In a new documentary by PragerU, young adults who de-transitioned from radical sex-change treatments they received as minors discuss what they describe as the false promises and ultimately “tragic” consequences of so-called “gender-affirming care.” To promote the film, PragerU purchased a “takeover” ad on X as part of a $1 million marketing campaign on Thursday.
“DETRANS: The Dangers of Gender-Affirming Care” is a 21-minute documentary that focuses on two people who express deep regret for taking hormones and undergoing surgeries to reject their biological sex.
“There are so many young people who are going through very similar things that I did and are still being told that transitioning will save them,” Daisy Strongin says. “And it’s just not true. My story is tragic in some ways, but it’s very redemptive in many ways.”
Strongin’s story began when she was only a minor, battling severe depression and struggling with her self-worth. That’s when she turned to the internet, seeking answers and guidance in addressing her feelings of hopelessness.
She said after consuming gender transformation videos on her favorite websites like YouTube and Tumblr, she became “very, very interested in having a male persona.”
“The more time I spent online, the more it felt like real life,” she said. “And the more real it felt, which eventually led to me just totally transitioning.”
Strongin said she eventually changed her identity and began visiting a behavioral mental health clinic. After six days, she said the staff told her parents, “If you don’t validate him, then this is just gonna get worse.”
“When parents of trans-identified kids are referred to specialized gender clinics, they’re often told that they’re going to get comprehensive, multidisciplinary mental health assessments,” Leor Sapir, a transgenderism expert and fellow at the Manhattan Institute, says in the film. “We know that that’s not true in practice. These kids were put on a fast track to medical transition.”
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Another such case featured in the documentary is that of Abel Garcia, who says that while browsing through YouTube in middle school one day, a video depicting a male transitioning to a female “planted a seed of doubt” in him that put him on the path to his own “transition.”
“I just wanted an answer to be given to me on who I was,” Garcia says. “And I went to see a therapist, and I had only asked, ‘I think I might be trans, I don’t know – I want to know.'”
Garcia says the therapist immediately told him during his first appointment that he was a “transgender woman.”
Conservative Attorney Harmeet Dhillon, who represents clients suing health care providers for performing “gender-affirming” surgery on minors, suggests that the spike in media depictions and social media depictions of transgenderism have led to the increase in minors transitioning.
“It’s even reached the mainstream advertising world,” says Dhillon. “And I think this is all coming to a head on what this really means for our society.”
NOW STREAMING: PragerU's short documentary DETRANS: The Dangers of Gender-Affirming Care
WATCH NOW for free at https://t.co/NcKxgS8C7U 👇#DETRANS
— PragerU (@prageru) October 31, 2023
PragerU officials appeared to have countered the advertising world on Thursday after the organization purchased a “takeover” ad on X with its $1 million marketing campaign to promote the documentary.
Craig Strazzeri, chief marketing officer for PragerU, told the press that after watching the film, the organization hopes the audience would understand how “major regret” comes with young people who transition.
“We decided to pursue an X takeover because it’s a great opportunity for us to reach a massive audience on the dangers of gender affirming care given that X is one of the least censored social media platforms, thanks to Elon Musk,” Strazzeri said in a statement to NBC News. “This will give millions of people the opportunity to hear important stories from detransitioners themselves, many of whom have been censored and even ostracized because their lived experiences do not affirm the mainstream media’s narrative.”
“DETRANS: The Dangers of Gender-Affirming Care” is available to stream for free on the PragerU website.