Sharing the Stories of Those Hurt by the Transgender Movement With Kallie Fell

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It's an interesting and sometimes disorienting time to be alive for sure. Basic biological truths are not only questioned, but rejected. Transgender advocates have taken increasingly aggressive stances and have found a surprising amount of support from American medical professionals and educational experts.

Interestingly, even the most liberal nations in Europe have outlawed many of the treatments that our nation's professionals are advocating. Not only that, an increasing number of people who are steered into gender transition are now sharing their experiences and regret as a warning to others. The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network is helping to get those stories out. Well, executive director Callie Fell joins us today to talk about how they're doing that.

Callie Fell, welcome to Family Policy Matters. Thank you so much for having me. I always enjoy talking with you all.

So thank you. So why has the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network decided to focus so much on being an avenue for sharing these kinds of stories? This wasn't a topic that we started out addressing.

They entered our territory. As you know, we cover a lot in third party reproduction. And when we found out that young children are being put on medications that would render them infertile and have to go through those avenues of third party reproduction, we thought, OK, we have to say something.

And so that's when we started. And as you know, we use as an educational nonprofit, we use the powerful media of film often to educate. And so we started our first film on that topic and then have been now made three films on the topic and one book. What kind of response have you received from that? We have had an incredible response, actually overwhelmingly positive, which can be kind of scary.

People have been canceled, vilified, lost their jobs, et cetera, for speaking out on this topic. Our first film called Transmission, What's the Rush to Reassign Gender? Audiences really connected with the parents in that film who were experiencing their children going through medical transition or being socially transitioned at their schools. They also connected with the transitioners. And so that's kind of when that aha moment went off and we decided that we needed to create another film focusing on the transitioners. And that's the Detransition Diaries Saving Our Sisters, where we focus on three young women who bought the lie that they were born in the wrong body and then transitioned and then detransitioned.

Again, great positive response. We focused on girls initially because that's where we were seeing the rise. And this was among young women. But we had parents again reach out.

This isn't enough. This is happening to our boys and men to third movie just came out two weeks ago. The Lost Boys Searching for Manhood. And that also has gotten an overwhelmingly positive response. That's the film that's received the most views on YouTube, the most positive, hundreds of positive comments. It's doing extremely well.

And let me back up one second. In between the two films, Detransition Diaries and The Lost Boys Searching for Manhood, we were approached by a publishing company to publish a book detailing these stories. And so you kind of see that book is coming out this month in February.

And it has both the stories from the gals and stories from the guys in both of those films, plus more. So it's been overwhelmingly positive. I'm hoping the book does well. Hoping people are encouraged by it when they read it. Now, you mentioned that the reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, but I'm assuming that you're talking about from conservatives. So what kind of reaction are you getting from the other side and how are they even attempting to fight against these very personal testimonies?

You know, it's interesting. We can't always delineate the data of who is watching and who's got positive comments. But really, we have with this film, our marketing team is trying to help us figure that out. And yes, we do have a positive response from conservatives, but we are also getting a really positive response from the other side. And really what you'll see, there's been some groups do this studies on this, that this isn't even a political issue anymore. Both people on both sides of the spectrum are saying, hold on, what are we doing?

This is not medically ethical sound practice. So yes, to your point, but I think we're seeing both sides who are starting to be concerned. Talking about the Deep Transition Diaries book, is that a personal and historical perspective for you? It is.

And that's the great thing about books is that they can expand on films in a way that only books can. Right. And so never in my life did I think that I would be defending the idea that humans are created either male or female and that one cannot transform or transition to the other. We live in crazy, unprecedented times where it is controversial to say that sex is binary, that a man cannot become a woman or vice versa.

People have been, like I said, vilified, canceled for standing up for women's only spaces, etc. So the book, we're witnessing this rapid rise in gender confusion among young people, boys and girls. And so our new book, we kind of start with a history lesson on this gender affirmation movement, including various individuals and organizations who peddled this idea or stood up against this idea that sexual binary is arbitrary. We also take a look at the past where medicine has gone astray as it's doing now. For example, forced sterilizations in our history, lobotomies, etc. It's personal in that it recounts the very, very personal stories of five women and two men who felt that they were born in the wrong body.

And then they believe the lie that they were told that they could transition, that they would become their true selves by medically and surgically altering their bodies and then detransition. So these stories talk about their short term, long term health and now what they're experiencing now. And these real stories, these are really important for people to hear.

The power of these first account testimonies cannot be underestimated and they certainly shouldn't be silenced or ignored. So talk about the lost boys. Why do you think this is also an important contribution to the discussion? Because like our parents said, who really wanted the film to be made, you know, we're kind of glossing over the boys in this issue. A lot of focus has been given to girls, which there is this rise in rapid onset gender dysphoria in young girls that we're seeing. We're also seeing it in the men. And there's a lot of similarities that we're seeing actually between the two groups, boys and girls, men and women. Overwhelmingly, when we interviewed these detransitioners or these young men and women now, you know, we saw some pretty common themes like how quickly both boys and girls, men and women were affirmed or prescribed hormones. Several of them over like a 30 minute chat, maybe by Zoom with a medical provider that they'd never seen before, which a single call into Planned Parenthood cannot be the standard of care.

Nowhere else is that a standard of care. Secondly, another big thing we saw was that everyone we interviewed had some sort of trauma or adverse event or medical history like mental health issues that were ignored, looked over, what have you. They were told that medically transitioning would be the fix to their problems, not the other way around, specifically in the lost boys. Just for an example, Brian, he struggled with alcohol and porn addiction and drug addiction. No one thought, hey, let's get you sober first. Those are his words, you know, let's get you sober first and then and then you can transition. And then we can talk about that.

That was the other way around. And I just think that more robust care is going to show that children and young adults are suffering from something else like an adverse childhood event like sexual trauma, for example, Rachel in our book. And that gender dysphoria will resolve when proper care is provided. So how common is this detransition and do you think you're hearing or we're hearing about most of the cases that are happening?

Oh, this is a million dollar question. I wish I had a clear answer, but the answer does depend on who you ask. For a long time, these voices of detransitioners or those who simply regretted medically transitioning were silenced by news and media or the medical community and in research.

They were completely out of the question. Anyone who speaks against this agenda of transgender medicine, including detransitioners, simply sharing their stories, they're vilified at best and silenced or canceled at worst. And like I said, I think before the call started, people lost their livelihood, their families for simply questioning this ideology. In our film, Graham speaks to this. He lost everything.

He is a comedy writer. So according to transgender groups, people who regret transitioning are really rare. And they do so because of parental or societal pressure and that society should just be more accepting and pushing of this ideology. It's difficult to get figures because, like I said, these people are not counted. They don't go back to their physician and self-report as they're often mistreated. They've already been mistreated by the medical community.

Why would they go back? And so we know that the figure is high. We know that it's growing. The detransition group, one of the ways you can kind of look at that on Reddit, which is private for detransitioners, is growing and now has over 50000 members. So our stance is regardless of the numbers, though, one person, one child, anyone who receives medical treatment that they should not, thereby becoming infertile or a medical patient for life.

That's too many. This is pretty disturbing, actually very disturbing. Do you see any cause for hope? Oh, absolutely.

I couldn't wake up and do the job I do every morning if I didn't have some hope. I'm confident, as are many of the professionals that we interview in our films, that we're seeing the tip of the iceberg. We're hoping that we're starting to see people wake up at the onset of writing the book.

Again, there was a real deficit in detransition voices. But if you are on Twitter at all or any social media, you will see that there are more and more people like those in the book and in our films speaking out about their regrets and or participating in transgender medical practice. I'm thinking of also the whistleblower, Jamie Reed. She's speaking out about that now. And their stories are going to spark investigations, lawsuits, which will hopefully create some sort of liability that won't be able to be sustained for practicing this medicine on minors especially. I think once people accept the truth about sex and realize the dangers that we're doing, the right course of treatment can be found, treatment that truly, what we'd say, truly does no harm.

I mentioned Graham in our film, The Lost Boys. He states that the tides are changing and more people are starting to be brave. They're starting to speak out.

They're putting their necks on the line to protect. And it's creating a ripple effect. One person reaches out, you know, others are more likely to be brave and also say, wait a second, I also have cause for concern here. So I do have hope. I think elevating these voices helps. I am hopeful, yes.

Let's talk a little more specifically. You mentioned Graham, but after these folks detransition, are they finding something that they didn't find? What is so amazing about the men and women that I've had the opportunity to interview for the films and books is that they do not wallow in despair.

This is not, most of them, you know, I get people asking me if they can reach out to them for contact for interviews, etc. Most of them have moved on. They want to move on. They've started families.

They're, you know, pursuing education and they have professional goals. So that is something that's really, I'm captured by them is how resilient and how they refuse to wallow and how they were treated and let that define them. Grace talks about that in our film, The Detransition Diaries, just how resilient humans are.

And I just think that's really beautiful. And I think each of them, at least the people I've interviewed, have really started to find healing. Most of them leave the medical community that we know of, the traditional Western medicine, and find help elsewhere, which is just really encouraging. Are you seeing hope from the medical arena as well? I wish I was more hopeful there. I think there are physicians and nurses like Jamie Reid who spoke out. I think there will be more whistleblowers. But as someone in the medical community working as a nurse, I do see that we're still peddling this ideology, so to speak.

Yeah. Callie, where can our listeners go to follow your work and find the new book, The Transition Diaries, and of course, watch your documentary, The Lost Boys Searching for Manhood? All of our films that I mentioned and more are found on our YouTube channel, cbc-network. That's cbc-network. On YouTube, for free, you can just simply type in the titles of our works. You can also go to our website, cbc-network.org. There's a dropdown with both our films, books, and our podcasts. But our films and our books, and those will take you to the links where you can purchase our book, is titled The Detransition Diaries.

It can be found on Amazon or through our publisher, Ignatius Press. All right. Callie Fell, Executive Director of the Center for Bioethics and Culture Network. Thanks so much for being with us today on Family Policy Matters. Thank you for listening to Family Policy Matters.

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