A woman who underwent cross-sex hormones and surgery attempting to become a man has detransitioned, found Christ and launched an organization seeking to help others who face similar discontent with their gender transitions.
Sophia Galvin documented her experiences with gender dysphoria, transitioning, becoming a Christian and wanting to detransition in an interview with conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey posted to YouTube last week.
Galvin is the founder of the Rainbow Redemption Project, which provides “Kingdom-minded resources” for detransitioners “with the ultimate goal of fully redeeming their lives through the transformative power of Jesus Christ.”
Galvin said she began experiencing gender dysphoria as a teenager after having done things often expected of girls throughout her childhood, like wearing dresses and makeup.
Growing up in Miami, Florida, Galvin said that men frequently objectified her, which gave her a sense of powerlessness and fueled a desire to become a man.
By age 17, Galvin began transitioning, including having both breasts removed at 19 and taking large amounts of testosterone. By age 20, she realized her life was worse off than before.
As she detransitioned, Galvin said her life changed when she met another detransitioner online who shared the Gospel of Jesus Christ with her.
“I’m a Christian, and I’ve been saved for about a year now. At 17, I made the decision to transition to become a man and it was a horrible decision,” said Galvin.
“And so, at 20 years old, I made the decision to then detransition back to female. And then after a year of not having any resources and not knowing what to do, I ended up giving my life to Christ. And it’s been a year since then.”
Galvin said there are other reasons she wanted to become a man when she was a teenager.
“Being a woman in society — and not necessarily from a feminist sense — some of the things that I would experience [was] men [being] regularly predatory. But also, the culture has over-sexualized girls. I just felt really uncomfortable in my body and also just certain things that had happened to me in my life,” Galvin shared.
She said she experienced gender confusion when she entered into a same-sex relationship and began experiencing same-sex attraction as early as 6.
“From a young age, I struggled with same-sex attraction, which led me towards really going into the LGBT community and becoming indoctrinated. I actually wanted to be an LGBT activist right before making the decision to transition,” she added.
“The same-sex attractions was something that made me always extremely uncomfortable, but also something that I felt like I wasn’t able to voice to people. So for years, I just was very silent and secretive about it.”
Galvin said her family accepted her same-sex attraction and that, for a time, she developed a strong desire to “push the LGBT agenda” and wanted to become a man.
“I went to an all-girls school. So in the midst of hormonal craziness, I was only around girls, and I also had experienced same-sex attraction from a young age. So for myself, when I made the decision to come out … as same-sex attracted, … immediately, I just felt like I don’t want people to have to experience what I always experienced growing up; having to be ashamed and having to keep my mouth shut and pretend like this isn’t something that I actually struggle with,” Galvin recounted.
Social media, the internet and the changing culture of her all-girls school are all other factors Galvin said contributed to her wanting to be a male.
“I really became interested in the whole agenda that people are pushing now; kind of forcing these beliefs and these values onto other people and the LGBT ideology. I wanted to push it really hard,” Galvin admitted.
“And I guess because of some things that I had experienced in my life specifically from men, I felt like I had to take on kind of a protective role and that was something that really had pushed me towards becoming a man. [My desire to transition] didn’t really come from one specific place. It was just society in general as a whole at the time.”
Galvin detailed that before she found Christ, she sought happiness through transitioning to become more and more like a man. However, she said she realized after having her breasts fully removed that a new gender identity didn’t make her feelings disappear.
“A large issue with the culture right now is a lack of identity. And specifically, a lack of identity in Christ — which has allowed me to find freedom,” Galvin stated.
Galvin’s detransitioning involved stopping testosterone treatments. She told Stuckey that her voice is still much deeper than it once was.
Her Rainbow Redemption project aims to help those impacted by gender dysphoria. According to its website, Galvin found no resources to aid in her in the “tumultuous” detransition process.
“Through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, she has been able to experience true redemption and healing in a way she never could have dreamed possible,” her online biography reads. “So her goal in establishing this organization, is to help other detransitioners actualize this same redemptive power within their own lives, all to the glory of God. She understands from personal experience, that true redemption of a life can only be found through Jesus Christ.”
Galvin looks to start her own Bible study group for detransitioners.
“I would definitely say if I would have known about Jesus and what His love and His Spirit is capable of, from a young age … at the time when I was struggling with gender dysphoria, if someone would have come up to me and said, ‘Jesus could set you free of that,’ I would have never gone down the path that I went down,” Galvin told Stuckey.
Looking back, Galvin believes there needs to be more accountability for doctors and medical professionals who provide testosterone injections and perform gender transition surgeries.
Galvin said she was far too young at 17 to be able to make such a life-altering decision on her own. Doctors, she said, often rush clients into transition surgeries.
“I mean, honestly, I would say from people that I have spoken to and known personally, and stories that I’ve read on the detransition Reddit, I think that [the decision to transition] is an unnecessarily fast process for a lot of people,” Galvin noted.
“There may be doctors that wait a little bit and, you know, try and see if the child is conscious of the decision.”
Galvin told viewers impacted by gender dysphoria and gender transitioning she believes hope is found in Jesus.
“My biggest prayer is to be able to be some sort of peacemaker between the Christian community and even broader than the trans community, the LGBT community, in itself. And I also pray that this message [is] received in the right way because I know that there are people who are currently transitioning who could see my message as hateful,” Galvin concluded.
“I would have seen it in the same way. But I would just like those people to know that there is true freedom in Christ, no matter how far a person is in the transitioning process.”
Reporting by The Christian Post.
