Desistance

Desistance is a concept that has been borrowed from criminology and other psychiatric literature to describe the behavior of appearing to abandon an expressed transgender identity, particularly in children or adolescents. The term was first applied by a few researchers and then leveraged by various individuals or groups seeking to reduce or eliminate the incidence of trans identities and to curtail treatment options for young trans people. Some of the researchers who have used the term have since realized that doing so has led to stigmatization and psychological and physical harm for many young trans people, and they have acknowledged that more constructive and technically accurate terminology must be developed as scientists continue to study and learn about trans-identified children.