Recently, Reuters news service published an article titled, “Why detransitioners are crucial to the science of gender care.”  

As surprising as it is that a story like this would be carried, even more surprising was the article’s primary source. Dr. Kinnon MacKinnon is a woman who has undergone both a social transition and what is called “gender-reassignment” surgery. Now teaching social work at York University, MacKinnon studied the lives of detransitioners, initially convinced they were a fringe minority whose stories were not significant in understanding the issue. 

Her research led her to the opposite conclusion. Detransitioners, she found, are frequently bullied into silence by both the transgender community and the medical establishment. As Dr. MacKinnon put it, “I can’t think of any other examples where you’re not allowed to speak about your own healthcare experiences if you didn’t have a good outcome.”  

I can’t think of another issue where so many of the rules are altered, and the conclusion so clearly pre-determined. But, as this story demonstrates, that doesn’t mean the issue is settled. Not by a long shot.