Soren Aldaco was 11 when she discovered online fandom spaces where roleplay identities could become real identities—and 19 when a double mastectomy at the notorious Crane Center left her with massive hematomas the surgeons denied were happening. Now a detrans woman, graduate student, and Independent Women's Forum Ambassador, she's fighting for her case against Texas medical malpractice laws to reach the Supreme Court. In this conversation, she unpacks how "fantasy and reality" merged online, why every provider who pushed her toward medicalization had trans-identified family members, and what it means to survive both the physical complications and the ideological capture that enabled them. Soren will be speaking at Genspect’s upcoming Bigger Picture conference in Albuquerque.

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