Last week, detransitioner Jonni Skinner stood before the California State Assembly and detailed the brutal consequences that had accompanied his transition.
“Nipple leakage, brain fog, chest pain, depression. I was urinating blood and had ulcers in my bladder and was too weak to attend school,” Skinner recalled. “When I told my doctor how sick I was, he looked at me and said, ‘Welcome to womanhood.’”
These words should have inspired horror and even regret for what Skinner experienced. Instead, they were the target of jeers by transgender activists.
“The pissing blood is personally my favourite part of being on HRT,” shared one X user by the name of @77razr.
Another, @KaskaJessica, confidently claimed that Skinner lied: “This is bullshit, you wouldn’t be given puberty blockers & estrogen at the same time, it defeats each drug’s purpose. Also the side effects mentioned are extremely sus too. Grifters so obviously lie & transphobes believe every word.”
But Skinner wasn’t lying.
Now 23, Skinner began taking puberty blockers and exogenous hormones at age 13. He has since detransitioned, ceasing these interventions and resuming living life in alignment with his sex. His testimony comes six days out from the internationally-recognized Detransition Awareness Day, where he spoke about “life beyond transition” alongside Federal Trade Commission Chairman Andrew Ferguson and Assistant Secretary of Health Admiral Brian Christine at a Capitol Hill-area event hosted by Genspect.
In October 2024, Skinner testified in an amicus brief submitted to the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Skrmetti regarding the approximately seven years he spent on these treatments, the majority of them as a teenager. It is standard practice for the legal teams supporting these briefs to review and verify records before submission, as lying to the Supreme Court is illegal.
And yet transgender activists are still accusing Skinner of lying—so eager are they to dismiss his story and its implications.
The most common claim advanced by transgender activists on X has been that it is impossible for Skinner to have been on puberty blockers and exogenous hormones concurrently. However, this practice is empirically documented beyond Skinner’s case. A 2019 retrospective chart review by Jensen et al. found that six out of 22 (27.2%) female and 11 of 62 (17.7%) male patients at their pediatric gender clinic received both interventions.
Contrary to the claims of X user @KaskaJessica, these medications do not “defeat [each other’s] purpose.” Their effects are complementary. Puberty blockers only block endogenous—self-produced—hormones. They do not block hormones that are exogenous, or originating outside of oneself. In a young person like Skinner, these treatments are combined with the intention of facilitating the transition process, particularly in young adolescents with limited puberty.
I’ve seen in-person what these treatments did to Skinner. We first met at a conference in September 2025. I thought he was several years younger than me, based on his small frame and soprano voice. As it turns out, we are the same age. The impact these treatments had on his developing body is apparent to those willing to see.
I spoke to Skinner over the phone Friday afternoon and had the chance to verify the details of his testimony. While discussing the response to a video shared by Off The Press (@OffThePress1) on X, he stated plainly, “[Activists] can deny it, but I have the scars, y’know?”
Skinner’s testimony comes at a time when awareness of abuse is no longer fringe. Recent legal developments confirm the ugly truth that medical practitioners pushing so-called “gender-affirming care” have failed. In late January, detransitioner Fox Varian was awarded $2 million in damages in New York. Two additional transition medical malpractice cases, by Luka Hein in Nebraska and Chloe Cole in California, are set for trial in 2027. Many more remain pending, including my own, which has been taken up by the Texas Supreme Court.
Unfortunately, the vitriol that Skinner has received for his testimony is commonplace for those who speak out against the grain of “gender-affirming care.” When people are at their most vulnerable, having shared intimate details of abuse and disability, they are often ridiculed. When they shine light on the patterned nature of harm in this area and relate it to similar moments in history, like the opioid crisis, they are harassed.
Skinner has faced harassment before, yet his outlook remains positive: “I see all of this hate, and I don’t really feel angry. I have a lot of compassion, because I was there once.”
Like many people who have detransitioned, Skinner acknowledges that outcomes vary. “If you’re on [transition medications] and not having these health issues right now, then good,” he said.
He also acknowledges that his outcome was avoidable—and that risking certain outcomes is unacceptable in kids. When asked about gender activists’ denial that harm is happening to anyone, let alone that it might be systemic, he shared, “There are predators in every industry, and my doctor just happened to be a predatory practitioner, and one of the loudest voices” on this issue.
As more and more cases of transgender medical malpractice emerge—and I believe they will—we must pay careful attention to the culture and the shifting goal posts. “It never happens” has quickly become “It’s happening, and it’s a good thing, and anyone who says otherwise is lying.”
The resistance to Skinner’s testimony is not a dispute over evidence. The amicus brief exists. The medical records exist. The scars exist. The resistance is to the implications of that evidence—that children were harmed, that practitioners failed, and that the people who cheered it on were wrong. That is a much harder reality to sit with.
“At the end of the day, people are going to demand evidence, and no amount of evidence I provide will be enough,” Skinner wrote ahead of our call.
The question was never whether Skinner was telling the truth. The question is why so many people need him not to be.
