Episode 16 - Julie Rei Goldstein - Detransitioners and The Law

Julie Rei Goldstein is a long-transitioned trans woman and voice actress who survived attempts at conversion therapy as an adolescent, which informs her advocacy to preserve access to gender affirming care for youth today. She is also notable for her detailed journaling of the numerous lawsuits filed by detransitioners against their care providers, and provides a trans positive perspective on the state of play of these cases On today's episode, we talk to Ms. Goldstein about her childhood and transition experience, focusing on why she believes there is no real difference between exploratory therapy and conversion practices, and on the limited evidence for their effectiveness. We also discuss our concerns about how the failure to make efforts to prevent young people whose interests are not best served through affirmation and medicalization may have created the conditions that led to an increase in regretful detransitioners We then discuss some of technicalities behind why many of these lawsuits are failing, and how the legal arena may not be the best avenue to seek remedies for perceived harms, and we offer suggestions for how the medical system and society can best meet the considerable needs of detransitioners and those who otherwise came to regret their transitions.