The Detransition Diaries
The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters is an American documentary lasting approximately forty minutes, made by Jennifer Lahl. She is a nurse and founder of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, the organization that released the film. It premiered on September 19, 2022.
What it is about
The film follows three young women, Helena, Cat, and Grace. They describe how, as teenagers or young adults, they believed that medical transition would resolve their gender dysphoria and other problems, how healthcare providers affirmed them in that belief, and why they later stopped. Several commentators also appear. In 2024, Lahl and Kallie Fell published a book of the same name with Ignatius Press, featuring the stories of five women and two men.
Reception and criticism
The film received most of its attention in conservative and Christian media in the United States. The filmmakers are outspoken opponents of affirmative gender care, and the film does not feature anyone who is satisfied with their transition. Researchers point out that figures on regret are uncertain and that personal stories reveal little about how often it occurs. More background is available on the page about detransition and under medical information.
The speakers and distribution
The commentators in the film are British campaigner Kellie-Jay Keen, journalist Libby Emmons of The Post Millennial, and writer Natasha Chart. All three are outspoken critics of gender care; practitioners or researchers with a different perspective are not given a voice. One of the three women, Grace, discusses her double mastectomy and her subsequent regret. The film is available on YouTube and Vimeo. The filmmakers permit groups to organize screenings, provided that they are free and open to the public.
The book
The book was published on January 23, 2024, and contains 246 pages. In addition to the seven personal stories, it includes a historical overview of the rise of the affirmative approach. The publisher's page features endorsements from, among others, Helen Joyce, Robert P. George, Mary Harrington, Louise Perry, and Ryan T. Anderson, who also praised the film. These names show the circles in which the film and book have primarily been received.
Related pieces in this archive
Personal stories about detransition can also be found elsewhere in this archive. Keira Bell described her experiences in an essay and brought a legal case against the British gender clinic. The Detrans Community is a place where people who are reconsidering their transition can find one another.