April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month. It is also a moment when many trans activists and aligned organizations have taken the opportunity to bring up studies and statistics about the high rate of sexual assault for those who identify as trans. These topics are inexorably linked — something I know firsthand, as both a sexual assault survivor and a detransitioner.
My desire to transition was largely due to being sexually assaulted when I was 14. I believed I could escape myself and my sex through medicalization. I know now that, in truth, I never changed sex. And undergoing hormones and surgery did not help my mental health or heal my torment. That required facing the trauma in therapy and doing the real work of recovery.
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