D. Smith is entering a new chapter and says he will now live publicly as a man after spending the last 12 years presenting as a transgender woman.
In a statement shared through his Instagram account, Smith announced his detransition and said he will use he/him pronouns going forward. He also made clear that he does not view the years he spent living as a woman as something he wants to erase. Alongside the announcement, Smith also shared a new photo of himself presenting as a man, giving followers a first look at how he is entering this next chapter.
The D. Smith detransition announcement continued with Smith explaining that the change has been developing over the past several months.
“Over the past several months, l’ve begun a new chapter in my life. Going forward, I’ll be living and presenting as a man and using he/him pronouns. This isn’t about erasing my past. Living my life as a woman for 12 years showed me the man that I wanted to become.”
Smith also addressed his relationship with the transgender community, emphasizing that the decision does not represent a rejection of transgender people or their right to live openly.
“My respect and love for the transgender community remain unchanged, and I continue to believe that every person deserves to live with dignity, safety, and compassion and have the freedom to become themselves.”
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Long before his work in documentary film brought him a new level of recognition, Smith had already established himself in the music business. According to the Recording Academy, Smith, credited under the name Dreshan Smith, received an Album of the Year Grammy nomination as part of the credited team behind Lil Wayne’s 2008 blockbuster album “Tha Carter III.” The Recording Academy’s official artist database currently lists Smith with one nomination and zero Grammy wins.
Smith worked as a producer with other artists, including Katy Perry and CeeLo Green, before publicly coming out as transgender in 2014. Smith later said that professional relationships changed dramatically after his transition, with collaborators distancing themselves and music opportunities disappearing. That period ultimately pushed his career in a different creative direction.
Television viewers were introduced to Smith on VH1 several years later. Smith joined season five of “Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta” in 2016 as a recurring cast member and became the first transgender member of the show’s cast. His time on the series placed conversations about transgender identity, acceptance, and the Black entertainment industry directly inside one of reality television’s biggest franchises.
Smith eventually moved behind the camera and created “Kokomo City,” his feature directorial debut. According to the Sundance Institute, the black-and-white documentary centers Daniella Carter, Koko Da Doll, Liyah Mitchell and Dominique Silver, four Black transgender sex workers in Atlanta and New York who speak candidly about gender, sex work, relationships and life within the Black community.
The film became one of Smith’s biggest professional accomplishments. The Sundance Institute awarded “Kokomo City” the NEXT Innovator Award at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, while Sundance records also show that it received the Audience Award in the NEXT category. The Berlin International Film Festival’s official 2023 awards record shows that Kokomo City later received the Panorama Audience Award for documentary film.
That history makes the D. Smith detransition announcement particularly notable because Smith’s public identity as a transgender woman was intertwined with some of the most visible work of his film and television career. Still, detransition itself does not have one universal meaning, and researchers caution against assuming that every person who detransitions follows the same path or has the same motivation.
A peer-reviewed critical review published in Actas Españolas de Psiquiatría and available through the National Library of Medicine defines gender detransition broadly as stopping or reversing some of the social, medical, or administrative changes made during a gender transition. Depending on the individual, that could involve changes in name, pronouns, or gender presentation, stopping or changing medical treatment, changing legal documentation, or some combination of those steps. The review also found significant differences in how researchers define detransition, which makes simple comparisons between studies difficult.
That distinction matters in Smith’s case. His statement specifically says he will live and present as a man and use he/him pronouns, but it does not describe whether he has made or plans to make any changes involving hormones, medical procedures, or legal documents. Those details should not be assumed from a change in public identity or pronouns alone.
Research also shows there is no single reason people detransition. According to a study published in JAMA Network Open, people have reported reasons including changes in gender identity, physical or mental health concerns, fertility considerations, changes in their understanding of their sexuality, difficulties living openly as transgender, pressure from family or romantic partners, workplace discrimination, financial concerns, and complications or pain related to medical procedures.
One frequently cited 2021 study published in LGBT Health examined 17,151 transgender and gender diverse adults who reported having pursued some form of gender affirmation. According to the peer-reviewed study, 13.1 percent said they had returned to living as their sex assigned at birth at least temporarily. Among those respondents, 82.5 percent reported at least one external factor influencing that decision, including family pressure and social stigma, while 15.9 percent reported an internal factor such as changes or uncertainty involving gender identity.
Those numbers are not a universal detransition rate. The study used a nonprobability survey of people who identified as transgender or gender diverse at the time, meaning people who had detransitioned and no longer identified that way could be missed. More recent research continues to stress that limitation. A 2025 systematic review indexed by PubMed found major differences in how studies define and measure detransition and concluded that long term outcomes remain insufficiently studied.
Researchers also distinguish detransition from regret. As JAMA Network Open explained in a discussion of patients who discontinued or reversed gender affirming treatment, a person can change the direction of a transition without necessarily believing that the original transition was a mistake. Some people described previous treatment as appropriate for them at the time even though their identity, medical needs, or circumstances later changed.
That distinction closely mirrors the language in the D. Smith detransition statement. Smith has not described his 12 years living publicly as a transgender woman as a mistake. Instead, he says those experiences helped shape the person he is becoming while maintaining his support for transgender people and their ability to determine how they live.
For now, the clearest account of Smith’s decision remains his own: he intends to live and present as a man, use he/him pronouns, and move into the next phase of his life without erasing the years that came before it.
