I WISH MY DOCTORS DENIED ME
Ex-trans girl warns against gender-affirm policy
PRESIDENT Biden recently expressed support for “gender affirming” medical treatment for transgender minors, which pressures medical professionals to affirm and not question a child’s gender identity. But 18-year-old Chloe Cole, who was born female and transitioned to male as a young teen before “detransitioning,” thinks Biden’s stance could lead more young people down the road toward irreversible medical treatments.
“What Biden was saying is dangerous,” Cole warned. “He’s trying to advocate for further experimentation on children.”
The California teen, who began identifying as a boy at age 12, started puberty blockers and testosterone treatment at 13 and had an elective double mastectomy at 15 to masculinize her chest. By 16, she regretted the surgeries, which she says were spurred on by insecurities about her appearance and the influence of social media rather than gender dysphoria. She blames medical professionals for failing to question or prevent her rapid transition.
“I was failed by the system. I literally lost organs,” she told The Post in a previous interview.
A moral question
During a panel discussion at the White House on Friday, Biden spoke with six progressive activists championing issues from gun control to abortion access. Among them was transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, who asked the president whether states should be able to regulate medical treatment — like hormone replacement therapy and gender-affirming surgery — for minors with gender dysphoria.
“Sometimes they try to block you from being able to access certain medicines, being able to access certain procedures and so on,” the president said. “I don’t think any state or anybody should have the right to do that. As a moral question and as a legal question, I just think it’s wrong.”
Biden’s position, though popular with progressives, is at odds with much of the Western world, where the unquestioning medical treatment of transgender minors is becoming increasingly unpopular. Recently, countries across Europe, including the United Kingdom, France and Sweden, pumped the brakes on providing trans kids with irreversible medical interventions.
Four US states, including Texas, Alabama, Arkansas and Arizona, have enacted laws preventing gender-affirming care, though they are currently blocked by court rulings.
Cole, meanwhile, is campaigning for a Florida rule that will block Medicaid funds from paying for medical interventions in cases like hers.
Cole thinks Biden’s decision to break with this growing consensus is politically motivated.
“I seriously doubt he actually believes in it,” she told The Post. “He’s an elderly man, and his stances on things have been very inconsistent over the years.”
Cole said she was also “disappointed” to see Biden sit down with Mulvaney, whose TikTok videos have caused controversy for promoting outdated stereotypes about women. The 25-yearold has documented her gender transition in the app with daily updates on her “girlhood.”
Scars
In her first video documenting her transition in March, for instance, Mulvaney professed: “Day one of being a girl, and I have already cried three times. I wrote a scathing email that I did not send. I ordered dresses online that I couldn’t afford, and then when someone asked me how I was, I said, ‘I’m fine.’ But I wasn’t fine. How’d I do ladies, good? Girl power!”
Meanwhile, the scars of the procedures Cole underwent as a young teen still haven’t healed — and continue to haunt her. Three years later, she experiences debilitating side effects from her double mastectomy. She said she has to wear bandages at all times because her body is rejecting the skin grafts performed during the procedure, and she still doesn’t know whether her eggs or longterm fertility were compromised by the testosterone treatment she took from age 13 to 16.
Even though she faces an uphill battle that goes all the way to the White House, Cole sees a light at the end of the tunnel. “This whole process of transitioning kids while they’re still developing . . . people are going to wake up and realize that it’s wrong, and it’s happening all over — and it needs to stop,” she said. “I really think it’s inevitable.”