During the 2024 NeW Leadership Retreat in Boston, Massachusetts, attendees had the opportunity to hear from Mary Margaret Olohan, Author and Senior Reporter at The Daily Signal.
Olohan briefly shared her experience as a culture reporter and discussed how it convinced her to write her new book, Detrans: True Stories of Escaping the Gender Ideology Cult. Activists argue that gender-affirming care is crucial to the health of trans youth and reduces suicide rates. In her new book, Olohan debunks this argument by sharing the personal stories of 5 individuals, 4 girls and 1 boy.
During her speech at the Leadership Retreat, Olohan shared the story of Chloe Cole. At age 12, Chloe decided she was transgender. At age 13, her parents took her to a doctor looking for expert advice and were asked, “Would you rather have a dead daughter or a living son?”. That question was convincing enough to put Chloe on puberty blockers and testosterone. The testosterone changed Chloe’s body, weight distribution, and ability to scream and cry. She became angry and filled with rage. Doctors told her this was normal and that she would feel better after a double mastectomy, which she had at age 15. After the surgery, Chloe realized that the surgery didn’t make her feel better.
Fast forward to today, Chloe is 20 years old and still has wounds from her surgery. The most shocking part is that Chloe was able to have her breasts removed before she could legally purchase alcohol.
Olohan highlighted what wasn’t discussed between Chloe, her parents, and her doctors. Chloe joined Instagram and was exposed to pornography at such a young age. The negative impacts of this were never mentioned.
Olohan ended her remarks by discussing the impact she hopes her new book has. She hopes that parents will not take this issue lightly and urges them to give their children time to develop adolescence, growth, and puberty fully.
Olohan also hopes that readers will use the book to have regular conversations about this in the future and provide a balance between being charitable to individuals with gender dysphoria and holding activists pushing an agenda accountable.
Following her remarks, Leadership Retreat attendees received copies of Olohan’s book and had the opportunity to meet her.
