Ayaan Hirsi Ali is a Somali-born Dutch-American activist and former politician. Ali is an anti-Islam and anti-transgender activist. Ali is often associated with the intellectual dark web, a gateway to the far right.
Background
Ayaan Hirsi Magan was born November 13, 1969 in Mogadishu. Ali’s parent Hirsi Magan Isse was a political prisoner who escaped Somalia in 1977, eventually settling the family in Kenya.
Those who would divorce āwomanā from its biological implications often present their ideas as innocuous. They are, we are told, simply champions of āinclusionā. But their ideology is hardly uncontroversial, and surrendering to it is not harmless. The past year has seen reports of transgender women attacking women in female-only spaces and unfairly winning trophies in womenās sports. The spirit of these failures was perhaps best-distilled in the words of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who in March was unable to define what being a woman entailed during her Senate confirmation hearing. āIām not a biologist,ā she said, as if one needed to be a professional scientist to know basic biological facts.
A word of clarification. I am immensely sympathetic to the plight of transgender people and believe they ought to have the same moral and legal rights as everyone else. To be against militant trans activistsā gender ideology is not to be transphobic. Rather, it is simply to agree, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie succinctly put it, that ātrans women are trans womenā. Adichie was savaged for this and other statements evincing wrongthink, but acknowledging that trans women are distinct from women, that there are potential conflicts between their rights, and that gender ideology opens the door to abusive men masquerading as women, should not be controversial. Standing up for the rights of transgender people should not mean pretending sex does not exist altogether.
Podcast
Ali’s podcast logrolls for other anti-trans activists, including:
Patrick Healy is an American journalist involved in anti-transgender coverage at the New York Times. Healy served as Deputy Editor of the Opinion section during its anti-transgender coverage crisis of the 2020s.
No transgender journalist has appeared on the New York Times masthead since its founding in 1851. As of 2023 there were no trans journalists on staff, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. At the same time, Healy helped beef up anti-trans staff, including bringing in David French.
Background
Patrick Durham Healy was born on August 31, 1971 to Carol Ann Higginbotham Healy (1936ā2023) and Gerald T. Healy, Jr. (1934ā2021). Healy has an older sibling and grew up gay in a conservative Catholic household. Healy earned a bachelor’s degree from New York University in 1990, and a second bachelor’s degree from Tufts University in 1993.
After reporting in local New Hampshire papers, Healy wrote for the transphobic Chronicle of Higher Education from 1994 to 2000. From 2000 to 2004, Healy wrote for the Boston Globe, then joined the New York Times in 2005.
After about ten years as a political correspondent, Healy held editor roles in the Culture, Politics, and Opinion sections. Healy reports to anti-trans ringleader Kathleen Kingsbury as well as to Charlotte Greensit.
Healy has made television appearances as guest host of The New York Times Close Up with Sam Roberts on NY1 News and as an analyst on CNN.
Healy married physician assistant Raymond Alejandro “Ray” Delgado on October 1, 2022.
Schindler, Paul (July 26, 2006). That Darn New York Times.Gay City News https://gaycitynews.com/that-darn-new-york-times/
Staff report (April 8, 2005). The Mayor Gets Sound Advice, But Will He Pay Attention to It? The Quotidian / New York Civic http://www.nycivic.org/QLIST/050408.html [archive]
Scocca, Tom (January 24, 2005). Off the Record.New York Observer https://observer.com/2005/01/off-the-record-75/
BuzzFeed is an AmericanĀ media organization that consistently posts fair and accurate reporting about trans and gender diverse people.
Background
BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 as a news aggregator focusing on viral content. It soon became one of the primary clickbait sites, known for quizzes, listicles, and effectively strip mining the internet for content.
In 2011, they founded BuzzFeed News, which continued until 2023. During that time, anti-trans activists Virginia Hughes and Azeen Ghorayshi worked there together before moving to the New York Times.
Partners for Ethical Care (PEC) is an American anti-transgender front group. They are part of the “parental rights” faction of anti-transgender activists.
Dead Name is an anti-transgender media piece about three unaccepting parents of their trans and gender diverse children. Following its release it was banned by Vimeo as hateful content.
Background
Taylor Reece is the director and co-producer. It was produced by Broken Hearted Films, an LLC founded in New York in June 2022 by anti-trans activist and unaccepting parent Tina Traster.
Reece describes the piece as “an intimate portrait of three parents whose lives have been shaken and forever altered because their children have declared (or have been given) a transgender identity.”
The featured parents are Amy, Helen, and Bill. The children are not interviewed to get their side of things. Also in the film are anti-trans activists Stephen Levine and Brandon Showalter.
Release and removal
The piece was on Vimeo for about a month before being pulled. Many anti-trans extremists got involved in promoting the project following its removal, including Brandon Showalter, Oren Amitay, Ben Appel, Peter Boghossian, and Alline Cormier.
“Alix Aharon” is the stage name of Alexandra “Alix” Hecht, a Scottish anti-transgender activist. Hecht is a co-founder of anti-transgender group Partners for Ethical Care.
Hecht took data from a map of trans-supportive healthcare providers to create an anti-trans project called The Gender Offender Mapper (later called The Gender Mapping Project). Hecht is an advisor for Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF).
Background
Hecht was born in Glasgow, Scotland. Hecht graduated from Craigholme School for Girls in 2003 and earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Aberdeen in 2007. Hecht has worked in sales for SuperDerivatives, Checkmarx, WalkMe, AppSee, dLocal, Wishbox, Duve, and Coro.
Hecht reportedly had an “aggressive eating disorder” for ten years. Hecht reportedly emigrated to Israel and spends time in California and Tel Aviv.
Hecht has used a number of aliases:
Alix Aharon
Alexandra Hecht
Lara Alix
Alix Hecht
Alex Hecht
Lara Alix Hecht
Anti-trans activism
While living in Israel, Hecht reportedly saw a 2019 documentary on four young trans men who were scheduled to serve in the Israeli Defense Force. Hecht was enraged and embarked on anti-trans activism.
Hecht’s most notable project is the Gender Offender Mapper.
Hecht has appeared on and has been mentioned in conservative and fascist media, including Newsmax and New York Post.
Hecht has logrolled for other anti-trans efforts, such as the documentary Trans Mission: What’s the Rush to Reassign Gender? Hecht called it “crucial.”
Leveille, Lee (July 5, 2021). The Mechanisms of TAnon: Where it Came From.Health Liberation Now! https://healthliberationnow.com/2021/07/05/the-mechanisms-of-tanon-where-it-came-from/
Leveille, Lee (April 12, 2021). The Mechanisms of TAnon: What is āTAnonā?Health Liberation Now! https://healthliberationnow.com/2021/04/12/the-mechanisms-of-tanon-what-is-tanon/
Jennifer Lahl is an American nursing executive and anti-transgender activist. Lahl is is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, an organization that opposes reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy.
In addition to opposing trans healthcare, Lahl opposes stem cell research, assisted suicide, egg and sperm donation, and surrogacy. Lahl calls these practices “egg and womb trafficking.”
Background
Jennifer D. Chenoweth was born on May 9, 1958, then earned a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Fullerton and a master’s degree from Trinity International University in 2000.
Lahl married marketing executive and church planter Daniel E. “Dan” Lahl (born October 7, 1956). Both attended Trinity International University. They have three children, Allison, Julia, and Katherine.
Jennifer Lahl has worked as a pediatric critical care nurse and administrator. Lahl’s California licenses were as a registered nurse (1982ā2021) and public health nurse (1985ā2019).
Lahl’s film projects have included:
Lines That Divide: The Great Stem Cell Debate (2009)
Eggsploitation (2010)
Anonymous Fatherās Day (2011)
Breeders: A Subclass of Women? (2014)
Maggie’s Story (2015)
Compassion and Choice: Denied (2016)
#BigFertility: It’s All about the Money (2018)
Anti-transgender activism
Lahl produced the 2021 film Trans Mission: Whatās the Rush to Reassign Gender? It is critical of gender affirming care for youth.
In 2022 Lahl produced a documentary on the ex-transgender movement The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters.
Caitlyn Jenner is an American media personality and Olympic gold medalist. Upon coming out as transgender in 2015, Jenner became the most famous transgender person alive. Jenner’s conservative views frequently cause tension with more progressive trans community members.
Background
Caitlyn Marie Jenner was born on October 28, 1949 in Mount Kisco, New York. Jenner attended high school in Sleepy Hollow, New York and Newtown, Connecticut. Jenner earned a bachelor’s degree from Graceland College in 1973. While there, Jenner played football until an injury forced a switch to decathlon. Jenner placed 10th in decathlon at the 1972 Summer Olympics. After that, Jenner dominated the event through the 1976 Summer Olympics. That gold medal and world record made Jenner a national hero.
Jenner secured many endorsement deals and began appearing in film and television regularly for the next 30 years. In 2007 Jenner’s family starred in the hit unscripted series Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
Jenner has been married three times and has six children and four stepchildren. Jenner was married to Kris Kardashian from 1991 to 2015. In 2015, as transition rumors swirled, Jenner was involved in a fatal car crash. Jenner and trans entrepreneur Sophia Hutchins met in 2015 and had a close personal and professional relationship until Hutchins’ death in 2025.
As a transgender public figure
Jenner’s coming out as trans caused a media frenzy, including appearances on magazine covers and many interviews in print and television. Jenner starred in the “unscripted” series I Am Cait with “friends” Jennifer Finney Boylan, Candis Cayne, Zackary Drucker, Chandi Moore, Jen Richards, Mimi Marks, and Kate Bornstein. Jenner also made a cameo on Transparent and continued appearing in film and television. Jenner was named one of 25 Glamour Women of the Year and received other recognitions, including the 2016 Time 100. In 2017 Jenner published a memoir, The Secrets of My Life, and had facial feminization surgery and bottom surgery. In 2017, Jenner founded the Caitlyn Jenner Foundation. The board included Andrea Metz, Nick Adams, and Zackary Drucker, with Sophia Hutchins as an executive.
Jenner made a number of controversial comments after coming out, such as joking that the hardest part about being a woman “is figuring out what to wear.” The glib sexist comments combined with the media attention led to a backlash among many conservatives and anti-transgender activists.
Jenner has continued to take conservative positions and make controversial comments about LGBT issues that have led to backlash from the community. Ellen Degeneres pressed Jenner about opposing gay marriage. Jenner’s comments about transgender athletes became a major talking point in 2021 during an unsuccessful run for California governor. In 2022 Jenner joined Fox News as an on-air contributor. In 2023 Jenner founded the Fairness First PAC “to keep boys out of women’s sports.”
The Guardian is a British media organization. Their transgender coverage has been criticized for anti-trans bias.
Background
The Guardian published an anti-trans piece by Julie Bindel in 2004. Over the following years, the paper became increasingly anti-trans in its stance. A 2018 letter to the editor by anti-trans activist Kathleen Stock and others led to complaints and protests. In 2020, anti-trans contributor Suzanne Moore left following an incendiary piece attacking social constructionist views about sex. More than 200 politicians, journalists, and activists signed a letter denouncing the piece. Moore later said many other comments had been removed because of “denial of female biology.” In 2021, The Guardian censored a comment by Judith Butler:
The Terfs (trans exclusionary radical feminists) and the so-called gender critical writers have also rejected the important work in feminist philosophy of science showing how culture and nature interact (such as Karen Barad, Donna Haraway, EM Hammonds or Anne Fausto-Sterling) in favor of a regressive and spurious form of biological essentialism. So they will not be part of the coalition that seeks to fight the anti-gender movement. The anti-gender ideology is one of the dominant strains of fascism in our times. So the Terfs will not be part of the contemporary struggle against fascism, one that requires a coalition guided by struggles against racism, nationalism, xenophobia and carceral violence, one that is mindful of the high rates of femicide throughout the world, which include high rates of attacks on trans and genderqueer people.
The anti-gender movement circulates a spectre of āgenderā as a force of destruction, but they never actually read any works in gender studies. Quick and fearful conclusions take the place of considered judgments. Yes, some work on gender is difficult and not everyone can read it, so we have to do better in reaching a broader public. As important as it is, however, to make complex concepts available to a popular audience, it is equally important to encourage intellectual inquiry as part of public life. Unfortunately, we are living in anti-intellectual times, and neo-fascism is becoming more normalized.
2018 open letter
In 2018 an open letter by critics of the Gender Recognition Act included many key anti-transgender extremists. They are reordered alphabetically by surname below.
Sophie Allen, Lecturer in Philosophy, Keele University
Rosalind Barber, English & Comparative Literature, Goldsmiths, University of London
Chetan Bhatt, Professor of Human Rights, Sociology, London School of Economics
Michael Biggs, Associate Professor in Sociology and Fellow of St Cross College, University of Oxford
Diane Brewster (Retired. ex University of Sussex and Open University)
Catherine Butler, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, University of Bath
Richard Byng, Professor in Primary Care Research, University of Plymouth
Alex Byrne, Head of Linguistics and Philosophy Department, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
W Burlette Carter, Professor of Law Emeritus, The George Washington University Law School, Washington, DC
Jackie Cassell, Head of the Department of Primary Care and Public Health, Brighton and Sussex Medical School
Clare Chambers, Reader in Philosophy, University of Cambridge
John Collins, Philosophy, University of East Anglia
Sophia Connell, Philosophy, Birkbeck College London
Stephen Cowden, Senior Lecturer in Social Work, Coventry University
Rosie Dias, Associate Professor, History of Art, University of Warwick
Debbie Epstein, Professor of Cultural Studies in Education, School of Education, University of Roehampton, London
Rosa Freedman PhD, LLM, LLB, Professor of Law Conflict and Global Development, Director Global Development Division, Co-Director United Nations and Global Order Research Programme, University of Reading
John Gardner FBA, Professor of Law and Philosophy, All Souls College, Oxford
Richard Garside, Director, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Senior Visiting Research Fellow, Open University
Leslie Green, Philosophy of Law, Balliol College, Oxford
Liz Guy, School of Computing, Engineering & Mathematics, University of Brighton
Mike Hannis, Senior Lecturer in Environmental Humanities (Ethics and Sustainability), Bath Spa University
PM Higgins, Honorary Research Fellow, Royal Holloway University of London; former Professor of Music, University of Nottingham; former KƤthe-Leichter Visiting Professor of Womenās and Gender Studies, University of Vienna
Akrivos D (2022). Transgender reporting in the British press: editorial standards and discursive harms in the post-Leveson era. Journal of Media Law Volume 14, 2022 – Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1080/17577632.2022.2153216
Stone, Gemma (June 7, 2021). The Guardian is Transphobic.Medium https://medium.com/@notCursedE/the-guardian-is-transphobic-eebd0d5ea63a
Penka Kouneva, aka “Vera Lindner,” is a Bulgarian-American anti-transgender activist who produced the 2023 anti-trans film No Way Back. This supplemental information outlines her path to anti-transgender activism.
2022 IWF profile
This is a transcript of an interview she did with Independent Women’s Forum.
There is a huge overlap between autism and transgenderism, and the professionals need to be asked, “Why, why are there so many trans-identified individuals who are also autistic?
I am a mother of 15-year-old daughter who began to identify as transgender in the summer of 2020, during the lockdown. At the time we didnāt know that our child has autism. Sheās highly functioning autistic, what used to be called Aspergerās. Gifted, highly intelligent. During the lockdown, these eighth graders were not really interested in school. It was such a time of trauma and confusion. What these girls did is they started watching TikTok and Instagram videos all day long. I mean pretty much nonstop, and what I noticed over the summer of 2020, these four girls who were part of a friendship group where only one girl identified as transgender, they began kind of nudging each other to also identify as transgender, to make up male names, male pronouns.
And in August of 2020 my daughter also started to identify as transgender, which was a total shock. I didnāt expect it to happen because up until the week before she made the declaration, she said, “Iām a proud lesbian and Iām a Democrat,” so I thought, “This is perfectly fine. Iām cool you’re a proud lesbian, thatās fine.” And then a week later, she said, “Donāt call me a woman. Donāt call me a girl. Donāt call me she. I am a guy Iām your son.”
Weāre like “OK. Exploration is fine. You know, try different things.” What happened immediately after the trans declaration is that she began to ask for things. She said “I want testosterone. I want you to buy me these things from Amazon. Theyāre like boosting for testosterone. I want a binder.” And this is where I really understood there is a medical harm. There is a medical destruction involved in changing oneās sex. And this is where I had to draw the line.
So earlier in June of the lockdown year 2020, my child very much demanded to see a gender specialist. My intuition told me that this is not a good path, and I said, “Listen, Iām going to find an LGBT supportive therapist, but not necessarily a gender therapist.” We chose an older woman lesbian in her mid-70s. I trusted her experience, especially her perspective as a lesbian, something I donāt have. As soon as my daughter announced the transgender self-identification, and a new name, the therapist began to call her by the new name and call her “he.” At the time I spoke with a therapist via email basically saying, “My daughter has autism, ADDF, anxiety, and depression. Why isnāt it cool anymore to be a lesbian? Can you explore these issues?” I also wrote to the therapist. “Out of the five friends, four are now identifying as transgender. Could this be peer influence?” None of these questions were ever addressed.
The therapist said, “Testosterone is going to bring you gender congruity. Try to see if you can. Call your parents’ insurance to ask if youāre eligible at the age of 14,” basically confusing her even more. Instead of actually exploring the real issues. I feel very strongly that the therapist was giving very wrong ideas, very confusing ideas to my child. Ultimately leading to my child falling into a mental breakdown. Which exemplified itself as a total depression. My child was in her room all day long lying on the floor, catatonic with the cell phone in her hands, watching TikTok videos. I did ask the therapist, “Please speak with my child to essentially minimize the time on social media,” and the therapist’s reply was, “Oh, you know, she has a broken heart. She hast to soothe herself and distract herself with social media.”
As a mother, my intuition told me that I had to approach this problem holistically. We had anti-depressants, medications, we had physical movement, and being in touch with nature. We hiked. We did exercises, and basically we left our community. We left our home in Southern California, and I used this as the reason why we just wanted to go on hiatus from the therapist. I understood intuitively that I had to be very diplomatic, that I couldnāt make a statement that would get me in trouble, because I already had read stories where parents had lost custody of their children, because of their gender critical views. In my mind, I was determined not to allow this person to poison my childās mind anymore.
My daughter had a summer job as a volunteer in a farming community. And that return to real people, real stories, spending less time on social media, has been the most healing, gradually over time, especially with the medications and being outside. The mental health of my child started to improve.
What I had to do is show love, support, and kindness without affirming the delusion. Without the affirming the ideology, and drawing a very clear boundary that youāre loved, youāre safe, but we will do absolutely nothing medical until you are 18.
I have been a lifelong voting Democrat since I was naturalized in 2002. Iām profoundly disappointed that the Democratic Party has chosen to affirm a delusion, and a very toxic ideology that attacks these vulnerable children, these children, who come from trauma, who come from adverse childhood experiences, who are neurodivergent, such as autistic, or with ADD, ADHD. I entrusted my child with professionals, and instead of the teachers and the doctor saying, “OK now letās get to the bottom of this. Why are you saying youāre not a girl?” The teachers and the doctors blindly affirmed. They perpetuate the delusion.
Weāre talking about autistic people who think in black-and-white, they donāt see nuance. They hyperfixate over ideas. Most people say, “Oh, when you confirm your child, they will blossom, this is their true, authentic self.” This is not true. Their true, authentic self is sheās an autistic woman. Sheās a girl, sheās not a boy. These children need to be taught what is the reality, and they need to be taught coping skills, and just skills to live to be functional adults. Instead, their minds are being poisoned with lies, within truth, and harmful ideology.
And as a parent who has watched this firsthand with my child with her friends, I have to fight this. Thereās no other way for me.
