Heather B. Armstrong was an American “mommy blogger” nicknamed “dooce.” After one of Armstrong’s children began identifying as nonbinary, Armstrong made a number of anti-transgender statements.
Background
Heather Brooke Hamilton was born July 19, 1975, grew up in a Mormon household in Memphis, Tennessee, and was sexually assaulted shortly before earning a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University in 1997.
After marrying web designer Jon Armstrong and and starting to blog in 2001, Heather Armstrong was terminated in 2002 after colleagues learned they were discussed on the blog. The couple had two children: Leta Elise (born 2004), and Marlo Iris (born 2009). In 2009 Armstrong published a memoir, appeared on Oprah, and was named one of “30 most influential women in media” by Forbes.
In 2012, the couple divorced. As social media began to replace blogging, Armstrong’s readership began to dwindle, leading to struggles with depression. Armstrong began a relationship with Utah internet executive Pete Ashdown. In 2019 Armstrong published The Valedictorian of Being Dead. Armstrong underwent medically induced comas to treat depression. In 2021 Armstrong went sober.
Anti-transgender views
Writers and readers of the “mommy blogging” genre have been particularly susceptible to anti-transgender radicalization. In 2022, Armstrong posted a long piece full of anti-trans views after Armstrong’s younger child began identifying as nonbinary.
Titled “America is wrong,” it revealed Armstrong was deeply involved in the “parental rights” faction of anti-transgender activists. Armstrong created a standalone page called “Trans Central Station” and solicited “desistance” and “detransition” narratives from “ex-transgender” activists:
Desisters and Detransitioners, America needs your stories.
You can trust that I will not censor you or expose you in any way. You are safe here.
You can make up a name and leave any field blank. We all just need to hear from you.
What do you wish you had known before you began to question your biological gender?
The pages were soon removed and Armstrong replaced them with a poem prefaced with this:
Your children are asking you through their behavior, âWhy are you agreeing with me when I am telling you that I hate myself?â Remember that and consider it every day for the rest of your lives.
[emphasis in original]
The revelations had a significant impact on Armstrong’s reputation. Armstrong died by suicide on May 9, 2023.
References
Armstrong, Heather (2009). It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita. ISBN 978-1416936015
Armstrong, Heather (August 10, 2022). America is wrong. Dooce https://dooce.com/2022/08/10/america-is-wrong/ [archive]
Armstrong, Heather (August 10, 2022). Trans central station. Dooce https://dooce.com/trans-central-station/ [archive]
“Posie Parker” is a stage name of Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, a British anti-transgender extremist. Keen-Minshull is one of the most strident campaigners against trans rights in history. Keen-Minshull’s events often turn into tense standoffs due to gender-critical and fascist supporters.
Background
Kellie-Jay Nyishie Keen was born June 13, 1974 and grew up in Somerset with an older sibling. Keen earned a bachelor’s degree in theology from University of Leeds. Keen worked for Posie Parker photography, Cornhill Publishing (joining as a consultant in 1999), and GDS International.
Keen-Minshull married Ryan Miles Minshulll aka “Max Ford” (born 1974) in 2008. Minshulll runs DigiLive Events. They have four children: Roman, Artemus, Mabel, and Carter. They were all delivered as c-sections. The youngest was born in ~2008, three days after their marriage.
Anti-trans activism
Keen-Minshull is listed as a leader of three entities:
Woman By Definition Ltd (incorporated 2020, dissolved 2021)
Keen-Minshull is also a special advisor to anti-trans organization Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF).
Out-of-home ad campaigns
In 2018 Keen-Minshull paid for a billboard in Liverpool that said “woman, wÊmÉn, noun, adult human female,” a slogan used by anti-transgender activists. It was taken down following complaints. Keen-Minshull then had the same message placed in Leeds, which was also taken down.
In 2020 Keen-Minshull paid for a poster that said “I â„ JK Rowling” to run in an Edinburgh railway station before it was taken down. This inspired Chris Elston and Amy Hamm to do the same thing in Vancouver. It also inspired Speak Up For Women in New Zealand to place billboards in 2021 that said “adult human female.”
Social media
Keen-Minshull has been temporarily and permanently restricted on various social media platforms.
In 2018 gender critical organization Woman’s Place UK said they would no longer be working with Keen-Minshull. Others have expressed similar concerns due to Keen-Minshull’s association with right-wing and fascist activists.
In 2019 Keen-Minshull and Julia Long recorded themselves verbally abusing trans HRC press secretary Sarah McBride at the US Capitol. HRC then criticized religious conservative group The Heritage Foundation for their role in bringing the two to their event. Keen-Minshull has also published attacks on Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre director Mridul Wadhwa, who is trans.
Keen-Minshull and allies have held anti-trans rallies in Manchester, Bristol, Brighton, Newcastle upon Tyne, and Glasgow. Following a 2020 WoLF conference in New York, Keen-Minshull went to Atlanta for the NCAA Division I Women’s Swimming Championship to protest trans swimmer Lia Thomas. Keen-Minshull then scheduled appearances in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland (cancelled), Tacoma, Austin, Chicago, New York, and Belfast. Following a Melbourne event that was attended by Nazis, Keen-Minshull’s Wellington event shut down early and required a police escort due to the thousands of counter-protestors, one of whom doused Keen-Minshull with tomato soup.
After returning to the UK, Keen-Minshull announced the creation of the Party of Women in order to run for office.
Media
Keen-Minshull is a favored source among right-wing and anti-transgender activists:
Keen-Minshull has said about cisgender women who support trans rights:
Each and every one of you women who stand in my wayâeach and every one of youâlet me just tell you, you will be annihilated. Because I genuinely donât lose.
Greer was born 29 January 1939 in Melbourne. Greer’s parent lived under an assumed identity as an adult. Greer’s family was Catholic, but Germaine Greer longed to assume a Jewish identity as an adolescent. Greer learned Yiddish, joined a Jewish theatre group, dated Jewish people, and reportedly “felt Jewish.”
After graduating from convent school, Greer earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Melbourne, a master’s degree from University of Sydney and a doctorate in English from Newnham College, Cambridge.
Greer was sexually assaulted in college, which strongly influenced Greer’s thinking and writing on sex and gender.
In 1968, Greer began teaching at University of Warwick. Greer was officially married to Paul du Feu from 1968 to 1973, but Greer cheated on du Feu seven times in the first month, and they separated. Greer wrote for Oz and co-founded Suck, a “new pornogrqaphy” venture based around sexual liberation that sometimes depicted graphic nonconsensual sex. Suck published a nude photo of Greer, prompting Greer to resign.
In 1970 Greer published The Female Eunuch, an important second-wave feminist text. Greer said, “I don’t like women. I probably share in all the effortless and unconscious contempt that men pour on women.” Greer had notable debates with Norman Mailer, William F. Buckley, and others throughout a steady string of television appearances.
Greer founded the Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature as part of her work to reclaim women’s cultural contributions. Through the 1990s Greer continued to write about women’s issues.
Anti-transgender activism
Greer has made many inflammatory comments about trans people. One chapter of Greer’s 1999 book The Whole Woman is titled “Pantomime Dames.” In keeping with the views presented in The Female Eunuch, Greer wrote:
Governments that consist of very few women have hurried to recognise as women, men who believe that they are women and have had themselves castrated to prove it, because they see women not as another sex but as a non-sex.
She added: âWhen a man decides to spend his life impersonating his mother (like Norman Bates in Psycho), it is as if he murders her and gets away with it.â
Greer protested the appointment of trans physicist Rachael Padman to a women’s college and Glamour magazine’s 2015 Woman of the Year honor given to Caitlyn Jenner.
References
Greer, Germaine (1999). The Whole Woman. London: Transworld Publishers Ltd. p. 64. ISBN 978-0385720038
De Freytas-Tamura, Kimiko (24 October 2015). Cardiff University Rejects Bid to Bar Germaine Greer. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/world/europe/cardiff-university-rejects-bid-to-bar-germaine-greer.html
Campbell, Beatrix; et al. (14 February 2015). We cannot allow censorship and silencing of individuals. The Observer. Archived from the original on 13 October 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181013014630/https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2015/feb/14/letters-censorship
Kara Dansky is an American lawyer, sex segregationist, and anti-transgender activist. She is president of WDI USA, the American chapter of Women’s Declaration International.
Background
Kara Patrice Dansky was born March 17, 1972.
Dansky earned a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1994 and a juris doctor degree from University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Founder and Managing Director of One Thousand Arms.
Special Advisor to the Director of the New York City Mayorâs Office of Criminal Justice
Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Homeland Securityâs Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Executive Director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center.
Public defender and federal law clerk at the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico
Staff attorney at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Senior Counsel with the ACLU Center for Justice
Dansky is a member of the bar for the District of Columbia and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
2021 book
In November 2021, she published The Abolition of Sex: How the âTransgenderâ Agenda Harms Women and Girls.
Maya Forstater is a British anti-transgender activist and sex segregationist. Forstater brought the case Forstater v Centre for Global Development Europe that established that gender critical views are protected as a belief under the UK’s Equality Act 2010.
Background
Maya Forstater was born on July 3, 1973 in London. Forstater’s parent is film producer Mark Forstater. Forstater earned a degree from Newcastle University. Forstater has published work for the United Nations on corporate social responsibility and economic development.
Anti-transgender activism
Forstater made a number of anti-transgender statements on social media that resulted in a UN contract not being renewed in 2019. Forstater filed a lawsuit claiming these gender critical views are protected under the Equality Act 2010. Forstater lost her initial case, which was then appealed to a tribunal. Forstater won the appeal in 2021, and the tribunal found in 2022 Forstater had suffered direct discrimination for holding anti-transgender views.
In 2020, Forstater co-founded anti-trans group Sex Matters and serves as Executive Director.
References
Cases
Forstater v CGD Europe & Ors [2021] UKEAT 0105_20_1006 IRLR 706, [2022] ICR 1 https://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2021/0105_20_1006.html
Suissa, Judith; Sullivan, Alice (2021). The Gender Wars, Academic Freedom and Education. Journal of Philosophy of Education. 55 (1): 55â82. https://doi.org/10.1111%2F1467-9752.12549
Derrick Jensen is an American environmentalist and author. Jensen is a founder of environmental organization Deep Green Resistance, a radical feminist group that has been criticized for anti-transgender views.
Background
Jensen was born on December 19, 1960. Jensen earned a bachelor’s degree from Colorado School of Mines in 1983 and a master’s degree from Eastern Washington University in 1991.
In 2011, Jensen, Lierre Keith, and Aric McBay founded Deep Green Resistance. McBay left due to the organization’s positions on transgender people.
Anti-transgender views
Jensen’s concerns center around postmodernism and queer theory. Jensen believes these theories are attempts to justify nonconsensual sex with minors. Jensen also claims any dissent from acceptable views will lead to cancelation:
This is the cult-like behavior of the postmodern left: if you disagree with any of the Holy Commandments of postmodernism/queer theory/transgender ideology, you must be silenced on not only that but on every other subject. Welcome to the death of discourse, brought to you by the postmodern left.
Jensen has laid out these anti-trans views in a number of essays and posts:
The Emperor’s New Penis
Liberals and the New McCarthyism
Letter to a Publisher: On the Destruction of Discourse and the Cult of the Postmodern Left
Derrick Jensen Resistance Radio
Jensen is host of a show that has included many environmentalists, some trans-inclusive feminists, and anti-transgender activists:
Houlberg, Laura (2017). “The End of Gender or Deep Green Transmisogyny?”. Routledge Handbook of Gender and Environment. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-88657-2.
Pellow, David Naguib (2019). Eco-Defence, Radical Environmentalism and Environmental Justice. Routledge Handbook of Radical Politics. Routledge. p. 112. ISBN 9781315619880.
Kat Rosenfield is an American writer and “dissident feminist” whose work frequently appears in conservative outlets.
Background
Rosenfield earned a bachelor’s degree from Drew University in 2003. Rosenfield worked in marketing and publicity before becoming a reporter at MTV in 2010. Rosenfield has done freelance work in pop culture.
Rosenfield is an advice columnist at anti-trans publication UnHerd and co-host of the Feminine Chaos podcast with Phoebe Maltz Bovy.
Like many trans-suspicious writers, Rosenfield claims to be part of a left-wing but “heterodox” movement standing up against cancel culture to speak the truth.
Thereâs a loose but growing coalition of lefties out there, artists and writers and academics and professionals, whoâve drawn sympathetic attention from conservatives after being publicly shamed out of the progressive clubhouse (that is, by the type of progressive who thinks there is a clubhouse, which is of course part of the problem). Itâs remarkably easy these days to be named an apostate on the left. Maybe you were critical of the looting and rioting that devastated cities in the wake of George Floydâs murder by police in 2020. Maybe you were skeptical of this or that viral outrage: Covington Catholic, or Jussie Smollett, or the alleged racial abuse at a BYU volleyball game that neither eyewitness testimony nor video evidence could corroborate. Maybe you were too loud about the continued need for due process in the middle of #MeToo. Maybe you wouldnât stop asking uncomfortable questions about the proven value of certain divisive brands of diversity training, or transgender surgeries for kids, or â come the pandemic â masking. Maybe you kept defending the right to free speech and creative expression after these things had been deemed âright-wing valuesâ by your fellow liberals.
When Bari Weiss and team went after a Missouri children’s hospital and its gender clinic with some questionably obtained medical records of children and adolescents, Rosenfield sided with the unsupportive parents:
Zooming out for a moment here, seems both unsurprising and weâll-articulated by the original piece that the child who wants [life-altering medical procedure] against a parentâs wishes is going to have a different perspective on said topic than the parent https://t.co/3leYalr6SV
In a piece on author and anti-trans activist JK Rowling, Rosenfield makes the oft-used false equivalence of Christians protesting Rowling’s occult themes and trans people and their supporters protesting Rowling’s vocal support of anti-transgender activists:
In the 15 years since Harry Potter made his final stand against Voldemort, the angst directed at Rowling has evolved from nebulous fears of neo-paganism into a far more sustained and focused rage over her perceived transphobia. But when it comes to the shape the anger takes, very little has changed. Rowlingâs haters canât stop her from writing, and they canât stop people from reading her writing â but by god, theyâll do what they can to make sure those people donât enjoy it.
This framing was later used by Megan Phelps-Roper in “The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling,” a podcast apologia produced by Bari Weiss.
References
Rosenfield, Kat (August 9, 2021). How cancel culture hurts the Left.UnHerd https://unherd.com/2021/08/how-the-left-will-lose-the-culture-wars/
Rosenfield, Kat (October 27, 2022). Why I keep getting mistaken for a conservative.National Review https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2022/11/07/why-i-keep-getting-mistaken-for-a-conservative/
Rosenfield, Kat (September 2, 2022). JK Rowling sees through her enemies.unHerd https://unherd.com/2022/09/j-k-rowling-sees-through-her-enemies/
Rosenfield, Kat (September 10, 2020). How Do I Stop Being a TERF?Persuasion https://www.persuasion.community/p/how-do-i-stop-being-a-terf
Gad Saad is a Lebanese-Canadian marketing professor and anti-transgender activist involved in the intellectual dark web, a gateway to the far right.
Background
Gad Saad was born October 13, 1964 in Lebanon. Saad’s Jewish family fled during the civil war in 1975 and moved to Montreal.
Saad attended McGill University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1988 and a master’s degree in 1990. Saad then attended Cornell University, earning another master’s degree in 1993 and a doctorate in 1994.
Saad teaches marketing at Concordia University and is known for promoting evolutionary psychology. Saad has authored several books and articles and writes a blog on Psychology Today. Saad’s YouTube channel and podcast are titled The Saad Truth.
Anti-transgender activism
When psychologist Jordan Peterson refused to use gender-neutral pronouns for transgender people, Saad invited Peterson on The Saad Truth. The episode was extremely popular and started Saad on an anti-trans crusade.
Saad has appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience many times, often discussing Saad’s trolling and provocations about gender identity and expression.
Laroche, Michel; Saad, Gad; Cleveland, Mark; Browne, Elizabeth (2000). “Gender Differences in Information Search Strategies for a Christmas Gift”. Journal of Consumer Marketing. 17 (6): 500â522. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760010349920.
Raquel Rosario SĂĄnchez is an anti-transgender activist involved in anti-trans group Woman’s Place UK.
Background
Raquel M. Rosario Sanchez is from the Dominican Republic. Rosario Sanchez has published work in Meghan Murphy’sFeminist Current, The Critic, and Quillette.
2018 University of Bristol incident
Rosario Sanchez began a PhD course at the University of Bristol in January 2018 with a focus on online communities for men who pay for sex. Itb is part of Rosario Sanchez’s work ending violence against girls and women.Â
In November 2017 Woman’s Place UK asked Rosario Sanchez to chair its upcoming meeting in Bristol, scheduled for 8 February 2018. During protests, Rosario Sanchez claimed that the university had failed to protect them from a “hate campaign” over the event.
Uwe Steinhoff is an academic and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Steinhoff earned a degree in philosophy at Goethe University Frankfurt. After graduation Steinhoff travelled for nine months in Central America. Steinhoff earned a doctorate in WĂŒrzburg. Steinhoff has held roles at Humboldt-University Berlin and Oxford University.
Steinhoff teaches in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong.
References
Steinhoff, Uwe (June 11, 2022). The Transgender Craze and the Babble about âSelf-Identifying as a Womanâ: Why Men Who Think Theyâre Women Are Psychotic and the Politicians Humoring Them Are Opportunistic https://uwesteinhoff.com/2022/06/11/the-transgender-craze-and-the-babble-about-self-identifying-as-a-woman-why-men-who-think-theyre-women-are-psychotic-and-the-politicians-humoring-them-are-opportunistic/
Steinhoff, Uwe (20 Jul 2022) Gender Ideology Comes to Germany. Quillette https://quillette.com/2022/07/20/gender-ideology-comes-to-germany/