After 17 years as a woman, this man has had enough
WA Today 11 December 2018
Family First Comment: Until just four months ago, Australian Jeremy Bate was living as a ‘trans woman’ after transitioning 17 years ago and undergoing sex reassignment surgery. Now he is angry at a system and ideology he says took advantage of him when he was his most vulnerable.
Until just four months ago, Jeremy Bate was living as a ‘trans woman’ after transitioning 17 years ago and undergoing sex reassignment surgery. Now he is angry at a system and ideology he says took advantage of him when he was his most vulnerable.
For the past 17 years, Jeremy Bate has lived as a woman.
But now, after hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery, he believes it has all been a mistake.
At the age of 52, Mr Bate now says he was never anything other than a man and has called for more support for people questioning their gender.
At the age of 35, Mr Bate transitioned from his biological sex after a devastating relationship breakdown exacerbated a gender confusion he believes was originally caused by an anti-miscarriage drug his mother took when he was in utero, although he concedes there is no scientific consensus that this was even possible.
About four months ago Mr Bate started reading deeply about the science and ideology of gender and he began to question what had happened to him.
He told Vision Christian Radio in the lead-up to his detransitioning he began to become “awakened” to right-wing politics and started to question society “where it is”.
“I was doing a lot of research. It was only a matter of time before I started questioning the trans issue, which I was kind of avoiding, and straight away it was kind of obvious that it’s been an agenda right from the start. It had very little science backing it,” he told 20Twenty’s Neil Johnson.
“It’s definitely an agenda.”
He reached out to clinics, he sent emails, he tried to get his phone calls returned from support lines.
“There was no answer, no interest whatsoever,” Mr Bates said.
He said he raised questions in online transgender support groups, but was blocked almost immediately because he was “challenging the accepted wisdom” and was accused of being “transphobic”.
Then he became angry.
He was angry at the system for letting him down, he was angry at those he believes have an ideological agenda and he was angry there was no support.
Mr Bate said he was shocked when transgender support groups to which he belonged “turned on him”.
“It sends alarm bells to me, because they don’t want to tolerate anyone moving away from it,” he said.
“They’d rather think I was never a proper trans in the first place, because they just can’t stand the idea.
“Their basic ideology is that you have to have been born that way, and if you can turn away from it, then that cancels their argument.”
Mr Bate said he was angry not only because no one would help him when he started to talk about detransitioning, but because he felt he transitioned at a time when he was vulnerable after the relationship breakdown took away his stability.
He said he had never received specialist medical advice or unbiased counselling before agreeing to hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery.
“I’m angry because this happened when I wasn’t able to protect myself,” he said.
“I was subjected to those hormones and later on the ideology without enough people who were aware of the alternatives.
“More and more people are aware of the alternatives now and the story I’ve been telling is becoming more prevalent.”
Mr Bate said people were led to believe biological gender didn’t mean anything, a concept he strongly rejects now.
Mr Bate said he would have been better off if he had counselling to help him become more comfortable with the body he was born in.
READ MORE: https://www.watoday.com.au/national/western-australia/after-17-years-as-a-woman-this-man-has-had-enough-20181207-p50kyo.html
