#storm ryan

So, there's this girl I've seen on TikTok lately, Kelly Cadigan, who does a series of "Day [x] of Being on the Right" videos, and I can't stand seeing her full videos since her content is harmful. I'm glad people are starting to call her out for it. A lot of reaction videos from other trans people calling her out are extremely helpful. So, I'm going to talk about those.

But there's one of them that I want to focus on for now (click here to watch it yourself). It's one from a fellow trans woman, saying how it seems Kelly is experiencing a lot of internalized transphobia - just like Blaire White - because of all the recent laws passed, especially in her state, Florida. They're going to affect Kelly, too. Someone had mentioned in the comments, "The Blaire White effect is real."

So, with that being said, what is it and how does it affect others? I'm gonna break it down for you.

Internalized Transphobia & "Pick Me" Behavior

When something is internalized, it's loathing yourself for something that's a part of who you are. Things like internalized homophobia and transphobia are unfortunately common in the LGBT+ community because it's a minority that gets spat on constantly, which causes this self-hatred to envelop you.

Blaire White is known for being a "Pick Me" amongst the trans community. She wants that acceptance from cisgender people as being the "good" and "normal" trans person in the community. And to gain that acceptance, she'll say harmful things about other trans people who she doesn't deem as acceptable, and she'll act unbothered by conservatives' horrid opinions about trans people. It's as if she's trying to be cis, which unfortunately isn't a thing trans people can identify as. We're labeled as trans for a reason - we don't identify with our assigned gender at birth, and we can't help that. Cis people do.

It's sad to see this because it's obvious Blaire acts this way because of her own internalized transphobia. She wants to be accepted and fit in with "normal" people who aren't trans.

Kelly Cadigan mirrors this very behavior in her videos, and it's become really prominent lately. All she posts now are videos of her spewing this horrible trans rhetoric, trying to side with the right. And as I had mentioned before, notice how this "Day [x] of Being on the Right" series with her exhibiting this Blaire White type of behavior just happened to come out right after the latest anti-trans laws were passed. Doesn't seem like a coincidence. Kelly most likely wants to steer away from any hatred and being "very obviously trans" because of this, and to do so, she's spitting on the trans community and catering to conservatives to gain their acceptance.

I've also seen this behavior from Blaire White's trans guyfriend, Kalvin Garrah. Before realizing I myself am trans, I watched some of Kalvin's videos (but quickly realized they're harmful). And, I remember his other trans friend, Storm Ryan, being in a lot of his videos where they make fun of "weird" trans people, a good portion of them including nonbinary folks (like Blaire White's reaction videos which I'll go into detail about in the next section).

However, the reason I mention Ryan is because he was able to realize this toxic behavior in Kalvin and how he himself added to this bad behavior. He made a surprisingly good serious apology video, expressing his realization that this is wrong and making it known he's no longer friends with Kalvin. In fact, his new best friend is Brennan Beckwith who's a wonderful trans advocate and individual on the nonbinary spec, who he and Kalvin once made fun of. TLDR: it is possible to change this sort of mentality. Storm Ryan proved that.

Making Fun of the "Weird" Trans People & Not Believing Nonbinary People Exist

A very common type of reaction video we see is trans people who don't fit societal norms - nor Blaire White's version of "normal" - being made fun of. You'll notice she watches a lot of trans people who have their own specific views on gender and how they identify (including a lot of people on the nonbinary spec), and trans people who dress/express themselves alternatively.

Blaire views these kinds of people as insane and absurd, and goes out of her way to make fun of them by making reaction videos to their content. It's very hurtful towards a good portion of the trans community, seeing as how she's directly bullying them, which promotes others to go bully these people, too, causing these people to potentially experience severe amounts of invalidation and harm.

Blaire dresses in the very typical feminine fashion and passes well enough for some of her own audience to not even realize she's trans. Any trans woman who doesn't try to look feminine enough and/or doesn't pass doesn't fit her standard. I've noticed she doesn't even see Dylan Mulvaney as a fellow trans woman despite that she dresses femininely and has had FFS, just because she doesn't pass well enough (by her standards) and tends to act very over-the-top (behavior that Blaire doesn't like).

What's also terrible is that Blaire doesn't believe nonbinary people exist and doesn't view them as fellow trans people because they don't fit on the binary spec, not all of them transition, and not all of them experience gender dysphoria. She doesn't understand them, therefore she doesn't think nonbinary people exist, which they do. She's just going entirely off of her own opinion, acting like it's a fact.

So, basically, if other trans don't follow her same experience and have her same or similar opinions, they're invalid. She doesn't like them = they aren't valid and deserve to be bullied. It's horrible.

Kelly Cadigan also makes it very clear she feels this same way and even made a recent video directly saying that she doesn't believe nonbinary people exist and that she feels they invalidate her as a trans person. Watching that video is awful because she's only backing up why she feels this way with her own made up notions. She doesn't understand them = they aren't real.

Being Privileged

Blaire and Kelly are both very privileged in being white, able-bodied, cis-passing trans women. And Kalvin Garrah is a white, able-bodied, cis-passing trans man.

They were able to receive the gender affirming care they desired - including surgeries and hormone blockers - which are methods that allow them to pass better (and that help them feel much more comfortable in their own bodies). Not every trans person has that privilege to receive the gender affirming care they need to transition, whether it's not being able to afford the care or being incapable of having it for other medical reasons. Or, like I had mentioned in my last section, Dylan received it and does not pass quite as well as Blaire does (at least in the eyes of Blaire and many other viewers). OR, they choose NOT to try passing simply because it may not be a goal of theirs in their trans/gender identity journey.

Yet, none of them seem to understand this. And because they don't, they invalidate other trans people for it. The worst is that Kelly agrees with the laws against gender affirming care for minors, when she herself transitioned healthily as a minor. It makes me want to ask her: "How would kid you (pretransitioned) feel if these laws had gone into effect back then?" Probably terrible, if I had my guess. Considering she received care so early on, she most likely had bad gender dysphoria, and getting those puberty blockers was a potential life saver for her or at the least a massive relief on her mental health as a trans kid. And if I'm right in assuming it helped her so much, it's absolutely ludicrous and hypocritical saying other trans kids don't deserve it.

Blaire didn't receive trans healthcare as a minor, however, she also agrees that kids should not be allowed to have rights to gender affirming care, especially since she thinks kids aren’t mature enough to understand themselves yet. She goes about this a different way than Kelly by actively interviewing detransitioners who all have had bad experiences transitioning - mainly as kids - that they deeply regret, and then weaponizing their stories against the trans community. Detransitioners are valid in their experiences, but it's not right at all to use these experiences to harm the trans community. Doing that can strip away even more validation and rights. Also keep in mind: not every detransitioner regrets their experience or had one that messed them up badly. (I recommend watching Sam Collins' video with Alia Ishmael where she speaks about her past transition in a more positive manner while still explaining what personal drawbacks she experienced and doesn't use her story to harm the trans community. AND, his other video calling out how Blaire is weaponizing people’s stories.)

Cis-passing aside, you can see I also mentioned they're both white and able-bodied. I mention this too because it helps them be listened to more, as well. People of color and disabled people are also both minority groups, let alone when they're also in the LGBT+ community. I've even witnessed Blaire White and Kalvin Garrah make comments about a enby individual's disability which is absolutely foul.

The Propaganda

You'd think trans people wouldn't be spreading lies about other trans people since they're in the same minority group. Wrong.

Blaire White makes a lot of videos with misleading titles and made up quotes from trans people she wants to invalidate. For example, a few years ago, she made a video about trans powerlifter, Janae Marie Croc, with a misleading title, an edited post that made it seem like she was competing against cis women, and comments about how "outlandish" her appearance is. It was so obviously fake and Janae even pointed this all out to Blaire. A lot of people were mad at her for it and Blaire had the worst apology post. And, sadly, a lot of Blaire's content is just like this, this one just happened to be more obvious. (If you want more details on that, watch D'Angelo Wallace's video and Sam Collins' video about her misleading people).

Blaire lost a lot of followers, but not enough to deplatform her or make her irrelevant. She still has a rather big following and people who believe everything she says, despite it being fake and based solely on her own opinion. And a lot of these same people who watch Blaire, thinking she's an honest and acceptable trans person, also watch Kelly. But Kelly does the same thing - talks solely based on her own opinion while making things up.

The Terminology They Use

I've noticed Blaire, Kelly, and Kalvin use a lot of the same "traditional" terms. For instance, they're say transexual and transgenderism instead of transgender to explain themselves. It's just really strange to hear. But, I feel like they use it to cater to these conservatives.

Like, transexual is an outdated term. Transgenderism implies that being trans is an ideological thing (which it isn't) and you should absolutely run from anyone who is using that term unironically.

They also said they view the trans community as a cult and believe they are pushing an agenda. These are both terms conservatives use pretty frequently.

Conclusion

This whole "Blaire White Effect" - and how Blaire reached the mentality she has, in the first place - started from hate towards the trans community leading to internalized transphobia. It's happened with people like Kelly Cadigan and Kalvin Garrah, too.

But, a trans person changing their mentality and content to fit the views of conservatives only causes more harm and can eventually come to bite them in the ass. Because, at the end of the day, most of these conservatives do not want to change their mind about trans people - most of them still don't like people like Blaire simply because they're trans. It doesn't matter that they have the same political views. And, agreeing with the terrible shit these conservatives are doing and saying will make them take away even more rights, which will affect Blaire, Kelly, and Kalvin.

However, these trans people have the ability to change their thoughts and content if they actually want to do more research and not keep talking out of their ass. I had mentioned Storm Ryan dropping his friendship with Kalvin when he realized how harmful and wrong these views are. There's also a trans TikToker who reacted to Kelly's video about nonbinary people, explaining he used to feel the same way but that nonbinary people being open and confident about their identities actually help validate other trans people's identities (his explanation is much better than mine. Watch it.)

Because really, I shouldn't have it.

I live in an accepting environment. Sure, my parents mess up a lot, but it's not out of malice. And all my friends have adapted well. As a young kid, I never watched anything that was anti-trans.

Well. Until I did. Of my own will I watched Kalvin Garrah or Blaire White or Storm Ryan videos when I was, what, 13? And being young and impressionable I quickly assumed that this was the Right Opinion, that the "transtrenders" really were awful or taking away resources or being cringy. God. It sucks.

I was never one of his fans to go out and harass the people he made videos about, so at least I have that on my conscience.

Over time, my opinions changed as I met people who I would have considered "transtrenders", and realized that they really were just people like me. And I realized that hating them was wrong.

And now I use neos! Now I identify as "starboy", a combo of stargender and male! Now I use the name 'Charlotte' despite it being very much feminine! But.

But.

But I'm still stuck with those shitty views, engrained in my head. I still think, so, so often, that I'm not "really trans" because of that. I think that I must be stupid or cringy or wrong because I use pronouns made of nouns since they make me happy.

It's awful. It really is. I wouldn't have this problem if I never discovered their channels in the first place.

And I think, looking back on it, I only liked them in the first place because I was scared. I was scared of being the person they hated, of being a cringy transtrender.

I already knew that plenty of transphobes hated us, and I was lead to believe that if I was the right kind of trans person, they'd change their ways.

But they're never going to. That's the truth, y'know? It's been said before, but it's the truth. Just because you're "not like them" doesn't mean they're going to like you, the only reason they might be taking your side is because they're teaming up with you to destroy our fellow trans folk! If people with neos didn't exist, they'd just hate the binary people too.

God. I'm just rambling at this point.

Mm mixed feelings

I'll give a tl;dw for my followers of what stormryan posted:

Basically he was apologizing for mean spirited videos re: non binary people and GNC people, then talked about how the transmed community disguised harassment and bullying as criticism. He said his views had changed a lot, not sure about the underlying dysphoria belief but clearly he's open to non binary genders and all that.

My thoughts are: any community or ideology is an easy gateway into thinking your harassment of others is somehow helpful or akin to valid criticism. Transmedicalism and tucute ideologies alike.

A lot of his assessments also were kind of unfair or ignorant, I'd say, regarding MOGAI and stuff like that. I get where he's coming from that transphobes are gonna hate trans people no matter if "trenders" exist but I think he's missing the whole issue that is actually being discussed by people in good faith. The harmful nature of MOGAI, microlabelling, etc. IS transphobia, and homophobia, and more. Not to mention the slippery slope of "q**** just means non cishet (as defined by me!!!)" where the conversation is ultimately shifted from combatting social stigmas to making non-affected individuals feel special and included.

You can pose an argument that this whole anti-inclusion thing is small potatoes compared to conversion therapy and the like, I don't think anyone would disagree with you there, but it doesn't suddenly make either conversation worth having.