The ex-trans movement will often describe the support they received as bad. They use the same words that transphobic people use to describe our community.
“Gender ideology”
gender cult
gender theory
gender dogma
gender theory
postmodern
anti-science
unethical
Disease
social contagion
derangement
delusion
plague
epidemic
abnormality
mass hysteria
syndrome
An ethical problem
iatrogenesis
medicalization
mutilation
atrocity
A problematic trend
craze
mania
frenzy
obsession
fad
clique
subculture
A political problem
conspiracy
movement
revolution
empire
collapse
faction
A sexual problem
deviance
a sexual seduction (grooming)
fetish
kink
defilement
corruption of innocence
rape
a crime against nature
A hate movement
misogyny
homophobia
heterophobia
A supernatural problem
demonic
evil
Pamela Buffone is a Canadian software executive and anti-transgender activist. Buffone is and advisor to anti-trans hate groupGenspect and is founder of anti-trans group blog Canadian Gender Report.
Background
Pamela Neely “Pam” Buffone earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Ottawa in 1993 and a master’s degree from Western University in 1998.
Buffone and spouse Jason Buffone have a child and live in Ottawa.
Anti-transgender activism
Buffone’s child reportedly became “distressed” during a first-grade lesson about gender identity and expression. After complaining to the school, Buffone filed a discrimination case. The Ontario Human Rights Tribunal held a hearing in 2022, after which the case was dismissed.
Buffone founded anti-trans group blog Canadian Gender Report. Contributors of original or republished work include:
Jesse Hinty (hormones as an adult for about 1 year, no surgical steps)
Helena Kerschner (hormones as an adult for about 1.5 years, no surgical steps)
Dagny Walton (hormones “six months before turning 18” for about 2 years, no surgical steps)
Members of the group have spoken at anti-transgender events and maintained a website and since-deleted YouTube channel. Members also traveled to Washington, DC to lobby lawmakers and had a meeting with a member of the APA.
Members have also testified against trans-supportive legislation in addition to working behind the scenes with Denise Caignon, owner of anti-trans site 4thWaveNow and parent of Chiara Caignon-Lewis.
The group disbanded in 2020 after Hinty and Kerschner ended their long-term romantic relationship.
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 Tumblr’s 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 Français 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: “I was interviewed for this magazine recently (I’m “Rachel”), 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 Tumblr’s transactivists at a vulnerable phase of my life, I would not have become absorbed by a desire to permanently change my body.”
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!)”
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
Parents of ROGD Kids (PROGDK) is an anti-transgender front group for unsupportive parents of trans and gender-diverse children. It promotes the controversial concept “rapid-onset gender dysphoria” (ROGD).
Using tactics developed by anti-abortion activists, the group organizes clinic protests at children’s hospitals that support gender diverse youth.
Background
PROGDK was created in the fall of 2017, and the website launched in December. Two key people listed are “Suzanna Diaz,” aka Monica Hegmann, and “Janine MacLean,” who is listed as media consultant. Since launching, their organization has grown to “over 2,300 parents.” The majority of parents come from the US (74%), and they have affiliate groups in Canada, the UK, Australia/NZ, Scandinavia and Germany.”
“Parents of ROGD Kids was created by two mothers with teenage daughters who suddenly decided they were transgender without any prior history of gender dysphoria, but with long histories of mental health issues. They were skeptical of the affirmative model. It just didn’t seem to fit in their child’s case, yet everywhere they went, they were told to affirm their children. These mothers felt isolated, intimidated and terrified for their daughters.
They met online in a group of like-minded mothers. Eventually, the group arranged a secret meeting somewhere in the US. It had to be secret to avoid angry trans-rights activists. It was such a relief to find others in the same situation, and so empowering to know they were not alone, that they decided to create Parents of ROGD Kids, so that no other parent would ever have to feel so isolated and alone.
Their primary goal is to support the work of four anti-transgender psychologists:
In 2016, Lisa Marchiano posted notices to three anti-trans blogs (4thWaveNow, Transgender Trend, and Marchiano’s own Youth TransCritical Professionals) seeking survey respondents who believed they had observed “a sudden or rapid development of gender dysphoria” in young people. This new disease model was then workshopped and developed on forums for anti-trans activists, especially unaccepting parents of gender diverse children.
In 2018, Lisa Littman published a paper about “rapid onset gender dysphoria” that was later republished with corrections following significant negative response from clinicians and from the trans community. Littman’s “ROGD” paper has been widely criticized for its methodological limitations, biased sample, inadequate conceptual framing, lack of ethical safeguards, and potential to harm transgender youth by undermining affirming care. The broader consensus in both academia and clinical practice is that the “ROGD” hypothesis lacks credible scientific basis and is not recognized as a legitimate diagnosis.
In 2019, Diaz, using the pseudonym “Frances Mallory,” published a report in anti-trans publication Post Millennial about a secret meeting of anti-trans parents:
“One of the highlights of the meeting came when Dr. Michael Bailey, a leading authority on gender dysphoria, skyped in to speak with us. He listened to our stories with interest and compassion, then assured us that our children did not fit into the traditional categories of gender dysphoria, which have been recognized and well-studied for many years. Rather, they were exhibiting a new kind of gender dysphoria that had never been seen before. Researchers had dubbed it Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD), and it is so new that it has never been properly studied. Since the meeting described in this article, Dr. Lisa Littman has published the first ever study on Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria. Dr. Michael Bailey is working with Parents of ROGD Kids to publish another study which corroborates Dr. Littman’s findings.”
In 2023, the Archives of Sexual Behavior published the latest in its 50 years of academic attacks on trans and gender diverse youth. The first author is “Suzanna Diaz,” one of several aliases used by Monica Hegmann. The second author is anti-trans extremist J. Michael Bailey.
The International Academy of Sex Research (IASR) opened an investigation into how the “Diaz”/Bailey paper was published. IASR President Meredith Chivers announced the investigation, angering Bailey, who was Chivers’ dissertation advisor.
The journal’s publisher, Springer, added a note to the article:
10 May 2023 Publisher’s Note: readers are alerted that concerns have been raised regarding methodology as described in this article. The publisher is currently investigating this matter and a further response will follow the conclusion of this investigation.
Littman, Lisa (August 16, 2018). Rapid-onset gender dysphoria in adolescents and young adults: A study of parental reports. PLOS One https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0202330
Cut: Daughters of the West – Alteration & Exploitation of Children is an anti-transgender 2023 film about the ex-transgender movement, with a focus on gender affirming surgery for youth.
Background
The film premiered on April 15th in Phoenix, Arizona as a fundraiser for The Gavel Project, an “anti-woke” non-profit moving from fighting COVID policies to fighting “gender affirmation policies in schools (e.g., policies promoting the sexualization of our children, including hormone therapies and reassignment surgeries for children).”
Synopsis
According to Esler:
Cut explores the impact of the current transgender craze on girls by diving into the history of plastic surgery. […] The film investigates the moral and cultural precursors that have enabled transgender ideology to thrive. Before the rise in puberty blockers, hormone therapy and double mastectomies, there was an exponential increase in teenage girls seeking breast augmentations and labiaplasties. Cosmetic surgery, and feminist icons flaunting sexual liberation, handed girls the power to permanently alter their bodies, based on trends and self diagnosis. Now, pre-teens have spiralled into a mental health crisis that coincides perfectly with the introduction of smartphones, social media and gender theory. Is this the cultural and historical legacy we have handed to girls on the precipice of womanhood. Filmmaker Simon Esler weaves the voices of experts, outspoken citizens and detransitioners into a cultural fever dream that asks: What has happened to the daughters of the West?
The International Association of Therapists for Desisters and Detransitioners (IATDD) is an anti-transgender front group. Its members are key figures in “gender critical” anti-transgender activism.
IATDD supported the “ex-transgender” movement, people who describe themselves as “desisters” and “detransitioners.” They sell their services to parents who do not want their children to make a gender transition, known as the “parental rights” movement.
Background
Like many of these official-looking “associations,” it was just a website, part of a web farm of similar sites run by a small fringe group of therapists supporting anti-transgender efforts.
The site went online in December 2020 and went offline in January 2022.
Dysconnected: The Real Story Behind the Transgender Explosion is a film made by people from several factions of the anti-transgender movement, including ex-transgender activists, parental rights activists, gender critical activists, and conservative Catholic/Protestant activists.
Background
The film is distributed by Catholic publisher Ignatius Press. It’s produced by Runaway Planet Pictures and Don Johnson Media.
The film had its world premiere October 8, 2022 at the Freed Theater in Garden Grove, California.
Synopsis
According to Johnson:
Over the past few years, a transgender tsunami has swept the nation, completely overtaking the medical, educational, and counseling industries, and forever altering hundreds of thousands of young girls’ lives. What is going on? How did it come to this? Who is behind it? And what is coming next? Filmmaker and father Don Johnson traveled the country to find out.
Dysconnected is about exposing the truth behind the gender ideology industry, one that allows children to make life-altering decisions for themselves without any parental consent, explores why there is an explosion of young girls identifying as transgender, seeking to understand why the medical and counseling industries are not pushing back on gender ideology, and highlighting stories of people who have detransitioned.
