This story is from the comments listed below, summarised by AI.
Authenticity Assessment: Not Suspicious
Based on the provided comments, the account "GenderCriticalDad" appears to be authentic.
There are no serious red flags suggesting it is a bot or a bad-faith actor. The user consistently identifies as an older, cisgender man and a father ("GenderCriticalDad," "old cis bloke," "grumpy old bloke"). His role is that of a supportive outsider who listens and offers a gender-critical perspective, not a detransitioner.
The comments show a consistent personality, nuanced opinions, and a clear, long-term engagement with the community's purpose, which aligns with a genuine user.
About me
My journey started when my child began transitioning, and I watched the adults around us rush to affirm it without looking deeper. I saw that my child was running from other problems, like not fitting in or hating puberty, and that transition was offered as an escape. I deeply regret that the system failed to protect my child and instead treated a cry for help as an identity. Now, I've learned from this community that many young women are sold a false liberation that becomes a new cage. I now advocate for therapy that addresses the root causes of discomfort instead of immediate medicalization.
My detransition story
My journey with all of this didn't start with my own transition, but with my child's. Reading these comments back, I see how my perspective was shaped by watching what happened to them and then listening to the stories of detransitioners online. I’m just a dad who got thrown into this world and saw things that deeply worried me.
My main thought on gender is that the "born in the wrong body" idea is a dangerous oversimplification. From what I've seen, both with my kid and from reading countless stories, people are often running from something else—like not fitting into strict gender roles, or hating the changes of puberty, or dealing with trauma, or just feeling like they aren't beautiful or handsome enough in a world full of impossible standards. It seems like a way to escape, a chance to become a whole new person and leave your problems behind. But it doesn't actually fix the underlying issues.
I don't have personal regrets about transitioning myself because I never did. But I have huge regrets about how my child was swept up in it. I regret that the adults around us—at school, in the medical system—were so quick to affirm something that, looking back, was a cry for help about other things. They were more interested in looking progressive than in figuring out what was really going on. My child was failed by the people who were supposed to protect them.
Watching my kid go through this, and then finding this community, showed me how many young women especially end up on this path. They feel pressure to be a certain kind of woman, and when they don't fit, they're told they might not be a woman at all. It’s sold as liberation, but it looks like a new kind of cage to me. I've also wondered why there seem to be fewer men who detransition. Maybe because the effects of testosterone are so permanent so quickly, or maybe because men are socialized differently and just move on to another group without looking back.
This space has been incredibly important to me. It's one of the only places where detransitioners can tell their real stories without being judged or used for a political argument. I’ve mostly lurked because it’s not my place to talk over them, but listening has been a real education. It’s shown me that there needs to be a way to talk about body discomfort and dysphoria without immediately jumping to medicalization.
Here is a timeline of the key events from my perspective as a parent:
| My Age | Event |
|---|---|
| Around 40 | My child, around age 12, began to socially transition to male. The school and other adults were very supportive and affirming. |
| 43-44 | I started to question the "affirmative" approach after seeing my child struggle with underlying issues that weren't being addressed. I began reading and learning online, which led me to become "gender critical." |
| 44-45 | I found this detransition community and began reading the stories here. This confirmed my fears about the dangers of the trans ideology for young people. |
| 46 (Present) | I continue to support my child, who is now an adult, and advocate for a more cautious approach to youth transition, emphasizing therapy that explores all root causes. |
Top Comments by /u/GenderCriticalDad:
I can't find the original, but this is my paraphrasing of something I read, that I think is relevant to no DT people here:
Before you write here, ask the following questions about what you feel like writing:
Does it really need to be written here?
Does it need to be me that writes it here?
Does it need writing here, by me and right now?
That usually stops me. This is a precious place, perhaps the only place where DT's can speak freely to each other and Non DTs can listen.
OK I'm not detrans I'm a grumpy old bloke, feel free to tell me to fuck off.
I've seen several "On T/ Off T for..." pics and its great that you are all getting to love your bodies as they are. I just want to say one thing.
You are all pretty enough to attract people of your preferred sex. You either have, or will get enough confidence to meet them, you will have a great time.
So please stop worrying about how you look. Enjoy your bodies, If you train or diet, do so to make your bodies stronger, fitter, able to do more. Not to live up to someones idea of beauty.
That sounds awfully close to victim blaming to me.
Sometimes society is fucked up. I would suggest that when thousands of young women end up with anorexia, bulimia, GD, feel the need to have cosmetic surgery, put up with porn sick boyfriends, become props for porn inspired or gender identity mind games, then perhaps that is a sign of society being fucked up.
Of course as individuals we cannot change society. As individuals we have to work out our own ways to navigate and survive in a fucked up society. But by coming together and talking freely we can map out how society is fucked up, share ways of dealing with it, gain solidarity and maybe, just maybe start to change it.
I wonder how different my life would have been if instead of my body constantly being policed and receiving near constant messages that my body wasn’t good enough to be a woman’s body and the way I presented wasn’t good enough for me to be a woman.
It sounds like your experience is very different from the story sold to parents like me. We are told trans youth are born in the wrong body and trans helps them to become their real selves. You describe your body and your behaviour and tastes being policed and judged as not feminine enough.
Do you feel your friends who id as non-binary felt similar pressure. I've long felt that trans is sold as being a liberation but is actually a sort of (ideologically) debt bonded manumission.
I would love to read your thoughts, whether you think I make sense or I am talking bollocks.
Is the a thing, that straight women's sexuality, in the queer\trans\sjw subculture that watch Scarcellas vids, is all about being edgy and cool, which translates into a set of values that pushes BDSM and fulfilling men's needs (in an empowering way) that must leave many young women feeling they do not fit in? Hence the rise gay trans-men. They have an opportunity, at least for a while, of defining their own sexuality.
That quote is brilliant, thanks.
You said
I’d add that susceptibility to the “wrong-body” hypothesis is always preceded by either social alienation from prescribed gender roles and standards, or bodily alienation due to painful or debilitating conditions like PCOS, or both, which is the catalyst which makes the idea that you can shed your old body/self and emerge as a new person in a new life.
Do you think that there can be an alienation between peoples experience of their own bodies and the social projection of what passes for normality?
In a society that is increasingly saturated with manipulated images of people at the peak of a perfected beauty, either by surgery, training, professional grooming , or instagram filters. In this world every boy seams to Pec'd and Ripped, Evry girl looks like a Kardashian. How hard is it to keep in mind that these images are not reality and that our bodies are fine and capable of doing great things, being desired and giving us pleasure?
That's a really good article, an illuminating insight into what GD feels like.
One thing you mentioned:
I don’t remember what I was doing or thinking about before but I suddenly FELT like I had a dick and it was resting against my leg. I could FEEL it.
Now it might be that I am hung like mouse, but this something I have never experienced. I have however seen it in porny representations of men,
I'm not accusing you of making this up, I'm sure its how you experienced it. But I think it might suggest where the idea came from, not necessarily direct from porn but from the expectation that all men are hung like porn stars on viagra or rock stars with a third sock..
Please do let me know if I should fuck off, but:
In three years of being Gender Critical Dad, I have met some of the UKs most notorious, 'man hating' rad fems. Most have been absolutely lovely. Many are suspicious of men, many wary. Many can't be arsed with men, in their personal live, anymore. They have what men do, but very few hate all men as individuals.
The notorious rad fems I have met have been widely misrepresented in the mainstream media, they all have a great sense of humour, often directed at men and our silliness. I dread to think how they are represented in SJW land.
I'm just an old cynical bloke, with a massive chip on my shoulder. Ffeel free to tell me to fuck off.
All these " people have gone above and beyond to support a child transitioner too ": They were loving it, you transing gave them a chance to revel in the glory of showing the world how progressive and inclusive they were.
Your school - " old school reach out to say they educate students on gender differently now because of me " Let them off the hook for all the other inequalities and divisions in the school. They were using you to boast, to show of their diversity without having to tackle read inequality, division or bullying.
They never really believed you were a boy, they only believed that they should believe you were a boy. They are lying cowards.
When you were twelve, you were having a tough time and believed what the gown ups told you. That not you being delusional that the adults failing to care for you properly.
You owe them nothing.
Old cis bloke here, so feel free to tell me to eff off.
To turn the question round: Why are there so few mtftm's?
A few thoughts come to mind:
The effects of female hormones on male bodies are way more reversible. Male hormones have very permanent effects on women in only a few months.
Men, thru socialisation, tend not to take about feelings, Also we tend not to be as committed to social networks. It can be easier for us to leave one network and jump into another.
Gay clubs, bars etc still exists.