Candace Owens is a conservative American writer and anti-transgender activist. Owens is part of a group of conspiracy theorists involved in “transvestigations,” where they make claims that public figures are secretly transgender.
Background
Candace Amber Owens was born on April 29, 1989. Owens grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, graduated from Stamford High School, and attended University of Rhode Island, dropping out before completing a degree. After an internship at Vogue, Owens worked at a private equity firm in administration.
Owens married George Farmer in 2019. They have two children.
In 2021, Owens joined The Daily Wire and hosted Candace, a political talk show. Owens left Daily Wire in March 2024, reportedly over remarks about Israel.
Anti-transgender activism
In 2017, Owens supported banning transgender people without bottom surgery from serving in the United States military.
In 2022, Owens falsely claimed the Robb Elementary School shooter could be transgender.
In 2022, Owens described Drag Queen Story Hour as “child abuse,” adding that parents who take their children “should have their children taken away from them.”
In 2022, Owens said that society would benefit by discriminating more against transgender and non-binary people.
In 2023, Owens said “It is worse than Jim Crow laws because we are mutilating the bodies of children. […] It is Frankenstein. These are human experiments that are being performed on children.”
In February 2025 Owens released Becoming Brigitte, a “transvestigation” into Brigitte Macron, First Lady of France and spouse of French president Emmanuel Macron. Owens concludes that Brigitte Macron is trans, and there’s a vast conspiracy to keep this information hidden.
Angel Eduardo is an American anti-transgender activist.
Background
Angel Lemuel Eduardo was born in March 1985 and grew up in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Eduardo earned a bachelor’s degree from New Jersey City University in 2008 and a master’s degree from Hunter College in 2015.
Eduardo was in the band Blue Food from 2008 to 2016 and contributed to NewsCult.com while doing research for TitleVest. Eduardo the wrote for Action Without Borders (also known as Idealist) from 2019 to 2021.
Eduardo has been a columnist for Center for Inquiry since 2020, and advisor for Greenhouse Scholars since 2022.
Anti-transgender activism
In 2021, Eduardo defended a transphobic special by Dave Chappelle.
Since 2022, Eduardo has been writing for anti-trans publication Quillette.
RĂłisĂn Michaux is an Irish anti-transgender activist based in Brussels who claims to be “researching the explosion of the gender identity movement in EU/global institutions.”
Background
Michaux reportedly grew up experiencing poverty in a housing estate in a single-parent home.
Michaux “wrote for culture magazines in Belgium and abroad” before becoming a “Twitter TERF.”
Michaux is married and is a parent of children, one of whom was born in 2012.
It has also been a pipeline for anti-trans radicalization.
Ribeiro 2019 study
“Auditing Radicalization Pathways on YouTube” examines how YouTube algorithms in the 2010s infected viewers with recommendations from the alt-right, alt-lite, and intellectual dark web. The kinds of radicalization included anti-trans radicalization. Below are the channels analyzed.
Broadcasters also mentioned transgender identity in roughly 3 out of 10 videos, with hosts Bet-David and Rogan discussing the topic in more than half of their most-viewed videos. The podcasters and their guests â particularly comedians â often portrayed trans people as aberrant, and reinforced ideas of a gender binary.
Thirty percent of videos discussing transgender identity also mention children. Hosts criticized public schools for letting children explore their gender identity, and staunchly opposed gender-affirming care for minors. According to the American Medical Association, physicians providing gender-affirming care are bound by their ethical duty to act in a patientâs best interest, and clinical guidelines help them carefully consider whether care is medically necessary for improving the physical and mental health of patients.
In one April 2024 discussion on Fridmanâs show, the former US Representative Tulsi Gabbard argued that advocating for the rights of transgender individuals infringed on the rights of women. âThey,â said Gabbard, referring to Democrats, âare actively pushing for boys who identify as girls to compete against girls in sports. Changing our language so that the word woman, the identity of being a woman, is essentially being erased from our society.â As she spoke, Fridman, dressed in his signature dark suit, listened intently.
The arguments have already built support for sweeping policy changes across the nation. In 15% of videos mentioning transgender identity, hosts also mentioned sports, arguing that it is inappropriate for transgender and intersex athletes to compete. In January, House lawmakers passed a Republican-led bill that would prohibit federally funded schools from allowing transgender students to participate on sports teams that align with their gender identity.
Studied podcasters
Adin Ross â Adin Live
Andrew Schulz â Flagrant
The Nelk Boys â Full Send Podcast
Logan Paul â Impaulsive
Joe Rogan â The Joe Rogan Experience
Lex Fridman â The Lex Fridman Podcast
Patrick Bel-David â PBD Podcast
Shawn Ryan â Shawn Ryan Show
Theo Von â This Past Weekend
References
Davey Alba, Leon Yin, Julia Love, Ashley Carman, Priyanjana Bengani, Rachael Dottle, Elena MejĂa (January 22, 2025). The Second Trump Presidency, Brought to You by YouTubers. Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2025-youtube-podcast-men-for-trump/
“Mr. Menno” is the stage name of Menno Kuijper, a Dutch anti-transgender extremist and separatist based in the UK.
Background
Menno Kuijper was born June 19, 1976. Kuijper held numerous roles in marketing and social media from 1996 to 2012. From 2012 to 2021 Kuijper was head of design and production at mobile marketing firm Gappt.
Menno appeared in theatrical productions before focusing exclusively on anti-trans content. Performances include Brixton Batty Boy (2012).
Anti-trans activism
Since 2022 Kuijper has been director of communications for anti-trans group The Gay Men’s Network.
Kuijper considers the trans rights movement to be “gender woo woo,” promoting the outdated terminology “homosexual male” and other binary ideas about traits and behaviors.
In 2022 Kuijper created a âsea shantyâ for queer trans-exclusionary group LGB Alliance.
Also in 2022, Kuijper showed up to an anti-trans âSave Our Sex Jubilee campaignâ in a black morph suit and a diaper with a sign that said “Right Side of History.” Kuijper was apparently mocking black bloc protesters who interrupted the anti-trans âStanding for Womenâ protest in Manchester earlier that month. Transphobes mocked those protesters online as “Black Pampers,” a play on Black Panthers. Kuijper insisted it was not a blackface performance.
Wemple’s opinion piece is a case study in how anti-trans journalists misunderstand and misrepresent trans and gender diverse minorities in their coverage, and how attitudes like Wemple’s keep trans journalists out of mainstream legacy media.
Background
Erik Wemple joined the Washington Post in 2011 and was a media critic there in 2023. See the main Erik Wemple page for additional biographical background.
Unlike the Times, the Post has generally limited anti-trans pieces like Wemple’s to the Opinion section. As an example, in 2022 the Post published an opinion piece by conservative therapists Laura Edwards-Leeper and Erica Anderson promoting their beliefs that “gender dysphoria” is a legitimate disease and that therapists like them should get paid to control who gets access to trans health services, not physicians.
Despite a few small issues like deadnaming, Post reporter Sara Solovitch covered this controversy fairly well in 2018. Solovitch centered the piece on a trans teen and spoke with Diane Ehrensaft, Joshua Safer, and Stephen Rosenthal, who represent the medical consensus, with Anderson as the conservative holdout.
2023 Post editorial
This section is being written.
The piece leads off with two tweets Wemple considers alarmist for their phrasing:
“jeopardizing trans folksâ lives” [quoting Minton 2023]
“genocide” [quoting Bond 2023]
In a great example of cis journalist groupthink, A.G. Sulzberger used the same journalistic and rhetorical tactic to lead off in the CJR:
Jones, Imara (July 17, 2023). S02E05: Capturing The New York Times. The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: A Plot Against Equality https://translash.org/transcript-capturing-the-new-york-times/
Doyle, Jude Allison S. (February 27, 2023). What went wrong at the New York Times? Xtra https://xtramagazine.com/power/what-went-wrong-at-the-new-york-times-246409
Sulzberger, A.G. (April 4, 2022). 2022 State of The Times Remarks.New York Times Company https://www.nytco.com/press/2022-state-of-the-times-remarks/
Dennis Prager is a conservative writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Dennis Mark Prager was born on August 2, 1948 in Brooklyn to Max and Hilda (Friedfeld) Prager. Prager has a sibling Kenneth.
Prager attended Yeshiva of Flatbush and earned a bachelor’s degree from Brooklyn College in 1970. Prager then took graduate courses but did not complete further degrees.
Prager was recruited by a British Jewish group to interview Jewish people in the Soviet Union, then toured speaking about the findings. From 1976 to 1983 Prager ran the Brandeis-Bardin Institute.
In 1982 Prager began a religious talk show and began writing more about antisemitism. Prager became known for criticism of narcissism and secularism. Prager has been married three times.
In the 1990s Prager began working to forge alliances between conservative Jews and Conservative Christians. Since 1999 Prager has hosted the nationally syndicated radio talk show The Dennis Prager Show.Â
Anti-transgender activism
In 2009, Prager and producer Allen Estrin started PragerU, which creates five-minute videos promoting conservative views.
Ben Shapiro is a conservative American writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Benjamin Aaron “Ben” Shapiro was born January 15, 1984 in Los Angeles, California. Shapiro’s parent Cynthia Block Shapiro (born 1956) has worked as an executive coach, and parent David Jay Shapiro (born 1956) has been a writer and musician. David Shapiro has also written under the pseudonym “William Bigelow” and possibly “Hank Berrien,” often puff pieces praising child Ben.
Ben Shapiro studied classical violin as a child. Shapiro has a sibling named Leah and another sibling Abigail, a singer known as Classically Abby.
Shapiro used the online handle frumfiddle in college at UCLA, while earning a bachelor’s degree awarded in 2004. Shapiro was hired by Creators Syndicate at 17 to become America’s youngest nationally syndicated columnist, publishing the first of many subsequent books that year.
Shapiro earned a law degree from Harvard in 2007. Shapiro worked at Goodwin Procter LLP before setting up Benjamin Shapiro Legal Consulting in Los Angeles.
Ben Shapiro married Israeli physician Mor Toledano Shapiro (born 1988) in 2008. They have four children.
In 2012, Shapiro became editor of Breitbart News, resigning in 2016. In 2012, Shapiro also began work as a radio host.
In 2013, Shapiro and Jeremy Boreing co-founded conservative media watchdog TruthRevolt, which continued until 2018. In 2015, they founded Daily Wire and the podcast The Ben Shapiro Show. In 2020, Shapiro became editor emeritus of Daily Wire.
Shapiro frequently appears in the media and on campuses, usually making provocative statements in hopes of getting a response.
Anti-LGBTQ activism
Shapiro considers sex and gender minorities mentally ill and sinful. Shapiro does not think they should be able to marry or adopt.
Shapiro has said trans people should not be allowed to own guns, and Shapiro believes transgender youth are caused by “social contagion” or “crap parenting.”
In 2020, YouTube took down two anti-trans videos featuring Candace Owens for violating their policy on hate speech, wherein being transgender was likened to schizophrenia and disease.
Anti-trans content
DETRANS: The Dangers of Gender-Affirming Care (October 25, 2023)