D. Smith, the Grammy-nominated music producer who became reality TV's first openly transgender cast member and later an acclaimed documentary filmmaker, announced Thursday that he is detransitioning after 12 years living publicly as a transgender woman. Smith said he will now present as a man and use he/him pronouns, a shift he described as something that had been taking shape over the past several months.
Smith broke the news in an Instagram post, as reported by TMZ. In the post, he said his love and respect for the transgender community remain unchanged and that he plans to share the fuller story of his journey when the time is right.
“Every person deserves dignity, safety, compassion, and the freedom to become themselves,” Smith said in the statement, per the same TMZ report. Smith came out as transgender in 2014, a milestone that arrived after he had already built a substantial career behind the boards in mainstream hip-hop and pop.
From Hit Records to a Groundbreaking TV Role
Before his transition, Smith worked extensively across the music industry, collaborating with artists including Katy Perry, Andre 3000, Lloyd and Ciara, according to Wikipedia. He also co-wrote and produced “Shoot Me Down” for Lil Wayne's *Tha Carter III*, the 2008 album that won Best Rap Album at the 51st Annual Grammy Awards. Smith is also a two-time Grammy nominee.
After coming out as a transgender woman in 2014, Smith experienced immediate industry backlash and blacklisting that stalled his music career, eventually resulting in homelessness before he pivoted to filmmaking, the encyclopedia entry notes. That upheaval preceded a pioneering television turn: Smith joined Season 5 of VH1's *Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta* in 2016, becoming the first openly transgender cast member in the history of the Love & Hip Hop franchise and on an unscripted primetime series, a distinction detailed by the same Wikipedia page.
An Acclaimed Pivot Into Filmmaking
Smith's career found new footing in film. In January 2023, he premiered his feature directorial debut, *Kokomo City*, a black-and-white documentary centered on four Black trans sex workers in Atlanta and New York, according to the Sundance Institute. The film won both the NEXT Innovator Award and the NEXT Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival before being acquired by Magnolia Pictures.
The documentary's real-world stakes became tragically clear months later. In April 2023, Rasheeda Williams, known as Koko Da Doll and one of the four main subjects featured in *Kokomo City*, was shot and killed in Atlanta at age 35, according to WXIA-TV 11Alive. Her death underscored the violence faced by the Black transgender community that Smith's film had set out to document.
What the Data Says About Detransition
Smith's announcement arrives against a body of research showing that detransition remains statistically uncommon and is frequently driven by outside pressures rather than a change in gender identity itself. A peer-reviewed analysis of the 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey published in *LGBT Health* found that 82% of transgender individuals who detransitioned cited external reasons — including social pressure, family rejection, discrimination and barriers to medical care — rather than a shift in their sense of identity, per a study highlighted by Fenway Health.
A systematic review published in *Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery – Global Open* analyzing 27 studies found that surgical regret following gender-affirming care runs at approximately 1%, while broader estimates of detransition across various studies range between 1% and 8%, according to a summary from DEB Psychology. Separately, a report published by The 19th News in November 2025 found that roughly 6% of survey respondents who detransitioned did so as a direct result of state and federal legislative bans restricting access to gender-affirming healthcare.
The conversation about detransition also takes place within broader discussions about gender identity and demographics.
Smith has not detailed the specific personal reasons behind his own decision beyond what he shared in his Instagram statement, saying only that the full story would come when the time is right. For now, he says that his love and respect for the transgender community remain unchanged.
