or messaging some friend I had met on there. If I had any remaining motivation to integrate myself into real life, I lost that here.
Kershner became sexually attracted to and obsessed with boyish pop culture figures like Elvis and Justin Bieber. Kershner eventually wanted to embody them. This erotic interest in masculinization was not well documented prior to LiveJournal, Tumblr, the “shipping” phenomenon, and anime fandoms frequented by fujoshi {“rotten girl”) obsessives.
Kerschner met Hinty via tumblr, and they eventually lived together. Kerschner started hormones as an adult on August 15, 2016. According to an interview with Daily Wire, Kerschner’s new name was Vincent Lucas “Vin” Jaszczak. Jaszczak was a family name.
While most people who make additional changes in gender identity or expression remain supportive of the process, some choose to get money and attention by joining the ex-trans movement. According to friends, Kerschner was drawn into alt-right ideologies via toxic online communities including now-banned subreddits like r/The_Donald and r/GenderCritical.
I finally bit the bullet and looked into radical feminism. This happened because during a suicidal mental break down, I went to the only community online that I had found supported detransitioned people (the trans community often demonizes and erases us), which was r/GenderCritical on Reddit. I was met with an overflow of love and support, and they showed me that radfems are not the monsters the trans tumblr community makes us out to be. Though their politics were extremely shocking to me, someone who spent the last 5 years intensely believing in genderist ideology, after a while things started making sense and I realized just how horrible trans ideology is, and how it nearly destroyed my life.
With the help of radical feminism, which has taught me an immense level of self respect, I am slowly crawling out of rock bottom.
Kerschner soon became fixated on alt-right figures like Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson in ways that mirror previous fascinations with Elvis and Justin Bieber.
Kerschner testified in support of Ohio legislation HB 454, the “Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE)” Act. Kerschner also works extensively behind the scenes with Denise Caignon, owner of anti-trans site 4thWaveNow.
“a few disclaimers just cause ill talk about this stuff and i dont want u to see me talk about it and not know whats going on: 1. i have experience with abuse but dont talk to me about it unless ur also an abuse survivor 2. im pretty mentally ill so sorry if i cry a lot but you can talk to me about it idc jus⊠beware my screaming”
Ky Schevers is an American writer and activist who left the transphobic “ex-trans” movement. Schevers states on the Reclaiming Trans website:
Ky Schevers played a significant role creating and promoting the radical feminist detrans womenâs community. Under the name CrashChaosCats, she wrote, made videos, presented workshops and gave media interviews in order to talk about her experiences detransitioning and promote anti-trans feminist ideology. Eventually she became disillusioned with the radical feminist movement and recognized her detransition as a harmful anti-trans conversion practice. She writes now to raise awareness of the harms of ideologically motivated detransition and the role transphobic detrans communities play in organized transphobia.
Background
Gender critical troll Katie Herzog featured Schevers prominently in a widely criticized 2017 article about “detransition” that appeared in The Stranger. Schevers is given the pseudonym “Cass” in Herzog’s piece. For seven years, neither Herzog nor The Stranger updated the original piece or covered the subsequent developments. In 2024, The Stranger republished Schevers’ 2021 update.
Schevers was also mentioned in the 2018 profile of ex-trans activist Carey Callahan in the documentary that accompanied the transphobic Atlantic piece on “detransition” by Jesse Singal. Schevers is called “CrashChaosCats” or “Crash” in that publication.
Herzog claimed that many people in the ex-trans movement “detransition” because they have a harder life from less social acceptance:
That may be true for some detrans peopleâespecially trans women, who generally have a harder time passing and who lose the benefits inherent with appearing male in societyâbut it wasn’t the case for Cass, a 31-year-old detrans lesbian in California. Cass was severely bullied as a gender nonconforming kid and says transitioning actually made life easier. She started taking testosterone at 20, and her community was largely supportive. She didn’t have a hard time finding work or people to date. “People were definitely nicer to me after I transitioned and they saw me as a man instead of a butch dyke,” Cass said.
Three months before Cass started taking testosterone, her mom committed suicide. “Transitioning was kind of a survival strategy,” Cass said. And that worked for a while, but over time, she started to sense that her dysphoria was rooted more in the trauma of her mother’s death and her own internalized misogyny than in gender identity. As an adolescent, she had been masculine, butch. “I got a lot of very harsh, negative messages about what it meant to be a woman,” Cass said. “It got to the point where I couldn’t see myself as a woman without feeling the horror other people felt toward me. Living as a man provided a kind of refuge until I was ready to dive into all that.”
When she was ready, Cass, like Jackie, looked online for advice, and she met a woman a few years older who had detransitioned. Her experiences were the sameâfrom childhood bullying and internalized misogyny to the sense that transitioning hadn’t really solved her dysphoria at all. They became friends, talking over the course of a few months, and then, after nine years living as a man, Cass came out as a woman.
It’s been four years since Cass detransitioned. She changed the gender marker on her driver’s license back to female and asked her friends and family to call her by her birth name, but she still passes as male, with a deep voice and a shade of hair on her cheeks.
“Psychologically, it was harder to detransition,” she said. She compares it to the process of working through her mom’s suicide. “It involved a lot more dealing with my trauma and facing the self-destructive parts of myself. It’s not fun, but it’s worth it.”
Cass still hasn’t told the health-care providers who helped her through her transition about the change. In some ways, she faults them for enabling her transition, even though it’s exactly what she wanted at the time. She writes about her experience online, and in one post, she says that a favored therapist “helped me hurt myself. That definitely wasn’t her intention but that’s still what happened. This contradiction is difficult to face and understand.”
In addition to her writing, Cass recently started posting videos to YouTube, where there are a growing number of detransitioning confessionals. In one video, which has been watched nearly 900,000 times, a young man reflects on his decision to detransition after living as a woman. He’s beautiful and androgynous, with long lashes framing bright-blue eyes. “I’m not like every other boy,” he said. “I can accept that now.”
There’s an offline community of detransitioners as well: In 2014 and 2015, Cass led a workshop on detransitioning at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. (Michfest, as it was known, had a contentious history with the trans community due to its long-held “women born women” policy. The festival closed after nearly 40 years in existence in 2015.) Last year, Cass and 15 other detransitioned women got together on the West Coast for a weekend of workshops, meditation, and shared experience. Cass thinks it was the first gathering of its kind.
As one of the detransitioned women (“Cass”) interviewed for this article, I want to say I’m happy with how it came out and am glad women like me are finally getting more representation. I think it’s a very balanced and well researched piece of writing and best of all gives a marginalized group of people a chance to be heard. I’m very excited that detransitioned people are getting more opportunities to speak about our own experiences rather than having other people talk about what they think we are and what we mean. This is one of few articles out there that actually represents my life as a detransitioned woman.
I’m dismayed but not surprised by how some people are reacting to the issues this piece has raised. My life is not transphobic and making lives like mine more visible is not transphobic either. Reading that experiences like mine should not be talked about in public is infuriating. I get to be open and honest about my life and I get to work to make my experience and community more visible. There are people out there who need to know that there’s resources and support for them if they end up detransitioning. They need to know they’re not the only ones. I made a video in response to the article and people’s reactions to it that can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuI5rBWDâŠ
I would encourage people to also watch videos other detrans women made in response: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqN_9rM8⊠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN6N6F6AâŠ
Since leaving the ex-trans cult
Schevers later teamed up with Lee Leveille to form Health Liberation Now! It is “a free, trans-run resource analyzing the social and political forces acting in opposition to health liberation for transgender, detransitioned, retransitioned, and gender diverse people, as well as those questioning their gender. We pair these analyses with collections of proactive resistance strategies that community organizers can use in pursuit of trans health liberation.”
References
Schevers, Ky (June 24, 2024). The Reality Behind the Story I Told The Stranger.The Stranger https://www.thestranger.com/queer-issue-2024/2024/06/05/79545098/the-reality-behind-the-story-i-told-the-stranger
“Shape Shifter” is the stage name of July R. Carlan, an American accountant and ex-transgender activist who gets money and attention by making it harder for others to get trans healthcare.
Background
July Roxella Carlan was born on July 11, 1990. Carlan had a “consensual” sexual experience at age 11 and came out as gay to unaccepting parents at 16.
At age 22 in graduate school, Carlan learned about nonbinary identities and booked an appointment at Fenway Health in Boston on November 15, 2012. At the initial consultation, Carlan described a pattern of high-risk sexual behavior as well as incidents of anti-LGBT discrimination and assault. Carlan also expressed a desire to become pregnant.
Affter signing an informed consent form on December 27, 2012, Carlan began hormones via Fenway Health. In a follow-up appointment in March 2013, a therapist noted Carlan’s âinternalized transphobia,â because Carlan wanted to âbe seen as more than a trans woman.â
By mid-December 2013, Carlan reported inconsistent use of hormones in order to regain sexual function and engage in high-risk sexual behavior. In December 2014, Carlan reported
depression and anxiety
seeking validation through sex
struggles with sexual compulsivity and hopes that GRS will reduce sexual urges
did not want to take hormones in order to enjoy sex
could not find a job in finance and had âbegun a career in strip dancingâ
In the first half of 2015, Carlan had multiple therapy session and received clearance for bottom surgery.
After getting elective bottom surgery as an adult, Carlan “realized I was just a castrated man.” Carlan has sometimes identified as a “homosexual transsexual,” a term promoted by anti-transgender activists.
On or about May 10, 2022, at age 31, Carlan publicly announced plans to make additional gender changes. Carlan no longer identifies as a trans woman, “but as a gender-non-conforming man.” Carlan reportedly just liked feminine clothing and makeup.
Carlan is a Certified Public Accountant in Massachusetts. Carlan is in a relationship with a “sugar daddy” who is nearly 50 years older. Howard Carlan (born December 6, 1941) goes by “Cat Man” in their videos.
Anti-transgender activism
Carlan has regret about taking some medical gender transition steps and has found an anti-trans audience who wants to amplify these rare cases of regret.
In 2022, Carlan testified against healthcare for trans youth before the Florida Board of Medicine.
In addition to numerous media appearances about regret, Carlan has also been critical of trans athletes and supports misinformation and conspiracy theories about trans healthcare.
On October 12, 2023, Carlan filed a lawsuit against Fenway Community Health Center.
Benjamin Boyce (June 4, 2022). When Transition Goes Wrong | with Shape Shifter-https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9MorvzXI2uw
Tomi Lahren – Outkick (November 21, 2022). Trans âShape Shifterâ doxxed by LGBTQ community, Michael Farren performs & Trumpâs return to Twitter https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LGXnptuKYE
Blaire White (July 3, 2022). Detransitioner: “My Penis Is Gone Forever & I Regret it” | Emotional Interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRh80xSI8QQ
Jubilee (April 2, 2023). Should Minors Transition? Detransition vs Trans | Middle Ground https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl0LZZFos-g
Arielle Scarcella (June 5, 2022). “I Miss My Penis” : Brave Detrans Men Speak Out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrRLpJ1uIzw