The Department of Education and some Republican lawmakers on Wednesday hosted several people who no longer identify as transgender and who actively lobby against transition care, as well as anti-trans activists and medical professionals, to honor “DeTrans Awareness Day” — a signal that the Trump administration will continue to prop up those who fearmonger and spread misinformation about trans people as it aggressively makes cuts to federal government resources.
The panels began within hours of the Trump administration announcing that it would lay off about half of the Education Department. The cuts came as part of Secretary of Education Linda McMahon’s “final mission” to downsize and reshape the department while axing protections and programs for LGBTQ+ and nonwhite students.
Perhaps most notably, the cuts gutted the department’s Office of Civil Rights, which oversees investigations about discrimination based on sex and gender, leaving thousands of complaints by students and their families in limbo.
The number of trans people who regret receiving gender-affirming care is tiny, and the number of people who detransition — the process of stopping medical and social transitioning to reidentify with one’s sex assigned at birth — is even smaller.
The reasons people detransition are much more complex than just regret, research shows. One study found that 13.1% of individuals had a history of detransitioning in a survey of 17,151 transgender and gender nonconforming adults — and the largest external factors explaining people’s shift to identifying with their birth sex were a lack of supportive family and school environments, sexual assault, harassment and a lack of government affirmation.
Detransitioners are not a monolith, and they do have real medical concerns and needs, according to health researchers, including those at the World Professional Association for Transgender Health. But that doesn’t mean their treatment should come at the expense of gender-affirming care that has been ripped away from the vast majority of transgender youth.
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has signed a handful of executive orders that target transgender Americans, especially trans youth.
And over the last few years, Republicans have used stories of young people who have come to regret or make steps to end their transition as evidence that the government must limit access to gender-affirming care for young people.
DeTrans Awareness Day was created in 2021 by individuals who have taken steps to halt their transition with the goal of bringing more attention to the experiences of people who detransition. Previously, neither the president nor federal agencies have acknowledged this day.
During the run-up to the 2024 election, Trump heavily criticized former President Joe Biden for acknowledging Trans Day of Visibility, which always falls on March 31 and last year overlapped with Easter Sunday. At the time, Trump’s then-campaign press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, called on Biden to “issue an apology to the millions of Catholics and Christians across America.”
This week’s convening of various detransition groups, activists and doctors signals the Trump administration’s willingness to amplify skepticism and misinformation about trans children and to continue lobbying for policies to make access to health care even more difficult.
The Department of Education and Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) held meetings to hear the stories of detransitioners like Chloe Cole, a 20-year-old activist who came to regret her transition. Right-wing organizations have funded her as she has testified in state and federal court hearings in support of bans on gender-affirming care.
The Department of Health and Human Services reportedly sent a representative to the Department of Education’s meeting to see how the two agencies can work together to bar schools and doctors from providing trans-inclusive programs.
Andrew Guersney, a senior HHS adviser, said that ending gender-affirming care for youth, which he called “medical malpractice,” is a “top priority of the administration,” according to The Federalist, a conservative news organization.
During a news conference, Crenshaw announced that he and Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) would introduce a resolution to have the United States formally recognize DeTrans Awareness Day and “highlight the underreported stories of detransitioners,” a spokesperson for the lawmaker said in a statement.
Crenshaw also plans to reintroduce a bill to bar children’s hospitals that receive payments through a graduate medical program fund from providing gender-affirming care to minors, the spokesperson added.
Also on Wednesday, Genspect, an international organization lobbying against gender-affirming care, held a conference in Washington, D.C., featuring several young detransitioners and advocates from conservative organizations including the Heritage Foundation — the group behind the highly controversial blueprint for a second Trump term, Project 2025 — and the “parental rights” group Moms for Liberty.
At the Genspect conference, one detransition activist, Soren Aldaco, urged legislators to pass bills that would force insurance providers to cover “detransition treatment.” Republicans in Florida and Texas have already made headway in advancing such legislation at the state level.
Within his first two months in office, Trump has significantly rolled back protections for transgender youth and adults. He signed several executive orders targeting trans children’s ability to receive gender-affirming care from federally funded hospitals and to play on school sports teams or use bathrooms that align with their gender identity at federally funded schools.
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Trump has also tried to block trans servicemembers from participating in the military and made it nearly impossible for transgender people to update their passports or Social Security cards with their correct gender identity.
Though federal judges have already blocked the orders that bar trans people’s participation in the military and withhold federal funding from hospitals that provide transition care, Trump’s ongoing — and overt — attack on transgender people is wreaking havoc on trans communities across the United States.