I Was A Trans Kid, I Started Medical Transition At 14 Years Old..Then I Detransitioned
I was a child. I couldn't consent to being permanently chemically disfigured, and it was not loving to cut my breasts off. I was lied to and told I was secretly a boy inside.
Overview
Claire Abernathy describes identifying as trans at twelve and starting testosterone at fourteen, followed by a mastectomy six months later. She argues that children cannot consent to permanent chemical and surgical alteration and that such procedures should be reserved for adults at age eighteen. She says she was lied to about being a boy inside, calls childhood medical transition pseudoscience and child abuse, and insists that doctors must refuse these requests regardless of a child’s assent.
Full Video Summary
Claire Abernathy recounts that she identified as transgender at twelve years old and began testosterone during her eighth-grade year at age fourteen. When a woman asks whether she requested the treatment, Claire confirms that she did, but she immediately adds that a child’s request does not by itself make a medical intervention ethical. She compares the situation to a non-diabetic patient asking a doctor for insulin, arguing that the doctor should refuse because fulfilling every request is not appropriate across the board. Six months after starting testosterone, at age fourteen, she underwent a double mastectomy. Claire emphasizes that she was a child who could not consent to being permanently chemically disfigured or to having her breasts surgically removed. Claire states clearly that she does not believe medical transition should be available to children. When asked whether no one should have these procedures, she replies, “Not as children.” She clarifies that if medical transition is treated as a cosmetic intervention that an adult chooses for their own body, then the appropriate age should be eighteen, consistent with other cosmetic procedures. She contends that children and middle schoolers do not know who they are, and she challenges the concept of the “transgender child” by asking what exactly such a term is supposed to mean. She points out that many people, particularly teenagers, do not feel right in their bodies during puberty, and she questions why society would cut off a child’s breasts simply because that child feels uncomfortable or claims to be in the wrong body. Claire says she was lied to as a child and told that she was secretly a boy inside. She expresses anger that little girls are having their breasts removed and that children are being indoctrinated to believe that removing pieces of their bodies will solve their distress. She tells the woman that it was not loving to cut her breasts off and that facilitating such surgeries on minors is medically unethical. She also describes the practice as pseudoscience and child abuse, insisting that doctors should not provide these treatments to children even when the children ask for them. Throughout the exchange, she maintains that her position is about protecting minors, not about restricting the choices of adults who might elect cosmetic procedures once they are old enough to give informed consent.