Back in the spring of 2014, transgender actor Laverne Cox -- then starring in the Netflix hit 'Orange is the New Black' -- appeared on the cover of Time Magazine accompanied by the headline 'The Transgender Tipping Point.'
Arriving months after the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage, Time declared that the struggle for transgender equality then being waged by celebrity-activists like Cox was the 'Civil Rights battle of our time.'
More than a decade on, America is now reaching a new 'transgender tipping point' led by activists such as myself -- who are battling to reverse the damage done all those years ago. Across culture, science and politics, the progressive-led movement that saw minors like myself endure horrific 'gender-affirming' surgeries -- often without our parents' consent -- is being reset.
As President Trump declared in his history-making State of the Union address on Tuesday, 'who would believe that we're even talking about [this]? We must ban it, and we must ban it immediately.'
The Trump speech came in the wake of a series of events that have propelled the transgender movement to this new tipping point. In early February, The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) became the first major medical association in the US to recommend that operating physicians delay breast, genital and facial surgeries, as part of pediatric cross-sex treatments, until patients are at least 19 years old.
That move came just days after a New York jury awarded 22-year-old Fox Varian two million dollars after she sued her medical providers for pushing to have a double mastectomy when she was 16 years old. This was the first-ever trans-related malpractice case of its kind, but it will certainly not be the last.
Four years ago, when I was then 17, I began speaking out about the process of destransitioning back to a young woman after I transitioned to a man years prior. But I didn't just want my body back; I wanted to spare other young people from the horrors I had endured at the hands of reckless physicians and psychologists.
The backlash was intense and immediate. I was told by frigid doctors and livid activists that my voice was an insignificant minority and that by raising my concerns and speaking up about my maltreatment I was infringing upon the 'rights' of others.
Even though I had transitioned medically as a child and once was a legitimate member of the trans community, I was dismissed by medical, legislative, and public authorities because I no longer adhered to their ideological dogma.
Today, as the tide finally turns -- as the trans-rights movement reaches a much needed corrective -- I feel vindicated. But it's taken far too long to get here.
If the medical profession hadn't placed ideology over truth in the first place, I never would have been put on menopause-inducing drugs or critical doses of testosterone at 13 and undergone surgery to remove my breasts as a high school sophomore.
It took four years, but I ultimately chose to embrace my God-given sex before my 17th birthday, having become incredibly sickly and filled with regret after these procedures.
Immediately, my voice was smothered by the same community that once treated me like a hero for becoming the poster child for so-called 'gender affirming' care.
The louder I spoke, the worse the treatment from my former 'friends' and 'allies' within the transgender community became.
What began with alienation and humiliation devolved into threats to my family and folks on social media encouraging me to kill myself. I was barely out of my teens.
I am hardly alone in enduring this abuse. For years, detransitioners, their parents and our support networks who have been blowing the whistle on pediatric cross-sex treatments have faced virulent -- and often violent -- harassment. But now it finally appears to have been worth it.
Thanks to the Varian case and activism by detransitioners like myself, the ASPS recommendations have been adopted by other leading medical groups who finally understand that the benefits of these pediatric procedures may not outweigh any potential risks.
Of course they don't. And what's more, I believe, they're irreversibly destructive.
Chloe Cole's lawsuit against Kaiser Foundation Hospitals is scheduled for April 5, 2027
'This is a vulnerable, adolescent population,' said Scot Bradley Glasberg, past president of ASPS, who did not vote on the new guidance but has been involved in discussions about the group's stance. 'We are mindful that some of these surgeries are irreversible.'
It's only logical that if cosmetic surgeries like breast implants are inappropriate for children, so should be other irreversible treatments that actively interfere with development into adulthood.
After all, so-called gender transition does not just begin with surgery. Puberty blockers and wrong-sex hormones start distraught adolescents down the slippery slope to irreversible transformations.
In fact, the ASPS recommendations also cites 'substantial uncertainty' about the long-term benefits and harms of hormones and puberty blockers which are routinely prescribed. Hopefully, the movement of medical associations will influence American culture, because these surgeries on children are still happening in the US, with their decisions left up to doctors, patients and their families.
But no child should be permitted to make such a life-altering decision. And no parents should have the power to make it for them.
What is needed next is more legal precedent to make this new transgender tipping point permanent. I applaud the Varian ruling. But it is not enough. Two million dollars does not account for all the trauma that she endured.
I too have a lawsuit pending and set to go to trial. I hope that my case will also ensure that every detransitioner can find justice.