From Quiet Transitioners to Loud-and-Proud Activists
Detransitioners describe two very different strands of trans advocacy that have existed side-by-side for decades.
An older, assimilation-minded group simply wanted to “pass” and melt into daily life without drawing attention.
A newer, liberation-minded group prefers open pride and openly rejects the idea that anyone must “look like” a conventional man or woman.
One poster traces the split to the 1980s, when “cross-dressers who didn’t want a sex change… still wanted the clout of being trans” and used their money and media contacts to push the softer, umbrella word transgender into activist circles.
"By the 80s… they managed to latch onto the growing LGBT activism and replaced the original trans-sexual label with transgender." – Your_socks source [citation:b88ddceb-525c-4319-b3cb-a3c3f8ab193c]
Because the public rarely sees this divide, backlash that starts with the “loud-and-proud” wing is often felt by quiet transitioners as well.

The 2013 DSM Change as a Tipping Point
Many people date the recent explosion in trans identities to 2013, when the psychiatric manual swapped “Gender Identity Disorder” for “Gender Dysphoria.”
Detransitioners say the new wording signalled that any uncomfortable feelings about sex roles were now proof of an inner, opposite-sex identity that must be affirmed, not explored.
Therapists who once asked “What else might be going on?” were re-trained to ask only “How fast can we support the stated identity?”
"This wasn’t just a word swap—it signalled a take-over by the affirming-care model… making it seem like questioning a kid’s gender identity was backward or harmful." – Ok-Many-4140 source [citation:f6e876d4-0ef0-413a-82e7-35dee4cc90d4]
The result, they argue, was a 450 % rise in teens identifying as trans and a sharp drop in the gate-keeping that used to slow medical steps.

Bathroom Bills and the Birth of Public Anger
Before 2015 most neighbours neither knew nor cared who used which toilet; the issue was simply not on their radar.
Detransitioners say the turning point came when activist groups began demanding legal access to any sex-segregated space, framed as a civil-rights emergency.
Media coverage of “bathroom bills” forced people to pick a side overnight, and many who had never thought about trans issues reacted with alarm rather than support.
"I think the animosity towards trans people really started with the bathroom-bill controversies… Nobody was arguing about what bathroom trans people should use until they started being extremely vocal and demanding everyone play along." – Lurkersquid source [citation:47e13335-71b9-406c-b38a-a046b862f8cb]
In this telling, visibility itself was not the problem; the problem was the style of activism that framed every question as bigotry.

Re-writing Gay History into Trans History
Several posters warn that modern campaigns often re-label famous gender-non-conforming gay people as “trans icons,” a move they see as erasing gay history.
They give the example of 1920s doctor Magnus Hirschfeld, who gave effeminate gay men paperwork to protect them from police; activists today call the same papers a “trans pass,” even though Hirschfeld never used the word trans.
"The trans community retroactively changed their own history to reflect this idea that gender non-conformity means you’re transgender, and not most likely gay." – fukinfrogslegs source [citation:5e6c4e52-5b05-4b50-9534-cad07b3969e4]
By folding every non-stereotypical past figure into a trans narrative, the movement gains a longer, more heroic timeline—but, critics say, it also teaches young people that any discomfort with sex roles must mean they are literally the other sex inside.

Conclusion
Detransitioners sketch a history in which trans activism began as a tiny medical pathway for severe dysphoria, morphed into a broad identity movement after 2013, and then hit mainstream resistance when demands collided with everyday sex-segregated life.
Understanding this arc can help questioning people see that today’s “affirm-only” climate is recent, not inevitable, and that feelings of not fitting a sex role can be met with therapy, curiosity, and proud gender non-conformity—no hormones or surgery required.