A Courageous Chloe Cole Addresses Congress
Written by on August 7, 2023
On July 27, 2023, members of the U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution and Limited Government witnessed a modern-day profile in courage.
At a hearing entitled “The Dangers and Due Process Violations of ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ for Children,” 19-year-old Chloe Cole spoke about her experience as a detransitioner. (A detransitioner is a person who has begun or completed a so-called gender transition, but has chosen to stop the transition process or to reverse course and reclaim his or her true, biologically-based gender identity.)
Cole testified that at age 12, she was uneasy about the changes to her body that were brought on by the onset of puberty. She was diagnosed with gender dysphoria, and she informed her parents that she was “transgender.” According to Cole, she was taken to see a “gender specialist” who asked her parents, “Would you rather have a dead daughter or a living ‘transgender’ son?” Cole began taking puberty blockers and was placed on testosterone at age 13. She described the changes testosterone made to her voice, her physique, and her facial features. Cole then underwent a medically unnecessary double mastectomy when she was 15; she has lingering problems with the skin grafts associated with the procedure.
Cole made the key point that none of the “treatments” she underwent resolved the underlying issues that made her uncomfortable with her body in the first place. While she had not been suicidal prior to attempting a “gender transition,” she did become suicidal after her mastectomy.
Now, Cole believes that her 12-year-old self needed compassion and therapy. Instead, she was “affirmed in [the] delusion” that a “gender transition” would solve her problems. She added, “We need to stop telling 12-year-olds that they were born wrong.” Cole ended her testimony by saying, “My childhood was ruined… This needs to stop. You alone can stop it. Enough children have already been victimized by this barbaric pseudoscience. Please let me be your final warning.”
New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms thanks Chloe Cole and the other brave detransitioners who are sharing their stories. No young person should go through what Chloe Cole has gone through, and the medical and psychiatric personnel who encourage minor patients and their families to pursue “transgenderism” must reverse course.
