(De)trans visibility: moral panic in mainstream media reports on de/retransition

Abstract

The current increase in the visibility of trans people in the media has been accompanied by a backlash in the form of an increased deployment of narratives of ‘sex change regret’ or ‘de/retransition.’ Through analysing mainstream media articles from 2015–2018, this paper identifies and discusses three main themes detected in discussions of de/retransition. First, the articles claim that the social and political climate has become too accepting of trans identities and, thus, any discussion of de/retransition is silenced because of ‘political correctness.’ Second, while the articles collected tend to begin with a general discussion of the phenomenon of de/retransitioning, they slide into addressing (White, cisgender) children and the need to protect them from misdiagnosis. Third, the fear about misdiagnosis of (White, cisgender) children is intensified by the focus on a recently hypothesised category of gender dysphoria–rapid-onset gender dysphoria–that suggests some children’s and adolescents’ dysphoric feelings are a result of ‘social contagion.’ Mainstream media discussions of de/retransition focus on the aforementioned themes in an attempt to question contemporary approaches to regulating access to gender-affirming medical care for trans individuals.