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Steve Sailer is an American far-right activist, white nationalist, and anti-transgender extremist. Sailer created the Human Biodiversity Institute, an organization dedicated to eugenic ideology.

Background

Ernest Steven “Steve” Sailer was born on December 20, 1958 and was adopted soon after by Ernest Rudolph Sailer (1917–2012) . Sailer grew up in Los Angeles and earned a bachelor’s degree from Rice University in 1980, followed by an MBA at UCLA in 1982.

From 1982 to 2000, Sailer worked at Chicago-based SymphonyIRI Group (now IRI).

Sailer and spouse Carole Rita (Guse) Sailer (born 1959) have two children, Matthew Leonard Sailer (born 1985) and Peter Ernest Sailer (born 1992).

Connection to J. Michael Bailey

When psychologist J. Michael Bailey published anti-trans book The Man Who Would Be Queen in 2003. Steve Sailer’s “Roster of Human Biodiversity Discussion Group” linked many of Bailey’s reviewers back to before Bailey had published what became the book online in 2000.

• J. Michael Bailey
• Ray Blanchard
• Chris Brand
• David Buss
• John Derbyshire
• Steven Pinker
• Ian Pitchford
• Dan Seligman

Sailer’s iSteve site also has top page links to many members’ sites, and to others who share his ideology:

• Gene Expression: Blog by elitists enamored of eugenics.

Sailer on Bailey

Michael Bailey: A psychologist at Northwestern, Bailey is a leading researcher into homosexuality, and one of the handful of realists on this subject where moralizing (whether of the religious or politically correct variety — “Gays: Sinners Against God or Victims of Society?”) is standard.

Here’s Sailer’s shill review for Amazon

Wonderfully readable book on gay males and transsexuals, August 16, 2003 

Reviewer: Steve Sailer (see more about me) from Studio City, CA

United States Please note that this book has been the subject of an organized smear campaign among transsexuals, which accounts for most of unhinged reviews you’ll see below.

Professor Bailey is the chairman of the psychology department at Northwestern and probably the leading researcher into homosexuality in America.

The first two thirds of the book are about male homosexuals, who, as you’ll note, aren’t complaining. It briskly reviews most of the scientific evidence on male homosexuality, which shows that most of the stereotypes about gay men tend to be more or less true on average. I’ve studied this issue for years, and everything I’ve ever seen points to the validity of Bailey’s conclusions about male homosexuals.

Bailey has outraged transexuals by publishing in the last third of the book in highly readable form the evidence that has been mounting for a number of years in scientific journals that the standardized explanation of transsexualism — “I always felt like a girl on the inside, even when I was a linebacker, then a Navy SEAL, then the most feared corporate raider on Wall Street” — is not very persuasive. Bailey suggests that male to female transsexuals tend to fall into one of two categories — extremely effeminate homosexuals or masculine men who have an odd fetish called autogynephilia, which is a kind of heterosexual narcissism.

Is this true? Beats me. My main exposure to transsexualism is the wonderful travel writer James/Jan Morris’ memoir “Conundrum,” which repeats the “I always felt like a girl” party line. It struck me at the time that Morris’ descriptions of how he was a military officer, an adventurer, and fathered five children while feeling like a girl on the inside sure sounded bogus, but I hadn’t heard at the time the alternative explanation of autogynephilia. Anyway, it would be easy to see why nobody would want to be associated with autogynephilia.

In sum, a fascinating and informative book that a well-organized pressure group doesn’t want you to read. What better reason to read it?

Sailer says this about Ray Blanchard:

Of course, the article ignores the truth about male to female transsexuals, as discovered by leading Canadian sexologist Ray Blanchard. All that stuff about, “Even when I was captain of the football team, I always felt like a girl on the inside,” is in most cases a cover story. In reality, most cases fall into two categories. The first are extremely effeminate homosexuals who want to attract a Real (i.e., straight) Man, and figure their only chance is to become a quasi-Real Woman. The second are what Blanchard calls “autogynephiles.” These are, in effect, narcissists who become overwhelmingly attracted, quasi-heterosexually, to the idea of themselves as a beautiful woman. They classically start out dressing up in their mother’s lingerie and, uh, amorously admiring themselves in front of the mirror. That’s kind of embarrassing to explain, so they settled on this “I feel like a girl on the inside” party line. But don’t expect to read that in the NYT.

www.isteve.com/Web%20Exclusives%20Archive-Aug2002.htm
http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20020823-120858-6977r

Interview: Are stereotypes of homosexuals true? by Steve Sailer — To paraphrase Mark Twain, everybody talks about sexual orientation, but Michael Bailey is one of the few scientists who rigorously researches it. The Northwestern University psychology professor is among the most respected figures in the field of objectively investigating homosexuality.

Sailer was quoted on the Joseph Henry Press site.

“Gay germ” theory

Gay gene or gay germ? (17 August 2003) http://www.vdare.com/sailer/gay_gene.htm

Pinker’s Progress logrolling for Steven Pinker

http://www.vdare.com/sailer/pinker_progress.htm

Steve was a fellow at the conservative Hudson Institute.

Since it was his shot at the big time, his presentation to Margaret Thatcher and some Hudson Institute people probably best sums up his worldview (see a synopsis below).

Sailer writes for UPI, the formerly objective press consortium now bankrolled by conservative Sun Myung Moon.

Ray Blanchard was one of the very first people to sign on with Steve’s Biodiversity group, no doubt because of Sailer’s prominent role in assisting Canada’s positive eugenics programs through psychology (following the groundbreaking eugenics work of psychologist Charles Kirk Clarke, as in Canada’s anti-trans Clarke Institute). The British/Canada connection is an interesting one.

The Catholic church (via Paul McHugh?) has been churning out a lot of position papers on this matter lately, though Sailer holds views antithetical to most Catholic doctrine. He suggests that the quaint notion that we are all equal in a spiritual sense or the US Constitution’s quaint claim that “all men are created equal” need to be done away with as we enter the “Age of Galton,” which he sees as the next big paradigm shift.

Francis Galton coined the term “eugenics,” was a sort of protopsychologist, and a criminologist who invented the concept of fingerprinting. Steve’s Human Biodiversity group seeks to gather the far-flung diaspora of thinkers and fields influenced by Galton’s undeniably brilliant but ideologically volatile contributions.

Sailer seems to see himself as an evangelist of Galton’s, though he has put a decidedly unusual ideological spin to eugenics. He has fused Marx and Darwin into an ideology in which he seems to advocate a sort of genetic division of labor, taking most examples from sports. He envisions a society of genetic classes each assigned to do what they do best, sort of an antithesis of Marx’s classless society. He also notes that traditional eugenics programs (i.e. genocide and sterilization) are in place in China, and that we are poised to lose the eugenics “arms race” if we don’t implement our own eugenics programs pronto.

He sees those advocating Galtonian principles of eugenics as suffering a sort of religious persecution, getting kicked out of universities and generally reviled. Sailer’s isn’t your Fuhrer’s eugenics, this is a kinder, gentler eugenics!

Presentation to Margaret Thatcher

Sailer presented to Margaret Thatcher at a Hudson Institute event.

http://www.isteve.com/thatcher-speech-web_files/frame.htm

“To Lady Thatcher and three dozen other distinguished guests at the Hudson Institutes’ Thatcher Weekend conference on “Will the 21st Century Be the American Century?” Today, I’ll discuss the long run impact of the biotechnology revolution.”

[Sailer starts of with an example of positive eugenics, in which a family screened embryos to avoid having a second child with cystic fibrosis.]

“Should we ban every genetic manipulation? Or just the ones that would be socially deleterious? But, how would we know which ones are which? Or should we let the free market rip? Or should we subsidize enhancements for the poor and, uh, genetically-challenged?”

[Sailer claims we’ve moved from Marx’s obsession with “accidents of birth” (i.e. Class into which you were born) to Darwin’s “accidents of conception.”]

“In the West, outspoken Darwinian scientists like Edward O. Wilson, Arthur Jensen, J.P. Rushton, and Chris Brand have been the victims of assault, threat, riot, firing, censorship, character assassination, and constant harassment. […] What, by the way, is “human biodiversity?” It’s primarily biological differences in sex, race, and — to some debatable extent — sexual orientation. Just as studying the biodiversity of animals is interesting, aesthetically pleasing, and important to society, so is studying the fascinating biodiversity of humans. I take seriously the multiculturalist slogan “Celebrate Diversity.” Unfortunately, multiculturalists don’t. In practice, the diversicrats try to cover up human biodiversity. […] Consider the French-inspired post-modernist rebellion against science, knowledge, nature, and objective reality. […] The new prestige of evolutionary biology encouraged egalitarians to discard that corny creed of spiritual equality – and to adopt the shiny new scientific hypotheses that humans are physically and mentally uniform. And that, paradoxically, put progressive egalitarians on a collision course with Darwinian science. […] The human race is strengthened by its diversity, as long as we are allowed to specialize in what we do best and trade with people with different strong suits. That’s Ricardian economics 101.”

[An economic model of international trade introduced by David Ricardo to explain the pattern and the gains from trade in terms of comparative advantage. It assumes “perfect competition” (i.e. No affirmative action or economic handicapping for poor countries) and a single factor of production: labor, with constant requirements of labor per unit of output that differ across countries.]

“Similarly, one easy way for America to improve its human resources through immigration reform. Like Canada, we should just admit those likely to most benefit and least burden our current citizenry. Instead, who gets in depends primarily on family reunification, a euphemism for nepotism. […] Eugenics has a terrible reputation, much of it deserved. Until recently, eugenics in action mostly consisted of governments murdering people they didn’t like, as in Nazi Germany, or sterilizing them, as in Socialist Sweden. […] In contrast, today’s eugenics consists of couples freely choosing to improve their own children.”

[Sailer fails to mention Asians screening for female fetuses and aborting them, etc.]

“Will voluntary eugenics bring about utopia, or a Brave New Nightmare? It all depends on what impact these changes in gene frequencies have on society. Fortunately, we have a huge storehouse of data available to base predictions upon: namely, the vast amounts of existing genetic diversity. Unfortunately, we now discourage and even persecute scholars who try to study it.”

[Sailer advocates breeding a subset for intelligence because “In 1997 some high-IQ cancer researchers saved me from a painful death.”]

“Canada discriminates more in favor of intelligent immigrants than the United States. Which country has benefited more?”

[Sailer then goes on a Galtonian reverie about sex difference, where men are “natural” leaders, and women are “nurturing.”]

“But IQ is just one aspect. Consider how free market Galtonism may widen the gap between the sexes. People who want to choose their child’s sex will likely want to choose their genes so that they get boyish boys and girlish girls. They’ll crank up their sons’ testosterone levels to get athletic, square-jawed, hard-charging, natural leaders of men. But what will be the impact on society if the new generation of men are manlier on average? We might get some insights from studying the African-American community, since, as shown by their sports domination, they tend toward greater masculinity. […] Conversely, those parents who choose daughters, will tend to prefer higher estrogen levels to produce lovely, nurturing young ladies who will give them grandchildren and take care of them in their old age. […] When this is understood, it will increase demands for banning genetic technologies. Already, professional activists for the disabled worry that embryo selection will put them out of business by creating healthier people. […] Likewise, feminist organizations will go through the roof once they figure out that reproductive liberty would mean even more little girls who’d much prefer to play house than softball. […] However, just as eugenics was favored in the past by leftist busybodies like Beatrice and Sidney Webb, progressive pressure groups may well someday give up on banning eugenics and flip back to demanding mandatory re-engineering of human nature. Pacificists and multiculturalists will want to chop out our penchant for violence and ethnocentrism. Feminists will demand that the government redesign men to better appreciate women like themselves. Environmentalists will want to delete our desire for the internal combustion engine. “Why can’t people just stay in one place, like a tree?” If socialism failed because it conflicts with human nature, why not change human nature to make Marxism possible?”

(slide 51 is a full screen of Hilary Clinton clones, clearly the greatest threat humanity faces)

“Whether eugenics is officially banned or socialized, people will still try to make their own choices about their own kids. And that’s why God created the Cayman Islands. But these black market babies will out-compete their government-controlled rivals so badly, that governments will have to strike back. […] Unencumbered by post-Christian ethics, the Chinese government recently passed a pre-1945-style eugenics law calling for the sterilization of ‘morons.’ If China uses genetic enhancements while the West either bans them or pursues a politically correct re-engineering of human nature, the inevitable result within a few generations would be Chinese economic, and thus military, global hegemony. The weapons scientist and evolutionary theorist Gregory Cochran points out that ‘We cannot opt out of this biological arms race any more than we could opt out of the nuclear arms race.’”

Bailey on Sailer (2018)

At a 2018 coference held by anti-trans group FIRE, J. Michael Bailey wrote:

I was, for example, investigated by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which accused me of being part of an intellectual cabal that “tries to turn back the clock on sex, gender and race using eugenics and controversial genetic theories” (Dreger, 2008). The investigation was another prompted by the transwomen trying to ruin my life. The evidence for these particular charges was my participation in a Listserv begun by journalist Steve Sailer to discuss aspects of “biodiversity,” including sex, gender, and race. Many fine, heterodox, minds were on that Listserv, and I am proud to have been among them. The idea that the SPLC should attempt to discourage membership on private email lists because it disapproves of topics discussed on them is representative of what the SPLC has become.

References

Wilson, Jason (September 28, 2024). Florida university to host extremist after DeSantis-led lurch to right. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/sep/28/new-college-of-florida-hosting-extremist-writer-steve-sailer

Starr, Paul (March 31, 2020). How the Right Went Far-Right. The media once quarantined neofascists. Not anymore. The American Prospect https://prospect.org/culture/books/how-the-right-went-far-right/

Burley, Shane (Winter 2020). The Autumn of the Alt Right. Commune https://communemag.com/the-autumn-of-the-alt-right/

Marantz, Andrew (2020). Antisocial: How Online Extremists Broke America. Picador, ISBN 978-1509882489

Selected writing by Sailer

Sailer, Steve (July 13, 2025). The NYT Finally Ponders the Zizian Trans Murder Cult. https://www.stevesailer.net/p/the-nyt-finally-ponders-the-zizian

Sailer, Steve (June 30, 2025). Are Radishes Red? Are Men Women? https://www.stevesailer.net/p/are-radishes-red-are-men-women

Sailer, Steve (June 20, 2025). Transmania Loses in the Supreme Court. https://www.stevesailer.net/p/transmania-loses-in-the-supreme-court

Sailer, Steve (June 16, 2025 ). Masculinity at Its Most Toxic. https://www.stevesailer.net/p/masculinity-at-its-most-toxic

Sailer, Steve (April 29, 2025). Here’s an idea so crazy it just might work! https://www.stevesailer.net/p/heres-an-idea-so-crazy-it-just-might

Sailer, Steve (February 8, 2025 ). Wow, the transgender Oscar frontrunner isn’t Woke? https://www.stevesailer.net/p/wow-the-transgender-ocar-frontrunner/comments

Sailer, Steve (February 7, 2025). Why are late onset M-to-F transgenders usually rightists? https://www.stevesailer.net/p/why-are-m-to-f-transgenders-usually

Sailer, Steve (March 2, 2025). Meet the Ex-Men. https://www.stevesailer.net/p/meet-the-ex-men

Sailer, Steve (April 7, 2025). “White Lotus” dares to go there. https://www.stevesailer.net/p/white-lotus-dares-to-go-there

Sailer, Steve (Nov 13, 2024). Why do Dems want to die in the trans sports ditch? https://www.stevesailer.net/p/why-do-dems-want-to-die-in-the-trans

Sailer, Steve (October 31, 2024). J.D. Vance on Joe Rogan. https://www.stevesailer.net/p/jd-vance-on-joe-rogan

Sailer, Steve (September 7, 2024). “Will & Harper:” Whose lines were more exquisitely feminine than Will Ferrell’s? https://www.stevesailer.net/p/will-and-harper-whose-lines-were

Sailer, Steve (June 2, 2024). How to buy my anthology “Noticing.” https://www.stevesailer.net/p/how-to-buy-my-anthology-noticing

Sailer, Steve (May 30, 1994). Why Lesbians Aren’t Gay. National Review http://www.isteve.com/lesvsgay.htm [archive]

Books

Sailer, Steve (2024). Noticing: An Essential Reader (1973-2023). Passage Publishing, ISBN 978-1959403029

Sailer, Steve (2009). America’s Half-Blood Prince Barack Obama’s “Story of Race and Inheritance.” VDARE Foundation, ISBN 978-0578000374

Media

(Aug 26, 2023). The Art of Noticing | Steve Sailer https://www.aporiamagazine.com/p/the-art-of-noticing-steve-sailer#details

Tucker Carlson (June 25, 2024). Steve Sailer: BLM, Karens, Donald Trump, and What Democrats Don’t Want You to Know about DEI. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6wjy53o3r8

Craig Bodeker (January 31, 2011). Steve Sailer Interviewed by Craig Bodeker. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-Xs4QQL76w

Alex Kaschuta (Dec 7, 2022). Steve Sailer – A Lifetime Of Noticing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KpPrGD4M1I

Auron MacIntyre (June 26, 2024). The War on Noticing | Guest: Steve Sailer | 6/26/24. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUMFv0__qXI

Resources

RationalWiki (rationalwiki.org)

• Steve Sailer

iSteve.com [archive]

• http://www.isteve.com/lesvsgay.htm
• [archive]

Taki’s Magazine (takimag.com)

• Steve Sailer
• takimag.com/contributor/SteveSailer/6/

Rogues Gallery (rogues.wiki)

• Steve Sailer
• rogues.wiki/index.php/Steve_Sailer

Unz Reader (unz.com)

• Steve Sailer
• unz.com/author/steve-sailer

Substack (substack.com)

• stevesailer
• Steve Sailer
• stevesailer.net
• stevesailer.substack.com

VDARE (vdare.com) [archive]

• Steve Sailer
• vdare.com/users/steve-sailer [archive]
• VDARE was debanked in 2024, disbanded in 2024 following cyberattacks and investigations by New York State

X/Twitter (x.com)

• Steve_Sailer

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

• Steve Sailer

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

• steve-sailer-23415424

Steve Sailer Sucks (xSteve.com) [archive]

Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.

Richard Hanania is an American political scientist, right-wing eugenicist, and anti-transgender extremist. Hanania claims that “trans ideology is closer to a religion than it is to most political beliefs.” Hanania has been a guest on many anti-trans podcasts, including Blocked and Reported, TRIGGERnometry, “YOUR WELCOME,” and Viva Frei. Hanania hosts a pocast that has featured other anti-trans activists, including Chris Rufo, Aaron Sibarium, Eric Kaufmann, Michael Shellenberger, Razib Khan, Steven Pinker, and Jesse Singal.

Hanania is closely linked with the “human biodiversity,” “rationalist,” and “effective altruism” movements.

In 2023, Hanania was revealed to be the author of misogynistic and pro-genocidal posts on white nationalist sites under the pseudonym “Richard Hoste.”

Background

Richard Anton Hanania was born on August 28, 1985 and grew up in Oak Lawn, Illinois. After completing high school early, Hanania attended Moraine Valley Community College, then earned a bachelor’s degree at the University of Colorado. Hanania then earned a law degree from University of Chicago and a doctorate from UCLA.

“Richard Hoste” and “human biodiversity”

In 2010, Hanania published a blog on eugenics titled HBD: Human Biodiversity as “Richard Hoste” on the group blog Alternative Right. Hanania’s profile stated:

“Richard Hoste is the editor of the HBD blog at Alternative Right.  He writes prolifically on race, immigration, political correctness and modern conservatism.  His blog is HBD Books, where he regularly reviews classic and modern works on these topics.”

Southern Poverty Law Center described Hanania’s writing:

One of the bloggers at “Alternative Right” is Richard Hoste, who recently wrote that “low-IQ Mexican immigration is the greatest threat to America.” He also wrote: “Schools should stop wasting time trying to close achievement gaps. And not only do whites have nothing to feel guilty about, they are the best thing to ever happen to blacks. Even ignoring race, humanity will not move forward through equality or by raising up the really stupid to the level of just plain stupid.” Finally, Hoste had this pithy observation: “While there’s more miscegenation [interracial sex] than in the past … we should be heartened that white teenage girls aren’t passing themselves around in black neighborhoods.”

In 2023, Christopher Mathias revealed Hanania’s posting history as “Richard Hoste”:

Richard Hanania, a visiting scholar at the University of Texas, used the pen name “Richard Hoste” in the early 2010s to write articles where he identified himself as a “race realist.” He expressed support for eugenics and the forced sterilization of “low IQ” people, who he argued were most often Black. He opposed “miscegenation” and “race-mixing.” And once, while arguing that Black people cannot govern themselves, he cited the neo-Nazi author of “The Turner Diaries,” the infamous novel that celebrates a future race war.

Media activism

Hanania and Rob Hernderson co-host the anti-trans H & H Podcast on popular culture. Hanania was a guest on conservative transgender podcast Dollcast.

Hanania founded the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology (CSPI), which includes an anti-transgender podcast. Guests include other anti-trans extremists, including Chris Rufo, Aaron Sibarium, Eric Kaufmann, Michael Shellenberger, Razib Khan, Steven Pinker, and Jesse Singal.

“Enlightened Centrists”

Hanania created a list of allegedly “enlightened centrists,” many of whom share Hanania’s disdain for transgender people.

• Peter Beinart
• Jonathan Chait
• Freddie deBoer
• Michelle Goldberg
• Ezra Klein
• Peter Singer
• Noah Smith
• Matt Yglesias

• Scott Alexander Siskind
• Josh Barro
• Patrick Collison
• Jonathan Haidt
• Steven Pinker
• “Progress Studies types”
• Nate Silver
• Alec Stapp
• Andrew Sullivan
• Nassim Nicholas Taleb
• Derek Thompson
• Cathy Young

• “GMU economics department”
• Tanner Greer
• Sam Hammond
• Anatoly Karlin
• Emil Kirkegaard
• Razib Khan
• Megan McArdle
• Virginia Postrel
• Steve Sailer

References

Reflective Altruism (reflectivealtruism.com)

• (June 13, 2024). Human biodiversity (Part 1: Introduction). https://reflectivealtruism.com/2024/06/13/human-biodiversity-part-1-introduction/
• (June 27, 2024). Human biodiversity (Part 2: Manifest). https://reflectivealtruism.com/2024/06/27/human-biodiversity-part-2-manifest/
• (August 23, 2024). Human biodiversity (Part 3: Richard Hanania). https://reflectivealtruism.com/2024/08/23/human-biodiversity-part-3-richard-hanania/
• (October 31, 2024). Human biodiversity (Part 4: Astral Codex Ten). https://reflectivealtruism.com/2024/10/31/human-biodiversity-part-4-astral-codex-ten/
• (December 27, 2024). Human biodiversity (Part 5: The people of Alexander). https://reflectivealtruism.com/2024/12/27/human-biodiversity-part-5-the-people-of-alexander/
• (February 20, 2025). Human biodiversity (Part 6: The Motte). https://reflectivealtruism.com/2025/02/20/human-biodiversity-part-6-the-motte/
• (April 18, 2025). Human Biodiversity (Part 7: LessWrong). https://reflectivealtruism.com/2025/04/18/human-biodiversity-part-7-lesswrong/
• (June 13, 2025). Human biodiversity (Part 8: EA Forum). https://reflectivealtruism.com/2025/06/13/human-biodiversity-part-8-ea-forum/

Mathias, Christopher (August 4, 2023). Richard Hanania, Rising Right-Wing Star, Wrote For White Supremacist Sites Under Pseudonym”. HuffPost https://www.huffpost.com/entry/richard-hanania-white-supremacist-pseudonym-richard-hoste_n_64c93928e4b021e2f295e817 [archive]

Keller, Larry (March 15, 2010). Paleocon Starts New Extreme-Right Magazine. SPLC https://www.splcenter.org/resources/hatewatch/paleocon-starts-new-extreme-right-magazine/

Selected writing by Hanania

Hanania, Richard (November 12, 2024). Democrats Must Pick Fights with Woke Activists: Ignoring the far-left’s identitarian agenda is not enough. Quillette https://quillette.com/2024/11/12/democrats-must-pick-fights-with-woke-activists-kamala-harris-trump-newsome/

Hanania, Richard (September 22, 2023). Where Does ‘Wokeness’ Come From? Quillette https://quillette.com/2023/09/22/where-does-wokeness-come-from/

Hanania, Richard (August 7, 2023). My Journey Out of Extremism, and how I became a small-l liberal. Quillette https://quillette.com/2023/08/07/my-journey-out-of-extremism/

Hanania, Richard (August 6, 2023). Why I Used to Suck, and (Hopefully) No Longer Do. Richard Hanania’s Newsletter https://www.richardhanania.com/p/why-i-used-to-suck-and-hopefully

Hanania, Richard (). Lessons of the Pinker Affair: The Problem with the Academy is False Beliefs, Not Intolerance. Quillette https://quillette.com/2020/09/16/lessons-of-the-pinker-affair-the-problem-with-the-academy-is-false-beliefs-not-intolerance/

Hanania, Richard (October 6, 2022). Why Gender Ideology Can’t Survive Elon. Richard Hanania’s Newsletter https://www.richardhanania.com/p/why-gender-ideology-cant-survive

“Hoste, Richard” (November 24, 2010). Left Wing Union Busting and Race. http://www.alternativeright.com/main/blogs/hbd-human-biodiversity/left-wing-union-busting-and-race/

“Hoste, Richard” (November 19, 2010). Interests, Morality and Selective Snobbery. http://www.alternativeright.com/main/blogs/untimely-observations/interests-morality-and-selective-snobbery/

“Hoste, Richard” (November 3, 2010). The Sailer Strategy Refuted? http://www.alternativeright.com/main/blogs/district-of-corruption/classical-and-cultural-sailerism/

“Hoste, Richard” (August 29, 2010). Kill’em All Conservatism. http://www.alternativeright.com/main/blogs/untimely-observations/kill-em-all-conservatism/

“Hoste, Richard” (August 22, 2010). Crypto-White Nationalist at the Post? http://www.alternativeright.com/main/blogs/hbd-human-biodiversity/crypto-white-nationalist-at-the-post/

“Hoste, Richard” (August 3, 2010). An Alliance with Whom?!? http://www.alternativeright.com/main/blogs/untimely-observations/an-alliance-with-whom/

“Hoste, Richard” (July 23, 2010). The Obama Election and Our Cultural Shift. http://www.alternativeright.com/main/blogs/district-of-corruption/the-obama-election-and-our-cultural-shift/

“Hoste, Richard” (July 23, 2010). It’s Not About Oil. http://www.alternativeright.com/main/blogs/exit-strategies/it-s-not-about-oil/

“Hoste, Richard” (July 21, 2010). Where Black Rules White. http://www.alternativeright.com/main/blogs/untimely-observations/where-black-rules-white/

“Hoste, Richard” (July 21, 2010). NYT: Race Differences Real, Significant. http://www.alternativeright.com/main/blogs/hbd-human-biodiversity/nyt-race-differences-real-significant/

Media

Chris Best with Richard Hanania and “Katherine Dee” (March 25, 2025). Katherine Dee and Richard Hanania. Chris Best’s Substack https://cb.substack.com/p/katherine-dee-and-richard-hanania

Blocked and Reported with Jesse Singal and Katie Herzog (July 30, 2025). Premium: Richard Hanania Wants To De-Radicalize Internet Racists. https://www.blockedandreported.org/p/premium-richard-hanania-wants-to

Destiny (April 23, 2025). I Regret Voting For Trump. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AFBPKr60qE

Slovo Podcast with Jared Taylor and Richard Hanania (January 3, 2025). Jared Taylor – Richard Hanania debate [Full Debate]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsfU6Rpe6nU

Destiny (December 31, 2024). Destiny Confronts His Favorite Conservative Pundit For Voting Trump ft. Richard Hanania. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RP4L7Cfem6k

Dollcast with Brianna Wu, “TafTaj,” Kelly Cadigan, and Schyler Bogert (December 13, 2024). Richard Hanania with four trans girls. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlweKqx4M0w

The Spectator with Freddy Gray, Ed West, and Richard Hanania (August 13, 2024). Trump-Musk interview, free speech & the ‘weird’ right – Richard Hanania & Ed West. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9h4rezvyo8

“YOUR WELCOME” with “Michael Malice” (April 3, 2024). #305: Richard Hanania. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oh4d4GEBQ8o

TRIGGERnometry with Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster (December 24, 2023). Where Woke REALLY Comes From – Richard Hanania. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUOpWqLGbbs

Viva Frei with David Freiheit and Robert Barnes (April 6, 2022). Sidebar with Richard Hanania – Sidebar with Viva & Barnes! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGJdDtilgW0

Russell Brand (April 3, 2022). Does America Go To War For Profit?! Here’s The Answer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSZnAOjBP8Q

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

• Richard Hanania

Richard Hanania (richardhanania.com) [archive]

HBD Book (https://www.richardhanania.com/)

Alternative Right (alternativeright.com) [archive]

• HBD: Human Biodiversity [archive]
• alternativeright.com/main/blogs/hbd-human-biodiversity/

Substack (substack.com/

• richardhanania
• Richard Hanania’s Newsletter
• richardhanania.com [pre-Subtack archive]
• Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology
• cspicenter.com

Quillette (quillette.com)

• Richard Hanania
• quillette.com/author/richard-hanania

Twitter (twitter.com)

• RichardHanania

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

• Richard Hanania

Richard Hanania is an American political scientist, right-wing eugenicist, and anti-transgender extremist. 

In 2021 Hanania began hosting a podcast via Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology (CSPI). Guests include other anti-trans extremists, including Chris Rufo, Aaron Sibarium, Eric Kaufmann, Michael Shellenberger, Razib Khan, Steven Pinker, and Jesse Singal.

2023

• [Jessica] Riedl NOV 20, 2023
• Niklas Anzinger OCT 30, 2023
• Chris Rufo JUL 24, 2023
• Leopold Aschenbrenner MAY 15, 2023
• Bryan Caplan MAY 1, 2023
• Robin Hanson MAR 13, 2023
• Nicholas Bagley FEB 27, 2023
• Tim Miller FEB 13, 2023
• Jobst Landgrebe, Barry Smith JAN 30, 2023
• Joe Henrich JAN 16, 2023
• Garett Jones JAN 2, 2023

2022

• Alexander Young DEC 19, 2022
• Aaron Sibarium DEC 5, 2022
• Jonathan Anomaly NOV 21, 2022
• Rob Henderson, Zach Goldberg NOV 7, 2022
• Eric Kaufmann OCT 24, 2022
• Alex Tabarrok OCT 10, 2022
• Bryan Caplan SEP 26, 2022
• Tyler Cowen SEP 12, 2022
• Amy Wax AUG 29, 2022
• Stephen Grugett, James Grugett AUG 15, 2022
• Andrew Kenneson, Maxwell Tabarrok, Brent Skorup AUG 1, 2022
• Richard Lowery JUL 18, 2022
• David Bernstein JUL 4, 2022
• Seth Stephens-Davidowitz JUN 20, 2022
• Eric Kaufmann JUN 6, 2022
• Bryan Caplan MAY 23, 2022
• Eron Wolf MAY 18, 2022
• Jordan Lasker MAY 9, 2022
• Philippe Lemoine APR 25, 2022
• Gail Heriot APR 11, 2022
• Noah Carl MAR 28, 2022
• Steve Hsu MAR 14, 2022
• Jimmy Soni FEB 28, 2022
• Steve Hsu FEB 14, 2022
• Alec Stapp JAN 31, 2022
• Freddie deBoer JAN 17, 2022
• Jonah Davids JAN 3, 2022

2021

• Charles Fain Lehman, Gabriel Rossman DEC 20, 2021
• Philippe Lemoine DEC 6, 2021
• Leif Rasmussen NOV 22, 2021
• Robert Plomin NOV 8, 2021
• Michael Shellenberger OCT 25, 2021
• Razib Khan OCT 11, 2021
• Steven Pinker SEP 27, 2021
• Robin Hanson SEP 13, 2021
• Noor Siddiqui AUG 30, 2021
• Marc Andreessen AUG 16, 2021
• Philippe Lemoine AUG 2, 2021
• Eric Posner JUL 19, 2021
• Razib Khan JUL 5, 2021
• Mark Lutter JUN 21, 2021
• Sean McMeekin JUN 7, 2021
• Jesse Singal MAY 24, 2021
• Bryan Caplan MAY 10, 2021
• Garett Jones APR 26, 2021
• John Mueller APR 12, 2021
• Philippe Lemoine MAR 15, 2021
• Eric Kaufmann MAR 2, 2021 & MAR 29, 2021
• Razib Khan FEB 4, 2021
• Zach Goldberg JAN 22, 2021
• George Hawley JAN 9, 2021

Counterweight was an anti-transgender organization founded by Helen Pluckrose. The organization was active from 2021 to 2023.

People

The Counterweight website listed the following people:

• Helen Pluckrose – Founder
• Carrie Clark – founding member
• Harriet Terrill – Director of Content
• Isobel Marston
• David Bernstein
• Jodi Shaw
• Lori K Oham
• Laura Walker-Beaven
• Jennifer Richmond

Media

Counterweight events and media included many key conservative and anti-trans figures, including:

• Buck Angel
• Laura Becker
• Debbie Hayton
• Zander Keig

• Ayaan Hirsi Ali
• Peter Boghossian
• Richard Dawkins
• Angel Eduardo
• James Esses
• Jennifer Friend
• Sarah Haider
• Jonathan Haidt
• Lee Jussim
• Eric Kaufmann
• Greg Lukianoff
• Jessie Mannisto
• Steven Pinker
• Wilfred Reilly
• Aaron Sibarium
• Erec Smith
• Debra Soh

2023 Closure

In 2023 Counterweight closed and recommended that supporters go instead to similar anti-trans organization Institute for Liberal Values.

Important Announcement

It is with heavy hearts that we have decided to close Counterweight. Thank you so much for your support and guidance throughout the past few years. Though we are closing, we see a hopeful future in the hands of other very capable organisations. We’ve worked closely with the Institute for Liberal Values, in particular, and see our mission live on through their advancement of liberalism, equality of opportunity, and justice. You can visit their website to access their support and resources here: ilvalues.org

References

Khazan, Olga (September 27, 2021). A Support Group for the Unwoke. The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/09/counterweight-cancel-culture-support-ground/620203/

Walden, Celia (February 17, 2021). Why I started an anti-woke helpline: Helen Pluckrose explains why she set up a service that helps to get people talking – and resolve conflicts. The Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/inside-counterweight-anti-woke-helpline-fighting-workplace-cancel/

Ames, Jonathan (October 15, 2021). I help thousands of Britons fight for social justice, says anti-woke campaigner Helen Pluckrose. The Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i-help-thousands-of-britons-fight-for-social-justice-says-anti-woke-campaigner-helen-pluckrose-fqg73dtd9

Resources

Counterweight (counterweightsupport.com) [archive: 2021 to early 2023]

Facebook (facebook.com)

• Counterweightsupport

Instagram (instagram.com)

• counterweightsupport
• holdmydrinkpodcast

YouTube (youtube.com)

• counterweightmedia8803

Twitter (twitter.com)

• Counter_Weight_

Institute for Liberal Values (ilvalues.org)

Hold my Drink Podcast / Counterweight Podcast

Quillette is an anti-transgender media organization that includes a group blog and podcasts. It is a key platform for conservative trans people and anti-transgender activists.

Contributors and guests

Anti-trans contributors include:

• Charlotte Allen
• Erica Anderson
• Buck Angel

• Michael Biggs / “Henry Wimbush”
• Ray Blanchard
• Alex Byrne

• James Cantor
• Corinna Cohn
• Doriane Coleman
• Tim Courtois

• Meghan Daum
• Lisa Selin Davis
• Andrew Doyle
• Alice Dreger

• Angel Eduardo
• Marcus Evans
• Susan Evans

• Caroline Farrow

• Peter Gajdics
• Alasdair Gunn / “Angus Fox”

• Jonathan Haidt
• April Halley
• Amy Eileen Hamm
• Kathleen Hayes
• Milli Hill
• Emma Hilton
• Leslie A. Howe

• Julie Jaman
• Helen Joyce

• Eric Kaufmann
• Jonathan Kay
• Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull / “Posie Parker”
• Konstantin Kisin

• Bernard Lane
• Holly Lawford-Smith
• Claire Lehmann

• Lisa Marchiano
• Deirdre McCloskey
• John McWhorter
• Kate Miechkowski

• Martina Navratilova
• Scott Newgent

• Stella O’Malley

• Louise Perry
• Jordan Peterson
• Jon Pike
• Steven Pinker
• Helen Pluckrose

• Wilfred Reilly
• Forest Romm
• Kat Rosenfield
• Christopher Rufo

• Gad Saad
• Raquel Rosario Sánchez
• Leor Sapir
• Lindsay Shepherd
• Michael Shermer
• Abigail Shrier
• Jesse Singal
• Debra Soh
• Uwe Steinhoff
• Kathleen Stock
• Allan Stratton

• Julian Vigo

• Kevin Waldman
• Bari Weiss
• Colin Wright

• Cathy Young

Resources

Quillette (quillette.com)

Alasdair Gunn is an English anti-transgender extremist living in Ireland. Gunn, originally hiding behind the pseudonym “Angus Fox,” has served as Vice Director of anti-trans hate group Genspect.

Background

Gunn is reportedly a translator and linguistics researcher who has been credited in some academic texts. Gunn identifies as gay and is a cancer survivor.

Anti-trans activism

Gunn, using the name “Angus Fox,” published a series of anti-trans articles for Quillette called “When Sons Become Daughters.”

The Texas Tribune reported on a 2023 chat log leak posted on Daily Dot where Gunn said:

“The key point here is: eyes on the prize! We have to stop child transitions. On those over 25 we say little, because it’s not in YOUR interests to mention this. We have to break through to the policymakers who are left of center, and the way to do that is to focus relentlessly on the problem of transition for under 25s.”

Gunn, who uses the pseudonym Angus Fox, talked about speaking with Quentin van Meter, the president of the Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group the American College of Pediatrics (ACPeds):

“The endocrinologist Quentin Van Meter sees a difference between the boys and girls he has treated. He said I could quote him on this,” Gunn said. 

In one conversation about ideology, Gunn says, “I’m a huge Bilek fan.” He elaborated, “Gender ideology is only possible if you believe that there is a consciousness which is not just a product of biochemistry, but its own entity.”

Jennifer Bilek has put forth a conspiracy theory claiming that Jewish billionaires are are engaging in a transhumanist plot by funding the transgender rights movement.

In 2023 Gunn was a key author of a “Gender Framework” document drafted by Genspect’s Killarney Group. It is intended to be an alternative to the WPATH Standards of Care.

In May 2023, Gunn commended anti-trans activist Hadley Freeman for a piece in The Times titled “Welcome to the doctors’ resistance,” which promotes anti-trans group Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender.

I was heartened by Freeman’s piece about the medical professionals group the Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender (CAN-SG). It’s good to see this thorny subject tackled with compassion and heart.

Like CAN-SG, we are concerned about the culture of fear created by spurious accusations of transphobia. The fact is, the medicalised approach to gender care is not working. It is time to consider alternatives. This group can bring experience and integrity to a sector in crisis. We’re lucky to have it.
Alasdair Gunn, vice-director, Genspect, Tipperary

Gunn frequently collaborates with other anti-trans activists and is a regular guest on Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce.

References

O’Malley, Stella (May 29, 2025). When You’re Gender-Critical – and You’re Woke. Genspect https://genspect.org/when-youre-gender-critical-and-youre-woke/

Downen, Robert (August 21, 2024). Rep. Shawn Thierry joins anti-trans policy group after losing Democratic primary. Texas Tribune https://www.texastribune.org/2024/08/21/shawn-thierry-lgbtq-gender-transitioning-care-genspect/

Piper, Ernie (July 25, 2023). EXCLUSIVE: ‘Focus relentlessly on under 25’: Leaked chats reveal influential gender-critical group’s plan to use children to push for bans on transitioning Daily Dot https://www.dailydot.com/debug/genspect/ [archive]

Mannisto, Jessie (July 22, 2021). A Fresh Perspective on Gender: An Interview with Angus Fox of Genspect. Third Factor https://www.thirdfactor.org/angus-fox-genspect/

Selected anti-trans writing by Gunn

Gunn, Alasdair and others (May 14, 2023). Letters: ‘Inclusive’ language is misogyny in disguise. The Times https://www.thetimes.com/comment/letters-to-editor/article/inclusive-language-is-misogyny-in-disguise-kr8068xz2

“Angus Fox” (June 18, 2021). When Sons Become Daughters: It’s Time to Admit That Reflexive ‘Affirmation’ Has Been a Mistake. Quillette https://quillette.com/2021/06/18/when-sons-become-daughters-its-time-to-admit-that-reflexive-affirmation-has-been-a-mistake/

“Angus Fox” (June 7, 2021). When Sons Become Daughters, Part VI: Asexuality, Intelligence, and the Trans Co-Option of Intersex Discourse. Quillette https://quillette.com/2021/06/07/when-sons-become-daughters-part-vi-asexuality-intelligence-and-the-trans-co-option-of-intersex-discourse/

“Angus Fox” (May 11, 2021). When Sons Become Daughters, Part V: The Links Between Trans Identity, Gifted Minds, Categorical Thinking—And Anime. Quillette https://quillette.com/2021/05/11/when-sons-become-daughters-part-v-the-links-between-trans-identity-gifted-minds-categorical-thinking-and-anime/

“Angus Fox” (April 21, 2021). When Sons Become Daughters, Part IV: Parents of Transitioning Boys Speak Out on Their Own Suffering. Quillette https://quillette.com/2021/04/21/when-sons-become-daughters-part-iv-parents-of-transitioning-boys-speak-out-on-their-own-suffering/

“Angus Fox” (April 12, 2021). When Sons Become Daughters, Part III: Parents of Transitioning Boys Speak Out on Their Own Suffering. Quillette https://quillette.com/2021/04/12/when-sons-become-daughters-part-iii-parents-of-transitioning-boys-speak-out-on-their-own-suffering/

“Angus Fox” (April 6, 2021). When Sons Become Daughters, Part II: Parents of Transitioning Boys Speak Out on Their Own Suffering. Quillette https://quillette.com/2021/04/06/when-sons-become-daughters-part-ii-parents-of-transitioning-boys-speak-out-on-their-own-suffering/

“Angus Fox” (April 2, 2021). When Sons Become Daughters: Parents of Transitioning Boys Speak Out on Their Own Suffering. Quillette https://quillette.com/2021/04/02/when-sons-become-daughters-parents-of-transitioning-boys-speak-out-on-their-own-suffering/

Media

Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce and Alasdair Gunn (April 14, 2025). Alasdair Gunn: Life After Cancer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvNmZMOlQV8

Genspect Australia/NewZealand (March 2, 2024). Alasdair Gunn in Conversation with parents from New Zealand and Australia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0juLCZWKUV4

Genspect with Joe Burgo and Alasdair Gunn (January 13, 2024). AusNZ Webinar: Introducing the Genspect Gender Framework with Alasdair Gunn and Joe Burgo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUsJq4OTcsY

Epoch Times with Jan Jekielek (August 17, 2023). How the Gender Industry Has Parasitized People’s Emotions. https://www.theepochtimes.com/epochtv/how-the-gender-industry-has-parasitized-peoples-emotions-alasdair-gunn-on-the-spike-in-teens-seeking-to-transition-5470406

Genspect (August 5, 2023). The Bigger Picture Conference: Normalising Excellence in Healthcare with Alasdair Gunn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5WEpdtgy-fk

Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce, “Eliza Mondegreen,” and Alasdair Gunn (June 13, 2023). So Over The Rainbow | with Alasdair Gunn & Eliza Mondegreen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCpKJ9DXavk

Heterodorx with Nina Paley, Corinna Cohn, and Alasdair Gunn (May 25, 2023). Episode 100: Alasdair Gunn: It’s Fun To Play Scrabble With A Linguist. https://heterodorx.com/podcast/episode-100-alasdair-gunn-its-fun-to-play-scrabble-with-a-linguist/

Genspect with Maya Forstater, Helen Joyce, Stella O’Malley, Alasdair Gunn and Malcolm Clark (May 24, 2023). The Importance of Pronouns and Compelled Speech – Panel Debate Moderated by Alasdair Gunn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY1TSWPr97E

Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce, Stella O’Malley, and Alasdair Gunn (May 3, 2023). Winning the Gender War | with Stella & Alasdair (On Location in Ireland). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVRSdGpdWCQ

Gender: A Wider Lens with Stella O’Malley, Sasha Ayad, Joe Bargo, and Alasdair Gunn (Mar 31, 2023). EPISODE 108: Genspect Vision: The Bigger Picture w/ Joe Burgo & Alasdair Gunn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fsgKL2_ty6I

Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce, Joe Burgo, and Alasdair Gunn (March 13, 2023). Announcing: Genspect’s “The Bigger Picture” Conference | with Joseph Burgo & Alasdair Gunn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKn3uraXQ-s

Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce, Joe Burgo, and Alasdair Gunn (January 5, 2023). A Masculine Calmversation with Joe Burgo and Alasdair Gunn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB9mtWnhlxc

Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce and Alasdair Gunn (December 22, 2022). Life, Death, & Everything Else | with Alasdair Gunn. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpXJ4eo5b_A

Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce and “Angus Fox” (September 24, 2022). The Secret Life of Angus Fox. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZqMRDk05RQ

Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce and “Angus Fox” (November 27, 2021). Ballads of Gender Banditry | with Angus Fox. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78shDBe4j74

Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce and “Angus Fox” (July 11, 2021). Over the Rainbow | with Claire Graham & Angus Fox. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqB-ePn97Qk

Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce and “Angus Fox” (June 3, 2021). The Lost Boys of Genderland | with Angus Fox. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78XZCuRsDKs

Gender: A Wider Lens with Stella O’Malley, Sasha Ayad, and “Angus Fox” (April 30, 2021). EPISODE 21 – Gender Dysphoria in Males: Part 2 – A Conversation with Angus Fox. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8VdySAopgs

Resources

Conservative Home (conservativehome.com)

• Alasdair Gunn
• conservativehome.com/author/alasdair-gunn

X/Twitter (x.com)

• ngusdair

Quillette (quillette.com)

• Angus Fox

Etsy (etsy.com)

• alasdairgunn

Meghan Daum is an American anti-transgender activist who got involved through the intellectual dark web.

Background

Daum was born February 13, 1970 in California. Daum earned a bachelor’s degree from Vassar College and a master’s degree from Columbia University.

The Unspeakeasy

Daum founded The Unspeakeasy in 2022 and is host of The Unspeakable podcast. Guests have included:

• Stella O’Malley
• Bridget Phetasy and Jeren Montgomery
• Nina Paley and Corinna Cohn
• Maud Maron
• Michael Shermer
• Colin Wright
• Sarah Haider
• Jonathan Haidt
• Meghan Murphy
• “Austin” a member of the “ex-trans” movement
• Jonathan Kay
• Aaron Kimberly

2021

• Lisa Selin Davis
• Laura Edwards-Leeper
• Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein
• “Jolene” and “Marie,” anti-trans parents
• Lionel Shriver
• Libby Emmons
• Buck Angel
• Kathleen Stock
• Jesse Singal
• Bridget Phetasy
• Bret Stephens
• Katie Herzog
• Kat Rosenfield and Phoebe Maltz Bovy

2020

• Josh Szeps
• Helen Pluckrose
• Sasha Ayad

Daum co-hosts the podcast A Special Place In Hell with Sarah Haider.

Daum published the essay collections My Misspent Youth and The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion. Daum’s work has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, Vogue, GQ, and Harper’s.

Daum authored the book The Problem With Everything: My Journey Through The New Culture Wars.

Comments on Leelah Alcorn’s suicide

In 2018, Daum expressed what many felt was more sympathy for Leelah Alcorn’s unsupportive parents than for the dead teen.

“There’s no question that Leelah’s death and the circumstances leading to it are worthy of—and, in fact, demand— public rage. But along with that rage should come compassion, not just for the Alcorns but for anyone who’s ever been slow to reach acceptance, or whose circumscribed worldview has clouded their understanding of somebody else’s experience.”

References

Daum, Meghan (August 24, 2018). Nuance: A Love Story. GEN https://gen.medium.com/nuance-a-love-story-ae6a14991059

Daum, Meghan (2015-01-15). Op-Ed: Why blaming Leelah Alcorn’s parents only compounds the bigotry. Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-daum-alcorn-transparent-suicide-20150115-story.html

Schares, Evan Mitchell (2019-02-01). The Suicide of Leelah Alcorn: Whiteness in the Cultural Wake of Dying Queers. QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking. 6 (1): 1–25. doi:10.14321/qed.6.1.0001. 

Daum, Meghan (January 5, 2023). Why Do I Talk So Much About Trans Stuff? Because I Have Nothing To Lose.
The Unspeakable with Meghan Daum https://meghandaum.substack.com/p/why-do-i-talk-so-much-about-trans

Resources

Substack (substack.com)

• meghandaum.substack.com

The Unspeakeasy (theunspeakeasy.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

• meghan_daum

The Joe Rogan Experience is an influential podcast hosted by entertainer Joe Rogan. It is notable for hosting a disproportionate number of conservative and anti-transgender guests, including:

• Scott Adams
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali
• Amy Alkon

• Roseanne Barr
• Carl Benjamin / “Sargon of Akkad”
• Owen Benjamin
• Peter Boghossian
• David Buss

• Bryan Callen (removed by Spotify)
• Tucker Carlson
• Dave Chappelle
• Melissa Chen
• Nicholas Christakis
• Dan Crenshaw
• Steven Crowder
• Anthony Cumia

• James Damore
• Richard Dawkins
• Gavin de Becker
• Seth Dillon
• Tim Dillon
• Andrew Doyle

• Tim Ferriss (removed by Spotify)
• Lex Fridman

• Tulsi Gabbard
• Glenn Greenwald

• Jonathan Haidt
• Sam Harris
• Heather Heying
• Carole Hooven
• Coleman Hughes

• Collins Iyare Idehen Jr. / “Colion Noir”

• Charles C. Johnson
• Alex Jones

• Ana Kasparian
• Konstantin Kisin

• James Lindsay

• Bill Maher
• Michael Malice
• Robert Malone
• Gavin McInnes
• Geoffrey Miller
• Stefan Molyneux
• Meghan Murphy
• Douglas Murray
• Elon Musk

• Andy Ngô
• Ted Nugent

• Jordan Peterson
• Megan Phelps-Roper
• Bridget Phetasy
• Steven Pinker
• Tim Pool

• Ronda Rousey
• Dave Rubin

• Gad Saad
• Robert Sapolsky
• Dan Savage
• Ben Shapiro
• Michael Shellenberger
• Michael Shermer
• Abigail Shrier
• Jesse Singal
• Debra Soh
• Christina Hoff Sommers
• Josh Szeps

• Matt Taibbi

• Nzube Olisaebuka Udezue / “Zuby”

• Matt Walsh
• Bret Weinstein
• Eric Weinstein
• Bari Weiss
• Colin Wright

• Matthew Yglesias
• Milo Yiannopoulos

Trans and gender diverse guests

Rogan’s guests from the community hold moderate to conservative views about trans topics.

• Chris Beck (then known as Kristin Beck)
• Eddie Izzard
• Buck Angel
• Blaire White

References

JRELibrary (May 26, 2022). Spotify’s Missing Episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience Podcast. https://jrelibrary.com/articles/spotifys-missing-episodes-of-the-joe-rogan-experience-podcast/

Jamie Reed is an American anti-transgender extremist who wants to eliminate gender-affirming healthcare for adolescents and young adults. Reed is also part of the LGB separatist movement, founding the anti-trans organization LGB Courage Coalition in 2023.

Reed’s anti-trans extremism has been heavily promoted by other anti-trans activists, including Bari Weiss, Jesse Singal, Azeen Ghorayshi, Jonathan Chait, Andrew Bailey, Emily Yoffe, Stella O’Malley, Jennifer Block, Sasha Ayad, Konstantin Kisin, and Francis Foster, as well as conservative trans activists Aaron Terrell and Aaron Kimberly of Gender Dysphoria Alliance.

In December 2024, Reed became a co-host of the podcast Informed Dissent with Ben Appel, Corinna Cohn, Lisa Selin Davis, and “Eliza Mondegreen.”

Background

Jamie Lynn Smith was born in June 1980. After marrying Joshua David Rickly (born 1982), Jamie began using the name Jamie Lynn Smith-Rickly. During this time, Jamie was apparently using the email [email protected].

In 2009, Jamie Smith-Rickly, Zachary Smith, and Byron Case founded the Midwestern Liberty Foundation, but it was dissolved by the state of Missouri the following year for failure to submit required documents.

The couple had two children and later divorced.

Jamie then married librarian Tiger Reed, who at the time identified as a transgender man. They have Jamie’s two children from the first marriage as well as three foster children. In 2024, after announing a “detransition,” Tiger Reed began using the name Roxxanne Reed.

Reed earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri St. Louis and a master’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis. Reed began working at Washington in 2016.

Anti-trans activism

From 2018 until late 2022, Reed was a case manager at the Washington University Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

Reed became increasingly upset that the clinic was not doing more psychological and psychiatric gatekeeping. As with many providers, Washington relied on patients to find a local therapist who would recommend them for treatment to reduce backlogs and improve patient care.

Reed was against prescribing hormone options for minors. Like many other people opposed to youth gender affirming care, Reed considers puberty blockers less problematic than hormones, but opposes those as well. Puberty blockers are a rarely-used short-term option prior to prescribing hormones. Some people opposed to gender-affirming care would prefer trans youth to stay on puberty blockers until they are adults, rather than start hormones and go through puberty with their non-transgender peers.

Like many other people opposed to gender-affirming care, Reed cites the conservative “Dutch protocol” that used extensive gatekeeping under a nationalized healthcare system.

2023 affidavit

In an affidavit presented to anti-trans Attorney General Andrew Bailey dated February 7, 2023, Reed stated:

I witnessed staff at the Center provide puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children without complete informed parental consent and without an appropriate or accurate assessment of the needs of the child. I witnessed children experience shocking injuries from the medication the Center prescribed. And I saw the Center make no attempt or effort to track adverse outcomes of patients after they left the Center.

[…]

One patient came to the Center identifying as a “communist, attack helicopter, human, female, maybe non binary.” The child was in very poor mental health and early on reported that they had no idea their gender identity.

[…]

Most children who come into the Center were assigned female at birth. Nearly all of them have serious comorbidities including, autism, ADHD, depression, anxiety, PTSD, trauma histories, OCD, and serious eating disorders.

[…]

last year Dr. [Chris] Lewis and Dr. [Sarah] Garwood told the Missouri legislature, “at no point are surgeries on the table for anyone under 18” and also, “surgeries are not an option for anyone under 18 years of age.” This was a lie. The Center regularly refers minors for gender transition surgery. The Center routinely gives out the names and contact information of surgeons to those under the age of 18. At least one gender transition surgery was performed by Dr. Allison Snyder-Warwick at St. Louis Children’s Hospital in the last few years.

[…]

The Center had two in-house psychologists. They were Dr. Alex Maixner and Dr. Sarah Girresch-Ward as well as several outside therapists.

[…]

Doctors knew that many of our former patients had stopped taking cross-sex hormones and were detransitioning. Doctors did not share this information with parents or children.

[…]

Children come into the clinic using pronouns of inanimate objects like “mushroom,” “rock,” or “helicopter.” Children come into the clinic saying they want hormones because they do not want to be gay. Children come in changing their identities on a day-to-day basis. Children come in under clear pressure by a parent to identify in a way inconsistent with the child’s actual identity.

[…]

I created a “red flag” list of children where other staff and I had concerns. The doctors told me I had to stop raising these concerns. I was not allowed to maintain the red flag list after that. During the time I was creating the red flag list, noting my concern that these children were not good candidates for permanent, irreversible medication treatment, the doctors would simply send these children to our in-house therapists. Those therapists would inevitably provide letters to the doctors, and then the doctors would say there can’t be any concern over these children because another therapist was fine with prescribing puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.

[…]

One doctor at the Center, Dr. Chris Lewis, is giving patients a drug called Bicalutamide. I know of at least one patient at the Center who was advised by the renal department to stop taking Bicalutamide because the child was experiencing liver damage. The child’s parent reported this to the Center through the patient’s online self-reporting medical chart (MyChart). The parent said they were not the type to sue, but “this could be a huge PR problem for you.”

[…]

the Center has prescribed puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones hundreds of times where they should not have.

Reed (2023)

Particularly upsetting to Reed are young people whose identities are fluid:

Patient was on hormones and had decompensating mental health, outlandish name changes, self-diagnosis of multiple personalities (DID).

[…]

Patient has desisted in male identity to a vague non binary with their own self-diagnosis of autism. Patient has changed their name numerous times and is clearly struggling with thoughts about desistence,

[..]

Patient changed to non-binary identity, then changed preferred name and stated that their identity was shifting day to day.

Reed (2023)

Reed gave several other vivid anecdotes, including one about a youth sex offender, and others about youths with history of self-harm, sexual trauma, forced cross-dressing, factitious blindness, and “gender identities that were likely the result of social contagion.”

2023 Free Press piece

Two days after the affidavit was signed, Reed repeated these allegations in the Free Press for anti-trans activist Bari Weiss.

• “clinics like the one where I worked are creating a whole cohort of kids with atypical genitals—and most of these teens haven’t even had sex yet.”
• “Some weeks it felt as though almost our entire caseload was nothing but disturbed young people.”
• “Another disturbing aspect of the center was its lack of regard for the rights of parents.”
• “In 2019, a new group of people appeared on my radar: desisters and detransitioners.”
• “I believe that to ensure the safety of American children, we need a moratorium on the hormonal and surgical treatment of young people with gender dysphoria.”

Reed and the clinic’s nurse, Karen Hamon, kept a private spreadsheet, which they called the “red flag list.” Following a 2021 review that contained criticisms and a 2022 retreat where Reed was allegedly told “Get on board, or get out,” Reed transferred to a different department.

Jamie Reed on what needs to be done: no gender affirming care for people until we figure out how to tell which mice should transition pic.twitter.com/1Go2vJtNTo

— worms cited (@christapeterso) March 15, 2023

2023 New York Times profile

Anti-trans activist Azeen Ghorayshi of the New York Times presented Reed as part of a long-running “cisgender person under siege” series the paper has been running since the early 2000s.

Ghorayshi mentioned the following people:

• Jamie Reed, former case manager at a youth gender clinic at Washington University in St. Louis
• Bari Weiss, anti-trans activist who first published Reed’s allegations in the Free Press
• Andrew Bailey, Missouri’s anti-trans Attorney General
• Colleen Schrappen, reporter at St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• Annelise Hanshaw, reporter at Missouri Independent
• Andrew D. Martin, Washington University in St. Louis Chancellor

Reporter Evan Urquhart wrote, “unlike other stories covering these allegations, the Times downplays the falsehoods and seeks to make a case that despite Reed’s lies there’s something to be taken seriously in her attacks on a highly-regarded, University-linked clinic serving transgender youth.”

LGBT Courage Coalition and purge of trans members

Reed founded LGBT Courage Coalition in 2023 as a Substack and later registered it as a nonprofit. About a year later, Reed purged all trans leadership and renamed in LGB Courage Coailition, installing Lauren Leggieri as co-executive director.

Lawsuits

In 2024 a subpoena was issued to Reed in the matter of Noe v. Parson (Missouri case # 23AC-CC04530). In it, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. and ACLU of Missouri Foundation requested communication between Reed and Karen Hamon, as well as any communication with Missouri officials and families at Washington University Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.

The subpoena also requested “All communications, including any documents exchanged, concerning Gender-Affirming Care involving media or between you and any media outlet or any member of the media,” as well as specifically requesting communications with Jesse Singal. Those requests were later removed.

The subpoena also requested any communication with the following organizations:

• Alliance Defending Freedom
• America First Legal
• American College of Pediatricians
• Do No Harm
• Ethics and Public Policy Center
• FAIR in Medicine
• Family Policy Alliance
• Family Research Council
• Gays Against Groomers
• Gender Exploratory Therapy Association
• Genspect
• Heritage Foundation
• LGBT Courage Coalition
• Manhattan Institute
• Missouri Family Policy Council
• Promise to America’s Children
• Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine
• Therapy First

2025 activity

In July 2025, Reed was a panelist at the 2025 US Federal Trade Commission anti-trans workshop.

Also in 2025, Reed was named as part of the core team at anti-trans website Resilience Health Network.

References

Conlon, Rose (January 28, 2025). Transgender Kansans urge lawmakers to reject bill banning gender-affirming care for youth. KMUW https://www.kmuw.org/2025-01-28/transgender-kansans-urge-lawmakers-to-reject-bill-banning-gender-affirming-care-for-youth

Schrappen, Colleen (November 2, 2024). Her life changed after calling out transgender care at WashU. But she’s pushing ahead. St. Louis Post-Dispatch https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/government-politics/article_ca9fa3a6-9588-11ef-8910-6f3a4a9697f9.html

Urquhart, Evan (Oct 4, 2024). TWIBS: Tiger Reed Tells All. Assigned Media https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/tiger-reed-tells-all

Suntrip, Jack (October 1, 2024). Jamie Reed testifies in defense of Missouri state law on transgender health care. St. Louis Post-Dispatch https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/government-politics/article_416bc1de-7f33-11ef-b125-e37291fc739f.html

Urquhart, Evan (August 22, 2024). How Conservative Officials Are Using Private Medical Records For Their Anti-Trans Agenda. them https://www.them.us/story/trans-patients-medical-records-anti-trans-agenda

Graham, Michael (February 27, 2025). Gender Clinic Whistleblower to Testify Before NH House Committee Monday. NH Journal https://nhjournal.com/gender-clinic-whistleblower-to-testify-before-nh-house-committee-monday/

Hanshaw Annelise (September 30, 2024). Former caseworker testifies in defense of Missouri transgender health care ban. Missouri Independent https://missouriindependent.com/2024/09/30/former-caseworker-testifies-in-defense-of-missouri-transgender-health-care-ban/

Lovelace, Eric (September 30, 2024). St. Louis gender clinic whistleblower testifies in Noe v. Parson. KOMU https://www.komu.com/news/midmissourinews/st-louis-gender-clinic-whistleblower-testifies-in-noe-v-parson/article_2f612e3c-7f53-11ef-ad63-abba11ecb77e.html

Reed, Erin (October 13, 2023). Family Of Missouri Trans Kid: Jamie Reed Lied About Liver Damage, Caused By COVID Drug And Not HRT. Erin in the Morning https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/family-of-missouri-trans-kid-jamie

Urquhart, Evan (August 23, 2023). NYT Treats Key Source’s Many Lies as an Aside in Latest Anti-Trans Smear. Assigned https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/nyt-treats-key-sources-many-lies-as-an-aside-in-latest-anti-trans-smear

Sapir, Leor (May 2, 2023). Nothing to See Here: After a suspicious internal report, a truly comprehensive and impartial investigation of Washington University’s Transgender Center is needed more than ever. City Journal https://www.city-journal.org/article/nothing-to-see-here

Yurcaba, Jo (April 24, 2023). St. Louis gender clinic accusations ‘unsubstantiated,’ internal investigation finds. NBC News https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/st-louis-gender-clinic-accusations-unsubstantiated-internal-investigat-rcna81233

Hanshaw, Annelise (April 24, 2023). Former employee of St. Louis transgender clinic reaffirms allegations of misconduct. Missouri Independent https://missouriindependent.com/2023/04/24/former-employee-of-st-louis-transgender-reaffirms-allegations-of-misconduct/

Henry, Vesper; Tirrell, Alyssa (April 13, 2023). Timeline: The unfolding saga between The Free Press and a Missouri gender clinic. Media Matters for America https://www.mediamatters.org/bari-weiss/timeline-unfolding-saga-between-free-press-and-missouri-gender-clinic

Schrappen, Colleen (March 20, 2023). Parents of patients at St. Louis transgender center fear privacy breaches, file complaints. St. Louis Post-Dispatch https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/parents-of-patients-at-st-louis-transgender-center-fear-privacy-breaches-file-complaints/article_6b623743-e441-5119-92a4-27c19547e4b2.html

Urquhart, Evan (March 11, 2023). Jamie Reed’s Misinformation Exposed by Jesse Singal. Assigned Media https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/jamie-reeds-misinfo-exposed-by-jesse-singal

Singal, Jesse (March 10, 2023). Gender-Clinic Whistleblower Jamie Reed Has Provided A Detailed Account Of Her Most Controversial Claim, Including The Names Of Those Involved. Singal-Minded https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/gender-clinic-whistleblower-jamie

Lynch, James (March 8, 2024). ACLU Targets Whistleblower Jamie Reed in Fight against Missouri Law Banning Transgender Procedures for Minors. National Review https://www.nationalreview.com/news/aclu-targets-whistleblower-jamie-reed-in-fight-against-missouri-law-banning-transgender-procedures-for-minors/

Urquhart, Evan (March 8, 2023). There Are Two Sides to the Debate on Health Care for Trans Kids. Here’s What You’re Missing About One of Them. Slate https://slate.com/technology/2023/03/trans-youth-health-care-debate-affirmative-new-york-times-jamie-reed.html

Singal, Jesse (March 7, 2023). Journalists Are Exhibiting Far Too Much Credulousness Toward Jamie Reed’s Critics. Singal-Minded https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/journalists-are-exhibiting-far-too

Cooper, Ryan (March 2, 2023). The Useful Idiots Fueling the Right-Wing Transphobia Panic. The American Prospect https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2023-03-02-right-wing-transphobia-panic/

Danner, Chas (March 3, 2023). Whistleblower’s Claims About a St. Louis Transgender Center Are Under Fire. New York https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/03/jamie-reeds-claims-about-transgender-care-are-under-fire.html

Kesslen, Ben (March 2, 2023). Parents hit back at Missouri trans clinic whistleblower Jamie Reed. New York Post https://nypost.com/2023/03/02/parents-hit-back-at-missouri-trans-clinic-whistleblower-jamie-reed/

Hanshaw, Annelise (March 1, 2023), Families dispute whistleblower’s allegations against St. Louis transgender center. Missouri Independent https://missouriindependent.com/2023/03/01/transgender-st-louis-whistleblower/

Ballentine, Summer (February 10, 2023). Missouri officials investigate transgender youth clinic. AP News https://apnews.com/article/josh-hawley-jamie-reed-st-louis-missouri-health-83953afb898dff7caa2b542c91480069

Burke, Cathy (February 9, 2023). Whistleblower lifts lid on St. Louis kids gender clinic: ‘Morally and medically appalling.’ New York Post https://nypost.com/2023/02/09/whistleblower-lifts-lid-on-st-louis-kids-gender-clinic/

Hanshaw, Annelise (February 9, 2023 ). Missouri agencies launch investigation into health center for transgender youth. Missouri Independent https://missouriindependent.com/2023/02/09/missouri-agencies-launch-investigation-into-health-center-for-transgender-youth/

St. John’s, Tower Grove (June 8, 2012). Jamie Smith-Rickly / [email protected] https://www.facebook.com/towergrovechurch/posts/please-make-reservations-soon-so-that-the-chefs-can-plan-appropriately-celebrate/10151786138200576/

Selected publications by the Reeds

Reed, Jamie (January 30, 2025). I’m a trans-clinic whistleblower — Trump is right to ban sex changes for kids. New York Post https://nypost.com/2025/01/30/opinion/im-a-clinic-whistleblower-trans-kids-ban-will-save-lives/

Reed, Jamie (December 3, 2024). Why I Hope the Supreme Court Upholds the Ban on Child Transition. The Free Press https://www.thefp.com/p/supreme-court-gender-transiton-skrmetti-whistleblower-jamie-reed

Reed, Roxxanne (September 9, 2024). I Spent 13 Years Living as a Man. But After My Spouse’s Exposé, I’m Detransitioning. The Free Press https://www.thefp.com/p/tiger-jamie-reed-detransition-wash-u-transgender-affirming-care

Reed, Jamie (February 7, 2023). Affidavit of Jamie Reed https://ago.mo.gov/docs/default-source/press-releases/2-07-2023-reed-affidavit—signed.pdf

Reed, Jamie (December 31, 2023). Jamie Reed: The Courage to Admit You’re Wrong. The Free Press https://www.thefp.com/p/whistleblower-jamie-reed-courage-admit-wrong

Reed, Jamie (February 9, 2023). I Thought I Was Saving Trans Kids. Now I’m Blowing the Whistle.The Free Press https://www.thefp.com/p/i-thought-i-was-saving-trans-kids

Media

Genetic Literacy Project with Cameron English, Jamie Reed, and Liza Dunn (April 24, 2025). GLP podcast: Common sense ‘out the window.’ Whistleblower Jamie Reed challenges safety, efficacy of ‘gender-affirming care.’ https://geneticliteracyproject.org/2025/04/24/glp-podcast-common-sense-out-the-window-wash-u-whistleblower-jamie-reed-exposes-bad-science-behind-gender-affirming-care/

America Reports (December 4, 2024). Whisleblower implores SCOTUS to uphold the ban on child transition. Fox News https://www.foxnews.com/video/6365541665112

Emily Yoffe (February 14, 2023). Jamie Reed Blows the Whistle on Pediatric Gender Care. The Free Press https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6sPG7gleOs

Stella O’Malley and Sasha Ayad (May 5, 2023). EPISODE 112: A Conversation with Gender Clinic Whistleblower, Jamie Reed. Gender: A Wider Lens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QafpwKrz-lw

Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster (April 16, 2023). Trans Clinic Whistleblower Speaks Out. TRIGGERnometry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbuGMbqjsSw

Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster (June 14, 2023). The Dark Truth: What Happens At a Trans Clinic? TRIGGERnometry https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ue19IjK3ELA

Gender Dysphoria Alliance [Aaron Terrell and Aaron Kimberly] (March 19, 2023). EP60 – The sound a whistle makes – with Jamie Reed. Transparency https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7BkuJBwbUU

Gender Dysphoria Alliance [Aaron Terrell and Aaron Kimberly] (August 6, 2023). EP 71 – The Denton Report – with Jamie Reed. Transparency https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7BkuJBwbUU

Resources

X/Twitter (x.com)

• JamieWhistle

YouTube (youtube.com)

• InformedDissentPod

Resilience Health Network (resiliencehealth.network)

• Core Team
• resiliencehealth.network/committed-to-individual-health

Jennifer Block is an American writer and anti-transgender activist. Block is a key historical figure in 21st-century media attacks on trans healthcare.

Block is an embedded reporter with anti-trans hate groups like Genspect, attending their events and laundering their extremist views into mainstream media.

Overview

Block believes that US medical consensus about care for trans and gender diverse youth is a scandal in the making. As similar bigots in media did in the late 1970s, Block keeps rewriting the same FUD propaganda piece and selling it to different outlets. The 1979 backlash eliminated healthcare options for many trans people that took four decades to reverse, and Block is at the forefront of this new backlash against our children.

Block’s work focuses on several anti-transgender positions:

• disease models of gender diversity, especially “gender dysphoria”
• psychological gatekeeping as a model of care
• supporting strict gatekeeping of trans healthcare via centralized government control, developed under nationalized heath systems (so-called “gender clinics”) in the 20th century
• the “rapid onset gender dysphoria” (ROGD) disease model: “More adolescents with no history of gender dysphoria—predominantly birth registered females—are presenting at gender clinics.”
• disproportionately amplifying outliers and bad outcomes: Andrew Martinez (suicide) and Chloe Cole (ex-trans movement)
• not describing a single positive outcome
• the ex-trans movement, especially “detransitioners“

Background

Jennifer Lori “Jen” Block was born on November 22, 1976 to surgeon Leonard Block (born 1948) and Roberta Block (born 1947). Block has two siblings. Block’s parents divorced, which may explain Block’s animosity toward the medical establishment.

Block earned a bachelor’s degree in English from Boston University in 1998. Block held editorial roles at Ms. magazine, Plenty, Our Bodies, Ourselves, and The OpEd Project.

Block’s articles and commentary have appeared in The BMJ, The Washington Post Magazine, Newsweek, The Cut, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Guardian, Pacific Standard, The Baffler, and Type Investigations (formerly The Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute).

Block is author of Pushed: The Painful Truth About Childbirth and Modern Maternity Care (2007) and Everything Below the Waist: Why Health Care Needs a Feminist Revolution (2019).

“Mommy bloggers” and their fans are especially susceptible to anti-transgender radicalization and social contagion. Block thanks fellow anti-trans extremist Lisa Selin Davis in the acknowledgements for Pushed.

BMJ article series, 2023–

In 2023, Block was commissioned to write an investigative piece for the BMJ. The resulting piece was deeply slanted toward the views of conservative clinicians and anti-transgender activists.

An accompanying video featured conservative therapists Laura Edwards-Leeper and Erica Anderson, and gender-affirming endocrinologist Joshua Safer.

In 2025, Block revealed that BMJ had commissioned more work, but the British Medical Association killed it following negative response to Block’s 2023 article and video.

Supporters

Anti-trans activist Helen Joyce said of Block’s article: “Fantastic article, and so important that it appears in BMJ.” Anti-trans organization Rethink Identity Medicine Ethics also liked the piece.

It was also liked and shared by several of Block’s peers, including Sean CW Korsgaard, Liz Highleyman, Mark Tighe, Sonia Gallego, Michael Marshall (@m_c_marshall), Kevin Bass, Vinay Prassad, Dr. Dina McMillan, Milli Hill, Julia Mason, Moti Gorin, Charlotte Schubert, and Benjamin Ryan.

The staff at The BMJ issued a statement:

The BMJ believes in investigative journalism as a force for change. Over the past decade, our investigative journalism has unearthed research fraud and misconduct, prompted improvements in the transparency of clinical research, led to changes in guidelines and clinical practice, and triggered parliamentary inquiries.

High quality investigative journalism requires time to research, gather evidence, and ask questions. Developing in-depth stories is expensive, and we actively seek external funding to help expand our efforts. Current no-strings funding comes from Arnold Ventures and William McGuire. Past supporters include the European Commission and Open Society Foundations. In 2022, we hope to expand our impact through crowdfunding. If you would like to support us, please contact Head of Journalism Rebecca Coombes.

We retain editorial independence—the freedom of editors to make decisions without interference from any funders—for all content that is produced and published; all decisions are taken strictly within the editorial structures of the journal.

If you have a story for us, please contact [email protected].

Rebecca Coombes, Head of Journalism
Peter Doshi, Senior editor
Madlen Davies, Investigations editor
Jennifer Block, Investigations reporter
Hristio Boytchev, Freelance investigations reporter

Critics

The Association of LGBTQ+ Doctors & Dentists (GLADD), Pride in Surgery Forum, and the British Medical Association all published criticisms of the piece.

British Medical Association deputy council chair Emma Runswick said:

We have recently written to the BMJ, which is editorially independent, to challenge its article “Gender dysphoria in young people is rising—and so is professional disagreement” and express our concern, that alongside criticisms made by LGTBQ+ organisations such as GLADD and neurodivergent doctors, in our view, it lacks equality, diversity and inclusion awareness and patient voice. That the article has been used by transphobic lobby groups around the world is of particular concern to us.

2023 Twitter responses

Block was very unhappy about being called out for bias, posting a number of times on Twitter about this alleged mistreatment, suggesting any criticism is an attack on journalism as an institution.

February 27

• Since my @bmj_latest piece on care for gender dysphoria in minors, some are curious about my background. I’ve been reporting on contested areas of medicine for 20 years. I wrote a book about the gap between evidence and routine practice in maternity care (still quite large!).
• Politicization gets people no closer to evidence-based maternity care either, and I’d argue it hampered work toward expanding rights and reducing maternal mortality. In states that have advanced birth justice, it’s the result of red/blue folks accepting they have a common goal.
• I see dismissing any clinician or researcher who has concerns about the best treatment for kids/adolescents in the face of inconclusive evidence as “anti-trans” as an attempt to silence important conversation and debate. I hope my piece is contributing.
• FWIW, the organizer of the AAP rally I spoke with, who directed me to video footage, is a lifelong coastal democrat. You can’t just smear every person with concerns RE treatments, or the concerns themselves, as “anti-trans.” At least I’m not going to be baited into that tautology

March 3

• https://twitter.com/writingblock/status/1631768413378084864
• TLDR: Dear reporters, don’t report on transgender medicine. Don’t be curious about detransition or medical disagreement. Label the above anti-trans. Quote children of all ages rather than research. Cover “trans joy rather than the ‘difficult’ questions.”

March 5 [referring to anti-trans media figure Michael Knowles saying transgenderism must be eliminated.

• https://twitter.com/writingblock/status/1632464903046066177
• THIS is anti-trans–and violent and inhumane. Reporting on disagreement and unknowns in medical practice for children with gender dysphoria is not. Both the trans community and journos can condemn such rhetoric and support open exchange of info & dialogue to support Rx decisions

This is in response to an opinion piece by trans journalist Katelyn Burns.

• [referring to https://nbcuacademy.com/trans-kids-journalism/#.ZAIfHq868m8.twitter]
• OK, this was a snarky tweet. But it’s a serious issue. A certain corner of journalism is conflating necessary, important reporting on the issue of medical treatment for kids with transphobia. I read this piece as saying “look over here, don’t look over there.” That’s advocacy.
• Maybe @transscribe is not familiar with my recent piece looking into the evidence base for treatments like puberty blockers and hormones in minors. She can correct me if I’m wrong, but I read her how-to as discouraging such reporting.
• “A story about trans health care should make clear all the facts… They should include that nearly every major medical association supports the current protocol of gender-affirming care for minors.” Well, as I report, consensus does not equal evidence-based practice.
• Reviews in Sweden, Finland, and now UK have made clear the uncertainties and potential for harm, and those countries are pulling back on medicalization and focusing instead on mental health and social support. They are not denying anyone’s existence. It’s not political there.
• For years, these labels of “anti-trans” “transphobe” and accusations of genocide have scared journalists who are obviously not those things from pursuing reasonable questions about benefit v. harm of medical treatment. This is regressive and I hope we’re moving past it.

Author Katelyn Burns replied “but you obscured the biases of the sources your piece depended upon. that’s advocacy.”

Block said:

• https://twitter.com/writingblock/status/1632446552668266496
• You haven’t pointed to any such thing. Everyone is ID’d with their relationship to professional orgs. The research methodologists who evaluated the guidelines/evidence base have no history with this issue whatsoever. Just hurling the label of “anti-trans” doesn’t make it so.

2024 Free Press piece attacking Planned Parenthood

Free Press founder Bari Weiss is known for sustained attacks on trans rights. Weiss paid Block to continue these attacks by attacking Planned Parenthood.

In 2024, Block employed the same rhetoric used in anti-abortion regret propaganda in a profile of Cristina Hineman, an ex-trans activist who reports regret about making a gender transition as a consenting adult. Block then approvingly describes the legal assault on Planned Parenthood initiated by Hineman. Block then tells a similar story about “Anna,” likely the plaintiff in a similar Jane Doe lawsuit. Throughout the piece, Block denigrates trans-supportive physicians and promotes anti-trans gatekeepers like Riittakerttu Kaltiala.

2025 short film

In July 2025, Block started a Substack titled Unpopular Science. Its first post was a short propaganda piece produced with Eric S. Vaughan titled “The Liberal Case for Rethinking Gender Medicine.” Block notes:

“The genesis for this film was the investigative feature I wrote for The BMJ, which came out in February 2023. My editors committed serious resources toward producing a high-quality video component. But my print piece drew the ire of the British Medical Association, which owns the journal, and ultimately the video and follow-up reporting were killed.”

The piece features anti-trans activists Jamie Reed and Lauren Leggieri from LGB Courage Coalition, as well as Hilary Cass, Hannah Barnes, Zhenya Abbruzzese, Laura Edwards-Leeper, and Moti Gorin. It continues Block’s attacks on WPATH, Rachel Levine, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

References

Urquhart, Evan (November 8, 2023). If Gender Affirming Care Doesn’t Have Enough Evidence, Should We Prefer a Treatment With None? Assigned Media https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/if-gender-affirming-care-doesnt-have-enough-evidence-should-we-prefer-a-treatment-with-none

Runswick, Emma (June 19, 2023). Take Pride in progress. The Doctor https://www.bma.org.uk/news-and-opinion/take-pride-in-progress

Selected anti-trans writing by Block

Block, Jennifer (July 8, 2025). The most heated and divisive issue of our time — in 18 minutes. Unpopular Science https://jenniferblockauthor.substack.com/p/the-most-heated-and-divisive-issue

Block J (October 2024). Dispute arises over World Professional Association for Transgender Health’s involvement in WHO’s trans health guideline. BMJ, q2227. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q2227

Block, Jennifer (August 7, 2024). How Did Planned Parenthood Become One of the Country’s Largest Suppliers of Testosterone? The Free Press https://www.thefp.com/p/how-did-planned-parenthood-become

Block J (May 2024). Gender medicine in the US: how the Cass review failed to land. BMJ, q1141. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q1141

Block, Jennifer (November 7, 2023). Youth gender medicine has become a hall of mirrors. Boston Globe http://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/11/07/opinion/gender-affirming-care-trans-kids

Block J (August 2023). US paediatric leaders back gender affirming approach while also ordering evidence review. BMJ, p1877. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p1877

Block, Jennifer (March 6, 2023). Raft of US state laws restrict access to treatments for gender dysphoria. BMJ 2023; 380 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p533

Block, Jennifer (February 23, 2023). Gender dysphoria in young people is rising—and so is professional disagreement. BMJ 2023; 380 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.p382

• Rapid responses https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p382/rapid-responses

• “I am disappointed in lack of rigour in this piece.”
• George R Huntington [doctor] (28 February 2023). Re: Gender dysphoria in young people is rising—and so is professional disagreement. https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p382/rr

• “thorough and balanced exploration”
• Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender [anti-trans front group] (2 March 2023) Concerns about potential harms of medicalising children and young people with gender dysphoria must be openly discussed within professional bodies, universities and the NHS. https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p382/rr-0
• signatories:
• Louise Irvine General Practitioner (retired)
• Professor David Pilgrim Chartered Clinical Psychologist
• Dr Lisa Davies Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
• Dr Tessa Katz General Practitioner
• Dr Robin Ion Registered Mental Nurse
• Dr Angela Dixon General Practitioner
• Dr Shahana Hussain Consultant Child Psychiatrist
• Stella O’Malley Psychotherapist
• Dr Catherine Bright Consultant Psychiatrist Learning Disability
• Dr Juliet Singer Consultant Child and Adolescent Psychiatrist
• Dr David Bell Retired Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychoanalyst
• Dr Maria Atkins Consultant Psychiatrist
• Dr Aileen O’Brien Consultant Psychiatrist
• Dr Az Hakeem Consultant Psychiatrist
• Dr Lenny Cornwall Consultant Psychiatrist

• “I applaud the author of this article.”
• Jonathan D Block [urologist] (05 March 2023). Re: Gender dysphoria in young people is rising—and so is professional disagreement. https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p382/rr-2

• “her article contains several misleading statements and, crucially, fails to include the perspective of individuals from the trans and gender diverse (TGD) community”
• Zoe Kristensen and David B Menkes [Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Auckland, New Zealand] (06 March 2023). Professional responses to gender dysphoria: reality checks needed. https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p382/rr-3

• “excellent and thorough report”
• “J. Cohn” [researcher for anti-trans hate group SEGM] (07 March 2023). Study outcomes quoted for psychological benefit not holding up with time. https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p382/rr-4

• “not a balanced investigation”
• Alex Ashman, Ginny Bowbrick, and Xander Stephenson-Allen [The Royal College of Surgeons of England, Pride in Surgery Forum] (13 March 2023). Gender dysphoria in young people: not a balanced investigation. https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p382/rr-6

• “the mention of neurodivergence when speaking about transgender people is to imply that there is less capacity for making good choices about our bodies, evaluating risks and benefits.”
• “Samira Khan,” Matthew Sellen, and Bethan Carey Jones [neurodivergent health professionals] (16 March 2023). Diversity in gender identity and neurotypes. https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p382/rr-8

• Jennifer Block (22 March 2023). Author’s reply to responses to Gender dysphoria in young people is rising—and so is professional disagreement. https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p382/rr-10

• Susan Moug and Nuha Yassin [colorectal surgeons] (31 March 2023). Re: Gender dysphoria in young people is rising—and so is professional disagreement. https://www.bmj.com/content/380/bmj.p382/rr-12

Resources

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