In 1981, a now discredited homophobic researcher by the name of Paul Cameron made up a story about a child being dragged into a bathroom, raped and then mutilated by gay man. He told this story while speaking against a pro-gay ordinance in Omaha, NB. Police investigated but couldn't find any assault. But Cameron repeated the story and subsequently, the ordinance was defeated by a large margin.
Fast forward to 2021 in Arkansas where the state legislature just passed a bill preventing trans children from receiving affirming healthcare. The state did this based upon the lie that transgender children are receiving gender-transitioning surgeries and taking dangerous hormones.
In bragging about this, anti-LGBTQ hate group the Family Research Council sent out the following tweet detailing how a legislator told the story of a trans boy allegedly receiving a double mastectomy and then regretting it:
In other words, a basic far-right smorgabord of hysteria and paranoia. Of course though FRC has never been one for caring about the veracity of its sources or said sources' claims if the group can exploit them both.
And this particular story is a doozy. I had to google but I think I found what FRC and Clark was alluding to - an article called Double Mastectomy at 15, Detrans 16-Year-Old Now Seeks Reversal.
It's the alleged story of a 16-year-old transgender boy, Penny Cunningham, who is detransitioning. Penny supposedly got a double mastectomy in Pennsylvania at 15 and was seeking funds via gofundme for a breast reconstruction. The article was published on July 10, 2020 in an online publication called The Velvet Chronicle.
The Velvet Chronicle seems to have a very serious problem with the transgender community. It pushes the idea that transgender youth are actually "nonconforming youth" bullied into being labeled as transgender. It also embraces the strange notion that lesbian voices are being replaced, particularly by transgender voices. In its attempts to prove these beliefs, the publication freely throws out phrases like "gay eugenics," "gender vultures," or "medicalized gay conversion therapy." In other words, the same type who likes to use phrases like "women's space" as if disguising their prejudices in intellectually esoteric terms makes them more palpable. A polite way to refer to The Velvet Chronicle would be to call it a "maddening mess of unbridled and ignorant TERFdom," but that's another matter entirely.
In this particularly case, the story of this alleged detransitioner should raise a lot of eyebrows. I broke down several problems with it.
1. From Penny's claim, the medical professionals in question may have acted illegally or unethically but Penny doesn't give any information to further an investigation.
2. Penny is incredibly vague about everything in the story. There is no way anyone can verify if Penny is who he or she says they are or what hospital the alleged mastectomy took place
3. Where there are gaps in Penny's story, The Velvet Chronicle fills in with quite a bit anti-transgender propaganda.
4. Except for a few tweets and links on far-right or anti-transgender webpage (all echoing the article from The Velvet Chronicle and linking Penny's now defunct gofundme page), there is no more information about Penny. As far as I have seen, there is no knowledge of whether or not Penny was successful with the fundraising or what they are doing in the present. The Velvet Chronicle did no follow-up.
Of course what I found thus far is not meant to be disrespectful. The truth may be in fact that Penny does exist and that the story told is accurate, including the claim about the mastectomy. But as of now, it doesn't look that way.
It looks as if the religious right hasn't veered from fear tactics about LGBTQ people. What worked in 1982 seems to be working in 2021. And this time, they got help from folks within our community. And that is really scary.
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