Dan Carlin is an American podcaster and author considered by some to be part of the intellectual dark web.
Carlin has been conspicuously silent on the historic civil rights struggle of trans and gender diverse people.
Background
Daniel “Dan” Carlin was born November 14, 1965 to parents involved in film and TV production. Carlin earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Colorado, Boulder in 1989. Carlin worked as a journalist in Los Angeles.
Carlin began podcasting in 2005, eventually hosting three shows: Hardcore History, Hardcore History: Addendum, and Common Sense.
Intellectual dark web
Analysis of the DanCarlin subreddit suggests that the connection to the intellectual dark web is weak.
Carlin has been a frequent guest on The Joe Rogan Experience. Nicholas Quah stated in Vulture that both “possess politics that can be fairly hard to describe, but typically run counter to the dominant strings of liberal politics.”Â
In addition to connections to Joe Rogan, Carlin has collaborated with Bill Maher, Sam Harris, and Tim Ferriss
References
Beres, Derek (March 5, 2018). These are the women behind the Intellectual Dark Web. Big Think https://bigthink.com/culture-religion/these-are-the-women-behind-the-intellectual-dark-web/
Quah, Nicholas (November 17, 2020). The Rise of Right-Wing Podcasts Is Upon Us. Vulture https://www.vulture.com/2020/11/rise-of-right-wing-podcasting.html
Mountjoy, Anthony (Jun 6, 2018). Crawling The Intellectual Dark Web. Verboten Publishing https://medium.com/verboten-publishing/deep-data-of-the-intellectual-dark-web-5c323ee782b4
Media
Lex Fridman (November 2, 2020) Dan Carlin: Hardcore History | Lex Fridman Podcast #136. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-k-ztNsBM54
Resources
Dan Carlin (dancarlin.com)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Twitter (twitter.com)
YouTube (youtube.com)
Patreon (patreon.com)
Substack (substack.com)
reddit (reddit.com)
Andrea Long Chu is an American writer and critic whose work frequently focuses on sex and gender.
Chu won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2023.
Background
Chu was born in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1992 and grew up in a Christian household in Asheville, North Carolina. Chu earned a bachelor’s degree from Duke University in 2014 and a master’s degree from New York University in 2016.
Chu has written numerous book reviews and interviewed many notable public figures.
Writing on sex and gender
Much of Chu’s work is deliberately provocative. In 2018, Chu presented two works on sissy subculture and wrote an opinion piece for the New York Times titled “My New Vagina Wonât Make Me Happy.”
The thesis for Chu’s 2019 book Females is that “everyone is female and everyone hates it.”
Whoâs Afraid of Gender? review (2024)
In 2024, Chu reviewed Whoâs Afraid of Gender? by Judith Butler in New York Magazine. Chu gives an excellent overview of the influence of Butler’s work on transgender rights. The piece is also notable for tracing the recent history of the anti-transgender movement. It lays part of the blame on those who embrace disease models of our community: “We must be able to defend this desire clearly, directly, and â crucially â without depending on the idea of gender.”
Chu notes the same tipping point in anti-trans activism that many trans people immediately noted:
In 2018, The Atlantic published a long cover story by the reporter Jesse Singal called âWhen Children Say Theyâre Trans,â focusing on the clinical disagreements over how to treat gender-questioning youth. The story provided a template for the coverage that would follow it. First, it took what was threatening to become a social issue, hence a question of rights, and turned it back into a medical issue, hence a question of evidence; it then quietly suggested that since the evidence was debatable, so were the rights.
Chu (2024)
Chu identifies three groups that compose the anti-trans bloc in America today:
- the religious right
- gender critical feminists (TERFs)
- trans-agnostic reactionary liberals (TARLs)
Chu notes that the key outlet for the third group is the New York Times:
The Times is not alone; it is one of many respectable publications, including The Atlantic and The Economist, engaged in sanitizing the ideas promoted by TARLs in the more reactionary corners of the media landscape. Here one finds journalists like Singal, Matthew Yglesias, Matt Taibbi, Andrew Sullivan, Helen Lewis, Meghan Daum, and, of course, former Times staffer Bari Weiss. Many of these writers live in self-imposed exile on Substack, the newsletter platform, where they present themselves as brave survivors of cancellation by the woke elites. But they are not a marginal force.
Chu (2024)
We will never be able to defend the rights of transgender kids until we understand them purely on their own terms: as full members of society who would like to change their sex. It does not matter where this desire comes from. When the TARL insinuates again and again that the sudden increase of trans-identified youth is âunexplained,â he is trying to bait us into thinking trans rights lie just on the other side of a good explanation.
Chu (2024)
I am speaking here of a universal birthright: the freedom of sex. This freedom consists of two principal rights: the right to change oneâs biological sex without appealing to gender and the right to assume a gender that is not determined by oneâs sexual biology. One might exercise both of these rights toward a common goal â transition, for instance â but neither can be collapsed into the other.
Chu (2024)
Selected publications
Chu AL (March 11, 2024). Freedom of Sex: The moral case for letting trans kids change their bodies. New York https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/trans-rights-biological-sex-gender-judith-butler.html
- Coleman, Madeleine Leung (March 15, 2024). Gender Identity Is Not Enough, [interview about Chu’s piece] The Critics / New York https://nymag.com/newsletter/2024/03/the-critics-march-15-2024.html
Chu AL (2019). The Impossibility of Feminism. differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 30, no. 1 (Spring 2019). https://doi.org/10.1215/10407391-7481232
Chu, Andrea Long (May 1, 2019). The Impossibility of Feminism. Differences. 30 (1): 63â81. https://doi.org/10.1215/10407391-7481232
Chu AL (November 24, 2018). My New Vagina Wonât Make Me Happy. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/24/opinion/sunday/vaginoplasty-transgender-medicine.html
Chu AL (November 5, 2018). No One Wants It. Affidavit https://www.affidavit.art/articles/no-one-wants-it
Chu AL (2018). On Liking Women. n+1 30 (Winter 2018): 47â62. https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-30/essays/on-liking-women/
Chu AL (2018). Did Sissy Porn Make Me Trans? Queer Disruptions 2 Columbia University, New York, NY March 1â2, 2018.
Chu AL (2018). Pornographic Spectatorship, or, Did Sissy Porn Make Me Trans? 2018 annual meeting of the American Comparative Literature Association UCLA, Los Angeles, CA March 29âApril 1, 2018.
Chu AL (2017). The Wrong Wrong Body: Notes on Trans Phenomenology. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 4, no. 1 (February 2017): 141â52. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-3711613
References
Emre, Merve (January 30, 2024). I Want a Critic: Andrea Long Chu, interviewed by Merve Emre. The New York Review https://www.nybooks.com/online/2024/01/30/i-want-critic-andrea-long-chu-merve-emre/
Staff report (October 27, 2021). Andrea Long Chu Joins New York Magazine as Book Critic. New York Press Room. https://nymag.com/press/2021/10/andrea-long-chu-joins-new-york-magazine-as-book-critic.html
Lorusso, Melissa (30 October 2019). In ‘Females,’ The State Is Less A Biological Condition Than An Existential One. NPR https://www.npr.org/2019/10/30/774365692/in-females-the-state-is-less-a-biological-condition-than-an-existential-one
Shapiro, Lila (October 16, 2019). Andrea Long Chu Wants More. Vulture https://www.vulture.com/2019/10/andrea-long-chu-on-her-debut-book-females.html
Thom, Kai Cheng (November 29, 2018). The Painâand Joyâof Transition. Slate https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/11/andrea-long-chu-new-york-times-criticism-response-transgender.html
Blanchard, Sessi Kuwabara (September 11, 2018). Andrea Long Chu is the Cult Writer Changing Gender Theory. Vice https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/ev74m7/andrea-long-chu-interview-avital-ronell-gender
O’Brien, Michelle Esther (November 2, 2018). Interview with Andrea Long Chu. New York Public Library Community Oral History Project. http://oralhistory.nypl.org/interviews/andrea-long-chu-lpf5er
Resources
Andrea Long Chu (andrealongchu.com)
The Pulitzer Prizes (pulitzer.org)
Twitter (twitter.com)
New York University (nyu.edu)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Kathleen Kingsbury is an American editor responsible for the surge in anti-transgender opinion pieces in the New York Times during the 2020s. Kingsbury is also responsible for giving columns and space to staunch anti-trans activists like David French and Pamela Paul.
No transgender journalist has appeared on the New York Times masthead since its founding in 1851. In 2023 the San Francisco Chronicle cited a Times employee who said the organization has no trans reporters.
Background
Kathleen “Katie” Kingsbury was born in 1979 and grew up in Portland, Oregon. Kingsbury earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in 2001.
Kingsbury was a reporter at Metro Boston for a year, then a research assistant at Tufts University for a year. Kingsbury earned a master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University in 2004. In 2004 Kingsbury worked at CNN and Time before working as a stringer for a year at BusinessWeek.
From 2009-2010, Kingsbury was a contributing writer at The Daily Beast, then served as a program officer at Open Society Foundations for a year. From 2009 to 2014 Kingsbury wrote for Reuters and Time. Kingsbury joined the editorial team at the Boston Globe, moving into management roles from 2013 to 2017. Kingsbury joined the New York Times editorial page team in 2017 and was promoted to Editorial Page Editor in 2020.
Criticism by journalism watchdog FAIR
Opinion page editor Kathleen Kingsbury (4/26/21) once wrote of the Times Opinion team, âWe have our thumb on our scale in the name of progress, fairness and shared humanity.â In this political moment, when control over trans lives has become an increasingly central political and legal debate, and with no trans writers among their stable of columnists or contributing writers, the Paper of Record is paying a cisgender white woman to regularly voice anti-trans arguments. Their thumb is on the scale, all rightâbut not in the way Kingsbury would like us to believe.
Hollar (2022)
2023 response to over 1,000 trans-supportive colleagues
On February 15, 2023, over 1,000 New York Times contributors signed an open letter objecting to the Times’ increasingly hostile coverage of transgender issues.
On the same day, GLAAD delivered a second letter and organized a protest in front of Times headquarters.
Kingsbury chose to publish a piece by anti-trans activist Pamela Paul defending anti-trans activist J.K. Rowling the very next day.
The next day, Executive Editor Joe Kahn and Kingsbury warned their colleagues they were violating company policy. Their warning conflates the two letters and dismisses the ethical concerns of their colleagues as “advocacy.”
Colleagues,
Yesterday, the New York Times received a letter delivered by GLAAD, an advocacy group, criticizing coverage in The Times of transgender issues.
It is not unusual for outside groups to critique our coverage or to rally supporters to seek to influence our journalism. In this case, however, members of our staff and contributors to The Times joined the effort. Their protest letter included direct attacks on several of our colleagues, singling them out by name.
Participation in such a campaign is against the letter and spirit of our ethics policy. That policy prohibits our journalists from aligning themselves with advocacy groups and joining protest actions on matters of public policy. We also have a clear policy prohibiting Times journalists from attacking one another’s journalism publicly or signaling their support for such attacks.
Our coverage of transgender issues, including specific pieces singled out for attack, is important, deeply reported, and sensitively written. The journalists who produced those stories nonetheless have endured months of attacks, harassment and threats. The letter also ignores The Timesâ strong commitment to covering all aspects of transgender issues, including the life experience of transgender people and the prejudice and violence against them in our society. A full list of our coverage can be viewed here, and any review shows that the allegations this group is making are demonstrably false.
We realize these are difficult issues that profoundly affect many colleagues personally, including some colleagues who are themselves transgender. We have welcomed and will continue to invite discussion, criticism and robust debate about our coverage. Even when we don’t agree, constructive criticism from colleagues who care, delivered respectfully and through the right channels, strengthens our report.
We do not welcome, and will not tolerate, participation by Times journalists in protests organized by advocacy groups or attacks on colleagues on social media and other public forums.
We live in an era when journalists regularly come under fire for doing solid and essential work. We are committed to protecting and supporting them. Their work distinguishes this institution, and makes us proud.
Joe & Katie
2024 piece justifying another Pamela Paul article
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.
Kingsbury (2024)
Since the ex-trans movement is a single-digit minority, Kingsbury’s next 90+ greenlit articles should be on gender diverse youth who have benefited from the care that is the current US medical consensus.
References
Ho, Soliel (August 31, 2023). Inside the New York Timesâ trans coverage: âI wonder if people at the top fully believe in trans peopleâs humanityâ San Francisco Chronicle https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/article/new-york-times-trans-18214925.php
Hollar, Julie (December 16, 2022). Pamela Paulâs Gender Agenda. FAIR https://fair.org/home/pamela-pauls-gender-agenda/
Reilly, Patrick (February 15, 2023). New York Times accused of âeditorial biasâ in coverage of transgender issues. New York Post https://nypost.com/2023/02/15/new-york-times-blasted-for-editorial-bias-in-transgender-coverage/
Bolies, Corbin (March 7, 2023). The New York Timesâ Trans Coverage Debacle Was Years in the Making. The Daily Beast https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-new-york-times-trans-coverage-debacle-was-years-in-the-making
Bolies, Corbin; Cartwright, Lachlan (February 16, 2023). New York Times blasts staffers who condemned paperâs trans coverage. The Daily Beast https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-york-times-blast-staffers-who-condemned-papers-trans-coverage
Eckert, AJ. What the New York Times gets wrong about puberty blockers for transgender youth. Science-Based Medicine https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/what-the-new-york-times-gets-wrong-about-puberty-blockers-for-transgender-youth/
USPATH and WPATH respond to NY Times article “They Paused Puberty, But Is There a Cost? published on November 14, 2022 (PDF). https://www.wpath.org/media/cms/Documents/Public%20Policies/2022/USPATHWPATH%20Statement%20re%20Nov%2014%202022%20NYT%20Article%20Nov%2022%202022.pdf
Urquhart, Evan (November 17, 2022). The NYT’s big piece on puberty blockers mucked up the most important point about them. Slate https://slate.com/technology/2022/11/puberty-blockers-side-effects-controversy.html
Oladipo, Gloria (February 18, 2023). Nearly 1,000 contributors protest New York Times’ coverage of trans people. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/feb/17/new-york-times-contributors-open-letter-protest-anti-trans-coverage
Migdon, Brooke (February 15, 2023). NYT contributors blast paper’s coverage of transgender people. The Hill. https://thehill.com/homenews/media/3859501-nyt-contributors-blast-papers-coverage-of-transgender-people/
Yurcaba, Jo (February 16, 2023). N.Y. Times contributors and LGBTQ advocates send open letters criticizing paper’s trans coverage. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/ny-contributors-lgbtq-advocates-send-open-letters-criticizing-papers-t-rcna70800
Paul, Larisha (February 15, 2023). Gabrielle Union, Tommy Dorfman, more accuse NYT of ‘Harmful’ coverage of trans people. Rolling Stone. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/new-york-times-coverage-of-trans-people-open-letter-1234680299/
Kalish, Lil. These New York Times contributors say the paper’s coverage of gender issues is hurting trans people. BuzzFeed News. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/lilkalish/trans-writers-open-letter-nyt-biased-coverage
Hays, Gabriel (February 15, 2023). Celebs rip into New York Times for ‘irresponsible’ transgender coverage: Demand end to ‘both sides’ focus. Fox News. https://www.foxnews.com/media/celebs-rip-new-york-times-irresponsible-transgender-coverage-demand-end-both-sides-focus
Dunlap, David W. (June 19, 2017). How The Times gave ‘gay’ its own voice (again). The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331.
Klein, Charlotte (February 15, 2023). Nearly 200 New York Times contributors are denouncing the paper’s anti-trans coverage. Vanity Fair. https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/02/new-york-times-trans-coverage
Davies, Rachel (February 16, 2023). The NYT knew what it was doing with its ‘Defense of J.K. Rowling’. The Mary Sue. https://www.themarysue.com/the-nyt-knew-what-it-was-doing-with-its-defense-of-j-k-rowling/
Warrington, James (February 16, 2023). How the New York Times was engulfed by a trans culture war. The Telegraph. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2023/02/15/new-york-times-accused-writers-anti-trans-bigotry/
Mastrangelo, Dominick (February 16, 2023). NYT editors: Paper ‘will not tolerate’ its journalists protesting coverage of transgender people. The Hill. https://thehill.com/homenews/3862101-nyt-editors-paper-will-not-tolerate-its-journalists-protesting-coverage-of-transgender-people/amp/
Resources
NYT Contributors’ Letter (nytletter.com)
Twitter (twitter.com)
New York Times Company (nytco.com)
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
Paul Thomas is a government employee and co-founder of The Leeds Salon. Thomas has complained in UnHerd about “the collaboration between the unions and management” regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the University and College Union’s “disgraceful lack of support for Kathleen Stock.”
References
Thomas, Paul (October 15, 2021). How my union betrayed me: Shop stewards are collaborating over unconscious bias training. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2021/10/how-my-union-betrayed-me/
Resources
X/Twitter (x.com)
The Leeds Salon (https://www.leedssalon.org.uk)
Sarah Ditum is an English “mommy blogger,” opinion columnist, sex segregationist, and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Sarah Ruth Webster Ditum is a freelance writer and production editor based in Bath. Ditum contributes to UnHerd and other anti-trans publications.
As a teen, Ditum learned to identify with metaphors of disease and impairment, pretending to be ill to avoid school. After first year at university, Ditum transferred to be near a romantic partner and almost immediately got pregnant: “Whatever had made its home in my belly had made me a mother, and I would have to catch up with that. Even as the person who made that decision, I find it hard to reconcile the ambition I had at 20 with the will to throw my lot in with maternity.”
Ditum completed bachelor’s and master’s degrees, then dropped out of a doctoral program after getting pregnant again.
Ditum started self-publishing a “mommy blog” called Paperhouse. Early gigs were for Venue magazine, Yarn Forward, and Official PlayStation Magazine.
Ditum married Nathan Mark Ditum (born 1981). Ditum changed surnames because “there was already a Sarah Webster working as a writer.” They have two children, Maddy and Jay. Ditum is involved in the knitting community.
In 2023 Ditum incorporated Burn Book Ltd in the UK.
Anti-transgender activism
Ditum has been criticized for views on transgender issues.
Ditum got press for a 2018 Genderquake panel with Germaine Greer, Munroe Bergdorf and Caitlyn Jenner.
In 2019, Ditum criticized all-gender bathrooms at The Old Vic. The Stage later removed the piece following backlash.
Ditum is an “autogynephilia” activist, in the same way that some people believe in “nymphomania” as a legitimate disease.
References
Ditum, Sarah (May 16, 2016). What is gender, anyway? New Statesman
Ditum, Sarah (March 10, 2022). The taboo trans question. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2022/03/the-taboo-trans-question/
Ditum, Sarah (July 6, 2021). Who loses when trans women win? https://unherd.com/2021/07/who-loses-when-trans-women-win/
Ditum, Sarah (July 6, 2021). Why I had a baby at university. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2021/06/lessons-of-a-student-mother/
Ditum, Sarah (February 14, 2023). The tragedy of becoming a woman. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2023/02/the-tragedy-of-becoming-a-woman/
Ditum, Sarah (June 17, 2020). How the Left betrayed feminism. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2020/06/how-the-left-betrayed-feminism/
Valentine, Vic (July 12, 2018). Trans-inclusive feminist voices are being ignored. The Economist https://www.economist.com/open-future/2018/07/12/trans-inclusive-feminist-voices-are-being-ignored
https://yogscast.fandom.com/wiki/Nathan_Ditum
Al-Kadhi, Amrou (May 9, 2018). Opinion: The Genderquake debate did more harm than good for transgender people and for feminists. The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/genderquake-channel-4-debate-genderqueer-transgender-caitlin-jenner-munroe-bergdorg-sarah-ditum-germaine-greer-a8342771.html
Glass, Jess (May 10, 2018). Exclusive: Genderquake audience were allegedly ‘encouraged to heckle’ trans panellists. PinkNews https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/05/10/genderquake-debate-heckling-transphobia-munroe-bergdorf-caitlyn-jenner/
https://www.whitehavennews.co.uk/news/17156155.a-level-students-make-plans-for-the-future/
Tobitt, Charlotte (October 7, 2019). The Stage accused of ‘cowardice’ after removing comment articles on theatre’s gender-neutral toilets. Press Gazette https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/the-stage-accused-of-cowardice-after-removing-comment-articles-on-theatres-gender-neutral-toilets/
Parsons, Vic (April 3, 2020). Neo-Nazis and homophobes are among the supporters of the ‘anti-trans’ group LGB Alliance. PinkNews https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/04/03/lgb-alliance-neo-nazi-homophobia-spinster-death-head-charity-commission/
Resources
Sarah Ditum / Paperhouse (sarahditum.com)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
X/Twitter (x.com)
Substack (substack.com)
Instagram (instagram.com)
Facebook (facebook.com)
UnHerd (unherd.com)
The Guardian (theguardian.com)
Ravelry (ravelry.com)
WordPress (wordpress.com)
Jess de Wahls is an East German-born artist and anti-transgender activist based in London.
Background
Jess de Wahls was born in 1983 and grew up in East Berlin and moved to the UK in 2004. de Wahls’ medium is embroidery.
According to de Wahls, one parent crossdresses: “My father doesn’t do labels other than sometimes jokingly calling himself a paradise bird.”
Anti-transgender activism
in 2019, de Wahls published a long statement accompanying an embroidered artwork. In it, de Wahls revealed bring deeply involved in anti-transgender activism.
In 2021 de Wahls became a cause cĂ©lĂšbre for anti-transgender activists when the Royal Academy pulled de Wahls’ work from their gift shop after complaints about de Wahls’ transphobia. They later apologized.
de Wahls has gone on to write for anti-transgender publications, including UnHerd and The Spectator.
References
de Wahls, Jess (August 5, 2019). Somewhere over the Rainbow, something went terribly wrong… https://www.jessdewahls.com/blog/2019/8/5/somewhere-over-the-rainbow-something-went-terribly-wrong
Perry, Louise (29 June 2021). “The Jess De Wahls debacle shows you can only really be cancelled by your friends”. New Statesman. London. Archived
RA (23 June 2021). “Media Statement from the Royal Academy of Arts” (PDF). Royal Academy of Arts. Archived
Whitworth, Damian (22 June 2021). “Jess de Wahls: Death wishes and fear after the Royal Academy cancelled me”. The Times UK. Archived
de Walhls, Jess (December 31, 2021). The heretics will not be silenced. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2021/12/the-heretics-will-not-be-silenced/
de Walhls, Jess (June 15, 2022). How the RA uncancelled me. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2022/06/how-the-royal-academy-uncancelled-me/
Resources
Jess de Wahls (jessdewahls.com)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Instagram (instagram.com)
X/Twitter (x.com)
Julie Burchill is a writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Julie Burchill was born on July 3, 1959 in Bristol. After graduating Brislington Comprehensive School, she began writing for New Musical Express in 1976. Her future husband Tony Parsons took an interest in the 17-year-old. They soon married, and she then started freelancing as a culture writer. They divorced in 1984.
She did a lot of drugs and wrote a lot of obnoxious things through the 1980s. She married Cosmo Landesman in 1985; that lasted 7 years. She co-founded Modern Review and had a brief affair with Charlotte Raven in the 1990s. She also lost a big libel case and several writing gigs. From 1998 to 2003 she had a weekly column at The Guardian, where she wrote anti-Irish pieces and supported the invasion of Iraq. She made Channel 4’s 2003 poll of 100 Worst Britons. She continued to fail upward, landing a gig at The Times until she was fired in 2007, returning to the Guardian, then a gig at The Independent for 18 months.
Anti-transgender activism
In 2013, Burchill wrote an article for The Observer defending a transphobic piece by Suzanne Moore. Burchill quipped it showed “chutzpah” to have one’s “cock cut off and then plead special privileges as women.”
Burchill has since gone on to write many other anti-trans pieces.
References
Burchill, Julie (13 January 2013). “Transsexuals should cut it out”. The Observer.
^ Kaveney, Roz (13 January 2013). “Julie Burchill has ended up bullying the trans community”. The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 8 January 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
^ Pearce, Ruth. “Transphobia in The Guardian: no excuse for hate speech”. Lesbilicious. Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 13 January 2013.
Philipson, Alice (13 January 2013). “Lynne Featherstone calls for Observer’s Julie Burchill to be sacked following ‘disgusting rant’ against transsexuals”. The Telegraph. London. Archived
Stephen Pritchard “Julie Burchill and the Observer, The readers’ editor on why the paper was wrong to publish slurs against trans people” The Guardian, 18 January 2013Archived
Burchill, Julie (19 April 2018) I knew I was right⊠The Spectator https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/i-knew-i-was-right/
Tatlock, John (January 14, 2013). “Nasty Idiotic Tripe”: Stand Against Julie Burchill’s Years Of Transphobia. The Quietus https://thequietus.com/articles/11108-julie-burchill-suzanne-moore-transphobia
Bindel, Julie (March 19, 2018). Why you canât rely on the news media to understand⊠trans issues. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2018/03/cant-rely-news-media-understand-trans-issues/
Burchill, Julie (October 12, 2022). What incels and trans activists have in common. Spiked https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/10/12/what-incels-and-trans-activists-have-in-common/
Resources
Substack (substack.com)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
X/Twitter (x.com)
Jonny Best is a British musician, researcher, and producer who identifies as a gender critical gay man.
Background
Jonathan “Jonny” Best worked in theatre as a director (with RSC, National Theatre etc), as a staff director in opera (ENO, Royal Opera & Opera North), in commercial theatre (pantomime, West End musicals and plays), classical music (with Aurora, BBC Scottish Symph, and ten years in association with City of London Sinfonia).
In 2005 Best became the artistic director of Manchesterâs Queer Up North Festival. Best was criticized for inviting the act Bitch to perform after they had played the trans-exclusionary Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival.
Best then produced Classical Sheffield, Festival of the North East, and Yorkshire Silent Film Festival.
Best began a doctorate degree in music at University of Huddersfield in 2016.
Activism
Best made a number of provocative statements, believing there are no such things as misgendering and deadnaming. Huddersfield University opened an investigation, but later apologized to Best.
Best has written for anti-trans publication UnHerd, arguing that “The marginalisation of sex in trans activism sits uneasily with the centrality of sex to lesbian and gay activism.”
Best is especially critical of UK’s Stonewall:
But this good-natured debate is as nothing compared to the division that has opened up in lesbian and gay communities following Stonewallâs 2015 decision to re-formulate homosexuality around the nebulous concept of âgender identityâ. Its policy today, which it has promoted through its Diversity Champions scheme, is that biological sex is less important than self-declared âgender identityâ â an inner feeling of being either man or woman, male or female, which, according to Stonewall, is an identity we all possess. It follows that biological males can be lesbians, and biological females can be gay men. To disagree is transphobic.
Stonewallâs strategy for dealing with the fallout has been to insist that there can be âno debateâ, characterising entreaties to discussion as equal to debating trans peopleâs very existence.
References
Best, Jonny (August 2018). My first brush with trans activism and what I learned. Medium https://www.jonnybest.co.uk/my-first-experience-of-trans-activism
Best, Jonny (October 7, 2020). Why I canât trust Stonewall any more. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2020/10/why-i-cant-trust-stonewall-any-more/
Best, Jonny (August 27, 2021) Stonewallâs greatest betrayal. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2021/08/stonewalls-greatest-betrayal/
Resources
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Jo Bartosch is a British writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Josephine Eleanor “Jo” Bartosch was born in August 1982.
Bartosch founded the group Chelt Fems, a network of feminist activists, academics and professionals. From 2017 to 2019 Bartosch was co-director with Sadia Hameed of Gloucester-based Critical Sisters, which “offers a platform for marginal feminist opinion with particular emphasis on unravelling the twin man-made beliefs of gender and religion.”
From 2019 to 2020 Bartosch was Director of Click Off Limited. Bartosch was replaced by Edward Charles Buxton after resigning.
From 2017 to 2018 Bartosch was a Co-Director of Libra Learning Ltd. with Sadia Hameed and Emma Robertson.
From 2018 to 2022, Bartosch was a Director of Not Buying It Ltd. with Naomi Paxton, Almudena Fernandez-Alonso, Edward Charles Buxton, Rebecca Mordan, Josephine Liptrott, Kate Kerrow, Ellen Mary Grogen, Jeremy Jonathan Coutinho, and Rachel Carline Bell. Bartosch resigned in May 2022.
Bartosch has authored several reports exploring the links between violence against women and commercial sexual entertainment.
References
Bartosch, Jo (September 14, 2017). What about the children who said they were transgender â and then changed their minds? The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/john-lewis-gender-neutrality-trangender-children-medicalisation-lesbian-gay-education-a7946426.html
Bartosch, Jo (). Why wonât progressives speak up about NHS conversion therapy? Kemi Badenoch laid out evidence of the practice in a letter today 07 FEB 2024
Bartosch, Jo (). Network Railâs capitulation to Stonewall The railway company has been mocked for its The myth of JK Rowlingâs âheart of darknessâ Another opinion column unfairly maligns the Harry Potter author 16 JAN 2024
Bartosch, Jo (). Britain has bigger problems than toothbrushing Keir Starmer’s jaw-dropping proposal will anger parents 12 JAN 2024
Bartosch, Jo (). Kemi Badenoch is right about Britainâs trans âepidemicâ Linguistic disputes can’t disguise the surge in referrals 14 DEC 2023
Bartosch, Jo (). Why is Doctor Who obsessing over pronouns? Britain’s public broadcaster is championing a niche ideology
27 NOV 2023
Bartosch, Jo (25 AUG 2023). The New York Times is finally standing up to trans censorship Advocacy groups have criticised the paper for its gender coverage
Bartosch, Jo (12 JUL 2023). Nancy Kelley leaves Stonewall in a mess The outgoing charity boss dragged a once-great organisation down a rabbit hole
Bartosch, Jo (). The problem with âcisâ Elon Musk has vowed to restrict the word on Twitter. 22 JUN 2023
Bartosch, Jo (13 JAN 2023). Tate criticised for Drag Queen Story Hour childrenâs readings Several groups claim the gallery is targeting kids with gender propaganda
Bartosch, Jo (04 MAY 2022). The Survivorsâ Network succumbs to gender ideology The group is failing to provide women with all-female spaces.
Bartosch, Jo (16 FEB 2022). Unions are failing women The NEU is the latest to bow to trans activists
Bartosch, Jo (18 JAN 2022). Inside the Tory trans civil war 18 JAN 2022
Bartosch, Jo (09 DEC 2021). Inside the trans publishing purge
Bartosch, Jo (11 OCT 2021). Feminist âdinosaursâ are getting organised Protestors outside the Labour Party HQ were embracing David Lammy’s label
Bartosch, Jo (30 AUG 2018). When did womenâs rights stop being human rights?
Critical Sisters Ltd Company number 10875625 Sadia Hameed and Jo Bartosch, Directors.
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- conatusnews.com/newlook/author/jbartosch/ [archive]
Danielle Crittenden Frum is a Canadian-American writer and anti-transgender activist.
Crittenden platformed many other anti-transgender activists while hosting the podcast The Femsplainers with Christina Hoff Sommers.
Background
Danielle Ann Crittenden was born April 20, 1963 in Toronto, Ontario. Crittenden’s parents and stepparent are all writers. After graduating from Northern Secondary School in 1981, Crittenden began working as a writer. Crittenden wrote a column for the New York Post and was a contributor at The Huffington Post.
Crittenden married David Frum in 1988 and converted to Judaism. They have three children, Miranda Ann Frum (1991â2024), Nathaniel Saul Frum (born 1993) and Beatrice Sarah Worthy Frum (born 2001). Much of Crittenden’s subsequent writing was on cooking, lifestyle, and parenting.
Anti-transgender activism
Crittenden is one of the higher-end “mommy bloggers,” a genre of writers and readers highly susceptible to anti-transgender radicalization. Crittenden’s 1999 book What Our Mothers Didn’t Tell Us: Why Happiness Eludes the Modern Woman lays out Crittenden’s conservative views.
From 2018 to 2022 Crittenden and Christina Hoff Sommers hosted the podcast The Femsplainers, which described trans women as “men identifying as women.” The hosts have suggested that trans women would violently attack people who questioned their gender identity. Their many anti-transgender guests over the years include Jordan Peterson, Debra Soh, Claire Lehmann, Meghan Murphy, Caitlin Flanagan, Emily Yoffe, Heather Heying, Bridget Phetasy, Andrew Sullivan, Meghan Daum, Mona Charen, Dave Rubin, Abigail Shrier, Bari Weiss, Katie Herzog, Corinna Cohn, “Angus Fox,” âTwo mothers,â Carole Hooven, and Helen Joyce.
Crittenden is a biological essentialist and sex segregationist:
Denying or glossing over biological differences between men and women doesnât help anyone â least of all women. As [Hadley] Freeman and others have observed, the legal and institutional brunt of ignoring these differences falls most heavily upon women (we donât see transmen racing to be admitted to menâs prisons or compete in male sports, for example. Nor are transmen trying to cancel doctors who might recklessly assert their male patients more often than not possess prostate glands).
Crittenden (2022)
Crittenden further explained these positions to Inez Feltscher Stepman:
So thatâs kind of the thread that keeps on going through all the conversations weâre having today, and that weâve seen, I think, really magnified in these debates about trans, or there are 63 genders or whatever, that weâre trying again to deny any credibility to biological differences, to accept that there are biological differences. And the best way to deal with biological differences is to acknowledge them and think about how can we work with those to get the respect and equality and opportunities we all want as women, but without making the opposite sex the enemy. Also, without making the things we feel naturally as men or women somehow suspect or wrong or something we should suppress. If that makes sense.
Fletcher Stepman (2022)
References
Crittenden, Danielle (March 4, 2022). When The Sexes Blur There’s No Sex. The Femsplainers With Danielle Crittenden https://femsplainers.substack.com/p/when-the-sexes-blur-theres-no-sex
Stepman, Inez Feltscher (May 4, 2022). Danielle Crittenden â On Disappearing Feminine Allure, the Heated Battle Between the Sexes, and Whether Feminism Has Always Been Out of Touch. High Noon Podcast https://www.iwf.org/2022/05/04/danielle-crittenden-disappearing-feminine-allure-feminism-out-of-touch/
Frum, David (March 21, 2024) Miranda’s Last Gift. The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2024/05/david-frum-miranda-daughter-grief/677815/
Obituary (February 21, 2024). Miranda Frum. The Globe and Mail https://www.legacy.com/ca/obituaries/theglobeandmail/name/miranda-frum-obituary?id=54427346
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