Joel Koss is an American game developer who took medical gender transition steps as an adult for a few months. After deciding that path was not bringing fulfillment, Koss made additional changes back toward an earlier identity.
Koss appears in the 2023 anti-trans film No Way Back, about the ex-transgender movement. Koss has apologized, saying “I didn’t know what I was a part of. Informed consent saves lives.”
Background
Koss has stated “horrible things” happened as a child, adding: “Around the time I was 11 or 12 I developed anorexia nervosa. And then years later, it led me to develop a body dysmorphia, which I falsely, wrongly attributed to being gender dysphoria.” According to Koss:
Ever since I was young, since I could remember, I have had an issue with my identity, mostly the way that I looked, talked, dressed. I think I got into my head growing up I would be happier if I was a woman, Iād be more satisfied with myself if I was a woman, I would love myself more if I was a different person.
I just know like how truly easy it is for you to go and get treatment if you live in an area with informed consent treatment. I literally made an appointment with the doctors office in Chicago. I live in Indiana. So I drove up to Chicago. I went to the doctor’s appointment that I had set up for two weeks prior. It was very quick. And then that day I received estrogen. There was definitely a honeymoon phase. In the beginning of hormone therapy, everything felt great. My body felt great. My mind felt clear. I was also becoming an Internet influencer pretty quickly.
Koss documented the transition on social media.
I am five months on hormones… about 5 1/2 months. And since my last update, there have been a lot of changes. So as many of you know, I take estrogen shots. But this one is particularly important. As I put this into my body., I will be six months on estrogen. Sometimes you never think that the things that you in life that you want are going to happen fully.
Three months later, Koss felt differently:
It turned out to make me more dysphoric. It turned out to make me uncomfortable. The more it happened to my body, the scareder I got. And I came to the realization that I donāt feel like Iām actually transgender. Itās a hell of a realization to have.
Koss soon gave additional updates:
Whatās up my beautiful people? How are we doing today? If youāve been around my channel for a minute, than you know that I am male to female to male. So I went through transition, and then, after about nine months, I came to the realization that, I am not transgender.
In July 2020 I started realizing that hormone therapy was no longer having a satisfactory effect on my mental health and my physical health. But now at this point in time, I had a lot of social media followers, people that looked up to me and made me feel like I was important to them. And I felt like I couldnāt go back. And that the only option was to just keep pushing forward, which led me to spiral into a state of depression and being admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
Response to No Way Back
Koss appears in the 2023 anti-trans film No Way Back and is credited as “Joel Kass” in some promotional materials. In April 2023, Koss posted:
I was interviewed for this documentary. I was actually used quite a bit for the documentary. I was told that it would shine a positive light on informed consent. And it did not. […] The full interview and testimony of my experiences that I gave was chopped up into little bits and sprinkled throughout the documentary, not fully reflecting my actual views and thoughts on transgender healthcare. I apologize, and I hope that it did no damage. I would hate to think that something I was a part of could be viewed by a legislator and impractically influence thought-making, decision-making processes, or just scare the shit out of parents of trans kids that come out to them. As always, every single one of you has my love and my support.
Koss later added:
I am an advocate for trans rights, trans healthcare, everything to do with basic equality. I was approached by the director about April of last year. And when I asked about the scope of and the impact of the film, I was told it was going to be a positive film about informed consent. I was told that it was going to take an ethical and responsible perspective of getting proper mental healthcare before informed consent in terms of trans teens and not full-grown adults. I don’t know if I can take legal action because I signed a release. I gave very thoughtful, ethical, correct responses to interview questions, and every single thing I said was taken out of context, cut all apart, piecemealed into something that served the agenda of another party entirely. So I apologize. I didn’t know what I was a part of. I didn’t know what was being done. Informed consent saves lives. That’s it. […] I hope I did nothing damaging, and I that I can be forgiven.
Charlie Evans is a British writer and ex-transgender activist. Evans gets money and attention by making it harder for others to get trans healthcare.
Background
Evans was born ~1991. Evans reportedly experienced abuse outside the family as a child. Evans also reportedly experiences generalised anxiety disorder and depression.
Evans has resided in Margate and Newcastle and reportedly has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology, with plans to seek a doctorate.
Ex-trans activism
Evans announced the Detransition Advocacy Network in November 2019.
Six months later, Evans reportedly took a full-time job as a COVID tester and announced a “retirement from the gender wars.” The website was deactivated in late 2021.
Keira Bell is a British ex-transgender activist. Bell gets money and attention by making it harder for others to get trans healthcare.
Background
Bell was born in 1997. At 15, Bell was referred to the Gender Identity Development Service, at the Tavistock and Portman clinic in London. At 16, Bell was prescribed puberty blockers, and at 17, Bell began taking hormones. Bell chose the name Quincy.
As an adult, Bell chose to get top surgery. Bell later had regret and made additional changes in identity and expression.
Bell brought a lawsuit against the Tavistock which ultimately helped lead to its closure in favor of the decentralized approach used in other countries.
Watson was born in ~1991 and reports being repeatedly sexually assaulted as a teen.
made a gender transition as an adult. Watson socially transitioned at age 20 and began medical transition at age 24. Watson had top surgery at age 26. In October 2019, at age 28, Watson made additional changes in identity and expression.
Ex-trans activism
Rather than taking personal responsibility for medical decisions made as an adult, Watson blames “the trans lobby.” According to anti-trans activist Julie Bindel:
Watson self-referred to the Sandyford in 2014, having spent time in a psychiatric unit following a severe mental breakdown. āI burned my house down while trying to kill myself,ā she says, āand made out to the doctor it was because I was really a trans man and needed to transition. That was bullshit.ā Watson was suffering from depression, dependent on alcohol, and struggling to accept that she was a lesbian.
Daisy Strongin is an American ex-transgender activist. Strongin gets money and attention by making it harder for other people to get trans healthcare.
Background
Daisy Marie Chadra was born in April 1998. Chadra came out as trans on May 29, 2015 at age 17, using the name Oliver “Ollie” Chadra. As an adult, Chadra obtained hormones at Planned Parenthood. At age 20, Chadra had top surgery.
After graduating York Community High School, Chadra earned an associate’s degree from College of DuPage in 2019. Chadra then attended North Central College.
Chadra made additional changes in identity and expression in October 2020, at age 22.
Jason Strongin and Daisy Strongin were married on December 12, 2021. They had a baby named Gabriel in 2022.
Daisy Strongin converted to Catholicism in 2023.
Ex-trans activism
Stongin appears in the 2023 anti-trans media piece DETRANS by PragerU and has also appeared on shows by anti-trans activists Benjamin Boyce and Preston Sprinkle.
Calvin Lunt aka Cal Fox aka Calvin Fox is a British ex-transgender activist.
Background
Calvin Lunt was born in 1990 and has lived in the Fairfield area of Liverpool.
Fox was a contestant on MTVās Beauty School Cop Outs in 2013.
Lunt performed in drag as Cal Fox in Liverpool clubs. Fox began a gender transition as an adult at age 24, documenting the steps on Facebook.
After about a year of hormones, Lunt made additional changes in identity and expression.
Ex-trans activism
In a podcast description, Lunt said:
“It has been 6 years now since I de-transitoned (returned back to my birth gender) and during these past 5 years I have spent my time learning more about myself, the reasons why I wanted to take the journey of completely changing my body and also exploring the reasons why so many young people are feeling the same. I am not sitting here writing this saying that everyones story will be like mine but I will be honest and transparent and say I do believe there are many more people out there like me who maybe making choices based on false thoughts and feelings.”
Staff (June 2, 2015). Cal Fox discovers sheās transgender by accident. news.com.au https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/true-stories/cal-fox-discovers-shes-transgender-by-accident/news-story/65c4eea38c8e032981c627c1a43c49a2
Tweedy, Jo (June 1, 2015). Aspiring model realised she was transgender by ACCIDENT after dressing up in hot pants and blonde wig for night out. Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3105504/Aspiring-model-realised-transgender-ACCIDENT-dressing-hot-pants-blonde-wig-night-out.html
Chiara Caignon-Lewis is an American “ex-transgender” activist and a founder of ex-trans website Pique Resilience Project. Anti-trans activism is a family business: Chiara’s parent Denise Caignon is also heavily involved in anti-transgender extremism as owner of the website 4thWaveNow.
Aliases include:
“Chiara Canaan”
“Rachel Miller”
Caignon-Lewis claims the transgender rights movement is “nothing more than misogyny disguised as progressive feminism.”
Background
Chiara Lucia Marie Caignon-Lewis was born August 21, 1997 in Santa Cruz, California to Denise Caignon and Tim Lewis. Caignon-Lewis stated, “I was dysphoric because my father sexually abused me as a child” and because of “my internalized homophobia.”
Denise and Chiara Caignon-Lewis moved to North Carolina. In 2013, at age 16, Caignon-Lewis became an ordained youth minister, then came out as transgender shortly after turning 17. Caignon-Lewis had already come out as lesbian and was dating as one, but an incident at school resulted in few friends in real life. Caignon-Lewis turned to online communities, claiming that popular trans users on Tumblr and YouTube led to a multi-year obsession with transition:
Had I not been exposed to the cultish mindset of Tumblrās transactivists at a vulnerable phase of my life, I would not have become absorbed by a desire to permanently change my body.
Caignon-Lewis’ coming out involved texting a link to a gender clinic with no other details. Being forbidden to take medical transition steps caused Caignon-Lewis to have many family fights. At the height of the fighting, Denise Caignon got heavily involved with posting anti-transgender materials online at 4thWaveNow and elsewhere.
In 2015, Caignon-Lewis graduated from Chapel Hill High School and was sent to a Florida horse farm for nine months. Caignon-Lewis says the desire to transition subsided after that without taking any legal or medical steps. Denise and Chiara have since teamed up to be the most high-profile family in the modern ex-trans movement.
Caignon-Lewis sometimes performs music locally and has had a string of service jobs in the Triangle area, including at insightsoftware, bartaco, Orangetheory Fitness, Stoney River Steakhouse, Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille, and Hawthorne & Wood.
Caignon-Lewis has been riding horses since age two, got a Selle FranƧais cross mare named Tupelo Honey in 2011, and has been involved in competitive jumping and dressage with Honey in North Carolina and at FenRidge Farm in Florida. A self-described “huge horse nerd,” Caignon-Lewis was active on several online platforms, posting about horses and dressage in addition to identity issues (most of which was deleted). Since 2016, Caignon-Lewis has operated a part-time business called Novation Sporthorse, offering training, lessons, and marketing of sales horses.
Caignon-Lewis and three other ex-trans activists created the Pique Resilience Project in 2019 and disbanded in 2020, allegedly because two of the members stopped dating each other.
Canaan, Chiara (2018). [response to Economist piece] https://chiaracanaan.tumblr.com/post/177791904093/why-are-so-many-teenage-girls-appearing-in-gender
Buddhist Peace Fellowship (1997). Turning Wheel. “Born on August 21, to TW associate editor Denise Caignon and her husband Tim Lewis: Chiara Lucia (Clear Light!)”
Media appearances
Caignon-Lewis and parent Denise Caignon have both spoken with Benjamin Boyce about their anti-trans activism.
I was interviewed for this magazine recently (Iām āRachelā), and have been pleasantly surprised at the positive response so far.
I was dysphoric because my father sexually abused me as a child until I learned to associate womanhood with fear and shame, and I was dysphoric because I am a lesbian, but my internalized homophobia jumped at the option of being a straight man instead.
Had I not been exposed to the cultish mindset of Tumblrās transactivists at a vulnerable phase of my life, I would not have become absorbed by a desire to permanently change my body.
Kerschner works for anti-trans hate group Genspect.
Background
Helena Elise Kerschner was born July 24, 1998 in northern Kentucky and grew up in the Cincinnati area. Kerschner’s parent Magdalena E Kerschner (born 1960) is a physician who ran a pain clinic. Kerschner’s parent William P. “Will” Kerschner (born 1959) was an executive at a large consumer goods company. Both are retired.
Kerschner had a childhood of immense privilege and was involved in figure skating and other expensive hobbies like horse riding. As a teen, Kerschner was a compulsive Tumblr user:
[…] By the time I was thirteen, I was isolating myself, self-harming, and had developed an eating disorder. In eighth grade, I lost touch with most of my school friends, and was too self-conscious and preoccupied with my eating disorder to put myself out there again. I started skipping school, spending lunch in the bathroom, and in general just keeping my head down, trying to get through the day unnoticed.
[…] When I was fifteen, I was introduced to gender ideology on Tumblr and began to call myself nonbinary. Over the next few years, I would continue to go deeper and deeper down the trans identity rabbit hole, and by the time I was eighteen, I saw myself as a ātrans manā, otherwise known as āFtMā. Shortly after my eighteenth birthday, I made an appointment at a Planned Parenthood to begin a testosterone regimen. At my first appointment, I was prescribed testosterone, and I would remain on this regimen for a year and a half. It had an extremely negative effect on my mental health, and I finally admitted what a disaster it had been when I was 19, sometime around February or March 2018.
[…] Between sharing photos, drawings, and fanfiction, these girls were posting about their lives and going into deep detail about their struggles. Many were social outcasts like me, also struggling with things like self-harm and eating disorders. Finding a community of such like minded people felt amazing, and I quickly began spending nearly every waking moment on Tumblr or messaging some friend I had met on there. If I had any remaining motivation to integrate myself into real life, I lost that here.
Kershner became sexually attracted to and obsessed with boyish pop culture figures like Elvis and Justin Bieber. Kershner eventually wanted to embody them. This erotic interest in masculinization was not well documented prior to LiveJournal, Tumblr, the “shipping” phenomenon, and anime fandoms frequented by fujoshi {“rotten girl”) obsessives.
Kerschner met Hinty via tumblr, and they eventually lived together. Kerschner started hormones as an adult on August 15, 2016. According to an interview with Daily Wire, Kerschner’s new name was Vincent Lucas “Vin” Jaszczak. Jaszczak was a family name.
While most people who make additional changes in gender identity or expression remain supportive of the process, some choose to get money and attention by joining the ex-trans movement. According to friends, Kerschner was drawn into alt-right ideologies via toxic online communities including now-banned subreddits like r/The_Donald and r/GenderCritical.
I finally bit the bullet and looked into radical feminism. This happened because during a suicidal mental break down, I went to the only community online that I had found supported detransitioned people (the trans community often demonizes and erases us), which was r/GenderCritical on Reddit. I was met with an overflow of love and support, and they showed me that radfems are not the monsters the trans tumblr community makes us out to be. Though their politics were extremely shocking to me, someone who spent the last 5 years intensely believing in genderist ideology, after a while things started making sense and I realized just how horrible trans ideology is, and how it nearly destroyed my life.
With the help of radical feminism, which has taught me an immense level of self respect, I am slowly crawling out of rock bottom.
Kerschner soon became fixated on alt-right figures like Ben Shapiro and Tucker Carlson in ways that mirror previous fascinations with Elvis and Justin Bieber.
Kerschner testified in support of Ohio legislation HB 454, the “Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE)” Act. Kerschner also works extensively behind the scenes with Denise Caignon, owner of anti-trans site 4thWaveNow.
“a few disclaimers just cause ill talk about this stuff and i dont want u to see me talk about it and not know whats going on: 1. i have experience with abuse but dont talk to me about it unless ur also an abuse survivor 2. im pretty mentally ill so sorry if i cry a lot but you can talk to me about it idc jusā¦ beware my screaming”
Hinty grew up in Ohio. After moving to a new school at age 15, Hinty met trans and gender diverse peers. Before identifying as trans, Hinty briefly identified as nonbinary at 16, then trans at 17. Hinty did not take medical steps until adulthood, starting testosterone injections in 2016 at age 18. On April 4, 2017, Hinty’s name change petition was granted.
Hinty attended Otterbein University from 2016 to 2017, studying computer science. While there, Hinty was Student Program Coordinator for the Office of Social Justice & Activism.
Hinty moved to Chicago in 2017 and began a long-term relationship with future ex-trans activist Helena Kerschner, holding a number of service jobs following an internship on the docu-series America In Transition.
After 14 months of hormone use, Hinty stopped and briefly identified as nonbinary before identifying as a “bi lady with C-PTSD who finds relief from brain stuff through gaming and medical cannabis!”
Hinty worked at Argo Tea and Starbucks for about one year each. From 2019 to 2022 Hinty worked at cannabis dispensary GreenGate Chicago (now ZenLeaf) before embarking on a freelance graphic design career.
Pique Resilience Project
In 2019 PRP created a number of videos and made several media appearances in its year of operation. The project disbanded in 2020 after Hinty and Kerschner broke up.
