A former trans-identified woman who has de-transitioned is stressing the importance of treating those struggling with gender dysphoria “the same way we would treat any other young person who’s struggling with mental health issues” instead of allowing them to alter their bodies permanently.
Helena Kerschner, a 22-year-old de-transitioned woman who once identified as a transgender man, shared her story last Friday at the Q 2021 Culture Summit with the Center for Faith, Sexuality, and Gender President Preston Sprinkle.
As a child, Kerschner said there was “no indication” she would struggle with gender dysphoria. Then, at the age of 15, she became “really embroiled in this community online where everything was about social justice [and] … gender all the time.”
“There were these hierarchical ways of looking at people, like it was bad to be cis, not trans, straight, white girl, and that’s what I was,” she said. “I was a straight, white girl, and I felt that that was very bad at the time being in these communities.”
Her engagement with these online communities combined with her mental health issues prompted her to identify as non-binary, which eventually “snowballed into full-on trans.”
Though she transitioned with hormone replacement therapy from the age of 18, Kerschner has since de-transitioned with no lingering effects.
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