Two teen girls who once identified as transgender — and went so far as to take hormones and undergo gender surgery — spoke out Tuesday in favor of a Louisiana bill that would ban sex change surgeries for minors in the state.
The remarks from both girls came in testimony before the Louisiana House Health and Welfare Committee amid discussions on House Bill 463, which would prohibit "certain procedures to alter the sex of a minor child."
"Today is special because it marks the one-year anniversary of me speaking out on my experiences of enduring the worst medical scandal in American history," said Chloe Cole, 18. "What is so scary about a de-transitioner? Is it the fact that we lend proof to the idea that gender-affirming care is a complete scam? Is it because it makes it harder to ignore institutionally-backed medical abuse carried out on children? Can you no longer turn a blind eye to it in favor of the medical lobbyists that stand between you and your moral compass?"
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"I exist. I will speak despite your best efforts," added Cole, who began transitioning when she was 13.
"Doctors medicalized me, starting puberty blockers and testosterone at the 13-years-old," she said. "I didn't know what things like cervixes or ovulation were, or how the full menstrual cycle worked yet, but I was cleared by adults who had a full understanding of such things to make a decision that would affect my fertility, the ongoing development of my sexual organs, and the complex process unique to me as a woman."
Cole said she was "given a double mastectomy" in the "name of political ideology" at the age of 15.
Following the operation, Cole said medical professionals were not receptive to her concerns and complications.
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"When I went to my surgeon to get help for my complications — like fluid leaking out of my areola grafts — I got dismissed in a Zoom call with advice that gave me a skin infection. Try to ignore that. You can't," Cole said. "When you tend to ignore that, you're ignoring the thousands of de-transitioners I've personally corresponded with."
Describing the rapid change, Cole said her parents "weren't given any other option" for their daughter than a gender transition. Cole also noted in her testimony that she "wasn't suicidal" until after she started receiving gender-reassignment treatments.
Asked whether she still experiences gender dysphoria, which the American Psychiatric Association describes as "psychological distress that results from an incongruence between one’s sex assigned at birth and one’s gender identity," Cole responded: "Yes. I've just lived in my body and accepted things as they are."
The bill up for debate in Louisiana was authored by Republican state Rep. Michael Firment, who represents the state's 22nd House District.
Another individual who offered testimony to the committee on Tuesday was a young woman named Prisha, who told lawmakers that she now lives in a "painful body that no longer belongs to me" after transitioning.
"My hatred for myself and fear of revictimization was exploited by the adults around me, who convinced me that I needed drugs and surgeries to be myself," Prisha said. "At 17, high doses of testosterone were injected into my anorexic body, and one year later my healthy breasts were removed. Testosterone had severe and irreversible impacts that I will live with for the rest of my life."
Louisiana House Bill 463, also known as the "Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act," bans all gender transition medical care for anyone under 18.
