Walt Heyer writes:
Billy B.’s story is not exceptional or unique. Childhood sexual abuse is an experience common to many of those who write me with regret about changing genders. Stories like his have filled my email inbox for the last ten years. That’s precisely why I asked him if I could share it. (…)
When Billy first emailed me, his subject line was “I’m another,” meaning another of the growing number of people, young and old, who formerly identified as transgender and who have detransitioned back to living as their original sex. He is also “another” of the people diagnosed with gender dysphoria who were sexually abused at a young age and falsely assured by medical practitioners that their problems would go away with cross-sex hormones and surgery.
It’s commendable to see the recent media attention on the “me too” movement for women who were sexually abused, but that’s only half the story. Boys like Billy who were sexually abused by older males need to be included, too. Perhaps it is time for a new movement—“I’m another”—for people who suffered the double harm of being sexually abused and then surgically mutilated. They learn the hard way, as Billy puts it, that it was “all for naught,” after convincing everyone else to use the right names and pronouns and getting access to cross-gender bathrooms.
