Third Factor is a publication by anti-trans activist Jessie Mannisto.
Background
Third factor is a reference to a concept by Kazimierz Dąbrowski in which there are three factors that affect creative and gifted people: nature, nurture, and a kind of dynamism Dąbrowski calls “overexcitability.”
People
Jessie Mannisto
Alexis Obernauer
Ilana Grostern
Ralph Rickenbach
Margo Margan
Luis Manuel Martínez Domínguez
Raphaela Carrière
Podcast
Overexcitability and the Higher Path (August 17, 2023) Jessie
Of Sophists, Mensheviks, and Cassandras with Marie (August 24, 2023) Jessie and Marie
Maladjusted to Gen Z’s Maladjustment with Margo Margan (August 31, 2023) Jessie
When Struggle Sessions Stir Positive Disintegration (September 7, 2023) Jessie
The Voice in Strength and Vulnerability with Laura Stavinoha (September 14, 2023) Jessie
Courageous Conversation for the Next Generation with Jefferson Shupe (September 21, 2023) Jessie
Embodied Camaraderie with Alasdair Gunn (September 28, 2023) Jessie
Fighting Affective Polarization with Julian Adorney (October 12, 2023) Jessie
Jessie Mannisto is an American consultant and anti-transgender activist. Mannisto is executive editor at anti-trans organization Genspect.
Background
Jessie Louise Mannisto was born on May 31, 1982 to parents Keith and Anne and grew up in Northridge, Michigan with a younger sibling, Emily. Mannisto earned a bachelor’s degree from Kalamazoo College in 2004, followed by a master’s degree from University of Michigan in 2011. Mannisto speaks Japanese and has spent time in Japan. From 2011 to 2013 Mannisto worked at the Japanese Consulate in Detroit, then at the CIA as an analyst from 2013 to 2017.
In 2018 Mannisto began working as a freelance consultant and researcher.
Anti-trans activism
In 2017 Mannisto founded Third Factor, a publication “for creative and intellectually engaged people.” In a 2019 Third Factor article, Mannisto first “publicly questioned gender identity and its apparent over-representation among those identified as gifted.” In this piece, Mannisto promoted several controversial ideas and people:
In 2023 Genspect announced that Mannisto would moderate a panel at their Denver conference titled “Not your mom: Women resisting gender ideology.” Scheduled panelists include Heather Heying, Carrie Mendoza, Stella O’Malley, Nina Paley, and Carole Hooven.
Sander Rietveld is a Dutch anti-transgender activist. Rietveld directed the 2023 anti-trans media piece “Het transgenderprotocol.” It was so one-sided that one of the subjects, Lucy Kortikasari, came out against Rietveld’s deceptive and biased practices.
Background
Rietveld earned a master’s degree from Leiden University in 1999. Rietveld did investigations at Netwerk from 2004 to 2010.
Rietveld authored the 2021 book Nieuwe kruisvaarders [New Crusaders] about connections between orthodox Christianity and far right populism.
Rietveld is host of the podcast ZEMBLA.
Anti-transgender activism
Rietveld directed Het transgenderprotocol. Personnel included:
Rietveld, Sander (2021). Nieuwe kruisvaarders: de heilige alliantie tussen orthodoxe christenen en radicaal-rechtse populisten. Prometheus, ISBN 978-9044645163
Megan McArdle is an American writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Megan J. McArdle was born January 29, 1973. McArdle earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994, and a master’s degree from the University of Chicago in 2001.
McArdle blogged under the name Jane Galt at Asymmetrical Information:
McArdle has something of a contrarian streak. She’s the “black sheep” of her “rabid Democrat” family. She took her pseudonym from the Ayn Rand novel Atlas Shrugged, solely to irk a frequent commenter on a New York Times Internet forum who smeared anyone to the “right of Chairman Mao” as a “Randroid.”
McArdle authored the 2014 book The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success.
McArdle is married to Peter Suderman (born September 30, 1981), who ran the blog alarm-alarm.com. Suderman writes for Reason and previously worked for National Review, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, FreedomWorks, Doublethink, and Culture11.
McArdle has described distress from being personally misgendered: “I’m 6-foot-2, tall enough that distracted store clerks often call me “sir,” a fact that caused me great distress as a young woman.”
McArdle, Megan (February 24, 2022 ). Opinion: Don’t forget the other women swimming against Lia Thomas. [alt title: Don’t forget the other women in the pool]. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/24/lia-thomas-ivy-league-swimming-championships/
“Shannon Thrace” is the current stage name of an American author and anti-transgender activist. Thrace is part of the “trans widow” movement of people upset that their spouses made a gender transition.
Background
Thrace was married for about 14 years to someone who came out as trans. Their relationship fell apart over the following 18 months.
Thrace originally published under the pseudonym “Sharon Thrace.”
Linda Blade is a Canadian athlete, coach, and anti-transgender extremist. Blade considers transgender athletes “almost an existential threat to our sport.”
Background
Linda Blade was born on May 26, 1962 in Bolivia. Blade and spouse moved to Nigeria in the 1990s. They returned to Canada after they had a child.
Blade competed in track and field. Blade earned a doctorate from Simon Fraser University in 1994. In 1997, Blade began work as a sports performance coach.
In 2014, Blade was elected as president of the board for Athletics Alberta and was involved in shaping Canadian sport policy. Blade is president of the Edmonton Track Council, and is responsible for overseeing athletics programs across Alberta, including at Kinsmen Field House.
Anti-transgender activism
Blade is a frequent collaborator with Raine McLeod of AB Radical Feminists.
According to a 2021 report by The Canadian Anti-Hate Network, “Blade’s staff bio at the Royal Glenora Club, an Edmonton-based private fitness and social club, describes her ‘struggle to preserve sports for biological females’ as ‘the hill I am prepared to die on.’”
Blade and Barbara Kay wrote the 2021 book Unsporting: How Trans Activism and Science Denial are Destroying Sport.
Blade is involved in anti-trans organization Independent Council on Women’s Sports and maintains anti-trans website N=8. According to Blade, this equation “denotes the number of male born runners it took to change the rules of sport for ALL female athletes in the world across ALL sports.”
Blade was announced as a speaker at a 2023 anti-trans conference by Genspect.
Yamauchi, Mara (July 2, 2022). Dr Linda Blade and a life in athletics.World Athletics https://worldathletics.org/personal-best/lifestyle/linda-blade-life-in-athletics
Wesley Yang is an author and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Yang was born on October 3, 1974 and grew up in New Jersey.
Yang attended Rutgers University from 1993 to 1997. Yang began freelance writing in 2005. From 2011 to 2013, Yang was a contributing editor at New York. Since 2017 Yang has been a columnist at Tablet. In 2018 Yang became a contributing editor at Esquire.
Yang is author of the 2018 book The Souls of Yellow Folk: Essays. That book includes Yang’s provocative 2008 piece on mass shooter Seung-Hui Cho.
Yang coined the term “successor ideology.,” which was popularized by other reactionary centrists and conservatives. Yang describes it as “authoritarian Utopianism that masquerades as liberal humanism while usurping it from within.”
In 2022 Yang, spouse, and child were living in Montreal.
Anti-transgender activism
Yang got involved in anti-transgender activism through Jesse Singal, Lisa Selin Davis, and “Eliza Mondegreen.” Yang cites anti-trans activism in Sweden and Finland as what finally provided cover for coming out as anti-trans. Yang walked around with anti-trans extremist “Billboard Chris” and found that nearly everyone agreed with the anti-trans messages Billboard Chris wears, yet still claims that anti-trans views are “heterodox.” Yang also had an extensive conversation with anti-trans extremist Leor Sapir.
Signatories (September 27 2020). We stand with JK against hate.The Sunday Times [archive] https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/letters-to-the-editor-banish-empire-and-make-us-all-proud-5tl06tt6h
Signatories (April 10, 2022) Press pause on Conversion Therapy Bill.The Sunday Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/press-pause-on-conversion-therapy-bill-g7vbtvc7h
Claire Lehmann is an Australian writer and anti-transgender activist. Lehmann is a key figure in the so-called intellectual dark web, described as a gateway to the far right. Lehmann is founding editor of anti-trans publication Quillette, also classified a pathway to right-wing radicalization.
Background
Claire (Jensen) Lehmann was born on July 18, 1985 and grew up in Adelaide, South Australia. Lehmann earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Adelaide in 2010. Jensen married Harold M. “Harry” Lehmann at age 27 and dropped out of graduate school when their first child was born in 2013.
Lehmann worked 2011-2014 as a Policy Research Assistant at Australian College of Nursing and 2015-2016 as a Communications officer at National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance.