Chris Lieberman, FISM News
Video hosting website Vimeo quietly restored a documentary critical of so-called “gender-affirming care” to its platform just days after removing it for allegedly violating the site’s terms of service.
“Affirmation Generation: The Lies of Transgender Medicine,” follows the stories of six detransitioners — people who previously identified as transgender and underwent gender reassignment treatment, but then regretted their decision and reverted to identifying as their biological sex.
“Detransitioners Michelle, Laura, Cat, David, Joel, and Abel tell the stories of their gender distress, transgender medicalization, and subsequent detransition. Without diagnostic clarity or mental health evaluations, their doctors quickly affirmed them as ‘transgender,’ and mindlessly ushered them along the path of medical transition,” says the film’s website. “These young people were harmed irrevocably by the doctors they trusted. Affirmation Generation demonstrates how the ‘one-size-fits-all’ medicalization — the ‘gender-affirming care’ — has failed these patients.”
The film seeks to look at the issues surrounding transgenderism from a scientific lens. According to the website, the 90-minute documentary consults with 12 experts and cites 45 peer-reviewed studies.
Despite the objective nature of the film, Vimeo removed it on Tuesday for violating the site’s terms of service. The site did not state which rule the documentary violated, and based on Vimeo’s rules it would not appear that the movie broke any of them.
After 3 days exactly, and 19,000 views, Vimeo kicked is off. Here is the back-up link, while we regroup: https://t.co/b6DeBT7tx2
— Affirmation Generation documentary 🦎✊ (@2022affirmation) February 22, 2023
This is the second time in as many months that Vimeo has deplatformed a video that was critical of gender transitions. As FISM previously reported, last month the site removed the film “Dead Name,” which traced the story of three parents whose children claimed or were given a transgender identity.
The makers of “Affirmation Generation” slammed Vimeo’s decision to silence them, claiming that this wasn’t a partisan attack on transgenderism, but an objective examination of the issue from a group that most assume would be sympathetic to the transgender cause.
“The filmmakers of ‘Affirmation Generation’ — all lifelong West Coast Liberal Democrats, parents, and community leaders — made an extraordinary effort to cite peer-reviewed medical research and evidence, to present the issue with deep compassion toward the gender-dysphoric youth, and to back up every argument in the film with science,” the filmmakers said in a statement to The Daily Signal. “‘Affirmation Generation’ is the first non-ideological, non-religious documentary focused on the impact of transgender medical practices for youth. Censorship of dissenting voices is incompatible with democratic values, and especially with diversity and inclusion.”
Following backlash for the film’s removal, Vimeo restored “Affirmation Generation” to the platform on Thursday. Following the news, the film’s Twitter account posted, “Thank you @vimeo for the reply as to why Affirmation Generation was taken off on Tue. evening, and then reinstated on Thursday morning.”
Thank you @vimeo for the reply as to why Affirmation Generation was taken off on Tue. evening, and then reinstated on Thursday morning. pic.twitter.com/rvKx4RoJCX
— Affirmation Generation documentary 🦎✊ (@2022affirmation) February 23, 2023
“I couldn’t be happier about it,” Joey Brite, the film’s executive producer, told The Daily Signal. “I’m surprised and I’m hoping this just shows the pressure of the public and the great interest and hunger that exists among parents, among detransitioners, among the LGBs [lesbians, gays, and bisexuals who reject transgenderism] that do not believe in this, and everybody from across political and religious lines is sending emails of thankfulness about the movie being made.”