Thread by @reclaimingtrans

I spent years basically being a "detrans influencer" creating propaganda to influence how transmasc and other afab trans people saw themselves, tried to encourage them not to transition or detransition and spreading transphobic feminist ideology and conversion practices.

There are online detrans groups that are intentionally trying to influence and recruit trans people. When I was a detrans rad fem, I went so far as to research social psychology to get inside people's heads better (which I now recognize as an incredibly fucked up thing to do).

But the cis people who are so concerned about people being influenced by social media & online trans communities don't care about how there are transphobic detrans groups that are intentionally trying influence trans people. That's because they approve of that kind of influence.

A lot of cis people support "ex-trans" detrans communities because they are far more comfortable with trans people trying to "reconcile with our sex" and manage our dysphoria with conversion practices than they are with trans people transitioning and living openly as trans.

Plenty of cis people are fine with transphobic detrans people exerting influence and trying to recruit more trans people. If they didn't want such detrans people to have more influence and reach, they wouldn't platform them and promote their propaganda. They wouldn't praise them.

Transphobic cis people will happily do their part to create an "ex-trans" movement. They want conversion practices to become the standard way to deal with gender dysphoria, they want all trans people to learn to see our transness as a mental illness to manage and suppress.

Plenty of transphobic people knew I still had dysphoria while I was detrans, they just thought I was healthier and more reasonable than other trans people because I was treating it like a mental illness to manage amd saying that it was rooted in trauma and internalized misogyny.

I got a lot of approval for acting like being trans was a symptom of some deep psychological problem or wound instead of just another way of being a person. They rewarded me for pathologizing myself and suppressing my feelings or sublimating them into radical feminist ideology.

Transphobic cis people like "ex-trans" detrans people not just because they supposedly prove that transition is harmful but because they prove that trans people can be brainwashed into suppressing ourselves and living in ways that center cis people's comfort and anxieties.

Many transphobic cis people will choose anti-trans conversion practices and ideological detransition over granting trans people access to medical transition and the resources we need to live openly because they would rather we suppress ourselves for them so that they feel better.

Transphobic cis people like trans people better when we're brainwashed and self-hating, when we're living a life that makes them feel comfortable rather than living in a way that makes us happy. They're way more invested in their transphobia than in our well-being.

The people who liked me back when I was detrans don't give a shit that I'm happier now that I've accepted that I'm trans. They would prefer that I was still indoctrinated and trying to recruit other trans people into a "ex-trans" detrans cult. They never cared about my happiness.

The ultimate goal of transphobic detrans narratives is to normalize anti-trans conversion practices as standard response to trans people. To convince or force us all into social and psychological death, into suppressing our transness and managing dysphoria instead of transition.

Transphobic people want to maximize the social and political influences of groups that promote conversion practices and make it harder to live openly as a trans person. They fear trans people's power & influence because they don't want us to make it easier to be trans in society.

Transphobes cast any attempt by trans people to make it easier to live openly as trans or transition as negative and dangerous. Meanwhile they promote the influence of anti-trans detrans communities that spread transphobic ideologies and conversion practices.

When trans people try to change society to improve our lives we're a "social contagion" endangering children. When ex-trans detrans people spread anti-trans propaganda and promote conversion practices they're supposedly "brave" & "heroic". It's all about destroying trans life.

Transphobes will uplift the voice of a self-hating transmasc person living as a "woman with gender dysphoria" over the voice of a proud, autonomous trans person every time. Especially if that trans person is fighting for a better world for all trans people.

I don't bother trying to talk to most transphobic people because I know my well-being and freedom means nothing to them. They made it very clear that they only liked me when I hated myself and internalized their transphobic bullshit. They liked me when they could control me.

Let's create the world transphobic people fear the most, a world where trans people have power to live freely and access to all the resources we need to live well. Transphobes have no right to control our lives or suppress our power. We deserve nothing less than total liberation.