Christopher Rufo is an American professional anti-transgender activist. Attacking trans rights is part of Rufo’s conservative activism at the Manhattan Institute and elsewhere.
Christopher Ferguson “Chris” Rufo was born August 26, 1984 and grew up in Sacramento, California. Both parents are attorneys.
Rufo earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in 2006 and a master’s degree from Harvard Extension School in 2022. Rufo has worked at The Heritage Foundation, Claremont Institute, and Discovery Institute.
Rufo has produced documentaries and has run for public office in Seattle.
Rufo is best known for conservative activism around critical race theory, intersectionality, diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), and homelessness.
Rufo and spouse Suphatra “Kip” Paravichai live in Gig Harbor, Washington with their three children.
Intellectual dark web
Rufo was considered part of the intellectual dark web (IDW), a loose alliance described as a âgateway to the far right.â Many people involved are prominent opponents of transgender rights. IDW members typically get money and attention by claiming to be âcanceledâ or silenced by the minorities and progressive movements they criticize (called DARVO in general; see also the Dregerian Narrative in relation to trans issues, named after IDW inaugural member Alice Dreger).
The coalition did not hold together long, and Rufo chalked up the collapse to these events that splintered the IDW:
The presidency of Donald Trump
COVID and response to it
The George Floyd protests
Rufo also correctly noted that the alliance collapsed because it was a reactionary movement with no political will. They stood against many things, but as a group, they did not stand for anything.
Most IDW members craved money and/or attention, and once that became more elusive, the alliance began to dissipate.
Anti-transgender activism
As part of a push to end public libraries and public education, Rufo has heavily promoted the idea that LGBTQ people are “groomers,” echoing similar efforts in the 1970s. As part of these “save the children” initiatives, Rufo seeks to stop schools from discussing LGBTQ people and their role in American history and culture (so-called “Don’t Say Gay” activism). Rufo is a major force behind threats and protests at Drag Queen Story Hour events.
In 2023, Florida’s anti-trans governor Ron DeSantis named Rufo to the board of trustees of New College of Florida, part of an attempt to turn the school conservative.
In May 2023, Rufo published an article about gender affirming care at Texas Childrenâs Hospital. In May 2024, surgeon Eithan Haim was charged with illegally obtaining the private medical records of pediatric patients receiving gender transition care at Texas Childrenâs Hospital and providing them to Rufo. In 2025, the Trump administration dropped the charges against Haim.
References
Dreher, Rod (October 25, 2022). Chris Rufo Vs Drag Queen Story Hour Groomers.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/chris-rufo-vs-drag-queen-story-hour-groomers/
Chaya Raichik is an American conservative activist who created the Libs of TikTok social media accounts. Raichik frequently targets transgender and gender diverse people and their supporters. The project’s avatar is the transgender symbol styled in TikTok logo colors.
Raichik reposts social media posts made by others, often with commentary, which typically inspires followers to abuse and harass those Raichik has featured.
Since Raichik began targeting upcoming drag and pride events, anti-transgender protesters have been showing up at these events, requiring the presence of police and additional security.
Since Raichik began targeting Jewish and Christian youth camps with inclusive policies for all children, staff had to take steps to ensure security.
Since Raichik began targeting medical professionals who support transgender and gender diverse youth, death threats and bomb threats have been called in to children’s hospitals and clinics that help trans youth. Some hospitals have switched to telemedicine appointments to protect children and their families.
Libs of TikTok is sometimes styled Libs of Tik Tok and abbreviated LoTT or LTT. It has become a primary pipeline for anti-liberal and anti-progressive content, similar to other anti-transgender “drama” platforms like Blocked and Reported and The Matt Walsh Show. Content that generates enough outrage then gets featured on mainstream conservative outlets hosted by people like Megyn Kelly and Tucker Carlson.
Several people are named Chaya Raichik, including an author and a homemaker. In Chabad-Lubavitch communities, Raichik is a common surname and Chaya is a common given name. Please do not contact anyone with this name directly.
Parent Rabbi Yaakov Raichik, aka Yankee Raichik, is a Los Angeles-based chaplain in the California Department of Corrections.
Chaya Raichik worked in New York as a licensed real estate investor at Evergreen Realty / ERNY LLC in Brooklyn (listed as Chaya Raichek). Raichik created what became the Libs of TikTok Twitter account in November 2020.
Soon after, Raichik claimed to have participated in the January 6 United States Capitol attack. Photographic evidence appears to place Raichik trespassing on restricted Capitol ground, standing on the plaza steps among others prosecuted for insurrection.
Raichik’s New York real estate license expired in February 2021. Raichik reportedly moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles since becoming an anti-transgender activist.
Twitter timeline
Raichik was not a heavy social media poster before Twitter. Raichik’s account was inspired by and supported by other conservative accounts, some of which have since been suspended:
Liberal_Ls [suspended]
johnny_commie [suspended]
_callmeriss [suspended]
consoftiktok [suspended]
BidenLs
basedtiktok
Accounts Raichik has mentioned are almost all conservative media figures and include:
Year in review: Libs of Tik Tok top 3 highlights of 2021: 1. Contributed to the removal of FIVE bad teachers from schools ?? 2. Four shoutouts (plus a dm) from Joe Rogan ? 3. Got fact checked by Snopes on a sarcastic tweet ?
In 2022, software developer Travis Brown revealed that the Twitter account used for Libs of TikTok had used the screen names @shaya69830552, then @shaya_ray. Raichik used @chayaraichik until late February 2021, and that name appears on the libsoftiktok.us domain registration.
According to the Washington Post, Raichik claimed to have attended the January 6 protests:
In January 2021, Raichik started talking about traveling to D.C. to support Trumpon Jan. 6 at the Stop the Steal rally. When violence broke out at the Capitol that day, she tweeted a play-by-play account claiming to be on the ground. âThey were rubber bullets from law enforcement. 1 hit right next to me,â she said. She posted videos from the crowd and spoke of tear gas being deployed nearby. After saying she left the riot, she used Twitter to downplay the event, claiming that it was peaceful compared to a âBLM protest.â
Began posting “a lot about the LGBTQIABCD… community” specifically targeting trans and nonbinary people
Raichik credits Joe Rogan with helping the account grow after he began promoting the channel in June 2021
Began targeting teachers supportive of LGBTQ rights
Began calling people supportive of LGBTQ youth “groomers”
Began attacking drag events, especially those with young people present or participating
Began attacking specific medical professionals, their employers, and their facilities.
In April 2022, Raichik said, “Whenever we have a big victory through my account, like a crazy groomer teacher being fired, it really fires me up a lot.”
The next day, The Washington Post profiled the site and confirmed Raichik’s name. Raichik announced a monetizing plan via Substack:
Substack has become the platform of choice for “hate actors,” said Center for Countering Digital Hate CEO Ahmed, because the company and its leaders fail to enforce the rules and guidelines that it sets to keep the platform safe.
That week, Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon announced that he had personally made a deal with Raichik âthat will turn her heroic, high-risk work into a career.â
Bans and suspensions
TikTok account
permanently banned in March 2022
Twitter account
temporarily suspended on April 13, 2022 for promoting “violence, threats or harassment against others based on their sexual orientation or other factors such as race or gender,” reinstated
temporarily suspended on August 27, 2022, for “hateful conduct,” reinstated
Instagram account
automatically suspended on May 27 for multiple copyright complaints, reinstated
Facebook account
suspended on August 17 for one day “in error,” reinstated
Attacks on Jewish children’s camps
In 2022, Raichik began a “social media offensive” against Camp Ramah for their gender-inclusive policy. Camp Ramah is a network of summer overnight camps and day camps affiliated with Conservative Judaism. Camp leadership responded, “We are in contact with our security partners out of an abundance of caution.”
Attacks on Christian children’s camps
In 2022, Raichik posted an attack on Camp Akita, a nondenominational Christian camp in Ohio, for its gender-inclusive policies. The camp is affiliated with First Community Church, part of The United Church of Christ and The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Staffers have not responded publicly to the attack.
Attacks on drag and pride events
Raichik frequently posts about scheduled events featuring drag performers at libraries and other public locations, as well as drag performances at restaurants and entertainment venues. In several instances, the events were then protested, disrupted, or cancelled outright due to potential violence.
Attacks on children’s hospitals
Raichik began targeting Boston Children’s Hospital, an early innovator in trans health services for young people. Threats quickly followed:
According to VICE and other mainstream media outlets, doctors and other hospital staff are now receiving death threats. The Hospital confirmed that they are receiving a âlarge volume of hostile internet activity, phone calls and harassing emails including threats of violence toward our clinicians and staff.â
Raichik, Matt Walsh, Chris Rufo, and other anti-trans activists immediately began dismissing the threats to this and other targeted hospitals as fake news.
On September 15, the FBI announced the first arrest in connection to the threats. Catherine Leavy, a 37-year-old from Westfield, Massachusetts admitted that calling Boston Children’s Hospital on August 30, 2022, and made the threat, âThere is a bomb on the way to the hospital. You better evacuate everybody. You sickos.â Leavey made over 200 contributions to conservative causes since 2016, including former President Trumpâs Campaign, MAGA PACs and other Republican campaigns.
FBI Boston Special-Agent-in-Charge Joseph Bonavolonta said:
In recent months, Boston Childrenâs Hospital has been the subject of sustained harassment related to the airing of grievances pertaining to services they provide to gender-diverse and transgender individuals and their families. This has caused a huge amount of angst, alarm and unnecessary expenditure of limited law enforcement resources. Specifically, the hospital has received dozens of hoax threats, including harassing phone calls and emails, individual death threats and threats of mass-casualty attacks. This behavior is nothing short of reprehensible, and it needs to stop now. The real victims in this case are the hospitalâs patients. Children with rare diseases, complex conditions and those seeking emergency care who had to divert to other hospitals because of these hoax threats. Threatening the life of anyone who seeks any type of health service is a heinous act and will not be tolerated.
Following the success of these attacks, Raichik began targeting other children’s hospitals and providers.
In 2022, Raichik appeared on Tucker Carlson Today and revealed that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis offered Raichik the guest house at the Governor’s mansion in response to Raichik’s self-outing in public public posts. New Twitter owner Elon Musk began reinstating anti-trans accounts and liking Raichik’s transphobic posts, adding to the surge in transphobic content on Twitter.
In 2024, Taylor Lorenz reported that Raichik was using “anti-woke” job board RedBalloon to hire an investigative journalist.
References
Lorenz, Taylor (November 1, 2024). LibsofTikTok is hiring an investigative journalist to launder her hate campaigns.User Mag https://www.usermag.co/p/libsoftiktok-is-hiring-an-investigative?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=3238&post_id=150807866&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=1mn67&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
Staff report (December 12, 2022). The artificial growth of hate speech. Chuds of TikTok https://chudsoftiktok.substack.com/p/the-artificial-growth-of-hate-speech
“Libs of TikTok is a popular anti-LGBTQ+ twitter account operated by former real estate agent Chaya Raichik. The account, which has over 1.3 million followers as of August 2022, attempts to generate outrage and stoke anti-LGBTQ+ hostility by reposting selected out-of-context social media content created by LGBTQ+ people and liberals. The individuals, events and organizations targeted by the account are frequent targets of harassment, threats and violence.”
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
Rod Dreher is a conservative American author who frequently publishes anti-transgender articles. The Guardian writer Jason Wilson stated that Dreher “appears to view fomenting transgender panic more as a vocation than a job.”
Background
Raymond Oliver Dreher, Jr. was born February 14, 1967 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Dreher’s eponymous parent was a leader in the Ku Klux Klan and was involved in local politics through those connections.
The younger Dreher earned a bachelor’s degree from Louisiana State University in 1989. Dreher was a media critic for The Washington Times and New York Post before becoming an editor for the National Review. Dreher has also written for, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Weekly Standard, and theWall Street Journal. Dreher has appeared on NPR’s All Things Considered, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, and Court TV.
Dreher married Julie Harris Dreher in 1997. They began divorce procedings in 2022, and Dreher moved to Budapest, Hungary.
The American Conservative
Dreher was a contributor to the American Conservative from 2008 to 2023. Dreher’s salary was covered by Howard Ahmanson, Jr., and Dreher’s work had no editorial oversight.
According to Vanity Fair, the arrangement began to unravel in 2021, when Dreher published a vivid description of a black elementary school classmate’s uncircumcised penis: “All us boys wanted to stare at his primitive root wiener when we were at the urinal during recess, because it was monstrous.” Two years later, Ahmanson had enough:
Some of Dreherâs commentary on the gay and transgender communities also proved off-putting to Ahmanson, such as his lurid musings on anal sex, rectal bleeding, and the âpartially rotted offâ nose of a gay man who contracted monkeypox. âAt some point, he basically decided, ‘This is too weird,ââ the source, paraphrasing Ahmanson, explained to me. ââI donât want to read this or pay for this anymore.ââ
Dreher advocates for the “Benedict Option,” where conservative Christians segregate from sex and gender minorities via intentional communities.
Dreher, Rod (January 6, 2023). How GOP Helped Big Trans Conquer South Dakota.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/how-gop-helped-big-trans-conquer-south-dakota/
Dreher, Rod (October 18, 2022). Trans Propaganda, Blue And Red.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trans-propaganda-blue-and-red/
Dreher, Rod (October 4, 2022). Trans Tyranny: The Dangerous New Phase.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trans-tyranny-the-dangerous-new-phase/
Dreher, Rod (August 16, 2022). Trans Totalitarianism: Time For Moral Panic.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trans-totalitarianism-time-for-moral-panic/
Dreher, Rod (April 13, 2022). Building Trans America.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/building-trans-america-children-transgender/
Dreher, Rod (March 11, 2022). This Diabolical Moment.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/this-diabolical-moment-cbdc-transgender/
Dreher, Rod (January 27, 2021). The Tyranny Of Tech & Trans.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/tyranny-of-tech-and-trans/
Dreher, Rod (December 18, 2019). The Trojan Horse Of Gender Ideology.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trojan-horse-gender-ideology/
Dreher, Rod (March 1, 2019). Trans Through A Teacherâs Eyes.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/trans-through-a-teachers-eyes/
Dreher, Rod (July 11, 2018). Truscum, Tucutes, and Kelpselves.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/transgender-truscum-tucutes-kelpselves/
Dreher, Rod (March 19, 2018). Peak Trans, Part II.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/peak-trans-part-ii/
Dreher, Rod (March 7, 2018). âPeak Transâ Turned Her Rightward.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/peak-trans-turned-her-rightward/
Dreher, Rod (November 8, 2017). Leaving The Trans Cult.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/leaving-the-transgender-cult/
Dreher, Rod (August 26, 2016). How To Fight The Trans Cult.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/how-to-fight-the-trans-cult/
Dreher, Rod (August 10, 2016). The Cult Of Transgender.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/the-cult-of-transgender/
Dreher, Rod (May 11, 2016). Texas Schools Go Trans.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/texas-schools-go-trans/
Dreher, Rod (March 18, 2016). Transgenderism Hurts Children.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/transgenderism-hurts-children/
Books
Dreher, Rod (2020). Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents
Dreher, Rod (2017). The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation
Dreher, Rod (2015). How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life-Changing Wisdom of History’s Greatest Poem
Dreher, Rod (2013). The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a Good Life
Dreher, Rod (2006). Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, Gun-Loving Organic Gardeners, Evangelical Free-Range Farmers, Hip Homeschooling Mamas, Right-Wing Nature Lovers, and Their Diverse Tribe of Countercultural Conservatives Plan to Save America (Or at Least the Republican Party)
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.”
One of the bloggers at âAlternative Rightâ is Richard Hoste, who recently wrote that âlow-IQ Mexican immigration is the greatest threat to America.â He also wrote: âSchools 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.â Finally, Hoste had this pithy observation: âWhile thereâs more miscegenation [interracial sex] than in the past ⊠we should be heartened that white teenage girls arenât passing themselves around in black neighborhoods.â
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 âRichard Hosteâ in the early 2010s to write articles where he identified himself as a ârace realist.â He expressed support for eugenics and the forced sterilization of âlow IQâ people, who he argued were most often Black. He opposed âmiscegenationâ and ârace-mixing.â And once, while arguing that Black people cannot govern themselves, he cited the neo-Nazi author of âThe Turner Diaries,â the infamous novel that celebrates a future race war.
“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 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/
Accuracy in Media (AIM) is a conservative American media watchdog organization that monitors and reports on media issues. They frequently attack media coverage they consider supportive of trans topics.
Background
AIM was founded in 1969 by Reed Irvine and has several programs critical of what they consider liberal news bias.
Anti-trans activism
AIM has conducted undercover investigations in several school districts, particularly in Texas, exposing administrators advising parents how to sidestep state laws that require trans athletes to compete in sports based on their biological sex. In one video, a school official suggested that presenting a modified out-of-state birth certificate could allow a transgender girl to join girlsâ sports teams, despite Texasâ âSave Womenâs Sports Act.â This investigation even prompted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to launch a formal probe into the districts involved.
AIM argues that school administrators are coaching parents to withhold or conceal a childâs sex assogned at birth and use altered birth certificates. In Ohio, they recorded a counselor instructing âparentsâ (undercover AIM operatives) to keep the childâs original birth certificate secret from the school system.
AIM frames these practices as part of âtransgender ideologyâ that represents a radical activism undermining existing laws and parental authority. Their tone suggests that such policies are driven by ideological zeal that deliberately flouts legal boundaries.
As a result of AIMâs investigations, they have triggered real legal and administrative consequences. In Texas, an exposed administrator resigned following the report. In Ohio, their undercover footage of school officials advising how to evade gender-based sports restrictions led to a Title IX complaint being filed with the U.S. Departments of Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services.
Reed Irvine Award
They also bestow an annual Reed Irvine Award to media figures whose work promotes conservative viewpoints in the media, including many prominent anti-trans media figures.
Recipients include:
Jeanine Pirro
Chris Plante
Rep. Lamar Smith (R.-Texas)
Bill Gertz
Glenn Harlan Reynolds
Catherine Herridge
Jim Hoft
Sharyl Attkisson
Dana Loesch
U.S. Navy Capt. Charles Rozier
Tucker Carlson
Kenneth R. Timmerman
Andrew Breitbart
Marc Morano
M. Stanton Evans
Karl S. Denninger
Lee Edwards
Michelle Malkin
Mark M. Alexander
Harry MacDougald
Paul Boley
In 2018 AIM announced a rating system to assess news as accurate, debatable, misleading, clear bias, and “fake news.”
Paul Embery is a British firefighter and union leader who frequently makes anti-transgender comments. Embery has written for anti-trans group blogs UnHerd, The The Spectator, Spiked, and Compact.
Background
Embery was born and raised in Dagenham. Embery served as a firefighter in London. Embery won a case after being dismissed from his union for supporting Brexit. In 2020, Embery published Despised: Why the Modern Left Loathes the Working Class.
Anti-transgender activism
Embery’s central thesis is that the Labour Party has abandoned workers in favor of “trans rights” and other social issues:
It has over recent years become blindingly apparent that only a handful in the party ever venture to discuss these sorts of macroeconomic questions. Matters of employment, growth and prosperity can jolly well take their place behind the campaign for trans rights and Palestine in the queue of priorities.
As it happens, the publication of the report coincided with the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. You can guess which took precedence on the Twitter feeds of Labour MPs during those 24 hours.
Embery has made a number of anti-trans statements.
In 2017 Embery wrote on Twitter, “There’s something Orwellian about allowing someone to insert a lie on their birth certificate & forcing society to accept the lie as truth.”
Embery added, “Coming next: short people may identify as tall, fat people may identify as thin, and ugly people may pretend to be George Clooney.”
In 2022 Embery quoted a Spikedarticle by Brendan O’Neill titled “Eddie Izzard was born male and he will die male,” then said, “Pretty much sums it up.”
In 2023, Embery denied the UK’s relentless attacks on trans people, writing, “There is no âwarâ on trans people. There is simply resistance to increasingly strident and unscientific demands.”
Lindsay Shepherd is a Canadian writer and anti-transgender activist. Shepherd is part of the so-called intellectual dark web, described as a gateway to the far right.
Background
Lindsay Shepherd was born on December 7, 1994 and grew up in Burnaby, British Columbia. Shepherd earned a bachelor’s degree form Simon Fraser University, followed by a master’s degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2018.
Shepherd was called into a meeting with administrators after a student complaint, and Shepherd’s supervisor agreed to review Shepherd’s future class materials. Shepherd secretly recorded the meeting and released it to the press, which led to apologies from Shepherd’s supervisor and the college president. The university opened an independent inquiry that found no wrongdoing by Shepherd. The incident led to lawsuits by Shepherd and Peterson, as well as countersuits against Shepherd.
Shepherd appeared in the 2019 film No Safe Spaces to discuss the incident.
The Boston Heraldidentified Shepherd as a member of the intellectual dark web. Praising “intellectually curious podcast hosts like Dave Rubin and Joe Rogan,” the anonymous editorial lists “victims of these progressive mobs”:
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is an American civil rights organization. They have been involved in fighting anti-transgender activism for decades through litigation, legislation, and education.
Background
Lawyers Morris Dees and Joe Levin incorporated SPLC in 1971, and activist Julian Bond was named the first president. They brought many lawsuits that confronted discrimination and hate in the South. Their work made them targets of threats and violence; their headquarters was firebombed in 1983 and destroyed.
In the 1990s, SPLC launched Teaching Tolerance (now Learning for Justice). It provides classroom materials on civil rights history and issues. In 2010 I participated in SPLCâs classroom film Bullied, about gay student Jamie Naboznyâs federal case against the local school district, which failed to protect himNabozny from homophobic harassment and assault.
Their Intelligence Project monitors hate groups and anti-government groups, including anti-LGBTQ hate groups.
In SPLCâs work for LGBTQ rights, they
Challenge gay-to-straight âconversion therapyâ as fraudulent;
Obtain equal government benefits for veterans;
Protect LGBTQ children from violence and harassment in school;
Ensure the parental rights of LGBTQ people;
Protect the right to proper medical treatment and safe housing for transgender prisoners;
Force states to recognize the rights of same-sex couples; and
Protect the First Amendment rights of LGBTQ students.
Stedfast Baptist Church (Fort Worth, Texas & Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)
Strong Hold Baptist Church (Norcross, Georgia)
Sure Foundation Baptist Church (Seattle, Vancouver, & Spokane Valley, Washington)
Tom Brown Ministries (El Paso, Texas)
True Light Pentecost Church (Spartanburg, South Carolina)
United Families International (Gilbert, Arizona)
Verity Baptist Church (Sacramento, California)
Warriors for Christ (Mount Juliet, Tennessee)
Westboro Baptist Church (Topeka, Kansas)
World Congress of Families/International Organization for the Family (Rockford, Illinois)
2023 CAPTAIN report
In 2023, SPLC released a report titled Combating Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience Through Accessible Informative Narratives (CAPTAIN). It traces the origins of 21st-century anti-transgender extremism.
Pamela Paul is an American writer and anti-transgender activist who laundered anti-trans extremism into the New York Times until 2025. Paul then joined the Wall Street Journal and continued writing anti-trans pieces.
While editor of The New York Times Book Review, Paul hired anti-trans activist Jesse Singal to write a glowing review of anti-trans activist Helen Joyce’s book Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, helping spark a newsroom crisis about anti-trans coverage that culminated in 2023. The day after the crisis reached its peak, Paul published a piece defending anti-trans activist J.K. Rowling.
Paul has published many opinion columns for the Times repeating anti-trans talking points and defending other anti-trans activists.
Background
Pamela Lindsey Paul was born on March 2, 1971. Paul graduated from Brown University, then was an editor at American Demographics. Paul’s first marriage to conservative Times columnist Bret Stephens ended in 1998. Paul married hedge fund manager Michael Stern in 2004.
Paul has authored several books.
New York Times
Paul was named children’s book editor of The New York Times Book Review in 2011 and editor in 2013. Paul became an opinion columnist at the Times in 2022. Maris Kreizman wrote: “Looking at the Opinion section and once again marveling over the fact that this terrible, hackneyed, boring writer was once the most important person in all of book publishing.”
Patrick Ness says the original line of a review said âThe culture wars have come for your transgender children.â The Times made Ness change it to something “less political.” A Times spokesperson later said Paul was not involved.
Erik Hane wrote: “As Pamela Paul starts churning out low-effort reactionary garbage piece and after piece in her new job in the op-ed section, spare a thought for how this person may have affected the NYT Books section she ran for many years.”
I think that weâre entering a period when the most meaningful political distinction will be fascist and anti-fascist. Itâs really important to understand that transphobia is one of the most potent entry points to fascism today – and act accordingly.
The novel The Men by Sandra Newman is one of many sci-fi works in which all men or all women suddenly disappear. The concept can easily steer toward anti-trans sentiments, and some objected to Newman’s book. Paul defended Newman with a lot of anti-trans dogwhistles:
But apparently Newman got too creative â or too real â for some. That a fictional world would assert the salience of biological sex, however fanciful the context, was enough to upset a vocal number of transgender activists online. They would argue that âmenâ is a cultural category to which anyone can choose to belong, as opposed to âmaleness,â which is defined by genetics and biology.
In this case, we can set aside contentious questions around gender identity and transgender politics. Even if you donât believe the sex binary is as fundamental to human beings as it is to all other mammals, a fiction writer ought to be free to imagine her own universe, whether as utopian ideal, dystopian horror or some complicated vision in between.
In another piece, Paul claims these anti-trans views are a middle ground or a centrist political position. Rather than seeing reproductive rights and bodily autonomy as a shared goal of trans people and pro-choice activists, Paul sees trans people as engaging in “erasure” of women by proposing inclusive and value-neutral language around reproduction. Paul describes “female biological function,” meaning reproductive function and reduces women to their reproductive function and organs in order to exclude trans women.
Women, of course, have been accommodating. Theyâve welcomed transgender women into their organizations. Theyâve learned that to propose any space just for biological women in situations where the presence of males can be threatening or unfair â rape crisis centers, domestic abuse shelters, competitive sports â is currently viewed by some as exclusionary. If there are other marginalized people to fight for, itâs assumed women will be the ones to serve other peopleâs agendas rather than promote their own.
Daniel Froomkin notes that Paul builds on the anti-trans work of other Times writers, including Emily Bazelon, Michael Powell, and Anemona Hartocollis.
Both-sidesing would have been a step up for this column, which devoted only 52 words out of 1,300 to the rightâs decades-long campaign to strip women of their rights. The rest was about how âthe fringe leftâ is âjumping in with its own perhaps unintentionally but effectively misogynist agenda.â
The central thesis of Paulâs argument was an exaggerated summary of a scaremongering news article from last month by Michael Powell, one of the two star reporters the Times has assigned to the woke-panic/cancel-culture beat âthe other being Anemona Hartocollis, who just a few days ago gave us this already infamous piece of soft-focus cancel porn.
Powell, Paul wrote, had concluded that âthe word âwomenâ has become verboten.â
This conspiracy has become known as “Pamela Paul’s great replacement theory,” which Melissa Gira Grant described as “lightly laundered anti-trans propaganda, presented as a sensible centrist argument.”
2024 column on the ex-trans movement
Paul continued promoting anti-trans talking points in 2024 with a piece on the ex-trans movement. Activists cited included:
In defending Paul, Opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury defended the disproportionate number of anti-trans articles the section publishes by citing three articles that are purportedly not anti-trans:
Given the state legislative fights over trans Americans and their civil liberties and access to medical and psychological care, we have published many columns and guest essays from health professionals and activists on issues affecting trans people, as well as a focus group last year hearing from trans Americans about their lives.
Since the ex-trans movement is a single-digit minority, the next 90+ articles should be on gender diverse youth who have benefited from the care that is the current US medical consensus.
2025 article on the LGB separatist movement
In a Wall Street Journal piece, Paul promoted a number of key figures in the LGB separatist movement. Paul reportedly conducted “more than three dozen in-depth interviews with gay men, lesbian women, bisexuals and transgender people.” Paul mentioned or links to LGB Alliance, Ben Appel, The Homoarchy, John Boyne, Arielle Scarcella, Ronan McCrea, Jose Arango, Ann Menasche, Arianne Geringer, and Nevline Nnaji. Paul also mentions politician Seth Moulton, who was criticized after suggesting Democrats revise their positions on trans issues.
While Lambda Legal and the Trevor Project chose not to participate, Barney Frank and Cathy Renna were presented for “balance.”
Paul also includes conservative trans people Brianna Wu and “Stefan,” author of the blog Gender Crossroads.
Fischer, Molly (January 24, 2023). The rules according to Pamela Paul. The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/the-rules-according-to-pamela-paul
Fedorov, Andrew; Krichevsky, Sophie (August 18, 2022). What Is Pamela Paul Thinking?The Fine Print https://thefineprintnyc.com/article/pamela-paul-biography-career/
Grant, Melissa Gira (July 6, 2022). Pamela Paulâs Great Replacement Theory. The New Republic https://newrepublic.com/article/166991/pamela-paul-new-york-times-trans-great-replacement-theory
Finnegan, Leah (May 23, 2022). Pamela Paul is the new worst columnist at the New York Times. Gawker https://www.gawker.com/media/pamela-paul-is-the-new-worst-columnist-at-the-new-york-times [archive]
