'I can’t stay quiet': Girl who transitioned to a boy at 13 reveals horrors that made her go back
TALLAHASSEE, FLORIDA: A 17-year-old teen from Central Valley in California, who was born a girl but transitioned to become a boy before de-transitioning, has spoken against children's gender change. Chloe Cole described her agonizing issues and how surgery “irreversibly” harmed her body while testifying during a hearing on Florida's law blocking hormone therapy on Friday, July 8.
The teenager reportedly claimed that intake of puberty blockers and operation have made it really difficult for her to have children. Also, if she would have kids, she won’t be able to breastfeed them because of a double mastectomy she had. The invasive transition processes have also made her vulnerable to a few types of cancer like cervical cancer.
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Florida doesn’t support the medicalization of minors with GD because the benefits are unproven, and the risks are extraordinarily high.
— Joseph A. Ladapo, MD, PhD (@FLSurgeonGen) July 10, 2022
Chloe was treated with puberty blockers and testosterone at the age of 13. @ChoooCole was courageous enough to share her story with us. pic.twitter.com/vL8SF5BH0o
During Medicaid officials' hearing in Tallahassee, Cole said, “No child should have to experience what I have. My consent was not informed. I was unknowingly physically cutting off my true self from my body, irreversibly and painfully,” before adding, “That realization, actually, was one of the biggest things that led to me realizing that this was not the path that I should have taken.”
When the teen was asked what she would like to tell the people, she replied, “Do not transition your kids.” As per reports, Cole decided to become transgender at the age of 12 before coming out to her parents when she was just 13. She began her medical transition between the ages of 13 and 16 and went for mastectomies while being only 15 in June 2020. Along with the surgery, she also took testosterone and puberty blockers and began identifying herself as Leo.
Cole’s testimony came after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in June stepped toward prohibiting transition therapies for children. He also canceled Medicaid support for trans adults' treatments in Florida. The leader took the decision after receiving a letter from the state surgeon general — Dr Joseph Ladapo.
In the letter, Ladapo had written, “While some professional organizations [...] recommend these treatments for 'gender affirming' care, the scientific evidence supporting these complex medical interventions is extraordinarily weak. The current standards set by numerous professional organizations appear to follow a preferred political ideology instead of the highest level of generally accepted medical science.”
“Florida must do more to protect children from politics-based medicine. Otherwise, children and adolescents in our state will continue to face a substantial risk of long-term harm,” the doctor added.
Additionally, a June Florida Medicaid report claimed that "studies [on such treatments] presenting the benefits to mental health, including those claiming that the services prevent suicide, are either low or very low quality and rely on unreliable methods such as surveys and retrospective analyses, both of which are cross-sectional and highly biased. Rather, the available evidence demonstrates that these treatments cause irreversible physical changes and side effects that can affect long-term health.”
Meanwhile, it was not the first time Cole spoke against gender transition procedures. In January of this year, she told The New York Post, “I can’t stay quiet. I need to do something about this and to share my own cautionary tale.” She went on to explain, “I started being exposed to a lot of LGBT content and activism. I saw how trans people online got an overwhelming amount of support, and the amount of praise they were getting really spoke to me because, at the time, I didn’t really have a lot of friends of my own.”
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But after being on medication and invasive procedures, she realized her mistake. Cole added, “The recovery was a very graphic process, and it was definitely something I wasn’t prepared for. I couldn’t even bear to look at myself sometimes. It would make me nauseous. I’m still in the dark about the overall picture of my health right now.”