I’m a survivor of a medical gender transition that began when I was only 12-years-old. I travel the country sharing my story in hopes of saving other children from the horrors of the “gender-affirming care” I received. I advocate before state and federal governments to pass laws that will prevent kids from accessing these mutilating surgeries and drugs.

According to a recent hit piece from the Los Angeles Times, this simply makes me a “right-wing icon.” The rhetoric used in their so-called journalism is not only wrong but flat out dangerous.

Let me be clear: I am not a pawn for a particular politician or party. I never wanted to be famous, especially not as a result of the most traumatic years of my life. I am sharing that trauma — which I’m still working through to this day — and partnering with those who want to pass laws that protect kids from being coerced into dangerous and unnecessary procedures.

I know this coercion firsthand. At 12-years-old, I was struggling with several mental health problems. I spent hours and hours on social media listening to transgender activists who convinced me that I must have been born in the wrong body. If only I was a boy, my problems would all go away.

I went to doctors who took advantage of my youth and naivety. Rather than treat my numerous comorbidities with mental health counseling, they handed me — at age 12 — a prescription pad for permanent pharmaceutical and surgical intervention. No one warned me about the lifelong ramifications of this decision. No one told me about the ever-growing mountain of evidence undermining the pro-transition propaganda I was being bombarded with.

It’s the same evidence that the LA Times irresponsibly dismissed. Several European countries — including those who pioneered these treatments — have stepped back from recommending that kids undergo these drugs and surgeries. Just this week, a High Court judge upheld the British government’s emergency ban on puberty blockers because the treatment has “very substantial risks and very narrow benefits,” and the area of gender medicine is based in “remarkably weak evidence.”

A recent leak of files from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), confirmed that the “standards” for transgender care that doctors like mine use to treat kids aren’t grounded in medical or scientific research. Multiple WPATH doctors admitted that there are huge uncertainties in this field of medicine. They also discussed how they actively suppress scientific studies that disprove their claims about gender-affirming care.

And when it comes to treating kids, one WPATH doctor compared explaining potential side effects for fertility with a 14-year-old to “talking to a blank wall.”

Such casually horrific admissions confirm that there is no such thing as informed consent when it comes to “gender-affirming care” for kids.

This is the “evidence” that my doctors ignored and manipulated when they told my parents there were only two options: a dead daughter or a living son.

This was a disgusting lie. And it’s a lie that changed the course of my life forever.

It’s not my fault that Democrats are too afraid of radical transgender activists to support commonsense protections for kids. They’re willing to ban kids from smoking, from alcohol, and in some states even from tanning beds. But they draw the line at drugs and surgeries that kids cannot fully understand, that doctors regularly coerce kids into signing up for, and that turn kids into lifelong patients.

When young adults who support token Leftist causes take a stand and advocate for their beliefs, they’re held up as courageous activist icons.

When I speak out against kids getting double mastectomies and taking experimental drugs, I’m torn down, and my reputation is shredded.

I urge those who would leap to conclusions about me to truly listen to my story. Think about the teenage girls you know and ask yourself if you would want this for them.

My story is important. All detransitioners’ stories are important.

* * *

Chloe Cole is a poised and articulate 20-year-old young woman who passionately advocates against the practice of transitioning minors. Driven by a noble mission to safeguard children from potentially harmful ideologies and medical interventions, Chloe draws from her personal experiences to shed light on the distressing consequences of gender-affirming care for adolescents. Having embarked on her own transition journey at the tender age of 12, only to subsequently detransition at 16, Chloe speaks with firsthand authority on the deeply traumatic effects experienced by minors undergoing such treatments. Represented by the Center for American Liberty, Chloe is suing the “medical professionals” who mutilated her. Follow her: @ChooCole

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Wire.

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