President Biden recently expressed support for “gender affirming” medical treatment for transgender minors, which pressures medical professionals to affirm and not question a child’s gender identity. But 18-year-old Chloe Cole, who was born female and transitioned to male as a young teen before “detransitioning,” thinks Biden’s stance could lead more young people down the road toward irreversible medical treatments.
“What Biden was saying is dangerous,” Cole warned. “He’s trying to advocate for further experimentation on children.”
Teenage activist Chloe Cole was born biologically female, transitioned to male and then detransitioned back to female. She is now taking on a medical establishment she feels is far too eager to operate on the bodies of young people. Allison Bailey/NurPhoto/ShutterstockThe California teen, who began identifying as a boy at age 12, started puberty blockers and testosterone treatment at 13, and had an elective double mastectomy at 15 to masculinize her chest. By 16, she regretted the surgeries, which she says were spurred by insecurities about her appearance and the influence of social media rather than gender dysphoria. She blames medical professionals for failing to question or prevent her rapid transition.
“I was failed by the system. I literally lost organs,” she told The Post in a previous interview.
Cole’s initial transition process from female to male involved puberty blockers and a double mastectomy, which she now regrets. Courtesy of Chloe ColeDuring a panel discussion at the White House on Friday, Biden spoke with six progressive activists championing issues from gun control to abortion access. Among them was transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, who asked the president whether states should be able to regulate medical treatment — like hormone replacement therapy and gender-affirming surgery — for minors with gender dysphoria.
“Sometimes they try to block you from being able to access certain medicines, being able to access certain procedures and so on,” the president said. “I don’t think any state or anybody should have the right to do that. As a moral question and as a legal question, I just think it’s wrong.”
A shot from President Biden’s meeting last week with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, who’s chronicling her transition on TikTok. YouTubeBiden’s position, though popular with progressives, is at odds with much of the Western world, where the unquestioning medical treatment of transgender minors is becoming increasingly unpopular. Recently, countries across Europe, including the United Kingdom, France and Sweden, pumped the brakes on providing trans kids with irreversible medical interventions. Four US states, including Texas, Alabama, Arkansas and Arizona, have enacted laws preventing gender-affirming care, though they are currently blocked by court rulings. Cole, meanwhile, is campaigning for a Florida rule that will block Medicaid funds from paying for medical interventions in cases like hers.
Cole thinks Biden’s decision to break with this growing consensus is politically motivated. “I seriously doubt he actually believes in it,” she told The Post. “He’s an elderly man and his stances on things have been very inconsistent over the years.”
Mulvaney has come under fire for promoting outdated stereotypes about women. Greg Doherty/Getty Images for SmirnoffCole said she was also “disappointed” to see Biden sit down with Mulvaney, whose TikTok videos have caused controversy for promoting outdated stereotypes about women. The 25-year-old has documented her gender transition in the app with daily updates on her “girlhood.”
In her first video documenting her transitionin March, for instance, Mulvaney professed: “Day one of being a girl, and I have already cried three times, I wrote a scathing email that I did not send, I ordered dresses online that I couldn’t afford, and then when someone asked me how I was, I said, ‘I’m fine’ but I wasn’t fine. How’d I do, ladies, good? Girl power!”
Transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner, who is one of Mulvaney’s loudest detractors, tweeted, “Let’s not ‘normalize’ any of what this person is doing. This is absurdity!” Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Elton John AIDS FoundationFormer Olympic athlete Caitlyn Jenner, who herself transitioned in 2015, slammed Mulvaney for her comments, tweeting this week: “Let’s not ‘normalize’ any of what this person is doing. This is absurdity!”
“As a teenage girl I find it very insulting that [Dylan is] basically trying to pick and choose parts of the female experience in almost a sexualized manner,” Cole added.
Since being profiled in The Post this June, Cole has become famous for her activism fighting against the medicalization of transgender children. She recently spoke at the End Child Mutilation Rally in Nashville and testified against legislation that would make California a sanctuary state for kids from other states seeking medical transition.
UK-based detransitioner Keira Bell is another outspoken critic of the medical treatment of trans minors. She sued the clinic that facilitated her transition from female to male. FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA/EPA-EFE/ShutterstockBut the scars of the procedures she underwent as a young teen still haven’t healed — and continue to haunt her. Three years later, Cole said, she experiences debilitating side effects from her double mastectomy. She said she has to wear bandages at all times because her body is rejecting the skin grafts performed during the procedure, and she still doesn’t know whether her eggs or long-term fertility were compromised by the testosterone treatment she took from age 13 to 16.
Although she said she was cheered on by medical professionals in her transition process, she now feels totally alone as she detransitions.
Cole recently established the group Detrans United to support other young people as they navigate the process of detransitioning. Detrans United“I haven’t really had support in my detransition at all,” Cole said. “I had to basically figure out everything myself, starting with whether I’d have to go on supplemental hormones or whether breast reconstruction would be covered by insurance.”
To help others in similar circumstances, Cole has launched Detrans United, a support group for transgender youths who have reversed course.
Cole said she hopes to help others like herself, who need detransitioner role models. “While I was in the process of detransitioning … just seeing other women who were further along in the process and knowing that I had a lot of progress to make and a lot of healing to do from there really helped me look forward to the future,” she said.
Cole is fighting to compel insurance companies to pay for detransitioning surgeries. Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesDetrans United is also advocating for policy changes that would make insurance companies — which in many states like California and New York often cover transgender transitions — also cover detransition surgeries and hormone treatment for those who decide to return to their birth gender.
Although medical insurance helped Cole obtain both hormone treatment and chest masculinization surgery, she said she won’t get an insurance break on any medical procedures she might seek to help her detransition.
“Any treatment that I get, it’s likely I’ll have to pay out of pocket for it,” she said. “These surgeries are experimental at best. If they’re performed on a patient and the experiment fails, the insurance companies should have to pay for the consequences.”
Even though she faces an uphill battle that goes all the way to the White House, Cole sees a light at the end of the tunnel. “This whole process of transitioning kids while they’re still developing … people are going to wake up and realize that it’s wrong, and it’s happening all over, and it needs to stop,” she said. “I really think it’s inevitable.”



