How the far-right leverages detransitioners against trans healthcare
Conservative groups are cherry picking detransitioners to roll back trans rights in the US. THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED ON UNCLOSETED MEDIA A NEW INVESTIGATIVE LGBTQIA+ FOCUSSED NEWS PUBLICATION. WORDS BY SPENCER MACNAUGHTON AND HOPE PISONI In July 2019, Elisa Rae Shupe took a whirlwind trip to a conference in Atlanta.
With an all-expenses-paid visit that included lodging at the five-star Ritz Carlton hotel, Shupe says she and her spouse received “rock star treatment” from Family Policy Alliance (FPA), the conservative Christian lobbying group hosting the event, who invited her to speak about her detransition.
Shupe, who made waves in 2016 when she became the first US Citizen to change their legal gender to non-binary, had recently turned against the trans community after she detransitioned and began publicly denouncing trans rights on social media.
She attributes her decision to detransition – where she went back to identifying with her assigned gender at birth after previously identifying as trans – to a lack of family acceptance and to her struggle with borderline personality disorder (BPD). “Especially with the BPD, where I become destabilised with my sense of self; my goals changed,” she told Uncloseted Media.
