Simon Amaya Price recounts his experience as a transgender desister
Simon Amaya Price, featured in a documentary by IW Features, describes how he identified as transgender at age 14 but later desisted before any medical interventions. His story highlights psychological and social influences in a Boston suburb high school. Price attributes his desistance to family pushback and a college experience that challenged his views.
Simon Amaya Price began identifying as transgender at 14 while attending a small private high school in a Boston suburb. He became the first boy at his school to do so, later expressing guilt over influencing peers. 'Between the time I left after 10th grade and the time my class graduated, one sixth of the boys in my grade identified as transgender, and a similar proportion continued in the grades below me,' Price told IW Features. 'In that way, I bear the responsibility as patient zero... and some of these kids medicalized, and there’s a degree to which I bear some guilt for that.'
Price's journey stemmed from early traumas, including anti-gay slurs and sexual assault by an older boy in his early to mid-teens, which left him isolated. A 2022 study noted that transgender-identifying children are twice as likely to have experienced sexual violence as their peers. Seeking community, he joined the school's Gay-Straight Alliance, where members watched videos by YouTuber ContraPoints, described as a man identifying as a woman. 'This is where I learned about the concept of gender dysphoria and transition,' Price recalled.
School health classes reinforced these ideas using the 'gender unicorn' tool, leading Price to online searches about transgender identity. His therapist at Boston Children’s Hospital affirmed his identification and referred him to a gender clinic. 'All of the medical professionals I saw, except when I moved to a new therapist, were explicitly affirming when I brought the subject up with them. Whenever I brought it up with a teacher or a professor, they were also affirming and caved to my requests,' he said.
Price desisted after his father's pushback and a pivotal college event. As a freshman, he opposed affirmative action publicly, faced cancellation, and was labeled a 'Nazi,' losing the social benefits of his transgender identity. This experience, he said, revealed the 'greater fallacy of gender ideology.' As a desister, Price avoided cross-sex hormones or surgery, preserving his physical health, though he notes lasting psychological and social impacts.