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. Their primary goal is to support the work of four anti-transgender psychologists:
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,” a fake name used by someone connected with PROGDK. The second author is transphobic psychologist 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 her dissertation advisor.
The journal’s publisher, Springer, added a note to the article:
10 May 2023 Publisherâs 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.
Parents of ROGD Kids (September 19, 2018). Parents of ROGD Kids Organization Supports Dr. Littmanâs Findings and Calls for Action
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
Media
Joey Brite and Erin Brewer (September 21, 2020). Can I Get a Witness conference. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKWqWqOv9yg
The Gender Care Consumer Advocacy Network (GCCAN) is a “ex-transgender” organization that seeks to limit trans healthcare options.
“Ex-trans” activists are similar to “ex-gay” activists who claim they have changed. Many claim they were cured via “desistance” (as minors) or “detransition” (as adults).
Background
Lee Leveille was one of the founding members and original Vice President. Leveille describes GCCAN’s founding
In August 2019, a detransitioned family therapist named Carey Callahan put out an organizing call to build bridges between trans and detrans people who had experienced medical trauma. The two of us teamed up with Grace Lidinsky-Smith and Corinna Cohn, where we worked to found an advocacy organization aimed at broadening the discussion on effective transgender-related health care. We also sought to do so without any political allegiance, purposefully maintaining distance from individuals or organizations that could weaponize the groupâs message for their own gain. It was, by and large, a patient rights organization meant to be by the people for the people. That December, the group went live under the name Gender Care Consumer Advocacy Network, or GCCAN.
Leveille resigned in March 2020 due to “the direction I saw the group going in and what damage it could do to people they claimed to represent.”
Members of the group have gone on to testify in support of banning trans healthcare for young people.
Rethink Identity Medicine Ethics (ReIME) is a conservative American anti-transgender organization.
ReIME supports the ex-transgender movement and trans-exclusionary queer separatism.
Background
ReIME was created by Jane Chotard Wheeler, a lawyer who believes in the great replacement conspiracy that transgender people and “gender ideology” are causing so-called lesbian erasure. Wheeler identifies as lesbian and began a committed relationship with filmmaker Lesli Klainberg in around 1992.
ReIME is a Delaware-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit with EIN: 83-3053400.
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 âsix months before turning 18â for about 2 years, no surgical steps)
Members of the group have spoken at anti-transgender events and maintain a website. 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.
Beyond Trans is an anti-transgender group fronted by ex-trans activists and anti-transgender extremists. Do not get therapy from anyone listed on their site or below.
If you are a minor forced to see someone on this list, try to end the sessions and find supportive alternatives.
note: for the supportive show hosted by trans media personality Mardi Pieronek, see Beyond Trans
Background
Beyond Trans was created in 2023 as part of a web farm controlled by anti-trans extremist Stella O’Malley of Genspect. It is designed to recruit people who have regret, self-doubt, or distress about making changes in their gender identity or expression. Those people are then used to help with anti-trans efforts worldwide.
Grace Lidinsky-Smith is an “ex-transgender” activist. Lidinsky-Smith’s work has been cited by conservative psychologist Erica Anderson and others seeking to restrict access to healthcare for gender diverse youth and young adults.
Background
Lidinsky-Smith “detransitioned” after making a gender transition as an adult that included hormones and top surgery.
Sierra Weir is an American ex-transgender activist who posts gender critical content online using the handle “Exulansic.” Weir gets money and attention by making it harder for others to access trans health services.
If you are transgender, gender diverse, or supportive of the LGBTQ community, do not support Weir’s business. There are many better voice practice and voice therapy options.
Background
Sierra Dullea Weir was born in April 1987.
In 2008, Weir studied Turkish for a year at Middle East Technical University in Turkey. Weir earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley in 2011. Weir then earned a master’s degree from San Jose State University in 2015. Weir identified as transgender for about four years, then as non-binary:
I lived as a trans man for several years, in community with other gender non-conforming people in the Bay Area, where the culture is open to non-traditional expressions of identity. I went to UC Berkeley, where Judith Butler, author of the seminal Gender Trouble, teaches, and where I majored in Gender and Womenâs Studies. At one point, a significant other and I (both trans men at the time) attended a brunch with a group that included Julia Serano, a trans woman biologist whose book Whipping Girl argues that transphobia is a form of misogyny and that rights for trans people must be central to feminism.
Weir practiced speech therapy at Jewett & Associates, at a middle school via Staffing Options and Solutions, and at Nova Health Therapies. Weir founded Say the Word Speech Therapy in 2018.
Anti-transgender activism
Weir is now part of the gender critical and ex-transgender movements.
Under the pseudonyms “Exulansic” aand “TT Exulansic,” Weir has appeared on Savage Minds, Lou Perez, TRIGGERnometry, Benjamin Boyce, and other anti-trans shows.
References
TT Exulansic (April 8, 2021). How Gender Atheism Saved My Body.The American Mind https://americanmind.org/salvo/how-gender-atheism-saved-my-body/
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.
Genspect is a group of conservative and anti-transgender activists primarily opposed to medical consensus on healthcare for gender diverse youth. Founder Stella O’Malley is a global ringleader in anti-transgender extremism. Genspect is designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Genspect positions include
opposing transition for transgender people under 26 years old
opposing laws that would ban conversion therapy on the basis of gender identity
AAP advises pediatricians to offer developmentally appropriate care that is oriented toward understanding and appreciating the youthâs gender experience. This care is nonjudgmental, includes families and allows questions and concerns to be raised in a supportive environment. This is what it means to âaffirmâ a child or teen; it means destigmatizing gender variance and promoting a childâs self-worth.
O’Malley responded to their response:
I am encouraged by the American Academy of Pediatricsâ statement in its letter that gender-affirming care âdoesnât push medical treatments or surgery; for the vast majority of children, it recommends the opposite.â Unfortunately, this is not the experience of families of gender-distressed children.
Genspect represents thousands of parents of gender-questioning children and young people around the world. We are not aware of any cases in the U.S. or Canada in which children seeking âgender-affirming careâ were not given the option of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.
The AAP should recognizes this fundamental point: There is no consensus and no evidence base on which to confidently declare what is âmedically appropriateâ for gender transitioning of children.
Media Matters for America has noted how writer Katie J. M. Baker of the New York Times has laundered Genspect’s anti-trans views into their publication:
The latest piece â another entry in the genre of New York Times articles that start from the premise that trans people are perhaps too accepted in society â covers âa network of internet support groups for âskepticalâ parents of transgender children, some with thousands of registered membersâ without noting that the groups are run by Genspect, an organization that opposes bans on conversion therapy and has numerous members who support banning gender-affirming care for trans people under 25.
April 2023 Ireland conference
O’Malley organized a conference in Ireland on April 27-29 2023 and featuring many anti-transgender activists.