A few programming notes: As the result of some unexpected technical issues, Stella’s audio quality is poor and her video feed is limited, despite our best efforts in post production to rectify the issue.
In an effort to honor and respect Forrest’s story, we opted not to interrupt or steer the conversation into another direction for the sake of capturing premium content. We are releasing the full conversation as a special extended episode in lie of offering a bonus episode this week.
Sasha and Stella sit down with Forrest, a young man whose journey through gender identity, pornography, and societal expectations lends a profound and complex quest for self-acceptance.
Forrest, born and raised in Oregon, USA is the author of the Substack newsletter “Through the Trees”. During the winter of 2015-2016, at the age of 20, Forrest left university and began a medical (hormonal) transition funded by social services and public health insurance. After a failed attempt at detransition, he underwent two “gender-affirming” surgeries: breast augmentation and bilateral orchiectomy. In 2021, seven months after the orchiectomy, Forrest moved back in with his parents, reconciled with his extended family, and began hormonal and surgical detransition.
In the aftermath of his detransition, Forrest attempted a lawsuit against the hospital, but was failed by the legal profession; the lawsuit lasting until the winter of 2022.
Forrest remains socially detransitioned and has been working in production. In reflection of his journey, he has completed two years of therapy, extensive personal journaling, and a year of blogging.
Currently, Forrest is working on a memoir detailing how he got into the identity, the damages he experienced, and how he got out.
This episode is a compelling conversation about Forrest's journey through transition and detransition, revealing how an innocent curiosity for cartoons spiraled into a full-scale porn addiction, leading to unhealthy behaviors and regrettable surgeries. Explore Forrest’s experiences with intense shame, his complicated relationship with sexual drives, and his time living with the ‘radical fairies’ in a trans commune. Forrest's ambivalence and the forceful push from those around him highlight the societal and personal pressures faced by so many lost in the hunt for their ‘authentic self’. This episode offers a profound look into the complexities of the human experience and how an overemphasis on sex and gender can distort the path to self-discovery and acceptance.
Resources & Links
Explore Forrest’s Substack: Through the Trees
More from Forrest about his story - Crazy TRUE Story Told by Young Victim of Gender Affirming Clinicians and Surgeons, from Sex Reality Bites
Share this post