Producer, filmmaker and former Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta cast member D. Smith has announced that he is detransitioning after 12 years living publicly as a transgender woman, while making clear his support for the trans community remains unchanged.
Smith shared the deeply personal update on Instagram, saying he will now live and present as a man and use he/him pronouns.
But he was equally clear about how he views the previous chapter of his life.
“Those years weren’t a mistake,” Smith wrote. “They were real.”
“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.”
‘A New Chapter’
Smith said the change had been unfolding privately over the past several months.
“For most of my life, I’ve followed my heart, even when the path wasn’t easy to understand,” he wrote.
He described the transition back to living as a man as another stage in that process rather than a rejection of everything that came before it.
“There is much more to this journey [that] can’t fit into this statement,” Smith added. “When the time is right, I’ll share that story in full.”
“Until then, thank you for allowing me space to continue growing.”
Smith has not publicly detailed whether his detransition involves any medical changes, and his statement focused instead on identity, presentation and pronouns.
Support For Trans People ‘Remains Unchanged’
Smith also directly addressed the possibility that his announcement might be interpreted as criticism of transgender people or transition more broadly.
“My respect and love for the transgender community remain unchanged,” he wrote.
He added that he continues to believe everyone deserves to live with “dignity, safety, and compassion” and to have the freedom to become themselves.
That distinction is significant.
Detransition experiences vary enormously, and one person changing how they identify does not invalidate the identities or experiences of other trans people.
Smith’s own statement makes clear that he does not view the 12 years he spent living as a woman as wasted, false or something he regrets simply because his identity has changed again.
From Love & Hip Hop To Kokomo City
Smith became widely known to television audiences when he joined season five of Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta in 2016.
At the time, he was the first openly transgender cast member in the show’s history and was widely described as a groundbreaking presence on unscripted television.
Before reality TV, Smith had already established himself as a music producer and songwriter, including work connected with Lil Wayne’s hugely successful Tha Carter III.
He later moved into filmmaking with the acclaimed documentary Kokomo City.
The black-and-white film centres on four Black trans sex workers speaking candidly about sexuality, race, work, relationships and life within both Black and LGBTQ+ communities.
It became one of the breakout documentaries of the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, winning both the NEXT Innovator Award and the NEXT Audience Award.
Smith directed, produced, shot and edited the film himself.
Leaving Space For Complexity
Public conversations around detransition can quickly become politically charged, particularly when individual stories are presented as evidence for sweeping claims about all transgender people.
Smith’s statement takes a notably different approach.
He does not disown his past.
He does not portray his years as a trans woman as inherently harmful.
And he does not withdraw his support from the community he has spent years documenting and advocating alongside.
Instead, he describes his life as continuing to evolve.
“Those years weren’t a mistake,” may ultimately be the most important line in his announcement.
Smith is asking for room to change without being forced to condemn the person he was before.
For now, he says there is more to the story — but he will tell it when he is ready.
