Walt Heyer | |
|---|---|
 Heyer speaks at the Church of God in Christ, Raleigh, North Carolina in 2016 | |
| Born | Walter James Heyer October 25, 1940 [1] Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | Writer, activist |
| Spouses | Sarah Horton (m. 1963–1984)
|
| Children | 2 |
| Website | sexchangeregret.com |
Walt Heyer (born October 25, 1940) [2] is an American author, activist and speaker who underwent gender reassignment and lived for eight years as a trans woman before detransitioning in 1991. [3] [4] [5] [6] [7]
Heyer was born in 1940 in Los Angeles to Charles and Mary Heyer. As a child, his grandmother "Mamie" made him a purple dress. When his parents discovered this, they would supervise all his visits and his father hit him. His uncle would sexually abuse him. [8] After what he described as a misdiagnosis [9] of gender dysphoria, Walt Heyer underwent gender reassignment surgery and lived for eight years as a woman named Laura Jensen, [10] before detransitioning. His experience led him to support the view "that transgender people often experience regret after transitioning, arguing that what transgender people actually need is 'psychiatric or psychological help.'" [11] In a 2020 video, Heyer described the source of his gender confusion as "being cross-dressed, being disciplined with a hardwood floor plank, and being sexually molested." [12]
Once "assistant manager of product planning for America Honda Motor Co", [13] [14] Heyer now works as an author and as a contributor to The Federalist [15] [16] and various other conservative media outlets. Left-leaning media watchdog and partisan advocacy group Media Matters for America has criticized Heyer as "a source of extreme transphobic commentary." [17]
Heyer's story is detailed in Ryan T. Anderson's 2018 book, When Harry Became Sally . [18] The progressive news website ThinkProgress criticized the book for overemphasizing detransition and Heyer for "[creating] a career for himself of advocating against transgender equality based on his 'ex-trans' narrative." [19]
Heyer's 2019 opinion column in USA Today [8] was cited as one of the paper's ten most read articles of the year, [20] and generated multiple published letters in response. [21] [22]
In June 2020, YouTube removed a video of a Heritage Foundation panel that included Heyer, citing its hate speech guidelines, [23] a move which was criticized by various conservative media outlets including National Review and The Christian Post . [24] [25]
The legal status of transgender people varies greatly around the world. Some countries have enacted laws protecting the rights of transgender individuals, but others have criminalized their gender identity or expression. In many cases, transgender individuals face discrimination in employment, housing, healthcare, and other areas of life.
Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identity—their personal sense of their own gender—and their sex assigned at birth. The term replaced the previous diagnostic label of gender identity disorder (GID) in 2013 with the release of the diagnostic manual DSM-5. The condition was renamed to remove the stigma associated with the term disorder.
Gender-affirming surgery is a surgical procedure, or series of procedures, that alters a person's physical appearance and sexual characteristics to resemble those associated with their identified gender. The phrase is most often associated with transgender health care and intersex medical interventions, although many such treatments are also pursued by cisgender and non-intersex individuals. It is also known as sex reassignment surgery, gender confirmation surgery, and several other names.
The Gender Recognition Act 2004 is an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that allows people who have gender dysphoria to change their legal gender. It came into effect on 4 April 2005.
A trans man is a man who was assigned female at birth. Trans men have a male gender identity, and many trans men undergo medical and social transition to alter their appearance in a way that aligns with their gender identity or alleviates gender dysphoria.
Gender transition is the process of changing one's gender presentation or sex characteristics to accord with one's internal sense of gender identity – the idea of what it means to be a man or a woman, or to be non-binary, genderqueer, bigender, or pangender, or to be agender (genderless). For transgender and transsexual people, this process commonly involves reassignment therapy, with their gender identity being opposite that of their birth-assigned sex. Transitioning might involve medical treatment, but it does not always involve it. Cross-dressers, drag queens, and drag kings tend not to transition, since their variant gender presentations are generally only adopted temporarily.
A transgender person is someone whose gender identity differs from that typically associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. Some transgender people who desire medical assistance to transition from one sex to another identify as transsexual. Transgender is also an umbrella term; in addition to including people whose gender identity is the opposite of their assigned sex, it may also include people who are non-binary or genderqueer. Other definitions of transgender also include people who belong to a third gender, or else conceptualize transgender people as a third gender. The term may also include cross-dressers or drag kings and drag queens in some contexts. The term transgender does not have a universally accepted definition, including among researchers.
A transsexual person is someone who experiences a gender identity that is inconsistent with their assigned sex, and desires to permanently transition to the sex or gender with which they identify, usually seeking medical assistance to help them align their body with their identified sex or gender.
Christopher Todd Beck is a retired United States Navy SEAL who gained public attention in 2013 after coming out as a trans woman, and in 2022, when he announced his detransition. During the time of his transition, he went by the name Kristin Beck. A memoir detailing his experience was published in June 2013, Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy SEAL's Journey to Coming out Transgender. He served in the U.S. Navy for twenty years. In December 2022, Beck announced that he had detransitioned because "it ruined my life".
Jazz Jennings is an American YouTube personality, spokesmodel, television personality, and LGBT rights activist. Jennings is one of the youngest publicly documented people to be identified as transgender. Jennings received national attention in 2007 when an interview with Barbara Walters aired on 20/20, which led to other high-profile interviews and appearances. Christine Connelly, a member of the board of directors for the Boston Alliance of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Youth, stated, "She was the first young person who picked up the national spotlight, went on TV and was able to articulate her perspective and point of view with such innocence." Her parents noted that Jennings was clear on being female as soon as she could speak.
Not all armed forces have policies explicitly permitting LGBT personnel. Generally speaking, Western European militaries show a greater tendency toward inclusion of LGBT individuals. As of January 2021, 22 countries allow transgender military personnel to serve openly: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom. Cuba and Thailand reportedly allowed transgender service in a limited capacity. Additionally, South Africa may allow transgender service, though it is currently unclear.
Transgender rights in Australia have legal protection under federal and state/territory laws, but the requirements for gender recognition vary depending on the jurisdiction. For example, birth certificates, recognised details certificates, and driver licences are regulated by the states and territories, while Medicare and passports are matters for the Commonwealth.
The United States Armed Forces have a long history of transgender service personnel, dating back to at least the Civil War. Initially, most such service members were women, who disguised themselves as men in order to serve in combat roles. Many reverted to their female identities upon leaving their service, but others maintained their male identities. In more recent years, openly transgender people have served or sought to serve in the military. The subject began to engender some political controversy starting with transgender servicemembers being banned in 1960 and possibly earlier. This controversy came to a head in the 2010s and was subjected to relatively rapid changes for the next few years. As of 2021, transgender individuals are expressly permitted to serve openly as their identified gender. A brief timeline is as follows:
Detransition is the cessation or reversal of a transgender identification or of gender transition, temporarily or permanently, through social, legal, and/or medical means. The term is distinct from the concept of 'regret', and the decision may be based on a shift in gender identity, or other reasons, such as health concerns, social pressure, or discrimination and stigma.
Blaire White is an American YouTuber and political commentator. Describing her politics as center-right, many of White's videos have been centered around social issues such as transgender people, feminism, and Black Lives Matter.
Directive-type Memorandum-19-004, "Military Service by Transgender Persons and Persons with Gender Dysphoria", was a memorandum issued by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) prohibiting most transgender individuals from serving or enlisting in the United States Armed Forces and the DoD. The DTM took effect on April 12, 2019, under the presidency of Donald Trump, signed by David Norquist. Originally scheduled to expire on March 12, 2020, it was extended until September 12, 2020. Before it expired, it was replaced by Department of Defense Instruction 1300.28, which took effect on September 4, 2020, signed by Matthew Donovan.
Transmedicalism is the idea that being transgender is primarily a medical issue related to the incongruence between an individual's assigned sex at birth and their gender identity, characterized by gender dysphoria. There are divides and debates within the transmedicalist community on the exact definition of who is or is not transgender. Many transmedicalists believe individuals who identify as transgender without experiencing gender dysphoria or desiring to undergo a medical transition through methods such as hormone replacement therapy or sex reassignment surgery are not genuinely transgender. They may also exclude those who identify themselves as non-binary from the trans label.
Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters is a 2020 book by Abigail Shrier, published by Regnery Publishing, which endorses the controversial concept of rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD). ROGD is not recognized as a medical diagnosis by any major professional institution nor is it backed by credible scientific evidence.
When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment is a book critical of modern transgender rights and certain treatments for gender dysphoria, written by the socially conservative political philosopher Ryan T. Anderson and published by Encounter Books in 2018. The book focuses on the cultural and political debates surrounding transgender identity, with a particular focus on criticizing what the author describes as "transgender ideology".
Stella O'Malley is an Irish psychotherapist and author, with three books on parenting and mental health. She is a regular contributor to Irish national newspapers, podcasts, and TV. She made a documentary about gender dysphoria in children for Channel 4, and is the founder of Genspect, a self-described gender critical organisation opposed to gender affirming care.
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