[crowd] Stop tranzing kids!
I'm here at a detransitioner rally,
and they say that gender-affirming care has gone
too far.
Why do you think there aren't more people speaking out?
I've received death threats,
I'm constantly being told I have blood on my hands.
[Alyza VO] You see narratives about people are experimenting
on children with gender-affirming care.
What do you make of all that?
The narrative is very off-base.
I was very concerned about my story being weaponized.
How do we take this movement down so we can get on with our
lives of just living as people?
tense energetic music
[Alzo VO] More than half of the world's known cobalt comes from
Southern Congo.
How much money do you make doing this?
Does it bother you that foreign companies would exploit the
mineral wealth of this country?
There are people digging for remnants of cobalt.
What is your biggest fear?
dramatic theme music
[shouting]
Hoorah!
[blasts]
[man] Absolutely, right on!
[crowd] Biology is not bigotry!
Stop sterilizing children!
Stop tranzing kids!
We need more people to wake up,
stand up,
and speak up!
[Alyza] I'm here at a detransitioner rally
in San Diego.
We're outside of a pediatric medical conference,
and these folks are out here protesting.
They say that doctors are using experimental methods
to treat gender dysphoria in children,
and they say that gender-affirming care has gone
too far.
[crowd] Children cannot consent!
[Cat] I am a detransitioner!
I'm with a group of detransitioners!
We are here to speak out against the sterilization
and mutilation of children!
[Alyza VO] The definition of "detransitioner" is specific to
the individual but usually means someone who was trans but no
longer is and has since stopped medical treatments to support
their transition.
It's become an increasingly-politicized term.
As a trans journalist, talking about this topic feels extremely
scary, mainly because talking about detransitioners is
fraught.
[woman over speaker] Hitler's doctors mutilated and
experimented on children.
[woman] That's right, they did, they did!
[woman over speaker] Pick the side of history you wanna
be on!
[Alyza VO] Major medical organizations cite that medical
treatment for gender dysphoria, like puberty blockers or
hormones, are both safe and medically necessary,
and for so many people -- me included --
it's life-saving care.
But that hasn't stopped Conservative lawmakers from
leveraging a small group of voices to restrict access to
trans healthcare at large.
My parents were told that the options were transition
or suicide.
I cannot even cry or raise my voice;
I was silenced.
[Abel] I was misled to believe that these procedures were
perfectly safe.
[Alyza VO] And it's working.
Just this year, more than 500 bills targeting trans rights
have been introduced across 49 states --
a sharp increase since 2015.
These proposals include criminalizing doctors and
healthcare providers, and could redefine child abuse to include
those who support medical transition for anyone under 18.
And while it may seem like there are a large number of
detransitioner voices raising alarm,
it's actually the same few providing the most graphic
testimony in support of these bills across the country.
I am dealing with genital atrophy.
I have blood clots in my urine.
And all of my joints ache.
We must prevent this nightmare from happening to any more
young people.
[Alyza VO] One of these detransitioners
is Cat Cattinson.
When she was 28, she started taking testosterone but stopped
after four months when she developed throat pain.
Castration is not a treatment for mental illness!
When did you decide to speak out about your story?
Initially, I didn't speak out about detransitioning because
I didn't want to do anything to, like,
harm the trans community.
But I did realize just, like, how little...
support and knowledge there is about detransitioners.
Like, there's no medical codes for detransitioners.
And I feel like right now, minors transitioning is
an emergency situation.
Why do you think there aren't more people speaking out?
There are more that are slowly coming forward...
but it's scary to put yourself out there.
It's terrifying, actually.
I've received death threats, bullying,
and harassment.
I'm constantly being told I'm...
a child-killer and that I have blood on my hands of trans kids
and things like that.
It's not easy at all.
Do you ever worry that what you're saying may have
consequences that you can't foresee?
I don't think that what I'm doing is causing harm.
I think certain politicians and public figures that bring up the
gender issue are using that to get votes from people,
but often times, the Right is the only side that cares about
detransitioners and is willing to listen to and amplify their
stories.
A lot of people have called you "transphobic,"
have called these bills "transphobic"...
How do you see them?
The word "transphobia" implies hatred and...
bigotry towards people who identify as transgender.
I do not hate anyone,
and my desire to prevent people from suffering
from life-long health issues is...
coming from a place of love.
I do think that people who affirm -- providers who affirm
-- are doing so from a good place as well.
But I do believe that that leads to harm.
[Alyza] Hi, it's so nice to finally meet you...
[Alyza VO] Dr. Meredithe McNamara specializes in
adolescent medicine and provides gender-affirming care to minors
-- something she's had to defend in response to testimonies
like Cat's.
I think that the concerned public really responds
to human stories.
It becomes a concerning problem when anecdotes
are being used to decide the fates of many,
and that's fundamentally unscientific.
If you're turning on the TV,
you see narratives about children are being butchered,
you know, people are experimenting on children
with gender-affirming care...
What do you make of all that?
How does that make you feel?
In order to ban care for something,
you really have to try to chip away at the existence
of the condition for which care is being sought.
So, when people say things like "Social contagion is real,"
or "Gender dysphoria is other mental illnesses,"
or "Talk therapy is appropriate as the only treatment,"
what they're really saying is that transgender identity and
gender dysphoria don't exist.
The next thing you might hear would be false claims about
safety, false claims about the evidence.
And then the final thing is just attacks on medical authority,
so "Medical organizations are advocacy groups.
They're biased, liberal, Leftist, ideological machines."
That sort of thing.
How often are you recommending surgery to adolescents under the
age of 18?
So I've never recommended surgery for gender-affirming
purposes in my life, because that kind of describes,
like, a prescriptive model that we're not doing,
that doesn't really exist.
It's not a medicalized conveyor belt that you hop on and you
can't get off until you get to the end.
[Alyza VO] There aren't solid numbers on how many people
detransition or why,
in part because long-term and large-scale studies are scarce,
but their impact is inarguably outsized.
Current bills could limit healthcare for up to 300,000
trans kids nationally, and that's not accidental.
We just landed in Chicago and we're going to meet Ky Schevers.
She's a former detransitioner who feels like her story was
co-opted by the Anti-trans Movement.
soft ethereal music
[Alyza VO] Ky Schevers medically transitioned from
female to male in 2006,
but began detransitioning five years later.
She now uses she/her pronouns
and identifies as trans masculine.
While detransitioning, Ky turned to the Internet for support,
and she was slowly indoctrinated by people she says are
anti-trans radical feminists.
Over the next six years, she worked alongside them.
The Right, in particular, has specifically kind of, like,
sought out detransitioned people's
stories that they could use because they feel like that can
kind of, like-- that it works better like effective
propaganda.
I was talking to someone who wanted to believe that,
"Well, all transmasculine people transition because of unresolved
trauma," and that to heal from that,
you had to sort of, like, reclaim being female.
So I had this unresolved trauma about my mom committing suicide,
and I had come to believe, you know,
my transness was motivated by that unresolved trauma,
and to heal from that, I would have to stop being trans.
And so when did you realize, "Wait a second,
I think there's something more insidious going on?"
[clears throat] Boy...
The real significant wake-up call was some anti-trans
feminist decided to, you know, ally with the Right --
like, ally with Conservative Christian groups --
and I was absolutely horrified.
I just was like, "How can you claim to be against the
Patriarchy when you're working with them?"
So I was basically like, "The only reason you would wanna work
with these people is if you just hated trans people."
We really should reach out to some of the people that have
been, like, protesting.
[Alyza VO] Eventually, Ky understood what happened to her
to be a type of conversion therapy.
In order to reckon with that experience,
she needed to find out who was behind it.
She and her partner Lee discovered that
seemingly-independent doctors and psychotherapists supporting
the group were actually connected to major Conservative
political powerhouses.
Their work was validated in March when thousands of leaked
emails revealed a coordinated effort between Conservative
state legislators, think tanks, lawyers,
and gender-critical feminists to further an anti-trans agenda.
[Ky VO] There's, like, a lot of different organizations that
pass themselves off as something that they're not.
The American College of Pediatricians,
which is a Conservative Christian group that pretends to
be a legitimate medical organization so they can spread,
you know, anti-gay and trans
and anti-reproductive right crap
while trying to pretend to be scientific.
Why do you feel the need to do this research?
Like, why is it important right now?
[Ky] [sighs] Just to make sure we keep--
like, we can survive!
How do we take this movement down so we can get on with our
lives of just, you know...
living as people?
[Alyza VO] The divisive political climate leaves little
room for nuance.
Some detransitioners feel caught between detrans activists
and their former trans communities.
[Alyza] So this is your studio?
[Maddie] It is.
[Alyza VO] I went to Canada to visit Maddie,
who has asked that we only use her first name.
[Alyza] Is this usually what you do?
You make, like, little diorama setups?
[Maddie] Yeah, I sometimes do that,
or I sometimes just make miniature foods.
soft ethereal music
I got started making miniatures in high school.
I find it very therapeutic; I can just get really lost in it
and, like, I don't think very much when I'm working,
and that's really nice. [chuckles]
[Alyza VO] She first began her transition at 15,
and eventually started taking testosterone and got top surgery
when she was 21.
Two years later, she detransitioned.
She has never shared her story publicly before.
[Alyza] What made you decide to detransition?
I had received an Autism diagnosis,
and things that had once made sense to me as being about
gender suddenly were very clearly stemming from Autism --
things like my discomfort with my body --
and then I started to feel regret.
I started to wonder if my disability--
"Your disability" meaning Autism?
-[Maddie] Yeah. -Okay.
[Maddie] Had impacted this.
Why was that never explored with the doctors I had seen?
I felt...
very upset about that.
tense ambient music
I learned pretty quickly that people really don't like talking
about this, and they don't like talking about regrets or doubts.
I just felt very alone.
It sounds like you were looking for people to talk to about what
you'd experienced.
Yeah, I found it quite difficult to navigate because I
was very concerned about my story being weaponized.
By who?
The right wing...
really, really liked to use these stories of
transition regret
in attempts to...
ban transition or to demonstrate that it...
doesn't work for anyone.
Do you believe in banning gender-affirming care?
I don't, I think there are some people who benefit from it,
and probably some people who really do need it to live
happy lives.
I don't think the system -- as it is now -- is serving
everybody who goes through it,
but I think bans are a severe overreaction.
Our children are not guinea pigs for science
experimentation, and we cannot allow people to make money
off mutilating them.
[Alyza VO] It's clear Conservative lawmakers have
turned gender-affirming care into a key wedge issue.
They're calling the very idea of transness into question,
and the resulting bans are having a major negative impact
on trans people's mental and physical health.
The reality is so many of us -- detransitioners included --
want the freedom to live authentic, healthy lives,
and want access to care that supports that.
But when healthcare is legislated in black and white
ways, that freedom hangs in the balance.
What do you say to the detransitioners who say,
"I feel like I was hurt by the medical system?"
I would never go so far as to cast doubt on somebody else's
lived experiences, but the narrative that that describes
the standard of care is very off-base.
Do you think there is enough evidence
for gender-affirming care?
[Dr. McNamara] Yeah, I do.
There is enough evidence to show that it benefits a lot
of people.
We do need more evidence -- we need bigger studies,
we need longer follow-up periods -- but if these laws and these
policy actions are allowed to stand,
we're not going to be able to do that.
tense theme music
tense erratic music
We're on a tour of an artisanal mine,
which is at the very bottom of the supply chain when it comes
to mining cobalt.
Over here is just an open-air pit that's just full of holes,
and every hole is a tunnel that runs from 15- to about
40-meters deep.
[machine whirring]
[Alzo VO] The bags coming up from these tunnels are full of
cobalt, a key component that helps lithium ion batteries used
in cell phones, laptops, and electric vehicles charge faster.
The DRC is the second-largest country in Africa.
More than half of the world's known cobalt comes from the
south -- mostly, here in Kolwezi.
The market for this valuable mineral exploded
over a decade ago.
And now, demand for cobalt is expected to go up by 500 percent
in the next three decades,
with powerful companies scrambling to dominate the
transition to electric vehicles.
tense music
At this mine alone, there are 18,000 people digging for copper
and cobalt daily.
[Alzo VO] Raw cobalt gets pulverized,
weighed, and tested for quality in local depots like this one,
but the value is decided by the parent company that's licensed
to mine here.
Chinese investors own almost 70 percent of the cobalt sector,
and they can adjust the price of cobalt at their discretion
outside the market value.
As a Congolese citizen, does it bother you that it's foreign
companies coming over here to exploit the mineral wealth
of this country?
[Alzo VO] This relationship was set in motion in 2007.
Then-President Joseph Kabila made a $6 billion infrastructure
deal with China that allowed them to extract 600,000 tons of
cobalt in exchange for roads, railways,
and hospitals.
So far, they haven't delivered on many of these promises.
But this isn't the first time the Congolese have been taken
advantage of by a grab for resources.
[Alzo VO] In the 1800s, King Leopold II of Belgium sought to
pull other resources from the DRC,
and deployed colonists to steal land.
Soon, a runaway market for rubber extraction went on to
feed the automotive industry boom of the early 20th century.
And while the investors profited in the millions,
little was shared with the Congolese harvesting the rubber.
The DRC gained its independence in 1960,
but was left with weakened institutions,
no infrastructure for education, and a devastated local economy,
all of which set the groundwork for decades of failed leadership
and installed dictators.
And today, the Congolese government allows foreign
investors to capitalize on the Congo's resources at the expense
of its own people.
tense music
Back in 2014, a man was just digging in his backyard in the
neighborhood of Kasulo and discovered
there was cobalt there.
It triggered a mad rush, and then it became the major source
of income for that community.
Nine years later, things are a bit different.
deep tense music
[Alzo VO] Junior Kasango Kamuza ran this simple tunnel,
finding enough cobalt to provide for his family.
But with mining companies now defining the economy here,
diggers like Junior can only take home a fraction of what
they made before.
Do you still sell cobalt from this mine?
What is your biggest fear?
[Alzo VO] And that job comes with immense risk.
Landslides and tunnel collapses are frequent.
It's hard to find an accurate figure,
but some researchers estimate at least 2,000 miners get killed
each year.
Miners often die instantly, crushed beneath fallen cobalt
and dirt, while the more fortunate survive to keep
working, but with broken bones and severed limbs,
as they have no other way to make a living.
[hushed] Right now, the doctor and his team are with a patient
who had a mining accident where part of his thumb was crushed,
and as a result, they're having to remove part of that thumb.
tense ethereal music
[rooster crows]
How often do you have patients that have conditions related
to mining?
[Alzo VO] The impact of this massive industry is felt beyond
the risks of life and limb.
Multinational mining companies are digging with the next
century of technology in mind.
To pull this off, the companies are eyeing land that has
belonged to families for generations.
[church bell ringing]
congregation singing
[Alzo VO] Espérance Tchiabula never expected the mining
company next door to get so big.
For the last five years, she's watched as it's progressively
expanded, coming closer and closer.
Even though Mama Espérance is chief of this village,
she says she was never given a choice whether to move or not.
Instead, she was handed an agreement between the government
and the mining company to take her land -- already signed.
Mama Espérance, can you tell me what these numbers on the side
of these homes mean?
How long do you think it will be before you and your family
have to leave this village?
[Alzo VO] When it comes to land ownership,
responsibility does lie in the hands of the government --
the ones who brokered the contracts to mine here.
Not only did they not deliver on many of the promises of new
roads and infrastructure, they also pocketed money that was
meant for those projects, leaving people to resort to
extreme measures to make ends meet.
This mountain right here is made up of dirt from industrial
mining, and it still contains remnants of cobalt.
We got word that there are people down here digging for
those scraps.
[Alzo VO] Trucks from the industrial mine next door dump
hundreds of tons of leftover dirt.
Adults and children from the village rush up these hills to
fill sacks with debris.
They carry them down tiers of unstable ground,
and sift through them in the river below.
Cobalt is then sorted and packed to be sold on a secondary
market.
How much money do you make a day doing this?
You have eight children, and I see a lot of children here.
Many of these kids probably should be in school.
[Alzo VO] Families who can't afford to send their kids to
school are forced to send them to the mines.
Researchers estimate there may be thousands of children working
in Kolwezi, some as young as five.
children singing
This nonprofit school was set up by volunteer nuns,
but can only afford to teach a fraction of the kids who need
help.
Nearly every student here is a former child laborer.
[clapping]
[Alzo VO] Helene Mande Masengo worked in the mines before a
social worker found her a spot here.
When you were working there in the mines,
did you ever think about going to school
and studying in the way that you are right now?
[Alzo VO] This school is a fix for the lucky few in a land
where long-term solutions are needed for the many.
The scars of colonialism in the DRC are undeniable,
yet history seems to be repeating itself.
The business of unearthing precious resources from the DRC
today suggests an economy much like the one that devastated it
100 years ago.
tender ethereal music
moody electronic music