Authors: Ramudhi Kariyawasam and Kay Padilla
In November 2024, Chloe Cole, a political activist who opposes gender-affirming care in minors following her own detransition, spoke to University of Louisiana at Lafayette students during a talk hosted by the University’s Turning Point USA (TPUSA) chapter.
Cole, born a female at birth, began her transition process during her early adolescence and detransitioned when she was 17 years old. Now 20, she travels around the nation sharing her story and advocating caution of gender transitioning in minors.
Many people in the community viewed the topic of the talk as an anti-trans speech. The main discourse came from TPUSA holding the event on national Transgender Remembrance Day, historically Nov. 20.
As a result, students from the University held a protest on Nov. 11 in the Student Union porch, calling for TPUSA to at least move the date of Cole’s talk so that it does not infringe on Transgender Remembrance Day.
UL Lafayette’s LGBTQ+ community, along with supporters, gathered that day to voice their opinions and concern towards the University for allowing and TPUSA for hosting a widely-viewed anti-trans speech on Transgender Remembrance Day.
TPUSA at UL Lafayette is an independent branch of a national, political-based organization and is student-run. Its beliefs, mission and events do not reflect those of the University, as is the case with all the student-run organizations.
Because UL Lafayette is a public, federally-funded institution, it adheres to the UL Lafayette’s Free Speech Policy, “It is not the responsibility of the University to shield individuals from speech protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America and Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution of Louisiana, and other applicable laws (‘Free Speech Laws’), including without limitation ideas and opinions they find unwelcome, disagreeable, or even deeply offensive.”
The UL Lafayette Police Department was actively present to provide security that day. Sergeant Lance Frederick, public information officer for ULPD, shared, “The department did reach out to both parties involved to assure their safety and their right to freedom of speech. After reaching out through different means, we were unable to make contact with all parties involved. Our request was not declined from either party.”
The series of events on Nov. 20 began with a prove-me-wrong question session with Cole at 11 a.m. at the Student Union porch.
At approximately 4 p.m., the University’s Giving Love, Acceptance, Safety and Support club (ULGLASS) held their annual vigil to remember all the transgender individuals who have passed away in 2024, along with 2023 as the vigil was not held that year.
Members of the UL Lafayette community, extending from students, faculty, administration and clergy gathered to pay respects to those who have passed.
The leaders of ULGLASS began by reading the names of the transgender people who have died from anti-trans violence during the last two years in the U.S. In 2024 alone, 34 trans-individuals passed away, among those names was Basil Brown, a UL Lafayette student.
Brown’s death left a mark on the lives of students, fueling their drive to protest against Cole’s talk.
Proceeding the name-reading, the vigil began with the leaders sharing the importance of Transgender Remembrance Day, reflecting on past experiences and advocating for hope and being one’s true self. Robin Duhon, a junior acting major, stated, “Day of Remembrance reminds non-transgender people we are their sons, daughters, parents, friends and lovers. Day of Remembrance gives our allies a chance to step forward with us and stand in vigil, memorializing those of us who have died by anti-transgender violence.”
Sam Wall, a senior strategic communications major, shared, “in the last couple years, we’ve seen hate speech written on our sidewalks, benches, posters and even spoken at us. But with that, there has also been an enormous outpouring of love and kind messages spread across our families.”
Jessica Trahan, director of Wesley United Campus Ministry, said, “You look to your right, and if you look to your left, you’re not going to look at a face that is not a beloved child of God. […] Regardless of what humans, even church people, might have to say about that, we do not know God’s heart, but we do know God’s love, […] know that people get it wrong, but God does not.”
Trahan spoke to vigil attendees that despite Christianity being wielded by Cole and TPUSA at UL Lafayette, they were equally entitled to the love of God as much as anyone else.
Multiple members of the community in attendance shared immensely emotional experiences about the hardships they have faced during their lives for solely being unique. As the crowd grieved for those who they had lost and the prejudice they had faced, in that moment, they were also united in being a beacon of hope and support for one another, whether they were transgender or not.
TPUSA’s event followed at 6 p.m. at Bayou Bijou in the Student Union. Prior to entering, all attendees were to register for the event. ULPD officers performed full body scans to permit entrance.
Prior to the start of Cole’s “Dangers of Transgender Ideology” talk, the president of TPUSA at UL Lafayette, Louis Cohn, a junior political science major, stated, “they tried to cancel us, they tried to push it back, but the University stayed steadfast in their commitment to free speech and to our right of expression,” and voiced that TPUSA may have a different viewpoint, but their intent from the talk was to spread love, not hate.
Cole came onto stage for her speech.“While many things, I am a detransitioner. I’m an advocate for the safety of children and our health care systems. But most importantly, I advocate for our generation, which many in power are completely mistaken that we’re just lost,” Cole began. She further went onto describe her life story and transitioning, which Cole remarked as her confusion and misunderstanding.
The current generation is far more focused on the self, as terms like self-esteem, self-actualization and self-care serve towards the selfish nature of the modern generation, which ultimately leads to the present-day identity crisis, Cole shared.
The new generation is one that “lost the wisdom, the guidance and values that the previous generations had. We didn’t have those anchors to ground ourselves,” Cole added.
When such anchors are absent, Cole explained, individuals will stray further away from Christ, leading to falsehoods in identity, like “transgenderism.”
Cole elaborated, “Feelings are not quantifiable. There is no gene, there is no anomaly on the brain or other physiological or genetic markers that make a person experience incongruence with their sex.”
The gender dysphoria individuals who wish to be transgender experience should be acknowledged. “It’s not easy for these individuals to experience on a daily basis, and we should have compassion for them,” Cole said.
These feelings of distress and needing to be a different gender usually are concurrent with neurological disorders, like depression, anxiety, learning disabilities and trauma resulting from strained familial and social interactions, Cole expressed.
“Each of these factors can lead these vulnerable boys and girls to feel as though they don’t have identity, they don’t have a place where they belong or a purpose to live for. They are desperate to reinvent themselves, to find something meaningful to strive for.”
Hence when those minors are placed within an environment that is a, Cole described, “warm and inviting place, such as transgender communities that are online or on campuses like this, […] it can be incredibly comforting.”
Cole further said that being a part of and listening to these communities can lead minors to ultimately conform to the decision that gender transitioning is the valid option for their cognitive dissonance. Popular culture and media further fuel those intentions and actions, leading to a loop of dissatisfaction that must be resolved by fixes, which often is temporary, Cole continued.
Cole’s transitioning process began after she consulted with her doctors, that she was questioning her gender and did not want to be a girl anymore. The doctors, Cole elaborated, did not hesitate on her request but rather fully encouraged transitioning.
“It’s a notorious tactic for these doctors, for these therapists and counselors to go to the parents of a gender-confused-child and going further and further down the path of transition at the expense of the parents, the family and the health and wellbeing of the child,” Cole said.
“They were merciless towards my mother and father, and the lies they told them, the way they manipulated them into doing something they didn’t want to.”
The doctors insisted her parents sign-off on the transitioning of their child, given no alternative, that the only aftermath is the continuation of life or death, Cole shared. “At 13-years-old was when I began the process of medical intervention.”
Cole received leuprolide, brand name Lupron, a gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) agonist, which means it acts on the pituitary gland of the brain by regulating the release of sex-hormones. When administered to females on a daily basis, leuprolide can decrease estrogen, commonly known as the female hormone, levels.
Often the drug is prescribed to manage endometriosis and uterine fibroids in females and prostate cancer in males. However, it can also be used to accelerate the onset of puberty, based on the National Institutes of Health.
Cole additionally received testosterone injections each week, which increases the body’s testosterone level. Testosterone is the predominant male hormone and accounts for the secondary sex characteristics of males, such as a deeper voice and increased facial and body hair.
Calling himself Leo, Cole was then, in appearance, a teenage boy to all that came across him. Cole described the drugs and injections led her to be quite ill, as they can have severe side effects on certain individuals. “I was doing everything that I was told would make me happy and healthy and whole. So I kept looking for the problem,” Cole said.
Due to this dissatisfaction and need for happiness, Cole looked to the next issue, which she described as her breasts. “Sure the testosterone was making me look like a teenage boy, but my breasts were not going away.” After expressing this concern to Cole’s doctors, surgery was performed to remove her breasts at 14-years-old.
“After they took off the bandages and took off the stitches, when I looked at the scars and the wounds and the skin grafts, I felt like a sick lab experiment,” Cole shared. She recalled afterwards extremely regretting her transitioning, grieving what she had lost.
The experiences from medication side effects, body dysmorphia, regret about transitioning and eventually the use of a psychedelic drug, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), led Cole to detransition at 17-years-old.
“For those who choose to stop their transition, it is a journey that is marked by great grief and loss along the way, but at the end of the tunnel, you also find great personal growth.”
Cole stopped the hormonal treatments suddenly as she explained she had no guidance from her doctors, leading her to become more ill from the abruptness. She recollected feeling alone and helpless, regretting all that she could have become if she solely stayed a woman.
Later on, Cole concluded that the Christian community helped her to come unto Christ and appreciate who she was created to be. “I learned that in God’s eyes, I only was His daughter because that is how He created me. And I was created in this way with love and intention, and even every hardship I went through was because He knew I could take it.”
Members of ULGLASS attended to listen to Cole’s talk and ask questions at the end. Several subjects were discussed such as the possible effects of LSD on Cole’s decision to detransition and governmental decisions that may prevent minors from receiving medical treatments for non-transitioning reasons.
Cole’s advocacy nationwide is primarily to stop gender transitioning in minors, as she voices that a minor does not have the capacity to determine a vast life change as that of becoming transgender. Cole blames the health care system for forcing such decisions on parents as the only solution to a child’s temporary incongruence. However, once adulthood is reached, Cole agrees that individuals can make decisions for themselves and choose how they may live.
Oftentimes, when a physician offers the option of transitioning, it is because they medically determine that the child is not in a stable mental state. These children who are questioning their gender and voicing the need for change are often severely prone to self-harm. Therefore, in order to prevent suicide, physicians are left with the only viable option, which is transition.
Similarly, there are times when the transition process may not be the only treatment and is still advanced towards, leading to individuals who either appreciate their new selves or detransition.
Cole continues to voice governmental change in limiting gender-affirming care for children who wish to transition while ensuring that such treatments will not be withheld from children who were born with abnormal genetic and hormonal variations.