In 2019, Elisa Shupe, who at the time was detransitioning, was courted by the right-wing Christian group Family Policy Alliance. Spencer MacNaughton and Hope Pisoni report:
With an all-expenses-paid visit that included lodging at the five-star Ritz Carlton hotel, Shupe says she and her spouse received “rock star treatment” from Family Policy Alliance (FPA), the conservative Christian lobbying group hosting the event, who invited her to speak about her detransition.
Shupe, “attributes her decision to detransition… to a lack of family acceptance and her struggle with borderline personality disorder” – became a mouthpiece for the FPA’s anti-trans views and a witness they’d trot out to support anti-trans legislation. She became, in effect, an anti-trans activist – and her hands were held at every stage by anti-trans professionals who told her where to go and what to say.
Multiple of Shupe’s op-eds were written in collaboration with ADF. In one email, Roger Brooks, a senior counsel with the group, asked her to write an op-ed in support of the group’s lawsuit to overturn New York City’s ban on conversion therapy for gay and trans people. In the email, he offered points to raise in the proposed story, including that she was “horribly lied to and cheated” by doctors facilitating her transition. He also offered her writing support from ADF employees “familiar with the length and style that appeals to op-ed page editors.” Alliance Defending Freedom did not respond to a request for comment.
Shupe says that Bob Sullivan, an attorney who frequently liaised with ADF and planned to represent her in a medical malpractice lawsuit, helped craft her persona as a victim. In one email advising her on a potential autobiography, he said her story “could be modified to make it a quick-hitting intro into [her] nightmare of gender dysphoria.” He also discussed how they should strategically time the possible autobiography’s release “according to any litigation we pursue.”
(Sullivan says this was taken out of context.)
Unsurprisingly, Shupe was no longer welcome when she decided to transition after all.
Shupe faced a difficult journey after leaving this right-wing ecosystem. She says she has been harassed by her former right-wing allies and has had difficulty receiving medical care because of doctors’ fear of a media storm. …
MacKinnon says the weaponization of detransitioner stories by the far-right not only hurts trans people, but also detransitioners, making it harder for both groups to find the care that they need.
It is inevitable that people will detransition – no medical treatment has a 100% satisfaction rate. But 94% of trans people report being more satisfied with their life after transitioning.
People who detransition should have the help they need, and be treated with compassion. But they should not be taken as a reason to deny trans people medical and other help.
It’s also important to know that detransitioners aren’t a group mass-mind with a single story and motivation. People can detransition for a wide variety of reasons, including a lack of support and resources. From Transvitae:
Detransitioning is a nuanced and deeply personal process. While some individuals detransition because they were misdiagnosed or because they realize they are not transgender, many others do so due to external factors—social rejection, lack of access to proper medical care, family pressure, or discrimination. And, crucially, many who detransition do not regret transitioning but rather regret the circumstances that forced them to stop.
However, as I have witnessed in my work within the community, the Republicans and right-wing organizations hosting these events are not interested in this complexity. They have cherry-picked a small group of detransitioners—many of whom are professional activists funded by anti-LGBTQ+ groups—to push a narrative that gender-affirming care is dangerous, unnecessary, and should be banned for everyone.
People who transition – including the small minority who go on to detransition – need support and access to care. But what conservatives offer detransitioners is extremely conditional support that’s entirely dependent on willingness to be used as tools against trans people.
TRANSCRIPT OF CARTOON
This cartoon has four panels, all showing two people standing on a mini stage in a public park. A small crowd is watching them. The first speaker is a grinning woman in a business suit. The second speaker, “John,” is bald with short hair on the sides, wearing a t-shirt and slacks. John looks nervous and unhappy.
PANEL 1
WOMAN: This is John. John used to be “trans” and called himself “Joan,” but he knows better now.
JOHN: It’s just been really difficult for me…
PANEL 2
WOMAN: The trans cult puts so much pressure on people to transition these days! But John knows his own mind!
JOHN: I got so much blowback when I transitioned… It’s hard not to let that pressure get to me.
PANEL 3
The woman keeps talking with a pious expression. “John” – now Joan – is suddenly very happy, spreading her arms wide in a gesture of acceptance.
WOMAN: What matters is that all of us respect John’s choice.
JOAN: I can’t do this anymore… I am Joan! I am!
PANEL 4
The woman, looking angry, kicks a surprised Joan off the platform.
WOMAN: No, you’re not.
CHICKEN FAT WATCH
“Chicken fat” is what an earlier generation of cartoonists called extras we’d now call “Easter eggs.”
PANEL 1 – Woodstock from “Peanuts” is perched on a tree.
People watching in the audience include Little Orphan Annie, Mr. Spock, and Spider-Man. A bald person has the planet sticking its tongue out from “Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” tattooed on their head. Someone else is wearing a cap for the Portland Pickles (a real minor league baseball team with a pickle for a mascot). A woman has “this space for rent” tattooed on her shoulder.
PANEL 3 – An evil bunny, smoking a cig, is in the background. Way in the background, a gigantic squirrel is climbing the side of a skyscraper.
PANEL 4 – Someone in the audience is missing the top of their head, and we can see their brain (a call-out to an earlier cartoon by Grace and I).
A flyer taped to the stage says “LOST!” in big letters. Below that, in lettering that’s almost too small to be read, it says “innocence, generation, hope, the battle, my way, paradise, boys, steam, cause, virginity, my religion, and found, time, it, touch, in translation, tv show, no big, at sea, in space, for words, loved and, sleep, and my dog.”
T SHIRT IN ALL FOUR PANELS: In panel one, Joan’s t-shirt shows a snowman. In panel 2, the snowman has turned to look at the sun. In panel 3, the snowman is melting. In panel 4, the shirt just shows the sun and some puddles.
Support your friendly neighborhood independent comic strip: SIGN UP FOR THE INNER HIVE and you'll get each week's Tom the Dancing Bug comic at least a day before publication. Plus other exclusive content like extra comics, commentary, juicy gossip, puzzles, jokes, and sneak peeks at australopithecines. — Read the rest
Considering how long the world has been on fire, it's amazing that it hasn't burnt down to charcoal yet. It continues to worry us over what its sparks will jump to next. It feels we're only a virus, policy or racist bastard away from a new calamity, at any time. — Read the rest
Starting May 7, 2025, I'll need a REAL ID to fly from Houston to New Orleans. Apparently, my current driver's license — you know, the one issued by my state government — isn't "real" enough anymore.
Remember when we used to mock totalitarian regimes for requiring "internal passports?" — Read the rest
When the authors of "How Fascism Works" and "On Tyranny" feel it's time to get out of Dodge, you know things are bad.
According to a report from The Toronto Star, three standout professors, employed by Yale University are picking up stakes and moving North of the Wall. — Read the rest
When Nazi officials opened their infamous "Degenerate Art" exhibition in 1937, they labeled modern art as culturally corrupt and ideologically impure. Now, nearly 90 years later, Donald Trump's latest executive order targeting the Smithsonian Institution uses strikingly similar language about "improper ideology" and "divisive narratives." — Read the rest
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So your spacecraft breaks down and your 8-day space jaunt turns into a 9-month orbital sleepover. Surely NASA backs up a Brinks truck full of hazard pay, right? Sorry!
Turns out our intrepid space explorers Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, who just splashed down after their involuntarily extended vacation on the International Space Station, got paid exactly what any random bureaucrat gets for a Hampton Inn stay in Toledo — a whopping $5 per day in "incidentals." — Read the rest
Germany has updated its travel advice for citizens heading to the United States after three Germans faced detention and deportation during attempted US entry, as reported by Euronews. The cases included allegations of mistreatment and unexpectedly long detention periods.
The German foreign ministry's revised guidance now explicitly warns that even minor visa infractions or criminal convictions can lead to arrest and detention. — Read the rest
Support your friendly neighborhood independent comic strip: SIGN UP FOR THE INNER HIVE and you'll get each week's Tom the Dancing Bug comic at least a day before publication. Plus other exclusive content like extra comics, commentary, juicy gossip, puzzles, jokes, and thrilling tales of pencil and ink drawing. — Read the rest
I've recently started using a full desktop PC with Linux loaded to do my streaming, with a wireless mouse and keyboard, it is a strict upgrade over the Roku,
Roku makes streaming media boxes and software for smart TVs, and I've stuck with it because I like how simple it is compared to the unusuable mess that Android TV amounts to or the smooth limits of Apple TV. But if I start seeing autoplaying video ads when I'm trying to use the home screen I'll be done. — Read the rest
Most hardware breaks down and gets worse as it ages. Some old Super Nintendo systems, however, are actually running faster. The changes aren’t noticeable to your average player, but dedicated fans have been measuring the differences and trying to uncover why the changes are occurring and what it could mean for the…
A French Member of the European Parliament demanded that the United States return the Statue of Liberty.
The United States no longer represents the values under which the famed Statue of Liberty was gifted to it, and French MEP Raphael Glucksmann has demanded its return:
"We're going to say to the Americans who have chosen to side with the tyrants, to the Americans who fired researchers for demanding scientific freedom: 'Give us back the Statue of Liberty,'" he told cheering supporters.
Peat bogs are also one of Earth’s most effective contributing carbon sinks that help keep our air breathable!
Yes, bogs are absolutely filled to the brim with evil intent and malicious intentions to any human who comes across it, but I don’t need my super heroes to like me *personally*, y'know?
Thread from Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez on her experience in a hospital in Cuba
okay total aside, but a lot of leftists get really, really mad at me when i say that a fundamental part of any communist movement must be the elimination of the division of labour. they mock me with “what, do you want us all taking turns being doctors?”
no, you fucking morons. i want us to live in a society where medical knowledge isn’t treated as secret unknowable lore that gatekeeps access to the care and resources we need to survive.
the reason we have so much bullshit medical psudeoscience is our society has a vested interest in making medical knowledge seem like impossible magic that only our greatest super-geniuses can hope to understand, but as both a trans person and a person who has helped a loved one with a chronic illness, getting care in these situations more often than not involved sitting down in front of a disinterested doctor and realizing with slow horror that we know more about our condition than they do, yet they decide what is best for us.
and if they notice you notice they’re out of their depths, there’s a good chance they will withhold care you need to punish you
the solution is the demystification and democratization of knowledge. yes, we have dedicated medical experts, because having specialists is important in realms of complex knowledge, but the death of the division of labour means the death of the idea that a field of human labour is the exclusive propertyof a caste of specialists.
it means exactly this; invite the community to be involved! teach those who are curious openly and eagerly so they don’t go looking for answers from grifters! get everyone involved! treat medicine as a journey a community takes together, not a missive from on high. and that goes for everything. treat science this way, treat education this way, treat life and all the work we do to sustain it as a beautiful shared journey instead of capitalism’s pay-as-you-go haunted house
