Cat Cattinson is the stage name of Cat Girton, an American ex-transgender activist. Girton gets money and attention by making it more difficult for others to get trans healthcare.
Background
Catherina R. “Cat” Girton was born in April 1991 to John Girton (born 1942) and Linda Girton (born 1956).
When Girton brought up gender issues at age 15, both parents expressed concern. Girton earned an associate’s degree from Sierra College in 2014, then took a job at Biotechnology Calendar in 2016.
John and Cat occasionally perform music together. In 2017, Cat Girton released the album Local Vocals & Bizarre Guitar.
Girton began a medical transition at the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020, taking hormones for four months at age 29 before stopping. Girton claims that in that short time “my health and professional singing voice were damaged by experimental gender medicine.”
Girton earned a bachelor’s degree from University of California Santa Cruz in 2022.
Transition Justice
Girton teamed up with anti-trans group Partners for Ethical Care on “The Transition Justice Project, which connects “detransitioners and others negatively affected by gender medicine with legal assistance.”
Laura Becker is an American artist and ex-transgender activist.
Background
Laura Becker was born around 1997 in Wisconsin and has two younger siblings. Around age 11, Becker was reportedly diagnosed with “what would be considered autism now” and polycystic ovary syndrome.
Becker has reportedly been a mental hospital inpatient four times. Through Tumblr, Becker learned about gender identity and expression. Becker graduated from Wauwatosa East High School.
In 2016, at age 19, Becker began a medical transition with hormones, followed by top surgery at age 20 with Clifford King in Madison, Wisconsin.
Becker began the development of Funk God in 2017 after using it as a blog name.
Becker says identity and self-esteem issues led to “depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other mental health concerns.” Around 2022, Becker made additional changes in gender identity and expression.
Becker earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in 2022. Becker lives in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin metro area.
Ex-trans activism
Becker appears in No Way Back: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care, a 2023 anti-transgender film focusing on the ex-transgender movement. The film is controversial for including convicted sex offender David Arthur Kendall as one of the original ex-trans activists featured alongside Becker. Becker also provided artwork for the film.
Billy Burleigh is an American engineer and ex-transgender activist. Burleigh gets money and attention by making it more difficult for others to get trans healthcare.
Background
Clifton Francis “Billy” Burleigh, Jr. was born in November of 1966. Burleigh claims to have had several childhood issues, “including a speech impediment, a learning disability, and childhood sexual abuse.”
Burleigh attended Louisiana State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1991 and a master’s degree in 1993. After college, Burleigh had therapy for five to six years until “I told my therapist that I wanted to transition.”
Burleigh has worked as a hydraulic engineer at Motion Industries and transitioned on the job there. Around 1999, Burleigh started taking hormones, and about three years later had bottom surgery and facial surgery. During this time, Burleigh used the name Billie Frances Burleigh and worked at Belcan and Parker Hannifin.
Burleigh claims to have lived as a woman from ages 31 to 38. Around 2004, “After presenting myself as a woman for seven years, I detransitioned.” The process took about three years.
After making additional gender changes, Burleigh worked at Fluid Power Systems Consultants, Kemper Engineering Services, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Geocent, SpaceX, and ManTech.
Anti-trans activism
In 2017, Burleigh legally changed name and gender in Santa Barbara County Superior Courts.
Burleigh has gone on to be a key figure in testifying against trans healthcare at the state and federal levels:
Amicus Clifton Francis (âBillyâ) Burleigh Jr.âs biography is brief, however, his personal background still brings a valuable perspective to this case. Mr. Burleigh was one of the many who contacted Mr. Heyer, regretting the decision to transition. Initially, when Mr. Burleigh first transitioned to identifying as a female, he was excited. Unfortunately, soon after the transition he felt discomfort identifying as a female, and states that, âI was better off as I was before the surgery, before the hormone treatment.â After six years of identifying as a woman, Mr. Burleigh started maturing in his relationship with Jesus and, as a result, learned the truth â that he was not female — and a desire grew in his heart to transition back to identifying as male. After seven years of identifying as a female, Mr. Burleigh underwent surgery to revert back to identifying as male.
Burleigh has been active in Lompoc Foursquare Church.
Carol Freitas is a self-described âtransition abolitionistâ[61] whose experience led her to view âtransition [as] harmful to the body & the mind.â[62] This view plays out in a wide range of activist efforts, including becoming the Detransitioner Peer Group Coordinator of LGB Alliance US.[63][64] She was also one of the coorganizers of the #DetransAwarenessDay campaign, and when Health Liberation Now! called on them to denounce the far right coverage because of the harm it posed to trans and detrans people, her project DetransVoices.org asserted that they âbelieve its important that this day stays politically neutral[.]â Freitas later emerged under her own account to state that they âare not affiliated with any left or right wing extremist groups.â[65] Other notable activism efforts include promotion of anti-trans protests and the propaganda they film outside pediatric clinics, coordinating harassment of California Senator Scott Weiner to undermine SB 132,[66] and trolling LGBTQ resources by dispersing the detransition booklet by Post-Trans while encouraging others to do the same.[67][68]
References
Stella O’Malley and Sasha Ayad (March 19, 2021). One Detrans Voice: a Conversation with Carol. Gender: A Wider Lens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYFUz7wbKqI
Carol F. (July 14, 2019). From the ashes: Butch lesbian & her family rebuild life after transition. 4thWaveNow https://4thwavenow.com/2019/07/14/from-the-ashes-butch-lesbian-her-family-rebuild-life-after-transition/
Ritchie Herron is a British ex-transgender activist. Herron gets money and attention by making it more difficult for others to get trans healthcare. Herron uses the handle “TullipR” online and frequently appears in conservative or fascist media.
Background
Richard “Ritchie” Herron was born on May 25, 1987. Herron is a child of divorce who claims to have been bullied at school.
After spending time on UK-based The Angels forum, Herron purchased hormones as an adult from a private pharmacy. At age 25, Herron began transition and began using the name Abby. In 2018, at age 30, Herron got vaginoplasty. Five years later, at age 35, Herron made additional gender changes, largely due to dissatisfaction with vaginoplasty results.
Herron is a Newcastle-based civil servant.
In June 2022 Herron claimed lawyers in Liverpool were preparing a legal case against Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear NHS Foundation Trust.
Ex-transgender activism
Similar to the ex-gay activists of the 20th century, people like Herron get money and attention by claiming to be no longer trans.
Herron is heavily invested in metaphors of disease and impairment, identifying as disabled and mentally ill. This is a kind of attention-seeking behavior. Rather than take personal responsibility for life decisions made as a 30-year-old adult, Herron chooses to blame those who tried to help.
Herron’s alleged disorders, diseases, “comorbidities,” and maladies include:
“depression, OCD and latent homosexuality”
autism
“hated myself because I am gay”
“an ear infection that led to deafness”
a series of breakdowns
substance misuse issues
“no skill or co-ordination”
Here is how Herron describes the surgical results and complications:
ânearly bled to deathâ
“It literally looked like an animal had got on my crotch and it just went to town on it”
“like my arsecrack has been extended all the way to the front”
“under constant supervision for ongoing complications related to the deeply invasive surgery”
feel mostly nothing in “my flesh cavity” aside from “occasional stabs of pain”
crotch is numb, âshell-shockedâ
scars “still sometimes weep” and “occasionally become inflamed and cause crippling pain”
“my body aches”
“lifelong pain”
Herron claims these long-term problems:
“killed my confidence”
cannot walk long distances
cannot ride a bike
infertile
incontinent
canât use the toilet properly
“takes ten minutes to empty my bladder”
sex drive “is long gone”
“reliant on synthetic hormones”
“lifelong medical patient”
Herron has discussed ex-trans activism in conservative or fascist outlets that include National Review, Rebel News, Daily Mail, Daily Record, Spiked, The Lion, World News Group, The Times, The Critic, The Washington Examiner.The Telegraph, The Christian Institute, Christian Post, and Christian Broadcasting Network.
Herron also frequently appears on channels featuring anti-trans content:
Note: an earlier version had a typo in Herron’s birth year.
“Layla Jane” is the stage name of Kayla Lovdahl, an American ex-transgender activist. Lovdahl gets money and attention by making it more difficult for others to get trans healthcare.
Background
Kayla Michelle Lovdahl was born August 20, 2004. Lovdahl’s parents are Desiree M. Baggett Lovdahl (born July 11, 1984) and Kevin Allen Lovdahl (born September 30, 1976). Desiree got pregnant at age 19, and they married during the pregnancy on January 28, 2004.
Kayla Lovdahl grew up in the Lodi, California area, and has these problems according to a lawsuit filed by Lovdahl’s lawyers against Kaiser Permanente:
recurrent intense anxiety and panic
extreme mood fluctuations
self-harm
problems at school resulting in suspensions
oppositional behavior
defiant behavior
interpersonal peer relationship problems
anger
depression
crying spells
significant appetite changes
irritability
agitation
decreased energy
panic with hyperventilation
confusion
nausea
nightmares
explosive temper outbursts
poor concentration
gender dysphoria
symptoms “compatible with undiagnosed and untreated bipolar disorder”
“erroneous belief that she was transgender”
mood swings
sadness
lack of known triggers
would write sad notes at age 6-7
does not get much sleep
sleep has been irregular since being a baby
sees figures or things passing on the side when she doesnât get enough sleep
strange reoccurring nightmares
symptoms of depression
mania
abuse from peers
obesity
poor social skills
few friends
2023 lawsuit
The same conservative activists representing Chloe Cole/Brockman are also representing Lovdahl.
Defendants:
Lisa Kristine Taylor, MD, pediatric endocrinologist
Winnie Mao Yiu Tong, MD, plastic surgeon
Susanne E. Watson, PhD, gender therapist
Mirna Escalante, MD, pediatric endocrinologist
The lawyers claim Lovdahl “now has deep physical and emotional wounds and severe regrets” and “has suffered physically, socially, neurologically, and psychologically.” They describe it as:
“mutilation to her body”
“fertility risks”
“health risks”
“lost opportunities for social and physical development along with her peers, and at key developmental milestones that can never be regained”
The complaint alleges in part:
When Kayla was 11, on or around April 26, 2016, Dr. Meridee Loomer saw Kayla and reviewed her file. Dr. Loomer noted that Kaylaâs mother had been requesting mental health services beginning in 2011, when Kayla was around 6 years old, due to school issues and because Kayla had written on her papers about wanting to die. Dr. Loomer also noted that there had not been any consistent psychotherapy services for Kayla. She informed Dr. Loomer privately at her April 26, 2016, visit that she was a boy and that she preferred to be named âKyle.â
Around September 14, 2016, Kayla had a visit with Dr. Doreen Samelson, who counseled them that since Kayla was past Tanner Stage II (the first stage of puberty), she was not a candidate for puberty blockers and was not ready for cross-sex hormones. Kayla received a contraceptive shortly thereafter to reduce her periods.
The lawsuit cites treatment notes from Lovdahl’s doctor:
[Patient] is currently at maternal grandmother’s home, and Mom intends to pick him up to bring him directly into the Stk Cpy office to be seen today. When asked about concerns re: self/other harm, she states that he has made statements such as âwhat’s the point,â or âI should just drink bleachâ recently but not today.
âPatient presented to urgent services after his mother called Kaiser Psychiatry Triage yesterday and today reporting concerns over her son’s agitation/labile behavior, mood fluctuations, and potential for self-harm/harming others. Patient’s reported that her son has been having unprovoked anger outbursts where he’s been lashing out (i.e. cursing) at her mostly and others.
Lovdahl then had counseling and the doctors got signed parental consent:
On July 11, 2017, Kayla had counseling regarding fertility. On September 22, 2017, after Kayla just turned age 13, Dr. Tong performed a double mastectomy on her.
Kayla stopped injecting testosterone around the middle of 2021, while beginning a period of detransition. Thereafter, she stopped all contact and services with the Kaiser Proud Clinic where she had been receiving ongoing evaluation for her transition.
In 2022 Kayla was diagnosed with Social Anxiety Disorder and Mood Disorder with depressive features.
Ex-transgender activism
Lovdahl heard Chloe Cole’s lawyers filed a lawsuit against Kaiser and decided to get in on the action.
In March 2023, Lovdahl was among the handful of ex-trans activists at what was billed as their biggest event ever:
Detransitioner @LJDetrans makes her first public appearance at Detrans Awareness Day in Sacramento last week.
Layla Jane had her breasts removed at 13 years old and is now suing some of the same "doctors" that I am suing.
“I was a mentally ill child, and I was able to consent to removing my breasts permanently. And I also heard more â or less… I heard more people telling me I would regret this tattoo than I would regret getting my breasts permanently removed at such a young age. So that is why I felt necessary to speak. Thank you for hearing me out.”
“Overall, I really want to say that I don’t think I should have been allowed to change my sex before I could legally consent to have sex. Overall, I don’t think I’m better off for the experience, and I think that transition just completely added fuel to the fire that was my preexisting conditions.
I was given no information on rates of desistance or anything like that. Really, the surgery and the treatments were kind of pushed as the only way forward.
Between the age I was at and the headspace I was in, I don’t feel like I should have been any place to make those kinds of decisions. And I think proper information and all the side effects, it was really glossed over for my parents.”
Media
In June 2023, producers arranged a meeting with ex-trans activist Chloe Cole:
“Michelle Alleva” is the stage name of Michelle Zacchigna, a Canadian ex-transgender activist. Zacchigna gets money and attention by making it more difficult for others to get trans healthcare.
Zacchigna has used a number of aliases and handles:
“Scarlett P”
“Michelle Alleva”
somenuanceplease
sumenuancepls
Zacchigna transitioned as an adult and made additional identity and expression changes ten years later.
Background
Zacchigna was born in 1988. Zacchigna reports being bullied in school, especially from ages 8 to 13. After a close adolescent friendship ended, Zacchigna experienced even more social isolation. Zacchigna alleges having the following problems as a teen:
developmental trauma
dissociation
low self-esteem
self-harm
anxiety
depression
2008 suicide attempt
dated older people “who didnât seem to have my best interests at heart”
At age 20, Zacchigna identified as asexual:
Although I had never had gender dysphoria before, the more I thought about gender and how I wanted to present myself, the more self-aware I became about my body, and the more I wanted to change it. I thought about my past and became convinced that I had been bullied because I was trans and just didnât know it.
In spring 2010, at age 21, Zacchigna went to the Gender Journeys support group at Toronto’s Sherbourne Health. Two years later, in 2012, Zacchigna saved up and then paid out of pocket for elective top surgery in Florida.
Because transition doesn’t make you a new person or change who you are, Zacchigna felt better for a while, but then reported problems started again:
social anxiety
still difficult to make friends
depression
gender dysphoria
couldn’t cry anymore “because of the hormones”
uncontrolled acne
poor self-care
gained about 70-80 pounds
fired for âinconsistentâ work output
irregular sleep schedule
stopped caring about appearance
became low income
moved back in with family
failed out of college
autism spectrum disorder
ADHD
post-traumatic stress symptoms
major depressive disorder
medical trauma
low voice
male-pattern balding
facial hair
an enlarged clitoris
a flat chest
the inability to ever become pregnant
“among other things”
Following a 2017 evaluation that added to Zacchigna’s long list of problems, in 2018 Zacchigna had a “medically unnecessary” partial hysterectomy because “it was covered by provincial insurance, and I liked the idea of not having any more periods or pap exams.”
Zacchigna is upset and angry “that I wasnât screened for the diagnoses I later received before I was prescribed hormones.” Zacchinga was screened prior to the hysterectomy but still blames others for that decision made at age 30.
Anti-transgender activism
Now based in Orillia, Ontario, Zacchigna’s income is now supplemented by making it harder for other adults to get trans healthcare:
“I have spent the last 18 months involved in health care advocacy related to this topic. I’ve presented at webinars, spoken at universities, been featured in news articles, appeared on Podcasts, and written blogs semi-regularly sharing my experiences and my thoughts about how this could have happened.”
In 2022 Zacchigna announced a planned lawsuit:
âIâve been holding this card close to my chest for a while, and Iâm ready to show it. In November 2022, I commenced legal action against the Canadian healthcare providers that facilitated my medical transition in Ontario,â
Zacchigna is now a source for a number of anti-trans activists and outlets, including Michael Shellenberger, the National Post, and Western Standard. Zacchigna is also active in the anti-trans “parental rights” movement, appearing in Lighthouse and the 2023 film No Way Back.
David Arthur Kendall is an American sex offender and activist in the ex-transgender movement. Kendall gets money and attention by making it more difficult to get trans healthcare. Using the name “David Arthur,” Kendall is featured in the 2023 anti-trans film Affirmation Generation by Laura VanZee-Taylor and Penka Kouneva.
Background
David Arthur Kendall was born October 16, 1972. Kendall has alleged being sexually abused from around the age of 6 and contracting HIV/AIDS in 1986 at age 14.
After making a gender transition, this person used the name Paige Giannetto.
In 2002, Kendall was sentenced to two years and four months in Florida prison for violating Florida Statute 800.04 on May 1, 1995: “Lewdly fondle or assault, commit or simulate sexual acts on or in presence of a child under 16 in a lewd, lascivious or indecent manner.”
In 2004, Kendall was sentenced to two years in prison for failing to meet Florida’s mandatory community notification and registration requirements for sex offenders, among other crimes:
I was arrested on a probation violation for drugs, prostitution and robbing a gas station. I was also charged with failing to register (comply) at the time as well. During the sting operation it was discovered that my “boyfriend”, who was caught with me in our hotel room, was 15 years old. This did not look good for me as a convicted sex offender and I was given the option of another charge or “cash in” my probation for state prison time, I chose the latter. I chose to have no probation in place of prison time.
Kendall was released in 2006 and stopped identifying as Paige in 2012. Kendall has described “deliverance from a very dark life,” including
prostitution
sex-trafficking
gender confusion/transgenderism (dysphoria)
molestation
rape
drugs
alcohol
gambling
“full blown AIDS”
no immune system
infections in his brain & blood
severe progressive Osteoporosis
diabetes
etc.
After “the doctors sent him home to die,” Kendall experienced a “moment of grace.” Kendall has described being cured of many problems:
gender confusion
addictions
Chronic Major Depression
bipolar
anxiety
PTSD
lust-filled activity
the weight of sin
no longer used a walker
diabetes was gone
HIV/AIDS virus was no longer detectable
immune system returned
“rescued from the cesspools of gender dysphoria, the lgbTQia TransQueer Gender Cult”
Supreme Court brief
In 2019, Kendall participated in an amicus curiae brief in support of a funeral home that had fired a transgender employee. The brief was submitted by:
Public Advocate of the United States
Conservative Legal Defense and Education Fund
Poll Watchers
I Belong Amen Ministries
David Arthur
Policy Analysis Center
Eagle Forum Foundation
Pastor Chuck Baldwin
Restoring Liberty Action Committee
Center for Morality
Relevant passages from Kendall:
I Belong Amen Ministries is a ministry headed by David Arthur, a former homosexual and former transgender person.
The good news is that transgender status is not immutable, and the mindâs perspective about the body can, and often does, change over time. Consider the situation of David Arthur, one of the amici curiae filing this brief. David Arthur was sexually abused from around the age of five. He was involved in homosexual behavior, and then worked as a transgender prostitute. He contracted HIV/AIDS at age 14, and by age 37 he was on his deathbed. That was in 2009. With his body weakening, in a hospital bed that was placed in his bedroom at home, David Arthur hit rock bottom and turned to God, who rescued him from the captivity of his addictions. Today, he is healthy and strong, and living proof that people are not immutably transgendered or homosexual. On his website,8 David summarized the matter as follows:
Using myself as an illustration, as a former homosexual, and former transgender person, with decades of experience in that world, I can say without a shadow of a doubt that homosexuality (including transgenderism) is absolutely mutable and curable!
God has created each one of us in a heterosexual design which cannot be altered. We are born male or female. Our DNA makes us male or female and no surgery in the world can change our DNA. Changing our sex/gender is not possible. Indeed, homosexuality is not truly a sexual orientation at all, but just one type of sin, and a type of bondage. Those who tell us that homosexuality is just one of many sexual orientations seek to keep us in bondage, whether they know it or not.
Once we embrace our heterosexual design, we can find the freedom from the bondage of homosexuality. Being set free from homosexuality (including transgenderism) is just as desirable, just as real, and just as common, as a drug addict being set free from the bondage and hold of drugs. Our âtrue selfâ is exactly who we were created to be from conceptionâŠ.
In 2022, Shawn McBreairty of the far-right Maine First Project teamed up with Kendall to attack trans people.
In April, McBreairtyâs podcast featured David Arthur Kendall, who describes himself as a former transgender woman and former prostitute. âChanging sex is not an option,â his website says. He describes being transgender as a type of âconfusionâ or âmental disorderââa compelling story for transphobic groups like Maine First Project.
McBreairty subsequently returned the favor by appearing on Kendallâs podcast.
In 2022, Kendall showed up at a local school board meeting to “gender identity movement is dangerous.”
Kendall said the LBGTQ agenda is dangerous because it can force sexual identity on children and lead to gender confusion.
Kendall described himself as being a transgender woman for years, and said he was seduced into the LGBTQ movement. He identifies as a gay man and said he is glad he wasnât placed on puberty blockers that would have affected his growth and development. He alluded to past behaviors and said he has since reformed his life.
âPlease let these children know itâs OK to be gay,â Kendall said. âThey donât have to run into the arms of a rainbow movement that is bound to destroy them, body and soul.â
Below are Kendall’s comments throughout the film before they were deleted:
As a child, what I didnât know, I didnât call it internalized homophobia because I didnât know the term for it, but thatâs when I started noticing the stigma over homosexuality. I recognized the guilting, the shaming of same-sex attraction within society and culture alone.
Because of the estrogen, I have severe bone loss. First, it was osteopenia then it turned into osteoporosis, and the bone loss was severe, so severe I was hunched over, couldnât stand up straight, walking with a walker.
Even though I didnât want it, I never wanted the full surgery, I was contemplating on going to Thailand to get the complete sexual reassignment surgery, which is what they called it then. Now itâs called gender affirming surgery. So first I was going to New York to get castrated and to get more work, more silicone, put in my body. I was on Coney Island with two trannies that had already had complete sexual reassignment surgery. And we are laughing and joking and having a good old time, and then they both looked at me, and one of them said, “Donât do it.” And I said, “Donât do what?” And he said, “All of my life I thought that if I could just become a woman, I would find peace and joy and happiness.” And he said, “And now that I am legally and medically a woman, I am more miserable now than I was my entire life.” He said, “I think about taking my life every day.” And the other one said “I think about taking my life several times a day every day.”
Everyone that knew me, they wouldâve argued with anybody that “Paige” was content and secure and happy, and just being the person she was meant to be. And none of them had a clue that I was depressed, that I was bitter, that I hated myself, that I attempted to take my life quite a few times. Even the young queens that looked up to me, that would come and stay at my apartment, they didnât know that. And then come to now, when I think back and I think, “Wow, how many of them felt the same way?” I recognize that I was just living a lie. I became the lie. I was the lie.
Itâs lonely enough being a detransitioner, and not having the support of a group of friends that you can go out and have fun with, right? Like when you were in that movement.
Thereâs no reasoning behind most of what is spewed by trans activists. No reasoning. And I know this because I was one, right? As a pawn for the movement, I was one. Not only was I a victim, I victimized young boys. I helped young boys into the movement. I watched boys be seduced into the movement and then passed around and profited off of. And then, when they were no more good, tossed out in the garbage, and then they became the groomers. And so I know that being that is just emotionally driven. Itâs all about thoughts and feelings, thoughts and feelings. There is no real reality in that world.
I think that one of my biggest goals is to make young people understand that you can just be gay, and itâs OK.
References
Supreme Court of the United States (August 23, 2019). Amicus Curiae in R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/18/18-107/229226/20220630125559710_Harris%20Funeral%20amicus%20brief%20on%20the%20merits.pdf