Interviews from CPAC: Resisting the Trans movement, with Simon Amaya Price and Claire Abernathy
By Easton Martin | April 17, 2026
The debate over gender ideology often overlooks those who have lived through the affirmation process. In an interview with LindellTV at CPAC, Simon Amaya Price and Claire Abernathy discussed their personal histories with gender identity and the trans movement. They offer a direct look at the systemic pressures facing young people today, and how we as a society can push back against this harmful ideology. Their testimonies provide critical first-hand perspectives on the long-term impact of current medical practices.
Q: Tell me a little bit about yourselves, what brings you here?
Simon: What brings me here started when I was 14. I was at a new school and I made my first group of friends. I was falsely accused of sexual assault during that time. My peers ostracized me. A couple of weeks later, an older boy sexually assaulted me.
At the same time, my school pushed gender ideology in the sex ed course. We were taught about the gender unicorn. We were not taught things like how puberty works. I had a mental breakdown that year and I started seeing a therapist at Boston Children’s Hospital. Eventually, I went down a rabbit hole of obsessive Googling and self-reflection, I decided that I was really a girl inside.
I came out to my therapist. She immediately affirmed me. She encouraged me to go behind my parents’ backs to join transgender support groups. I remember being in the doctor’s office with my dad around my 15th birthday. My parents were not affirming. They said there would be no surgeries and no hormones. I thank God for that now.
My pediatrician knew about the situation. I was explaining my gender dysphoria to him. My pediatrician asked my father a question while I was in the room. He asked if my father would like a dead son or a living daughter.
I have been lucky to have better experiences in college and high school since then. I joined a sexual assault survivor support group in my second year of college. That was the last nail in the coffin. Recently, in the fall of 2023, I started speaking out publicly. I have been to a dozen different states and D.C. to testify. I have appeared on the Ingraham program on Fox News. I helped pass legislation in New Hampshire to ban cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and breast operations for minors. It all became worth it about a year ago. I got a message from a parent who told me their son would not have desisted if not for me. Everything else is a cherry on top.
Claire: I had a very rough start in life. I experienced a lot of sexual abuse as a child. When I was 12 years old, I fell in with a specific friend group. Three of those girls and I decided we were boys within the same month. There were four of us in total.
My parents were more trusting of the authorities than the parents of my friends. They sent me to a therapist when I was 13. There was a period of time where they were more skeptical, and held off on social affirmation for a while. However, there was pressure from the school district where my mom worked. We lived in a very blue bubble in Texas.
That therapist immediately affirmed me as trans and described me as a textbook trans boy. I was on cross-sex hormones within two months of seeing that therapist. Four months later when I was 14, I was approved for a surgery to remove my breasts.
It has been a long road from there. My path was not linear like the path Simon or other people took. I had experiences that convinced me my desire to detransition was a symptom of psychosis or delusion. I repressed those feelings for a long time. I finally started speaking out publicly in December of 2023. I want to tell people that we are harming children.
Q: What would you say to a teenager or young adult who is considering gender-affirming care?
Simon: I actually work with families who are impacted by this issue. I talk to the parents and the kids. I focus on the boys and young men who are caught up in this. People ask me what I would say, I wish it were that simple.
It is important to understand that these young people are stuck in a cult. Take it from someone who left, it is a cult. They encourage you to cut off your family if they do not agree with the beliefs. There is a very strict orthodoxy. There are extreme initiation rituals.
The most effective approach is to ask basic questions. I ask if they are eating and sleeping, I ask if they have friends or a job, I ask if they have something meaningful to do or a relationship. We do some problem-solving about those things.
Then I ask questions about how they knew they were trans. I ask what it means to them to be a woman. I ask what they mean when they say that. You will quickly discover seeds of doubt. There are contradictions in their understanding of transgender identity. The identity is a house of cards, you just need to point that out in a non-confrontational manner. You must lead them in a Socratic way.
Claire: I agree with everything Simon said. He said earlier today that you do not want to cut your body parts off if everything is going well for you. Addressing the root of the matter is where the fundamental change comes in. You have to fix what else is going on in your life. You need to address the underlying issues. However, our problems do not just go away because we detransitioned. Detransitioners and desisters need specific health care. We need mental health care and physical health care. We legally cannot receive this care in many states.
There are conversion therapy laws. These laws do not just apply to sexual orientation, they apply to gender identity as well. A therapist in Massachusetts, California, Oregon, or Washington could lose their license for helping me detransition. This led my providers to insinuate that my regret was a symptom of delusion. They are not allowed to engage with that idea critically.
Q: What sort of reforms should we implement in our public education system?
Simon: I have talked to a lot of people in education. I see a pattern of two big things. The first thing is the teachers’ unions, these unions are some of the biggest donors to the Democrats. It is an incestuous relationship. They donate to political campaigns, then those politicians give them more money to secure future donations. It is a cycle. They push the trans stuff constantly.
The second thing involves sex ed curriculum. Claire and I met with parents in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Their school had a sex ed curriculum that was a condition of a grant from Planned Parenthood. This curriculum was worse than you could imagine. It talked about the specifics of various sexual acts to middle schoolers. It also painted gender transition in a very positive light. It was really inappropriate.
We can make things better with school choice. We need to get Planned Parenthood and the teachers’ unions out of the loop. You can go to your school committee and make your voice heard. That is your constitutional right.
Claire: I am friends with a woman named Erin for Parental Rights on X. She says that government schools are broken right now. Your child is not safe in government schools, they are being ideologically indoctrinated. You cannot be assured that it will not happen. Schools are harming children.
I fully agree with her. It is more than just the school boards or the administration. It includes the teachers and the social atmosphere. Kids in our generation have been steeped in this since birth. We were three years old when Barbara Walters did her segment on Jazz Jennings, this is deeply entrenched in our society. I would tell parents of school-age children that homeschooling is your best option. You can fight for improvements, but that is the reality of our current situation.
Q: What organizations or resources would you point to who are helpful in fighting for this cause?
Simon: I have a lawsuit that was announced this week. I am working with the Institute for Free Speech. I am suing the city of Nashua for violating my First Amendment rights. I want to pitch them because their attorneys are great. Regarding gender ideology, I recommend Genspect. Claire and I were at Detransition Awareness Day earlier this month, Genspect organized that event. They have articles and videos, and they hold conferences and help with science. Their website is genspect.org. I also want to pitch the LGB Courage Coalition. This organization subverts many people’s expectations. People often group trans people with lesbian, gay, and bisexual people. This is a false grouping. Most lesbians, gays, and bisexuals are actually against the trans stuff. They understand that they were gender non-conforming when they were young. They would have been transitioned if they were growing up now.
Claire: I am an ambassador with the Independent Women’s Forum. They are a great group. They do political advocacy for gender medicine and protecting children. They also work on women’s sports and medical transparency. I would also shout out Gays Against Groomers. Simon and I both write on Substack. I am @burnyourbinder on TikTok, X, and Substack. Simon is @SimonAmayaPrice on the same platforms.
Simon: I want to say one final thing. In the fall of 2023, I was afraid to speak up. I was afraid of the repercussions and being isolated. Since speaking up, I have met more amazing and fascinating people than I have in the rest of my life. Claire is one of those people. I showed courage and contributed to something greater than myself. If you know in your head that you need to speak up, do it. People will come out of the woodwork to support you. You never know where you are going to be in a year.
