Message From the Front Lines of the Culture War: TPUSA’s recent event was problematic

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the MSU Exponent, its editorial staff, advisers, or Montana State University.

I usually avoid far-right activism like the plague, but sometimes the Charlie Kirk-wannabes find you anyway. 

Two weeks ago, a student approached me from a table in the Malone Mall. He informed me of Chloe Cole, a woman who detransitioned and — word for word — “turned to Christ.” 

Cole would be coming to campus to host Turning Point’s “Pick Up the Mic” event, where students are encouraged to debate the host or ask questions. 

Turning Point (TPUSA) is a nonprofit organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk, which according to its website, seeks to “empower generations of patriots to stand for freedom, defend liberty and win the American culture war.” 

On Monday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m., Cole would ride in on her noble steed, shining armor gleaming in the sunset and join — in her words — “the front lines of this battle against gender ideology.” 

Detransitioning is the process of stopping, pausing or reversing a gender transition, whether it’s medical (top or bottom surgery, etc.) or chemical (puberty blockers or hormones). 

Detransitioners are often used by far-right outlets to defend their restriction of gender-affirming care. Unlike the seemingly popular belief, detransitioning is not someone seeing sense. Detransitioning is part of a bigger, broader journey of self-discovery, realizing that maybe presenting as a certain gender isn’t for you after all — and that’s okay. 

However, the amount of people who regret receiving the surgery is astronomically low — a mere one percent, according to a 2021 PubMed study. For reference, according to a different 2020 PubMed study, the dissatisfaction rate of getting a knee replacement is 18 percent. The vast majority of those who do receive gender-affirming care report feeling happier, less anxious and less dysphoric. 

For that one percent, according to another 2021 PubMed study, while true gender regret is prevalent reason for reversal at a 42 percent response rate, other reasons include societal discrimination (37 percent) or functional issues after surgery (eight percent). 

According to Cole, she first experienced gender dysphoria at nine years old — which she now frames as normal discomfort during puberty — then discussed those feelings with her pediatrician and three doctors from Kaiser Permanente at the age of 12. 

Cole, now 22 years old, is filing a lawsuit against Kaiser Permanente and three medical professionals, alleging that she was “coerced” into transitioning, being placed on puberty blockers and testosterone from the ages of 13 to 16. Cole also received top surgery at 15.

According to a Reuters special report, Kaiser Permanente offered to recommend a surgeon for breast reconstruction. Cole declined. 

According to her Wikipedia, she decided to detransition and convert to Christianity after tripping on LSD and hearing a female voice in her head saying she was kidding herself about being a boy. 

“I grew up with a God-shaped hole in my heart. Because of that, I ended up falling into transgenderism,” Cole said at the MSU event. “I believe that it’s better to embrace the design that God has given you as either a man or a woman.”

During this event, Cole made sure to mention the federal bill in her name, the Chloe Cole Act, introduced by Missouri Rep. Bob Onder, which “prohibits the chemical or surgical mutilation of a child.”

If we want to discuss mutilation of children, how about we discuss female genital mutilation? According to the World Health Organization, there are 230 million women and girls worldwide whose genitals have been partially or totally removed: including removal of the clitoral glans, the labia minora, the narrowing of the vaginal opening and more. 

These practices increase complications with urinating, menstruation and childbirth, not counting the psychological damage of being violated.

The labeling of gender-affirming care as "mutilation" is problematic; not only does it perpetuate anti-trans sentiment, it downplays the severity and prevalence of what is being done to hundreds of millions of girls and women — without their consent — all over the globe. 

With the publicity Cole is getting on social media and in the government, and her charging up to $5,000 to speak at these events, I don’t think she is doing this for a purely altruistic purpose. I’d even go so far as to say something about her story doesn’t add up.

At the event, Cole discussed her discomfort with puberty at age nine. 

“I hated looking at my early-developing curves and thinking, ‘Why do I have to go through this? I would have been so much happier if I was born like my brothers,’” she said at MSU. “What the doctors told [my parents] was that, ‘She is actually a young man. We know your child better than you do, and the longer you go without allowing her to [transition], the more likely she is to take her own life because she’s going to hate her life so much.’”

Why and how would three separate doctors — who had extensively worked with her and her parents as a team — jump to the conclusion that she needed gender-affirming care immediately? 

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s Standards of Care, the guidelines Cole’s physicians allegedly didn’t follow, “emphasizes the importance of a nuanced and individualized clinical approach to gender assessment.”

Doctors, especially those with experience in gender-questioning children, don’t simply come up with gender-affirming care as a cure-all unless the child is specifically saying they are transgender. 

Cole also alleged that her parents resisted gender-affirming care as treatment. 

“My mom and dad had a different idea in mind,” she said during her speech. “They fought for me, and they knew exactly who I was — that I was their beautiful daughter.” 

Based on standards of care and ethical guidelines for medical providers, if parents don’t consent to their child’s treatment, that’s the end of the conversation. The doctors can’t lay a finger on that kid — and more than likely, the parents would stop treatment altogether or find a different provider. 

Also, according to Gender Wellness of Los Angeles, kids are usually required to fill a long list of criteria before even being put on a waitlist to receive gender-affirming care. 

This list includes a letter of referral from a qualified professional — Cole had three — persistent and well-documented gender dysphoria, ability to consent to treatment, completion of one year of hormonal treatment for minors like Cole and well-controlled medical concerns. 

I have a lot of trouble believing that Cole managed to check every box on that list, get placed on hormones for years and receive top surgery — all between the ages of 13 and 16 — while her parents resisted treatment the entire time. 

But the doctors allegedly dragged Cole to the operating room anyway, strapped her down, flooded her system with a “chemical castration drug” — her words, verbatim — and, to add salt to the wound, cut her breasts off. To me, this seems more like a Frankenstein knockoff than a real-life situation.

Detransitioning is not a bad thing, but restricting healthcare for people who would benefit from transitioning is. If Cole gets what she’s campaigning for, then tens of thousands of children across the nation are at higher risk for suicide and psychological trouble. 

Science journals such as PubMed or the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry (CUDP) have historically been in favor of minors receiving gender-affirming care because of the immense benefits that it gives to that child. 

In fact, according to an article by the CUDP, gender-affirming care can save lives. 

“Measures to restrict this critical care not only run counter to scientific evidence but also threaten the mental health of [transgender/non-binary] youth, many of whom experience gender dysphoria — clinically significant distress or impairment caused by a discrepancy between a person’s sex assigned at birth and their gender identity,” the article said.

Further, gender-affirming care is preventative care. According to a 2025 Lancet editorial, 46 percent of transgender/non-binary youth seriously considered suicide in the last year, compared to only 13 percent of their cisgender counterparts. 

“The internalization of [LGBTQIA+] victimization experiences and [anti-LGBTQIA+] messages can compound and produce negative mental health outcomes and increase suicide risk,” according to Lancet Regional Health.

In short, if bills like the Chloe Cole Act become law, kids will die. 

I can’t stress enough how much damage Cole is doing to the American public by preaching hatred, by saying that transgender people are fighting God’s will.  

Isn’t everyone made in God’s image? Aren’t we all God’s children? Is it so radical and taboo to believe that God made transgender people to be transgender, just like cisgender children are made to be cisgender? 

Physics major Easter Hutto said he believes that TPUSA preaches a caricature of Jesus that isn't true.

“Jesus was a radical,” he said. “The exact changes [TPUSA is] promoting are the opposite of what Jesus believed in, and he had no problem calling them snakes, hypocrites and liars.”

Art education major Zoe Grinder agreed. 

“All we know about what God thinks is that he loves people,” she said. “He loves everyone, and he wants you to see him and be a good human being.” 

Hutto even suggested that Jesus himself could be genderqueer. 

“Technically, he had a masculine vibe before he had a physical body, which is some type of queer-gender,” he said. “He was a man without a d-ck.” 

In short, the implication that LGBTQIA+ individuals need to “find God” is morally and biblically wrong. God creates all of his children with love and adoration, the same love you receive from an adoring father. 

To get on your soapbox, make thousands of dollars to spread hatred, tell lies, somehow get the government to name hateful and deadly acts after you, goes directly against one of the Bible’s core tenets: love thy neighbor as yourself. 

I don’t know Cole’s ulterior motive behind spreading her story, if there even is one. I doubt her story is even 100 percent true. I just hope that Cole recognizes the harm that she’s doing by spreading fear, hatred and prejudice with these talks. 

I hope she realizes that this is not what God intends for his children.