RuPaul's Drag Race season 14 contestant Kerri Colby is under fire right now with the trans community for some misinformed tweets she wrote arguing that children shouldn't be "medically transitioning."
"Babyyyyyy y'all gone really hate me when I say I don't believe children should be medically transitioning," Colby, who is notably one of multiple transgender contestants on her season of Drag Race, wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter). "I think affirming them to outwardly express the gender they identify with until adulthood is plenty. Period."
"According to multiple gender affirming websites and mayo clinic the suggested age to start hormone replacement therapy is 18 and 16-17 with adult consent but there is no official limitation legally on when someone can start using hormones such as estradiol, depo-testosterone, progesterone.. Etc," she continued.
"All I’m saying is I feel that only someone should be making that decision as an adult! I don’t think 14 year olds are out here getting bbls,ffs,srs, and breasts. However to treat gender dysphoria in a way that can forever change someone’s ability to have children and consequently affect their body's functions should they change their mind (which young people do) is something I don’t agree with."
Almost immediately, fans and followers started jumping into the conversation, including many trans folks who received gender-affirming care when they were minors.
Grammy-winner Kim Petras, who made headlines when she was medically transitioning in Germany at the age of 14 and has always maintained that gender-affirming care saved her life, simply responded, "ok umm, wtf?"
Many people were quick to point out that gender-affirming care for minors is typically puberty blockers, and later, hormone therapy. While some trans people have access to breast or top surgery in later teen years, it isn't that common, and it is extremely more rare that people under the age of 18 have any kind of access to bottom surgery as well.
According to a recent study, only 3 percent of trans youth who started gender-affirming care in their teen years had discontinued care. Satisfaction rates in the study, which looked at 269 youth, showed that 6-10 years after transition began, the average satisfaction rate was 6.5/7.
One of the best responses to Colby's X post came from Bosco, another trans queen who competed on Drag Race on season 14.
"Children are not medically transitioning. Children are not having gender affirming surgeries," she wrote. "These are conservative lies created to drum up transphobia with voters. HRT is only available to teens ages 16-17 after EXTENSIVE amounts of therapy. Puberty blockers are safe."
"The boogieman of 'children having transgender surgeries' is a Trojan horse to lay the grounds to take away access to gender affirming care for all trans people," she continued. "The right has already very successfully used this tactic by over-representing the impact of trans women in sports. Whipping up frenzy to gain voter support to legislate against trans people. Democrats are already gearing up to throw the trans community under the bus because this kind of bullshit is turning the median voter against trans people. We have to be able to identify the talking points that are being used against us."
Colby starred in the 14th season of Drag Race, where she was one of a handful of trans queens to compete. The season started off with Colby alongside Kornbread "The Snack" Jete, and in the weeks following, Bosco, Jasmine Kennedie, and the season's eventual winner Willow Pill all came out as trans.
Many other trans women pointed out that while she might not have had bad intentions, she was spreading misinformation and right-wing talking points with her X posts.
Others pointed out that puberty blockers for youth are reversible.
Some emphasized that trans children are under attack right now, and this kind of rhetoric only endangers them even more.
Colby has now apologized.
"I voted and work to stand with trans youth and their right to forge their own path and protect their freedom," Colby said in a statement. "My trans journey as an adult brought me exquisite clarity and self awareness, yet I've seen my quiet struggles that often remain unspoken."
"My intention in sharing my personal experience was not to cause chaos but create conversation since our future is so uncertain. I realize the way I approached the conversation should have been handled differently, and I apologize," she continued. "Thank you to my sisters and brothers who have talked through this with me and reminded me how strong and beautiful our community is, but also how harmful the manner of how I phrased things can be used as talking points that spread misinformation. No matter what the next four years bring us, I believe in our trans youth and deeply desire to see us all grow old together."
