Chloe Cole never expected to be part of a documentary.
Cole’s life took a dramatic turn when she began to believe she was born in the wrong body at the age of 12. That leap marked the beginning of a journey that culminated in surgeries referred to as “gender affirming care.”
She later regretted this decision and became part of the transportation movement. Her voice is a powerful part of “Identity Crisis,” now streaming exclusively on DailyWire+. (Turning Point USA collaborated with the conservative news platform on the film)
Hollywood at Toto caught up with Cole to learn more about her connection to the film and why she thinks it’s important for the cultural moment we’re facing now.
HiT: How did you initially get involved in the project?
Chloe Cole: I met the TP USA production team at the Genspect USA conference in Denver. They asked to interview me, and it went well. I’ve been a fan of TPUSA for a while and was very interested in the project, so I asked if I could have a bigger physical role in their documentary. Then they met me back in SoCal to shoot the clips you see in the movie.
HiT: The film explores the role that TikTok and other social media platforms play in targeting teens with gender dysphoria issues. You gained early access to Instagram and that had a profound impact on you… Can you share more about this?
Cole: The Instagram algorithm is great at maximizing the time you spend on the app. It takes the information you give it when you create a profile, and then when you browse the app, to personalize content that will increase engagement. In the case of a 13-year-old girl, it amplifies the topics that make her most anxious or insecure, such as adjusting to our developing bodies, puberty, menstruation, sexual attraction, identity, and pornography.
This process fuels the social contagion into which young girls are so vulnerable. In my case, I started providing information on all of these topics, while the platform moderators eliminated dissenting opinions that could have led me to deviate from the conclusions I was coming to, like that I was born wrong, that I wasn’t good enough. Girl, this femininity is all about being a victim of men.
For many years, Instagram promoted only one ideology: extreme leftism.
HiT: Do you see the other side of this social media debate…the perspective shared in the film? Or do you see these arguments being censored or downplayed on major platforms like Facebook and TikTok?
ColeThe ground on which the war against gender ideology is being fought is shifting beneath our feet.[Meta’s Mark] Zuckerberg recently announced Major policy changes. Twitter, of course, has been bought before [Elon]Musk, who has opened so many doors for those of us in this movement to make our voices heard.
However, ultimately, real and meaningful discussions can only take place on one platform: X.com. I’ve been throttled, blocked, and suspended more times than I can count on Instagram. My current posts only go to my followers, so growth is impossible, and I’m not even trying to use TikTok because all my friends who transferred were immediately banned.
HiT: Does the medical community treat offenders with the respect and care they apply to teens seeking “gender-affirming care?”
Cole: The medical community believes it is in their interest to pretend we don’t exist. I have attended a few dozen legislative hearings on these matters in the past three years. When doctors are asked about us, they cite already debunked translocation removal statistics that claim that only 1 percent of trans-identified individuals have their translocation removed.
I wish that were true, but it’s not. We don’t even have medical codes that we can bill insurance to cover transportation procedures. So there is no standard of care for people like us. We are a scientific experiment going through all of this, and coming out of it as a completely different secondary experiment.
It’s terrifying, to be honest, to go through this new medical process without having precedent before about how I was going to be cared for. It’s really Hotel California medicine, we can check out anytime we want, but we can never leave.
HiT: Why is a documentary about this topic important? How can it impact the conversation on this vital topic?
Cole: It’s really simple. Some people need to see the suffering, the destruction, the cruelty, to believe this is real. I could go on stage and summarize what I’ve been through a thousand times, but a picture is worth a thousand words. “What is a woman?” It was a brilliant indictment of the sex industry, but at the time, there wasn’t much hope to convey when it was first introduced.
Now, we need a new film to show that not all is lost, that some in the country are slowly but surely reacting to these atrocities, and I want to show people who have been changed beyond recognition by the medical industry that they can return to reality. And that they can find purpose in God on the way.
I’ve been throttled, blocked, and suspended more times than I can count on Instagram
HiT: Just one film can share so much information… Are there any elements of this theme that you would like to see explored in more detail… possible in a future film?
Cole: There are a lot of incredibly dedicated people in this movement. Perhaps the most eclectic and successful movement of the 21st century, it will go down in the history books.
I hope there will be a documentary that gets up close and personal with some of these leaders, examining how and why we were so effective and how we managed to find common ground, despite significant differences, for the greater good. .
HiT: This is one of the most controversial topics in America today. How can a film spark conversations without making people on both sides of the argument shut up and stop talking?
Cole: There are a lot of Democrats and former Democrats who have woken up to the horrors of gender ideology, and some of those people have been the most influential in this fight. We win more every day, and the images in this film speak for themselves.
Anyone who watches this movie and still isn’t convinced that what happened to me and my friends was a terrible act may never see the truth, and quite frankly, this movement is moving on without them.
