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Ky Schevers (/kaɪ ˈskiːvərz/) is an American transgender rights activist. She[a] was assigned female at birth, but gradually transitioned to male, including medical transition at the age of 20. Five years after, she detransitioned to female. She became prominent among the detransitioned community and for writing and making online videos about the gender transition and detransition process under the pen names Crash or CrashChaosCats. Another nine years after detransitioning, Schevers broke with the detransitioned community over its attacks on gender transition in general, and began to retransition. She now identifies as transmasculine and genderqueer, but using feminine pronouns, and she co-leads "Health Liberation Now!", an organization defending transgender rights.

Key Information

Early life

[edit]

Ky Schevers was born in 1985 or 1986.[2] She was assigned female at birth and grew up in a Chicago suburb. In an interview with Outline, she described liking reptiles and science fiction as a child; most of her friends were boys.[3] When her family moved to a more rural area when she was nine, she was ostracized or even severely bullied for not acting like a typical girl.[3][4] In the same interview, puberty was described as "miserable" for her.[3] At the age of 15, she realized she preferred girls romantically and joined the gay youth group at her Unitarian church.[3] She cut her hair short, and started referring to herself as a "boy dyke".[3] Around this time, she adopted a masculine name.

Transition

[edit]

By college, in 2004, Schevers was identifying as a trans man. Her college community was highly supportive of her transition, respecting her name and inquiring about accommodations she needed. Rather than the ostracism she had previously experienced, her transgender status got her positive attention as a "minor campus celebrity"; at the same time, she felt tokenized by her peers.[3] Following her mother's death by suicide in Schevers's sophomore year, Schevers dropped out of college, and began the medical transition to male.[3][4] She worked odd jobs to support herself and pay for the testosterone-based masculinizing hormone therapy, which was also subsidized by grants received by her Chicago clinic.[3]

Over the following years, Schevers felt ambivalence about her transition. It solved some of her problems with her identity, but caused others. She says people were nicer to her after she transitioned, when she presented as a man, rather than a butch lesbian.[4] However, testosterone led her to feel emotionally numb, and her previous obsessive thoughts about her gender and identity had not been resolved.[3] She stopped taking testosterone after two years, then returned to a lower dose, then stopped again, though still described herself as trans. She began describing herself as genderqueer. Around this time, she began talking to an older woman who had detransitioned; the two bonded over their shared experiences of transition, queerness, and conflicted feelings over gender.[3]

Detransition

[edit]

In the summer of 2011, Schevers began her detransition, from male back to female.[3] She was more afraid of the detransition process than of the transition, but she was accepted by her friends and family.[3] Meditation, physical work on a friend's farm, and writing about the process online helped.[3] She blogged and made online videos as Crash and CrashChaosCats from 2013 to early 2020, about her transition and detransition.[2] She wrote that her gender dysphoria that caused her initial transition was caused by her internalized misogyny and trauma, and she suggested that could also be true of other gender transitioners.[2]

In 2014 and 2015, Schevers led workshops on detransitioning at the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival, where most of the audience were trans-exclusionary radical feminists.[4][5] In the summer of 2016, she attended what she believed to be the first in-person gathering of detransitioned women, with sixteen participants on the West Coast.[3] Writing as Crash, Schevers contributed multiple articles to the 2015 detransitioned women's zine Blood and Visions: Womyn Reconciling With Being Female,[3][6] and a chapter to the 2016 radical feminist anthology Female Erasure: What You Need To Know About Gender Politics' War on Women, the Female Sex and Human Rights (ISBN 978-0-9971467-2-1), among 48 authors, many of whom considered gender transition an attack on women.[7][8]

Conservatives retold Schevers's story. When, in November 2016, Schevers posted her first online video about her detransition, as CrashChaosCats, it was quickly picked up by American conservative blogger Robert Stacy McCain who used it as evidence of "her former captivity within the transgender cult."[3][9] Breitbart took her story and likened transition to mutilation.[4] In 2017, the Illinois Family Institute and LifeSiteNews wrote about her transition, calling it tragic, and implying it was only a response to trauma.[4][10] Schevers said her words were misused and taken out of context.[11]

Conservative commentator Ryan T. Anderson discussed Schevers, under the name Crash, at length in his 2018 book, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment.[5] Anderson quotes her writing and videos to say that she was never a man trapped in a woman's body, instead that she wanted to identify as one because of personal trauma and a misogynistic culture, and that detransition brought her a more lasting peace.[12] When Schevers found this out, she wrote that she was enraged to find out that her story was distorted and used this way, and that she would never have agreed had she been asked.[13]

Retransition

[edit]

In late 2020, Keira Bell, a detransitioned woman in the UK, sued the UK National Health Service in the case Bell v Tavistock, causing the High Court of Justice to rule that young people, even with the help of their parents or doctors, could not give informed consent to transgender medical treatment.[2][14] That ruling prompted Schevers to publicly break with and criticize the anti-transgender movement, despite having been considered one of its prominent figures.[2] She said that it did not make sense to restrict people's access to transgender care just because some of them would later end up detransitioning.[2]

Schevers said that even though there is nothing wrong with detransitioning itself, she called the communities associated with the anti-transgender movement "cult-like",[5] and compared them to conversion therapy and the ex-gay movement, both discredited, in the ways that they each urged their subjects to treat their sexual or gender identities as delusions to work through and overcome, only to later admit that they still struggled with them.[2][15] That was what happened to her, she said; she tried to explain her gender dysphoria "in a radical feminist framework, and find the root causes, and do everything to make these feelings go away, and that didn't really work. The only thing that did work to make them go away was accepting them."[16] Slate magazine called her the most prominent of the former members of the anti-transgender movement who were speaking out against it.[2]

In January 2021, Schevers and her partner Lee Leveille launched the organization "Health Liberation Now!" in response to the Bell v Tavistock ruling.[14] Both had been involved with what they now called transphobic detransition communities and wanted to fight back against them.[14] Schevers and Health Liberation Now became known for tracking anti-trans protests outside gender affirming clinics,[17][18][19] and have been interviewed about other transgender issues.[20]

In 2022, Schevers said she had "retransitioned", identifying herself as transmasculine and genderqueer, even though she still used she and her pronouns.[21] She said that she supported the journey of trans and genderqueer youth, and felt guilty that she was a prominent figure who set the stage for other detransitioners who associated with far right groups to push an anti-trans platform to attack them.[21][22]

Notes

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References

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Ky Schevers

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Ky Schevers is an American writer and activist who has navigated a complex path involving medical and social transition from female to male via testosterone therapy, subsequent under the influence of radical feminist , and eventual reidentification as transmasculine while critiquing practices. Born female, Schevers began transitioning in her early twenties following personal trauma, including her mother's death, and lived as a man before shifting perspectives. During seven years as a detransitioned , Schevers embraced a attributing her initial transition to coping with trauma and internalized , and she contributed to building online radical feminist detransition communities, including producing content to raise awareness of detransition experiences. Influenced by separatist and gender-critical views, she sought to reclaim identity but later described this period as ideologically driven denial that suppressed re-emerging transmasculine inclinations, likening detransition to ineffective and harmful . Schevers now identifies as a "genderweird" transmasculine butch dyke and advocates against anti-trans movements, authoring essays that highlight the dangers of coerced and emphasizing self-acceptance over ideological conformity; her writings appear on platforms like Medium and contribute to efforts improving support for both transitioning and individuals. Her public disavowal of former detransition advocacy has positioned her as a vocal critic of gender-critical feminism's impact on resolution, drawing media attention to the fluidity and reversibility in personal narratives.

Early Life and Background

Upbringing and Family

Ky Schevers' mother died by during Schevers' year of . This event prompted Schevers to drop out of shortly thereafter. Little additional public information is available regarding her childhood or other family members.

Pre-Transition Gender Experiences

Schevers, assigned female at birth, reported no significant incongruence during , living as a without documented prior to . questioning emerged in her teenage years after exposure to concepts of identities, leading her to explore and question her own alignment. She described experiencing sensations of being "multiple genders" during this period but actively resisted these feelings, maintaining a presentation through high school. These adolescent experiences intensified upon entering college, where the death of her mother acted as a catalyst, unraveling her prior sense of womanhood and prompting stronger identification with masculinity or gender nonconformity, though she had previously fought against such inclinations for an extended time. Prior to medical or social transition at age 20, Schevers had not pursued any gender-related interventions, instead navigating without external affirmation or focused on gender. Her pre-transition phase thus centered on private dysphoric episodes tied to adolescent onset rather than persistent childhood patterns.

Initial Transition

Onset and Process of Transitioning to Male

Schevers initiated her transition to male upon entering college, where she came to identify as a man. This onset followed personal challenges, including her mother's , which preceded the start of . At age 20, she began medical transition by commencing testosterone therapy, aimed at inducing physiological changes such as increased muscle mass, facial hair growth, and voice deepening. The process encompassed social elements, including adopting a male presentation and name, while living and presenting as male in her daily life and online activities. No surgical interventions were reported during this phase.

Medical Interventions and Social Changes

Schevers began her medical transition to male by starting testosterone shortly after her mother's during her year of , around age 20. This was her primary intervention, with no publicly documented surgeries at that stage. The therapy induced typical masculinizing effects, including deepened voice, increased , and enhanced muscle development, which she later reflected positively upon as contributing to her sense of embodiment. Socially, Schevers shifted to a male presentation, adopting masculine clothing, hairstyles, and mannerisms to align with her identified . She used he/him pronouns and engaged in communities online, where she blogged and created videos under the handle CrashChaosCats, discussing her experiences as a trans man. This period marked her integration into social spaces and a rejection of prior female socialization patterns, though she maintained some connections to broader networks.

Detransition

Motivations and Decision to Detransition

Schevers began experiencing doubts about her transition in her mid-twenties, around 2013, after identifying as a man and undergoing testosterone therapy during college. Influenced by radical feminist and separatist communities, she came to view her not as an innate aspect of her identity but as a maladaptive response to unresolved trauma, internalized , and societal homophobia targeting butch s. She believed that transitioning had been an escape from the stigma of femininity and , stating, "I believed that I had transitioned as a way to cope with trauma and internalized , that I had been trying to escape the stigma of being a butch in a homophobic society." This ideological framework, drawn from figures like therapist Devorah Zahav, posited that individuals assigned female at birth develop trans identities as a mechanism, requiring rejection of such identities to achieve healing and reconciliation with biological femaleness. Schevers engaged in therapy and support groups focused on processing trauma through lenses like The Courage to Heal, reinforcing her conviction that reclaiming womanhood was essential for wholeness. Fearing that continued transition would lead to irreversible harm and lifelong suffering, she ceased testosterone use and sought affirmation in online forums, where radical feminist narratives validated her distress as evidence against medical transition. The decision crystallized amid a sense of personal ruin from transitioning, compounded by limited access to affirming resources, leading her to publicly identify as a detransitioned from approximately 2013 to 2020. This period involved adopting views that framed trans experiences as delusions perpetuated by patriarchal structures, though she later attributed the shift to ideological pressures akin to conversion practices.

Experiences Living as a Detransitioned

Schevers lived as a detransitioned woman for approximately seven years, during which she engaged in online under the pseudonym , including blogging and producing videos about her experiences, and organized in-person gatherings for detransitioned individuals. She was featured in media profiles, such as articles in The Outline and The Stranger, where she discussed her path away from transition. During this period, Schevers adopted beliefs rooted in radical feminist and lesbian separatist ideologies, viewing her prior transition as a maladaptive response to trauma and internalized , and sought to reclaim her identity as a by reconciling with her body and rejecting transmasculine feelings. She co-founded elements of the detransitioned radical feminist community alongside Devorah , participating in support groups that emphasized embracing biological sex and framing as a symptom of rather than an innate trait. Initially, the community provided a sense of support amid her vulnerability and isolation following , but Schevers later described it as exerting pressure to suppress doubts and conform, resisting her personal healing process. Schevers reported suppressing transmasculine and genderqueer inclinations for about three years, encountering resistance from the community when she began questioning these efforts, which contributed to feelings of misery and . She internalized views portraying transition as self-destructive and trans identities as delusions, leading her to present workshops on prematurely and promote narratives critical of medical interventions for . Reflecting on this time, Schevers expressed regret over approximately six years of what she termed self-destructive activities, including emotional harm from ideological conformity and a sense of lost time, likening the experience to dynamics that prioritized group ideology over individual well-being.

Detransition Advocacy

Rise in the Detransition Community

Schevers gained prominence in the detransition community through online starting in 2013, under the pseudonym , where she shared personal accounts of her experiences via posts and videos critiquing aspects of medical interventions and social transitions. Her writings emphasized resolving through non-medical means, such as addressing underlying trauma and societal pressures on women, which resonated with others who had ceased or surgeries. This period marked her active role in amplifying narratives on platforms like and , contributing to increased visibility of such stories amid growing public debates on youth transitions. She played a foundational role in building dedicated online communities for detransitioned women, particularly those influenced by radical feminist frameworks that viewed transition as a response to misogyny rather than innate gender identity. Schevers co-developed spaces for reidentified women to connect, share recovery strategies, and advocate against what they described as hasty affirmative care models, helping to coalesce a subculture that grew from scattered personal testimonies to organized networks by the late 2010s. Her efforts aligned with a broader uptick in detransition disclosures, with her story cited in discussions on platforms hosting thousands of members focused on post-transition regret and ideological alternatives. For approximately six years, from around 2014 to 2020, Schevers was deeply engaged in , positioning herself as a peer mentor who had navigated resolution without retransition, which bolstered the community's appeal to those skeptical of medicalized approaches. Her prominence stemmed from consistent output—dozens of posts and videos—framing as empowerment through female socialization acceptance, though later analyses noted the subculture's entanglement with anti-trans . This involvement helped elevate from marginal anecdotes to a recognized counternarrative, influencing media coverage and policy critiques on transition protocols.

Key Messages and Platforms Used

Schevers, under the pseudonym , disseminated messages framing primarily as a product of , internalized , and societal pressures on women rather than an inherent condition. She argued that medical transition served as an escapist response to these issues, urging detransitioners to pursue healing through trauma-focused , rejection of , and reclamation of embodiment without hormones or . Her advocacy highlighted "alternative treatments" for dysphoria, such as psychoanalytic approaches emphasizing biological sex over identity, and warned that affirming transition perpetuated women's oppression under patriarchal structures. These positions aligned with radical feminist critiques of transgenderism, positioning as liberation from autogynephilic or trauma-driven delusions. Schevers co-founded and contributed to online communities for detransitioned women, fostering narratives that transition rates among females reflected misogynistic flight from hood rather than genuine . She presented detransition success stories, including her own seven-year period living as a post-testosterone cessation in 2013, as evidence that resolved through ideological realignment and non-medical means. Schevers utilized blogging platforms like Tumblr under CrashChaosCats to publish essays and personal accounts from 2013 to early 2020, amassing a following within detransition circles. She produced vlogs detailing her experiences, which were shared on video-hosting sites and referenced in media interviews promoting the movement. Online forums and radical feminist detrans groups served as primary venues for community-building and advice-sharing, where she organized virtual discussions on coping without transition. In-person workshops and gatherings for detrans women, co-presented by Schevers, focused on practical reintegration into female social roles and ideological reinforcement. Her outreach extended to media appearances and essays amplifying these themes to broader anti-transition audiences.

Retransition

Reasons for Returning to Transition

Schevers described her detransition as ideologically driven, stemming from adoption of radical feminist views that framed gender dysphoria as a maladaptive response to trauma and internalized misogyny rather than an authentic aspect of her identity. This perspective, which she later characterized as akin to conversion therapy, suppressed her exploration of gender complexity and enforced conformity to her assigned female sex, differing from any organic resolution of dysphoria through self-directed means. Over seven years living as a detransitioned woman from approximately 2013 to 2020, she initially reported alleviation of dysphoria but increasingly encountered its resurgence, unraveling her imposed sense of womanhood and restoring feelings of being "a dude or a gender weirdo." The return of dysphoria prompted Schevers to reevaluate the detransition narrative she had promoted, recognizing internalized transphobic beliefs from the community as harmful barriers to self-acceptance. She expressed regret for forgoing transition, stating a desire to "claim all that I am" by integrating her female biology with transmasculine traits, such as hormone use and non-conforming presentation, rather than denying the latter. This shift, beginning around late 2020, was motivated by a prioritization of personal authenticity over ideological consistency, viewing retransition as essential for alleviating ongoing distress and enabling ethical living without perpetuating harm to others through anti-trans advocacy. Schevers emphasized that her retransition was not a reversal due to external pressures but a rejection of the framework's failure to deliver lasting relief, as evidenced by her sustained and disillusionment with the movement's repressive dynamics. She noted the ideological detransition's similarity to ex-gay efforts, where suppression yields temporary compliance but eventual breakdown, underscoring her motivation to access medical and social supports aligned with her persistent transmasculine identity.

Current Identity and Lifestyle Adjustments

Following her in the mid-2010s, Schevers experienced renewed and ideological disillusionment with gender-critical communities, leading her to retransistion around 2021. She now identifies as transmasculine and genderqueer, acknowledging a persistent masculine while navigating fluidity between genders. Schevers has resumed gender-affirming medical interventions, including testosterone therapy, which she had previously halted during her period. This resumption addressed persistent that she attributes not to trauma or internalized —as she once believed under gender-critical influence—but to an innate incongruence between her body and . Lifestyle adjustments include a pivot from detransition advocacy to supporting transgender healthcare access, co-leading the organization Health Liberation Now alongside Lee Leveille to counter restrictions on treatments like hormone therapy and surgeries. She has described rebuilding personal relationships strained by her prior anti-trans stance and reintegrating into queer communities, while managing the physical and emotional effects of restarting hormones after years off, such as voice deepening and fat redistribution. Daily life now emphasizes focused on gender affirmation rather than alternatives like trauma processing alone, alongside and that affirm her transmasculine presentation without pursuing full binary male transition, such as top surgery. Schevers uses she/her pronouns despite her masculine identification, reflecting a non-binary alignment that avoids rigid categorization.

Post-Retransition Activism

Critique of Anti-Trans Movements

Ky Schevers has articulated several criticisms of anti-trans movements, particularly those within advocacy circles, drawing from her own experiences after leaving the community in 2020. She argues that these groups often function similarly to ex-gay programs, where participants are encouraged to suppress innate rather than address it through transition, leading to incomplete resolutions and ongoing internal conflict. Schevers has stated that "no one really changes" in such environments, likening the process to learning to "keep their desires under control" instead of achieving genuine peace. A core element of her critique targets what she describes as ideological motivations driving many detransitioners toward transphobia, positing that "many, perhaps most detrans people who believe in transphobic views are self-hating trans people engaging in conversion practices." She contends that these individuals project their unresolved unease onto trans people, seeking validation by promoting narratives that deny the validity of trans identities or equate them with trauma-induced delusions, such as internalized misogyny or homophobia. Schevers regrets her earlier role in amplifying such views, including claims that trans people are "delusional," which she now sees as harmful rationalizations that fueled restrictions on trans healthcare, such as the 2020 U.K. ruling influenced by detransitioner testimonies like Keira Bell's. Schevers further highlights the internal dynamics of anti-trans communities, including pressures to conform to radical feminist or separatist ideologies that frame transition as a response to patriarchal trauma, often led by figures like Devorah Zahav. These groups, she observes, foster hostility toward those who deviate, treating detransitioned individuals as "tainted" if they retain any trans-adjacent traits, mirroring the rejection faced by ex-gays within conservative circles. She criticizes alliances with far-right entities, such as the , as illogical betrayals that exacerbate the oppressive conditions anti-trans advocates claim to oppose. In her writings, Schevers warns of the dangers of overgeneralizing experiences to undermine trans validity, emphasizing that a detransitioner's path to happiness does not equate to the fulfillment found by those who transition successfully. She maintains a and public statements rebuking ideologically driven , expressing guilt over influencing others to adopt anti-trans stances that conflicted with her own history of finding temporary relief in transitioning as a survival strategy. These critiques underscore her view that anti-trans movements prioritize ideological conformity over individual well-being, often delaying or preventing retransition for those whose persists.

Advocacy for Gender-Affirming Care

Ky Schevers, after retransitioning in 2021, co-founded Health Liberation Now! with Lee Leveille to advocate for equitable access to gender-related healthcare for both and individuals, emphasizing opposition to restrictions imposed by anti-trans . The organization tracked protests at clinics and promoted patient-centered models of care, arguing that political efforts to limit treatments undermine for -diverse people. Schevers positioned HLN as a counter to narratives portraying detransition as evidence against transition, instead framing access to care as essential for autonomous exploration. In public statements and interviews from 2021 onward, Schevers critiqued her prior involvement in advocacy as ideologically driven and akin to conversion practices, advocating instead for unrestricted access to gender-affirming interventions like to allow individuals to pursue relief from without mandatory gatekeeping. She argued that every person should have the right to question and affirm their through medical means if desired, drawing from her own experience of regret over suppressing trans identification during . This stance extended to opposing legislative bans on youth access to puberty blockers and hormones, which she viewed as overreactions fueled by selective stories rather than comprehensive data on outcomes. A key component of Schevers' advocacy materialized in a February 2025 peer-reviewed paper co-authored with Florence Ashley, Neeki Parsa, Til Kus, Lee Leveille, and G. Nic Rider, titled "Gatekeeping gender-affirming care is detrimental to detrans people," published in the International Journal of Transgender Health. The paper contends that required gender assessments prior to treatment—often justified to prevent regret—harm even those who later detransition by discouraging authentic self-disclosure, stifling gender exploration, amplifying shame and internalized stigma, enforcing rigid transnormative expectations, eroding trust in clinicians, and limiting access to accurate transition-related information. It recommends shifting from gatekeeping to models supporting patient decision-making and tailored support for detransitioners, asserting that such barriers do not reduce regret rates but instead exacerbate distress across groups. Health Liberation Now! ceased operations in March 2025, with Schevers citing a need for rest and reassessment after four years of , though its resources on resisting care restrictions remain archived online. Her advocacy has emphasized empirical critiques of gatekeeping's inefficacy, noting low rates (typically under 1% in longitudinal studies) and high satisfaction with care among transitioners, while cautioning against conflating rare cases with broad policy justifications. Schevers has maintained that protocols, rather than protracted evaluations, better facilitate causal pathways to relief, aligning with first-hand accounts of suppressed identities leading to prolonged suffering.

Writings and Reflections

Major Publications and Essays

Schevers' major writings include essays critiquing her prior involvement in detransition advocacy and exploring the psychological dynamics of ideological detransition. In "Detransition as Conversion Therapy: A Survivor Speaks Out," published December 21, 2020, she recounts living as a woman for seven years, arguing that certain detransition narratives function similarly to by pressuring individuals to reject identities due to internalized or trauma rather than addressing directly. On March 20, 2021, Schevers published "My Views on Transphobic " on Medium, where she distinguishes between motivated by personal regret and those influenced by anti-trans ideologies, stating that the latter often perpetuate harm by framing transition as inherently pathological. She elaborated on similar themes in "Notes from A Meeting of Transphobic from 10/3/2016," released June 20, 2021, drawing from her participation in early gatherings to highlight exclusionary tactics and ideological conformity within those circles. A pivotal reflection appeared in "Feeling Regret About My Detransition and Past Activism" on Medium, dated June 28, 2021, in which Schevers expresses remorse for promoting narratives that discouraged others from transitioning, attributing her detransition to political pressures from rather than resolved , and notes her subsequent retransition as a corrective step. She further contributed to the 2023 TransLash Volume 6 with an essay excerpted as "Conversion Practices & Ideological ," analyzing how detransition subcultures mirror historical conversion therapies by enforcing rigid norms under the guise of or trauma recovery. Earlier, during her phase, Schevers wrote under the Crash for outlets aligned with radical feminist perspectives, including contributions to the 2015 zine Blood and Visions: Womyn Reconciling With Being Female, which compiled stories of women reconciling female embodiment after attempts. These pieces, referenced in her later critiques, emphasized trauma and as root causes of , a view she has since disavowed in favor of affirming healthcare access.

Personal Insights on Gender Dysphoria and Ideology

Schevers has reflected that during her detransition period, she adopted the view that arises primarily from internalized , trauma, and patriarchal influences, which could be resolved through psychological processing and acceptance of one's biological sex rather than medical transition. She now regards this perspective as misguided and harmful, stating, "I wish I’d never come to believe that my being trans was a result of trauma and ," and attributes it to immersion in radical feminist ideologies that pathologized trans identities. In her writings, she describes how these beliefs led her to promote "alternative treatments" for , such as trauma and gender-exploratory approaches aimed at desistance, which she later identified as ineffective and akin to suppression rather than genuine resolution. Upon the resurgence of her approximately six years into , Schevers experienced intensified distress, including a unraveling sense of female identity and feelings of being "a or a gender weirdo," which she initially resisted due to ideological commitments. She has since disavowed these ideologies, framing her as a form of "anti-trans " that enforced and internalized transphobic views, leading to depression, self-hatred, , and dissociation. Schevers compares such ideological to ex-gay movements, noting that claims of "change" often involve mere control of desires rather than authentic transformation, and she regrets contributing to communities that disseminated these narratives, which she believes exacerbated harm for individuals with persistent dysphoria. In current reflections, Schevers maintains that represents a valid aspect of self that, in her case, necessitated reclaiming a transmasculine and genderqueer identity rather than overcoming it, emphasizing self-trust and over imposed ideological frameworks. She critiques radical feminist and gender-critical ideologies for rejecting gender complexity and enforcing binary sex essentialism, arguing that they prioritize political conformity over individual well-being, as evidenced by her own experience of , identity confusion, and lost time post-. Schevers advocates for access to gender-affirming care, asserting that denying it based on detransition stories—regardless of their validity for some—overgeneralizes and restricts support for those for whom transition alleviates , drawing from her observation that suppression prolonged her suffering until acceptance brought relief.

Controversies

Criticisms from Gender-Critical Perspectives

Gender-critical perspectives, which prioritize biological reality and caution against medical interventions for , have faulted Ky Schevers for undermining her own prior testimony through her retransition and advocacy for gender-affirming care. During her seven-year period from approximately 2013 to 2020, Schevers, writing as CrashChaosCats, described her initial female-to-male transition as a maladaptive response to , internalized , and societal pressures on females, experiences she framed as common among those later desisting from trans identification. This account resonated with gender-critical analyses positing that many cases of rapid-onset in adolescent females stem from or untreated comorbidities rather than innate incongruence requiring hormones or surgery. Schevers' 2020 reversal, in which she disavowed much of her detransition-era views and identified as transmasculine while criticizing detrans communities as akin to "," has been seen by gender-critical observers as a relapse into the very she once critiqued, potentially driven by external trans activist pressures rather than empirical resolution of . Such shifts, they argue, highlight the instability of self-reported gender identities and the dangers of affirming care without rigorous psychological exploration, as Schevers' extended time living as a without medical intervention suggests natural desistance was possible before ideological re-influence. Critics contend this trajectory not only erodes trust in individual detrans narratives but also discourages others from pursuing non-medical paths, prioritizing ideological conformity over causal factors like trauma recovery.

Responses to Accusations of Ideological Flip-Flopping

Schevers maintains that accusations of flip-flopping mischaracterize her trajectory, asserting instead that her seven-year period from approximately 2013 to 2020 was driven by immersion in radical feminist ideologies that pathologized her trans identity as a maladaptive response to , internalized , and trauma, rather than an authentic resolution of . She terms this "ideologically motivated ," a process she equates to , where trans individuals are coerced into suppressing through rigid adherence to biological and anti-trans narratives, often within communities that demand conformity to "recover" as women. In her account, this ideological framework initially provided community and validation during a vulnerable phase but ultimately failed as her resurfaced, rendering the unsustainable and leading her to resume testosterone in 2020 to align with her transmasculine and genderqueer identity. Addressing claims of ideological inconsistency, Schevers argues that her initial transition in her early was a valid response to persistent , while the represented a temporary ideological capture that echoed ex-gay movements, where superficial "change" narratives mask ongoing internal conflict without genuine alteration. She cites the 2020 Keira Bell legal case in the UK, which leveraged testimonies to challenge youth access to blockers, as a tipping point that exposed the movement's broader harm in restricting medical options for trans youth based on atypical cases. Rather than flip-flopping, she frames her evolution as an escape from a repressive that brooked no nuance or questioning, evolving into overt transphobia and alliances with far-right groups, which alienated her and prompted public disavowal. Schevers acknowledges partial responsibility for amplifying detrans narratives during her involvement—under the pseudonym CrashChaosCats, producing videos, blogs, and workshops from 2015 onward—but contends that the movement's toxicity, including resistance to her eventual self-reflection, validates her shift as a correction toward authenticity over ideology. She has stated that terms like "delusional" or "mutilation" applied to trans experiences, which she once echoed, reflect the movement's dehumanizing rhetoric, and her current advocacy prioritizes individual exploration free from such constraints. This perspective, she insists, stems from direct experience rather than opportunistic reversal, urging scrutiny of how detrans stories are weaponized while affirming transition as a viable option for those with .

References

  1. https://kyschevers.medium.com/about
  2. https://aninjusticemag.com/detransition-as-conversion-therapy-a-survivor-speaks-out-7abd4a9782fa
  3. https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/02/detransition-movement-star-ex-gay-explained.html
  4. https://transsafety.network/author/ky-schevers/
  5. https://abcnews.go.com/US/former-detransitioner-fights-anti-transgender-movement-backed/story?id=92597182
  6. https://kyschevers.medium.com/feeling-regret-about-my-detransition-and-past-activism-db958d541085
  7. https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2022/11/darling-detransition-movement-comes-transgender/
  8. https://www.thepinknews.com/2022/11/11/ky-schevers-detransition/
  9. https://kyschevers.medium.com/what-is-ideologically-motivated-detransition-c3c97165693b
  10. https://transsafety.network/posts/ky-schevers-life-in-detransition/
  11. https://www.thestranger.com/features/2017/06/28/25252342/the-detransitioners-they-were-transgender-until-they-werent
  12. https://lgbtqnation.com/2022/11/darling-detransition-movement-comes-transgender/
  13. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10018052/
  14. https://www.advocate.com/transgender/2022/11/23/onetime-detransitioner-now-regrets-supporting-movement
  15. https://clareflourish.wordpress.com/2021/01/03/ky-schevers-crashchaoscats-detransition-transphobia/
  16. https://healthliberationnow.com/2021/02/18/ideologically-motivated-detransition-as-a-conversion-practice-a-personal-account/
  17. https://kyschevers.medium.com/moving-between-worlds-deciding-what-to-do-next-6a148f269af5
  18. https://www.thestranger.com/queer-issue-2024/2024/06/05/79545098/the-reality-behind-the-story-i-told-the-stranger
  19. https://healthliberationnow.com/2025/03/15/announcement-to-our-dear-supporters-and-friends-about-the-future-of-health-liberation-now/
  20. https://kyschevers.medium.com/my-views-on-transphobic-detrans-people-20a37e117676
  21. https://xtramagazine.com/power/activism/health-liberation-now-detransition-227906
  22. https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/political-detransitioners-are-the
  23. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39981285/
  24. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15532739.2025.2462582
  25. https://kyschevers.medium.com/notes-from-a-meeting-of-transphobic-detrans-activists-from-10-3-2016-c07ab7d877c9
  26. https://issuu.com/translash/docs/translash-zine-volume-6-antitranshatemachine-2023/s/22913503
  27. https://kyschevers.medium.com/risks-harms-of-ideological-detransition-alternative-treatments-for-gender-dysphoria-8b84c0623225
  28. https://www.transgendertrend.com/a-response-to-detransition-desistance-and-disinformation-by-julia-serano/
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