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John McDermott is an American writer who sympathetically profiled anti-trans bigots for the New York Times.

McDermott takes issue with this profile and its entire framing, stating on April 10, 2023: “Insinuating I’m anti-trans is demonstrably false. I’ve never written a single sentence that attacks trans people or gender ideology.” The term gender ideology is an anti-trans dog whistle used widely among anti-transgender activists and religious conservatives.

For the Harvard-educated journalist who serves as Africa correspondent for The Economist and graduated from London School of Economics on a Fulbright Scholarship, see John McDermott.

Background

John Michael McDermott was born October 5, 1987. McDermott grew up in Illinois and graduated from Oak Park-River Forest High School in 2006, then earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2010.

McDermott has written for Inc., Advertising Age, Digiday, Esquire, and MEL Magazine. McDermott has also freelanced for The New York Times, WIRED, Politico, The Atlantic, Playboy, Vice, Fast Company and the Chicago Tribune.

2017 MEL piece

McDermott waded into the subject of transgender athletes following Andraya Yearwood’s high school track wins, using the anti-trans dog whistle “biological sex”:

The far right has framed the events as political correctness coming at the expense of fairness and common sense, while others have celebrated it as a victory for trans inclusion. A third group has adopted a mixed viewpoint, one that accepts Yearwood’s decision to transition but questions whether her biological sex gives her an unfair advantage in women’s athletics. 

2019 New York Times piece

McDermott wrote a 2019 puff piece about anti-transgender media figures for the New York Times. The piece was greenlit and published in the Styles section by Choire Sicha.

As with any “cisgender people under siege” type article, McDermott’s piece presents these bigots as fearless truth-tellers akin to Galileo. McDermott interviewed zero trans people or media watchdogs critical of these bigots.

Attacking trans people is a get-rich-quick scheme that has proven effective for decades. Social scientists call McDermott’s tactic DARVO (deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender). Biologist Julia Serano calls DARVO directed at trans people “the Dregerian narrative,” named after intellectual dark web member Alice Dreger, whom McDermott mentions.

As Melissa Gira Grant noted in The New Republic:

Conspicuously absent from the Times piece are quotes and stories from the people who have been deemed—both by the canceled and their chroniclers—supporting players in the culture war debate: the trans individuals the canceled have concerned themselves with, and whose lives and health are at stake.

People profiled sympathetically include:

In 2023 McDermott posted then quickly deleted a solicitation to an alleged “detransitioner” on Twitter.

References

Grant, Melissa Gira (November 6, 2019). Fixating on “Cancel Culture” in an Age of Transphobia. The New Republic. https://newrepublic.com/article/155606/fxating-cancel-culture-age-transphobia

McDermott, John (November 2, 2019). Those people we tried to cancel? They’re all hanging out together. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/02/style/what-is-cancel-culture.html

Serano, Julia (March 29, 2021). The Dregerian Narrative (or why “trans activists” vs. “scientists” framings are lazy, inaccurate, and incendiary). Medium https://juliaserano.medium.com/the-dregerian-narrative-or-why-trans-activists-vs-276740045120

McDermott, John (October 24, 2018). My high school years of white privilege. Chicago Tribune https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-perspec-america-to-me-docuseries-oak-park-river-forest-high-school-1025-story.html

McDermott, John (June 7, 2017).  There’s no easy answer to the debate over trans high school athletes. MEL https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/theres-no-easy-answer-to-the-debate-over-trans-high-school-athletes

Resources

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Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.

John Lichfield is a freelance writer based in France. Lichfield is the former Paris correspondent for The Independent.

2021 UnHerd piece

Lichfield wrote in anti-transgender publication UnHerd about a cartoon by Xavier Gorce that appeared in Le Monde. Gorce showed a small penguin asking a bigger penguin: “If I was to be abused by the adopted half-brother of the partner of my transgender father who is now my mother, would that be incest?” Many people felt the cartoon was in poor taste, and Le Monde apologized while leaving it up.

Lichfield’ spends his ‘s article makes a tendentious connection between transgender people and Islamist terrorists who shot up the offices of Charlie Hebdo over anti-Muslim cartoons.

Fluidity of gender is one thing. Fluidity of commitment to press freedom on the part of a great newspaper like Le Monde is another. If it’s permissible in the name of free speech to offend Muslims (even though that was not the intention of the Charlie cartoons) is it not permissible to offend transgender people (even though that was not Gore’s intention)? Is incest — long a taboo subject in France, as elsewhere — completely off-limits for satire or humour?

References

Lichfield, John (January 22, 2021). French cartoonists are in trouble again. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2021/01/french-cartoonists-are-in-trouble-again/

Resources

X/Twitter (x.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

The Independent (independent.co.uk)

UnHerd (unherd.com)

Joan Smith is a British writer, sex segregationist, and anti-transgender activist from the movement’s gender critical faction.

Background

Joan Alison Smith was born August 27, 1953. Smith attended University of Reading. Smith was on staff at The Sunday Times from 1979 to 1984.

Smith is author of the Loretta Lawson series of crime novels. Smith’s nonfiction books include Misogynies (1989), Different for Girls: How Culture Creates Women (1998), and Home Grown: How Domestic Violence Turns Men Into Terrorists (2019).

In 2015, Smith was elected chair of Labour Humanists, a group promoting secularist policies and humanist values within the Labour party.

Smith was married to journalist Francis Wheen from 1985 to 1993 and was partners with politician Denis MacShane from 2003 to 2010.

Anti-transgender activism

In 2021, Smith was fired as Co-Chair of the Mayor of London’s Violence Against Women and Girls Board, a volunteer role held since 2013. The decision came after a governance review. Officials denied Smith’s claims that it was because of anti-trans activities.

Smith frequently writes anti-trans articles for UnHerd. Smith is a member of Sex Matters Advisory Group.

References

Brook, Libby (August 19, 2021). The Guardian London mayor’s office denies feminist activist’s claims over sacking https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/aug/19/london-mayors-office-denies-feminist-activists-claims-over-sacking

Smith Joan (August 20, 2021). Why did Sadiq Khan’s office fire me? UnHerd https://unherd.com/2021/08/why-did-sadiq-khans-office-fire-me/

Resources

UnHerd (unherd.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Giles Fraser is a British journalist, broadcaster and clergymember. Initially trans-supportive, Fraser says he became a TERF in response to tactics used against supporters of anti-transgender activist J.K. Rowling.

Background

Giles Anthony Fraser was born November 27, 1964 in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. Fraser studied at Newcastle University and Ripon College Cuddesdon, then earned a doctorate at University of Lancaster.

Fraser was ordained as a deacon in 1993 and as a priest in 1994. Fraser taught at Wadham College, Oxford, and Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral. Fraser is the author of Redeeming Nietzsche: On the Piety of Unbelief, How to Believe: Investigating Wittgenstein, and Christianity with Attitude.

Fraser hosts The Moral Maze and Thought for the Day on Radio 4. Fraser is a Vicar of St Anne’s, Kew, part of the Church of England.

Fraser has been married twice and has three children.

Anti-trans views

In 2015 Fraser wrote a column about how the church needs to welcome trans people. When interacting with trans people, Fraser uses their names and pronouns because “my default response is to affirm these decisions.”

Fraser’s opinion shifted in 2023. After anti-trans activist Suzanne Moore introduced Fraser to J.K. Rowling at an event at Italian restaurant Pino, the restaurant was vandalized and review-bombed online.

Fraser reportedly became a TERF after that. Fraser also revealed several anti-trans views:

I believe in limits, in the givenness of some things. And, it seems to me, biological sex is one of them. I find the use of medical technology to transgress these limits to be Faustian in its hubris. 

Because some transactivists now behave as though anything they can do for the cause is justified, however cruel: get people sacked, ruin their businesses, be vile to others online. The public sphere is becoming so unpleasant, so full of vitriol and accusation, that many of us just put on our tin hats and retreat from the conversation. To be honest, I have been quite content that my privilege has, until now, encouraged me to think that the best thing for me to do is to sit this one out and say nothing. I have been hiding behind this terribly convenient self-denying ordinance, leaving the likes of J.K. Rowling and Suzanne Moore to take all the heat, my courage being a few pathetic “likes” on Twitter.

References

Fraser, Giles (May 22, 2015). Why the church needs welcome services for people transitioning gender. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/belief/2015/may/22/why-church-needs-welcome-services-people-transitioning-gender

Fraser, Giles (June 9, 2022). How pasta made me a Terf. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2022/06/how-pasta-made-me-a-terf/

Resources

X/Twitter (x.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Timandra Harkness is a writer and comedian who has some gender critical positions about transgender youth and anti-transgender activists.

Background

Harkness presents the BBC Radio 4 series, FutureProofing and How To Disagree. Harkness is author of Big Data: Does Size Matter?

In the show Brainsex, Harkness came to the correct conclusion that “brain sex” is one of many ways sex science is similar to race science: a misuse of science to justify oppression.

Anti-trans statements

Harkness has written in anti-trans publication UnHerd about supporting anti-trans activist Kathleen Stock.

Harkness also stated opposition to gender affirming healthcare for transgender youth:

I support the rights of trans people to equal treatment. I don’t support encouraging teenagers into irreversible medical interventions by telling them they’re in the “wrong body” because they don’t fit narrow gender stereotypes. So I won’t sign this letter.

References

Harkness, Timandra (October 13, 2021). The hounding of Kathleen Stock. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2021/10/the-hounding-of-kathleen-stock/

worldwrite (November 12, 2011). Sex in the brain: do men and women think differently? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQ6ygnNsH8o

Resources

Timandra Harkness (timandraharkness.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

Mary Harrington is a British author and anti-transgender activist.

Background

Mary E. Harrington grew up in Kings Langley and graduated from Oxford in 2002.

“In 2005, I changed my name to Sebastian, because the internet told me to. That was a fairly eccentric thing to do 15 years ago. Now, it seems like everyone’s at it.”

Harrington worked in marketing from 2006 to 2020, specializing in marketing for the shipping industry. Harrington is a contributing editor at anti-trans publication UnHerd.

Harrington is author of the 2023 book Feminism Against Progress.

References

Trinko, Katrina (April 30, 2023) Did the Pill and the Digital World Fuel Transgenderism? The Daily Signal https://www.dailysignal.com/2023/04/30/mary-harrington-feminism-against-progress-author-talks-transgenderism/

McBain, Sophie (March 8, 2023). Mary Harrington: “Make sex consequential again.” The journalist and author on what liberal feminism gets wrong. New Statesman https://www.newstatesman.com/encounter/2023/03/mary-harrington-interview-make-sex-consequential

Selected anti-trans writing by Harrington

Harrington, Mary (February 19, 2024). New study: trans youth not at elevated risk of suicide. UnHerd https://unherd.com/newsroom/new-study-trans-youth-not-at-elevated-risk-of-suicide/

Harrington, Mary (December 1, 2023). Ultra-Processed People. Reactionary Feminist https://reactionaryfeminist.substack.com/p/ultra-processed-people

Harrington, Mary (September 14, 2023). The Statistic No One’s Allowed To Study: Why are so many transgender prisoners sex offenders? Reactionary Feminist

Harrington, Mary (July 17, 2023). NHS mental health app ‘Kooth’ is a danger to girls. UnHerd https://unherd.com/newsroom/nhs-mental-health-app-kooth-is-a-danger-to-girls/

Harrington, Mary (July 23, 2023). Which orifice? What organs? Who cares? Reactionary Feminist https://reactionaryfeminist.substack.com/p/which-orifice-what-organs-who-cares

Harrington, Mary (June 12, 2023). California laws fundamentally redefine the family. UnHerd https://unherd.com/newsroom/california-laws-fundamentally-redefine-the-family/

Harrington, Mary (May 12, 2023). The Hyperpalatable Human What AI-generated burger adverts tell us about male-to-male transsexuals. Reactionary Feminist https://reactionaryfeminist.substack.com/p/the-hyperpalatable-human

Harrington, Mary (April 17, 2023). From the UN to SNL, how institutions fall to trans activism. UnHerd https://unherd.com/thepost/from-the-un-to-snl-how-institutions-fall-to-transactivism/

Harrington, Mary (April 3, 2023). New laws confirm the sacred principle of bodily self-creation UnHerd https://unherd.com/thepost/new-laws-confirm-the-sacred-principle-of-bodily-self-creation/

Harrington, Mary (March 29, 2023). What Posie Parker learnt from Brexit: Every campaign needs its shock troops. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2023/03/what-posie-parker-learnt-from-brexit/

Harrington, Mary (March 2, 2023). Why Progress isn’t feminist. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2023/03/why-progress-isnt-feminist/

Harrington, Mary (March 2, 2023). Dylan Mulvaney’s new face is only the beginning UnHerd https://unherd.com/thepost/dylan-mulvaneys-new-face-is-only-the-beginning/

Harrington, Mary (January 5, 2023). Why are incels turning themselves into girls? UnHerd https://unherd.com/thepost/why-are-incels-turning-themselves-into-girls/

Harrington, Mary (October 28, 2022). Scotland’s new gender bill imperils the Union. UnHerd https://unherd.com/thepost/scotlands-new-gender-bill-imperils-the-union/

Harrington, Mary (October 28, 2022). Can you really be non-binary? UnHerd https://unherd.com/2022/08/what-does-it-mean-to-be-non-binary/

Harrington, Mary (May 30, 2022). Landmark trans cases show who the men really are. UnHerd https://unherd.com/thepost/landmark-trans-cases-show-who-the-men-really-are/

Harrington, Mary (October 20, 2021). Welcome to Team TERF, Margaret Atwood UnHerd https://unherd.com/thepost/welcome-to-the-team-margaret-atwood/

Harrington, Mary (September 14, 2021). The Gender Resistance. First Things https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2021/09/the-gender-resistance

Harrington, Mary (September 1, 2021). Trans activism has mummy issues. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2021/09/the-trans-war-on-motherhood/

Harrington, Mary (May 6, 2021). Nobody wins the gender wars. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2021/05/nobody-wins-the-gender-wars/

Harrington, Mary (May 6, 2021). The trans lobby is finally meeting resistance. UnHerd https://unherd.com/thepost/the-trans-lobby-is-finally-meeting-resistance/

Harrington, Mary (December 9, 2020). For me, self-identification was a con. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2020/12/for-me-self-identification-was-a-con/

Resources

Reactionary Feminist (reactionaryfeminist.com)

Substack (substack.com)

UnHerd (unherd.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Jacob Siegel is an American writer and critic of gender affirming healthcare.

Background

Jacob Rosenberg “Jake” Siegel was born November 13, 1980 to sociologist Jan Rosenberg Siegel and academic Frederick Fein “Fred” Siegel, (1945–2023), a progressive turned senior fellow at conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute.

Siegel served in the US Army, then commanded the New York Army National Guard Alpha Company, 1st Battalion 69th Infantry.

Siegel worked at The Daily Beast, where sibling Harry served as a senior editor. Siegel is an author and co-editor with Roy Scranton of Fire and Forget: Short Stories From the Long War, by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Siegel has written for The New York Times, Tablet, Politico, the New York Daily News, The Baffler, Vice, and the National Endowment for the Humanities

Siegel is senior editor of News and The Scroll, Tablet’s daily afternoon news digest.

References

Siegel, Jacob (May 6, 2022). Did hipsters start the gender wars? UnHerd https://unherd.com/2022/05/how-hipsters-started-the-gender-wars/

Siegel, Jacob (June 15, 2022). The Evil of Banality. The Scroll https://thedailyscroll.substack.com/p/the-evil-of-banality

Moulton, David (March 9, 2023). The Great Transitioning. Tablet https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/great-transitioning [Moulton thanked Siegel for his help with this]

Siegel, Harry; Siegel, Jacob (May 13, 2023). Pop: The private life of the public intellectual: Memories of Fred Siegel’s loving legacy from his sons Harry and Jacob. New York Daily News https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-fred-siegel-harry-jacob-sons-20230513-x75suvkdbjasvd2zhlnlufl5su-story.html

Roberts, Sam (May 11, 2023). Fred Siegel, Urban Historian and a Former Liberal, Is Dead at 78. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/11/nyregion/fred-siegel-dead.html

Resources

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Daily Beast (thedailybeast.com)

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Gareth Roberts is a gay British writer and anti-transgender activist.

Background

Gareth John Pritchard Roberts was born June 5, 1968. Roberts attended King Alfred’s College (now the University of Winchester) and Liverpool Polytechnic (now Liverpool John Moores University).

Roberts published the 1997 gay erotic novel The Velvet Web under the pseudonym Christopher Summerisle. Roberts wrote for British soap operas Brookside, Coronation Street, and Emmerdale. Roberts also wrote several books and episodes within the Doctor Who franchise and a number of sitcoms.

Anti-transgender activism

On September 3, 2017, Roberts posted to Twitter, “I ❀ how trannies choose names like Munroe, Paris and Chelsea. It’s never Julie or Bev is it?” Later Roberts added, “It’s almost like a clueless gayboy’s idea of a glamorous lady. But of course it’s definitely not that.”

In 2019 Roberts was dropped from a Doctor Who project due to the 2017 comments and released a statement. Roberts described the 2017 tweets as “cheerful vulgarity” and laid out various “opinions on transgenderism”:

I don’t believe in gender identity. It is impossible for a person to change their biological sex. I don’t believe anybody is born in the wrong body.

I think it’s wrong to – write a falsehood into law; compel people by law to speak words they do not believe; rewrite the law to remove women’s biological sex-based rights and protections; reinforce gender stereotypes; medicalise children who don’t conform to gender stereotypes. That’s it.

Roberts then began litigating these anti-transgender views on UnHerd and other anti-trans platforms.

References

Gunz, Rafaella (September 17, 2017). Doctor Who writer Tweeted a transphobic comment and the internet is not having it. Gay Star News https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/doctor-writer-tweeted-transphobic-comment-internet-not/

Jusino, Teresa (September 5, 2017). Doctor Who Writer Gareth Roberts Talks Vile, Ignorant Trash About Trans Women. The Mary Sue https://www.themarysue.com/doctor-who-writer-gareth-roberts-talks-vile-ignorant-trash-about-trans-women/

Farrow, Max (September 4, 2017). ‘Doctor Who’ Writer Gareth Roberts Tweets Controversial Comments Online. geeks.media https://geeks.media/doctor-who-writer-gareth-roberts-tweets-controversial-comments-online

Flood, Alison (June 5, 2019). Doctor Who anthology drops writer over transgender remarks. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/05/doctor-who-anthology-writer-transgender-tweets-gareth-roberts

Selected writing by Roberts

Roberts, Gareth (May 19, 2022). After 12 long hours, I have been freed from Twitter prison. UnHerd https://unherd.com/thepost/after-12-long-hours-i-have-been-freed-from-twitter-jail/

Roberts, Gareth (October 27, 2021). Is the BBC finally standing up to gender ideologues? UnHerd https://unherd.com/thepost/is-the-bbc-finally-standing-up-to-gender-ideologues/

Roberts, Gareth (October 15, 2021). Stephen Nolan’s Stonewall documentary is unmissable. UnHerd https://unherd.com/thepost/stephen-nolans-stonewall-documentary-is-unmissable/

Roberts, Gareth (September 10, 2021). Judith Butler’s toxic nonsense. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2021/09/judith-butlers-toxic-nonsense/

Roberts, Gareth (August 13, 2021). The BBC erases homosexuality with the stroke of a pen. UnHerd https://unherd.com/thepost/the-bbc-erases-homosexuality-at-the-stroke-of-a-pen/

Roberts, Gareth (June 17, 2021). So you’ve been cancelled? Here’s what to expect. UnHerd https://unherd.com/thepost/so-youve-been-cancelled-heres-what-to-expect/

Roberts, Gareth (June 14, 2019). How I was cancelled by Doctor Who. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2019/06/how-dr-who-fans-became-its-overlords/

Roberts, Gareth (June 4, 2019). Statement on BBC Books and Transgenderism. Medium [archive] https://web.archive.org/web/20190604101854/https://medium.com/@zmangareth/statement-on-bbc-books-and-transgenderism-dd7ad0c9231a

Resources

X/Twitter (x.com)

Spectator (spectator.co.uk)

Medium (medium.com)

Will Lloyd is a British journalist who writes for several anti-transgender publications. Lloyd is commissioning editor and writer at New Statesman.

Background

Lloyd earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Bristol in 2015 and an advanced degree from University of Oxford in 2020. Lloyd wrote for The Tab and freelanced before joining UnHerd in 2021. Lloyd joined New Statesman in 2023.

Writing on trans issues

In writing about Jan Morris, Lloyd says:

Asked about the pushback against the trans movement in 2017, an increasingly ancient Morris said our “moment is messy, but I think more and more people will move to my condition”. She believed it was possible that “everyone has the potential to have both genders in them”.

Jan Morris was an early adopter of an ideology that has swept across the Western world in the past 30 years. Conundrum has never been out of print. Morris’s belief — born from the collapse of empire, engineered to replace her imperial faith — that gender is ineffable and innate, are becoming commonplace in institutional settings. When Morris died, one of the leading tributes came from the chief executive of the Tavistock Clinic’s Gender Identity Development Service.

Is this simply fashion? Is this ideology “cronyistic” as Helen Joyce, and other gender-critical writers have suggested? Some feminists argue that gender-identity ideology will be abandoned “when it is no longer in the ascendent”, the politicians and tech billionaires will junk the pronouns in their emails, biology will reassert itself, and women will no longer have penises.

References

Lloyd, Will (October 19, 2022). Jan Morris: prophet of our gender troubles. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2022/10/the-prophet-of-our-gender-troubles/

Lloyd, Will (February 15, 2023). Hannah Barnes: Inside the collapse of the Tavistock gender clinic. New Statesman https://www.newstatesman.com/encounter/2023/02/hannah-barnes-inside-collapse-tavistock-gender-clinic-lgbtq-transgender-nhs

Resources

X/Twitter (x.com)

Substack (substack.com)

UnHerd (unherd.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Malcom Kyeyune is a conservative Swedish writer and anti-transgender activist. Kyeyune has described transgender rights as “gender Lysenkoism.”

Background

Malcom Kyeyune was born on December 19, 1987. Kyeyune is part of the steering council for the conservative think tank Oikos. Kyeyune identifies as a Marxist, but socialist/Marxist colleagues suspended Kyeyune from Sweden’s Young Left party as a result of conflicts within the Left Party.

References

Kyeyune, Malcom (June 24, 2022). The Rise of Gender Lysenkoism. Compact https://compactmag.com/article/the-rise-of-gender-lysenkoism

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

X/Twitter (x.com)

UnHerd (unherd.com)

Muck Rack (muckrack.com)