Retired Navy Chief Petty Officer Chris Beck, a combat-decorated former member of SEAL Team 6, came out as a trans woman in 2013. Now, after living nearly a decade of his life as a trans woman, Beck is detransitioning back to a man and criticizing the activists that he felt “used” and “propagandized” him.
In a Dec. 1 interview with conservative activist Robbie Starbuck, Beck said, “I was very naïve, I was in a really bad way, I got taken advantage of, I got propagandized, I got used badly by a lot of people who had knowledge way beyond me, that they knew what they were doing.”
In 2013, Beck come out as a trans woman and began going by the name Kristin Beck. His trans-identity announcement caught widespread attention and he became the subject of a 2014 CNN documentary, “Lady Valor: The Kristin Beck Story.”
Beck’s high-profile story of coming out as a trans woman preceded the military’s decision in 2016, under then-President Barack Obama, to allow transgendered individuals to serve in the military.
Beck continued to go by Kristin until revealing his detransitioning efforts on Starbuck’s show.
“I want to make sure the whole world knows everything you see on CNN, but my face, do not even believe a word of it,” Beck said. “Everything that happened me for the last 10 years is just horrible. It destroyed my life. I destroyed my life. I’m not a victim. I did it to myself, but I had some help to hurt it.”
Beck said his heavy reliance on medications impacted his mental state during his period as a trans woman. Beck said the Department of Veterans Affairs kept prescribing those medications after he sustained a back injury.
“VA kept prescribing it, overprescribed opioids and everything,” Beck said. “Then my mood and everything was messed up, so I was on mood stabilizers. Then he put me on his depression stuff, the Cymbalta crap, and a whole bunch of stuff that was making me wack.”
Beck said a Green Beret friend of his became concerned for him and referred him to a psychologist, Anne Speckhard. Beck said he told Speckhard about how he sometimes wore girl clothes. He said he believes he was going through an “adjustment disorder” after his military service and “the stuff we did in a war.”
Beck said Speckhard “saw the clothing, she saw the dresses and then she said ‘transgender,’ she starts jumping all over it and she’s an author and a publisher. She said ‘oh my god, we could write a book and make millions’ and then it all went downhill after that everything she taught me, every meeting, she kept digging and all that and it just kept going and going and going.”
Beck and Speckhard co-wrote a book together about Beck’s transitioning, called “Warrior Princess: A U.S. Navy SEAL’s Journey to Coming out Transgender.”
“I’m walking around and I’m getting love bombed,” Beck said. “So I got love bombed by CNN, I got loved bombed by her in the beginning. And then she was like, ‘Oh my god, this is great, we’re gonna be millionaires.'”
Beck said he’s speaking out now about his transitioning because he’s concerned about young children going through similar experiences.
“As soon as they go in and say ‘I’m a tomboy. I like to do this. And it makes me feel comfortable.’ They give all their reasons why and then psychologists codger and say, ‘Oh, you’re transgender,'” Beck said. “And then the next day you’re on hormones, and the hormones that they are using are the same hormones they used to use for medical castration, it was like a chemical castration for pedophiles. Now they’re giving this to healthy 13-year-olds. Does this seem right?”
Reacting to Beck’s interview with Starbuck, Speckhard shared several tweets, stating that she never directly treated Beck and that, as a psychologist, she would have recommended slowing down the transitioning process and spending more time examining Beck’s trauma first.
“Kristin is now detransitioning. I wish her all the best and peace in her life to live well after serving out country for so many years,” Speckhard said, still referring to Beck by female pronouns and the name he used as a trans woman. “And I wish we would be very, very careful before moving quickly with any teens. who may be exploring new identities, rebelling, trying to be cool and fit in, or running from traumatic pasts or messages and experiences that their gender or body is not safe… Kristin’s coming out story is told here.”
Some Twitter users questioned why Speckhard continued to refer to Beck by the first name Kristin and by she/her pronouns after his announcement that he was detransitioning from being a trans woman back to a man.
“Great insights that highlight the egregious oversight in treating gender dysphoria. But why are you referring to Chris as she/Kristin if he is detransing? I don’t understand,” one Twitter user said.
“You are right. I was reflecting to the time period when I was writing her biography and telling me ‘her’ life history,” Speckhard tweeted.
