Teen Gets Doxxed, Harassed, And Becomes A Target Of Sex Crime For "Desisting" And Leaving Transgender Movement

16-year-old Anna Dutton posed confidently in her living room, prepared for the picture her mother was about to take. She smiled – the teen was proud of the shirt she picked out for school that day. She had asked her mother to order it for her recently. It was a slightly oversized, black tee containing six simple words to define the word “woman.” It read “wʊmən. Noun. An adult human female," a once widely-accepted definition up until the past few years. Anna knew she’d face criticism over her bold statement from her classmates and old friends –but her mother, Brette, had no idea it would be the catalyst for a storm of controversy that would soon lead to attacks on her family. 

Brette decided to share the photo on her Twitter. It was September 5, 2022. “I didn’t affirm my daughter, I removed her from the contagion,” she wrote in the caption, adding, “Within months she pulled what I called a 'sees and desist' – she saw the truth and left the cult. Over a year later, she’s thriving more than she ever was when involved in gender craze. #YoungGCWomenUnite”

Brette's post was seen by millions of people. It garnered nearly 20,000 likes and an onslaught of hate, with people labeling the mom as an abuser, a "TERF," and a fascist.

"'I isolated my kid from ideas I don’t like and got them repeating the niche ideology I believe in! Take that cultists.’ Wow..." @RhetoricalHyppe wrote sarcastically.

Another person, @Sonicfan0012, commented, "They’re never going to talk to you once they move out."

Shaping Identities in the Digital Age

Anna, then 13, engaged in what typical teenage girls did in their free time during 2020: She frequented social media and talked to her friends online. She took in content from various websites and forums. She found ways to express herself by discovering her style and exploring her personality. 

However, Anna hid her accounts from her mother. It’s not unheard of for minors to discuss inappropriate subjects with their friends, but it wasn’t long until Anna and her peers began questioning their gender identity, despite her and her friends being born biological females. Not once has Anna exhibited signs of gender dysphoria before this, but with transgender content overtaking media platforms, it makes sense why Anna – who was only in 8th grade – began labeling herself as trans. From 2020 to 2021, Anna went by he/him pronouns and self-identified as a different gender.

Brette had a gut feeling about what Anna was doing behind her back. On June 2021, she discovered her social media profiles along with the content and friends who had been influencing her. Like any mother who would want to protect her child from harmful narratives, Brette temporarily barred her daughter from using the internet – which proved to be difficult at first. Anna struggled with major depressive disorder, and this decision led to her downward spiral. She was shortly sent to the hospital for attempted suicide because those same peers made her believe it was her only option. 

Then, within just weeks of being offline, Anna “desisted,” a term used to describe the cessation of identifying as trans. The reason was simple – she was removed from any media or influences that reinforced the idea of her being anything other than a woman. For once, those narratives were absent from her mind, and she could think for herself again and gain new perspectives. “I actually realized while I was in the hospital that I didn't want to be a part of it anymore,” Anna tells Evie. “I remember all of a sudden like not being okay with people calling me ‘he.’”

“It was kind of sudden,” she adds. “I didn't want to be called by my old name anymore because it felt weird, like it didn't feel right anymore. It just didn't feel like me.”

The infamous photo Brette shared on Twitter was taken over a year after Anna’s realization. At the time, the hashtag #YoungGCWomenUnite had been trending, which was initially kicked off by the GC Academia Network, a movement raising awareness on the "erosion of women's sex-based rights in law, policy, and practice, and the treatment" of those – namely women –  who speak out.

The trending hashtag erupted after a court of appeal in the U.K. overturned a judgment that questioned the legality surrounding minors and transgender treatment. The challenge was brought by Keira Bell, then 23, who detransitioned years after getting top surgery and hormone therapy. She was only 16 when she started her transition into male. She now argues that puberty blockers are experimental and unlawfully administered to children who could not properly provide their consent – an idea that’s heavily debated, despite the fact that most adolescents don’t possess the same capacity for informed decision-making as adults.

The consequences of Bell's hormonal treatment were – in her own words – "profound." She had to come to terms with the possibility of being infertile, the loss of her breasts and the inability to breastfeed, the permanent deep voice, and the atrophied genitals. She shared her story with the world, hoping to be heard. She came across other detransitioners who had walked down a similar path. At the same time, Bell’s message was met with contempt and hostility by many trans activists – a terrifying phenomenon Brette and Anna now have firsthand experience with.

Brette's Twitter posts didn’t just attract negative attention. Shortly after the image of Anna went viral, Brette got doxxed, and people mass-reported her to the Department of Children and Family Services. DCFS came knocking at her door within 24 hours, but the case closed shortly after learning Brette was in no way, shape, or form abusive toward her daughter. Her Twitter account even got banned on the platform but was reinstated months later, ironically, on International Women’s Day. 

Silenced and Targeted for Daring To Speak

Things stayed relatively quiet after Brette was doxxed. Anna was still dealing with the “lunch yard bullying” at school that started after she desisted in 2021, and it wasn’t until February 2023 that things escalated.

Anna began receiving death threats from peers who would send them to her anonymously. I asked her about the threats she received. "They said they wanted to blow me away with an AK-47," she tells me. "They also said they wanted to drag my body out to the woods and see me rot in the field." They told her they wanted to smash her skull in with a baseball bat, how she should go back to the mental hospital, and that she deserved to be murdered because she was "useless to society." They made false and baseless claims that Anna had sexually harassed them. In response, Brette has started a Title IX fight against these allegations. 

Brette reported these comments to the school, but they made zero attempts to protect her child. “They've done nothing,” Brette tells Evie. “We reported it to the school. We said who we thought was involved, and they didn't even question them.” The frustrated mother asked for a meeting with the principal, and even spoke with the vice principal – but no one ever got back to her, even though they were well aware of what was happening. "The thing is, the school knew it was going on because the detective who was handling our case had been in contact with the school," she adds.

Brette was horrified. The safety and well-being of her daughter became her paramount concern, and she had no choice but to take Anna out of school.  

I asked Anna, “What has that done to your mental health?” 

“It's not been good,” Anna admits. “It's really not been good. I try not to show it, but it has really been taking a toll.” 

Anna no longer feels safe in her town in Illinois, and she’s soon moving in with her grandparents in hopes of a fresh start. “I've lost so many friends because of this, that it's not even worth it to stay in the area or go to this school anymore," she says. "Like that's how bad it's gotten.”

In late March, one of Anna's abusers went on Twitter and posted two topless images she had been manipulated into sending. In February, her classmates had befriended and catfished Anna online by using her own vulnerability against her, coercing the teen into sending them nudes. The photos remained on the platform for nearly four hours until Brette saw them. She immediately went to the police station to file a report. 

It's hard to imagine that a positive outcome could come out of this horrifying situation, but the pornographic images finally sparked the criminal investigation Brette needed to keep her daughter safe. Anna and Brette had to speak with the Crimes Against Children task force for a forensic review, and since she's in the state of Illinois, the teen is now considered a victim of a sex crime. The offender remains unnamed, but she’s suspected to be an adult – meaning there’s a high chance she’d be placed on a sex offenders list for the remainder of her life. Brette believes authorities were unlikely to investigate the individuals sending Anna death threats. But now that they have a reference number with the Illinois Attorney General due to images of a minor being uploaded, there’s a chance of them getting the justice they deserve.

The Rise of Transgender Identity

1.9% of Generation Z – born between 1997 and 2004 – currently have the highest percentage of individuals identifying as trans among previous generations. Yet, another report published by the American College of Pediatricians discovered that 80% to 95% of gender-dysphoric children accepted their biological sex by the time they hit late adolescence. These findings are certainly alarming, considering how many teens are opting for puberty blockers and gender-affirming surgery today. This raises some questions that should be on everyone's minds: Just how many people will regret transitioning after already having gone through permanent changes? How many adolescents currently identifying as a different gender do so because of peer pressure or trends?

Anna was lucky enough to have a mother who recognized the difference between gender dysphoria and adopting a different identity due to societal pressure. Brette also understood the biological harm caused by puberty blockers and the irreversible, dangerous gender-affirming procedures. Others have had a more unconventional experience. You can find countless stories of young, detransitioned individuals and the adults (including their family members and healthcare professionals) who failed them.

Nine months ago, a detransitioner Redditor opened up about how her therapist and mother allowed her to transition as a teen – a decision that eventually became a source of deep regret. She wrote, “I'm a 17-year-old girl with a flat chest, a deep voice, a visible Adam’s apple, and some facial hair. There’s no reason for me to continue to live. I destroyed my life, and I feel like all hope I have is stupid for me to have. I don’t think any person will ever wanna date me. Before all these people were into me, but I destroyed that. Now no one is ever gonna like me. There’s nothing I can really do without getting reminded of my past and how much I miss it. I feel ashamed of what I did. I’m scared people will never let me do decisions on my own anymore. I was just a kid, and I would have needed someone to help me accept myself, but my therapist didn’t question my 'transness.’” 

Anna and Brette hope that in voicing their personal journey with desisting, they can rally support behind “desisters” like Anna. "There is no support for girls that just want to leave [the movement]," explains Brette. Detransitioners – while they often face backlash – have an easier time finding others who can support them due to the irreversible damage that's been done to them, whereas desisters are painted as bigoted, right-wing extremists, or "TERFs." "I think with girls like Anna, who just desists, there's no physical harm that you can see," Brette adds. "It was a decision they made."

"I want them to be able to desist and leave this among older people. I want the girls to be able to leave this before they do anything they regret like hormones or surgeries and feel like they'll have support," she says.

The mom-and-daughter duo continues to raise awareness of the suppression of women's voices when it comes to the transgender movement. They hope to inspire others to speak up about the harmful behavior exhibited within the community. Besides the possible regret of transitioning and the intense vitriol some trans activists spew toward women with dissenting viewpoints, some transwomen have been found to enter women’s spaces to harm them. Last year, a man named Shane Jacob Green was arrested after identifying as female to gain access to a women's shelter. While in the home, he allegedly made "sexually inappropriate comments to staff and residents," and eventually sexually assaulted a female resident two days later. It was later revealed that Shane had been convicted of similar crimes and was arrested in 2019 for stalking and harassing two young girls at a Tim Horton's.

"Why aren't women able to say how they feel about preserving single-sex spaces? That shouldn't be offensive," Brette says. She urges other women to assert themselves and remain steadfast in their beliefs. "There really is hope to get through this," she says. "Once you kind of thicken your skin to the cruel things people will say to you, and realize they can't take anything from you, and when they have no arguments left, you can say what you need to say. You're the one who comes out strong on the other side, which is what my family has found."

Anna and Brette Survived the Storm

I couldn't imagine being in Anna's or Brette's position. How can a 16 year old defy the intimidation of receiving countless death threats and still persist in speaking the truth? How does a mother find strength as her family remains under attack? "Despite all of the threats and hate you're getting, you want to continue speaking up?" I ask Anna. "Why?"

"Yes, I do want to continue," she responds immediately, with no hesitation. "Because this is something that I am really passionate about. And there's a little part of me that wants to continue out of spite." I laugh. At first glance, you can tell Anna is tenacious. "But other than that," she continues, "I have always been really into science and biology. So that's part of it too."

Closing Thoughts

If you want to support the Dutton family in moving forward with the Title IX case and assist with the cost of home security systems for their protection, you can visit their GivesSendGo page here.

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