(LifeSiteNews) — A prominent pro-LGBT researcher and “trans” professor at a Canadian university has said she has changed her stance and is calling for more support for those who seek to reverse the effects of their so-called “gender reassignment” procedures.
“Kinnon” MacKinnon, an assistant professor of social work at York University in Toronto and a biological female who “transitioned” to appear biologically male, is a well-known researcher on the issue of “detransitioners.” Despite formerly denying the relevance of such an issue, MacKinnon now advocates for better care for detransitioning individuals and is calling for experts to take the matter more seriously.
“Understanding this experience is really important,” MacKinnon said at a symposium on detransitioning hosted by York University on November 21. “The current model of gender care really needs to adapt in order to acknowledge and address the needs of people who detransition.”
During the symposium, MacKinnon said that health professionals must begin to address the issue of detransitioners seriously whether or not the number of those seeking care is large or small.
“Detransition is complex and often isolating,” she said. “People may lose community supports. Some may feel mistrust toward health-care providers … and also grief or mourning for permanent changes to their bodies made by gender-affirming interventions.”
While MacKinnon is now an advocate for those reversing their “gender reassignment” process, she did not always hold her current beliefs.
In an interview with Reuters, MacKinnon said she did not always believe that detransitioning was an issue. She said that she previously believed that those who chose to reverse the “transition” process only did so because of a lack of support, and that while listening to an academic presentation on detransitioners back in 2017, she thought, “This doesn’t even really happen” and “we’re not supposed to be talking about this.”
However, since that time, MacKinnon has experienced a change of heart, realizing that detransitioners need help but that many people are fearful to support them.
“My perspectives have changed significantly. But I recognize that for many of you, you may find yourselves feeling much like I did back in 2017,” she said at the York symposium.
MacKinnon told Reuters that in her hours of research, which included scrolling through thousands of TikTok accounts and online forums for gender-confused people, she has seen how little respect is given to those who choose to reverse their choice to “transition,” saying that she has seen people who speak out about their experience get told to back down and “shut up.”
“I can’t think of any other examples where you’re not allowed to speak about your own healthcare experiences if you didn’t have a good outcome,” she told Reuters.
As previously reported by LifeSiteNews, studies find that more than 80% of children experiencing gender dysphoria outgrow it on their own by late adolescence, and that even full “reassignment” surgery often fails to resolve gender-confused individuals’ heightened tendency to engage in self-harm and suicide — and may even exacerbate it, including by reinforcing their confusion and neglecting the actual root causes of their mental strife.
READ: Detransition Awareness Day expected to draw record turnout next week at California capitol
Experts outside the medical establishment have also warned that surgically or chemically reinforcing gender confusion results in irreversible harm to children, such as infertility, impairment of adult sexual function, and reduced life expectancy, as well as the psychological toll of being “locked into” physical alterations regardless of whether they change their minds when they mature, as attested to by many individuals who “detransitioned” back to their sex.
Amidst the inflating numbers of detransitioners worldwide, Canada has recently experienced its first detransitioner lawsuit when, in November 2022, 34-year-old Michelle Zacchigna from Orillia, Ontario, who underwent hormone interventions and surgeries more than a decade ago in order to appear as a male, sued the eight doctors and “mental health experts” who saw her through the self-mutilation process.
READ: Detransitioned Ontario woman sues doctors who removed her breasts, uterus