Paul Marshall is a British investor and anti-transgender activist. In 2017, Marshall gave funding to anti-transgender publication UnHerd.
Background
Paul Roderick Clucas Marshall was born on August 2, 1959. Marshall’s parent Alan was an executive based in the Philippines, but Marshall remained in England for school. Marshall earned degrees from St John’s College, Oxford and INSEAD.
In 1997 Marshall and Ian Wace founded a successful hedge fund. After many years supporting policies of Liberal Democrats, Marshall began funding conservative projects, including anti-trans publication UnHerd and anti-trans platform GB News.
Marshall and spouse Sabrina have two adult children.
Tom McTague is a British writer who works for anti-trans publication UnHerd. McTague previously worked at anti-trans publication The Atlantic from 2019 to 2023.
Background
McTague grew up in County Durham in the North East England. McTague, spouse, and child live in London.
McTague has also worked at Mail Online, the Independent on Sunday, and the Daily Mirror.
McTague co-authored the 2017 election book, Betting the House.
Tim Montgomerie is a British writer and conservative activist. Montgomerie founded anti-trans publication UnHerd.
Background
Timothy “Tim” Montgomerie was born on July 24, 1970 in Barnstaple, Devon. Montgomerie’s conservative views as a teen were shaped by Thatcherism and evangelical Christianity. While enrolled at University of Exeter, Montgomerie and David Burrowes founded the Conservative Christian Fellowship. Montgomerie led the organization from 1990 to 2003.
In 2004 Montgomerie co-founded conservative think tank The Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) with Iain Duncan Smith, Mark Florman and Philippa Stroud. In 2005 Montgomerie founded right-wing blog ConservativeHome and has since held numerous roles at British media outlets.
Montgomerie founded anti-trans publication UnHerd in 2017 and left in 2018.
Third Factor is a publication by anti-trans activist Jessie Mannisto.
Background
Third factor is a reference to a concept by Kazimierz DÄ…browski in which there are three factors that affect creative and gifted people: nature, nurture, and a kind of dynamism DÄ…browski calls “overexcitability.”
People
Jessie Mannisto
Alexis ObernauerÂ
Ilana Grostern
Ralph Rickenbach
Margo Margan
Luis Manuel MartĂnez DomĂnguez
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
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
James Lindsay is an American writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
James Stephen Lindsay was born on June 8, 1979 in Ogdensburg, New York and grew up in Maryville, Tennessee. Lindsay attended Tennessee Tech, earning a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. Lindsay earned a doctorate from University of Tennessee in 2010. After completing the degree, Lindsay worked as a massage therapist.
Anti-transgender activism
Lindsay and Peter Boghossian published a hoax paper in 2017 titled “The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct.” They stated the paper parodied “poststructuralist discursive gender theory.” The paper was rejected by Norma, but later accepted by Cogent Social Sciences.
Lindsay, Boghossian, and Helen Pluckrose submitted 20 hoax papers, which they submitted to peer-reviewed journals using several pseudonyms. One recommended that people challenge their transphobia by inserting sex toys into their anuses.
The hoax was uncovered by Toni Airaksinen of Campus Reform in 2018.
Lindsay is a proponent of the right-wing LGBT grooming conspiracy theory and helped popularize “groomer” as a slur directed at LGBTQ educators and activists. Lindsay considers the Pride flag to be “the flag of a hostile enemy.”
Lindsay was a featured speaker at the 2023 anti-trans Genspect conference in Denver.
New Discourses
Lindsay founded the New Discourses wesbsite, now owned by Christian nationalist commentator Michael O’Fallon of Sovereign Nations.
Lindsay published a series of anti-trans posts by contributor “Donna M.,” the pen name of Linda Kramer, “a writer who was censored by Medium when her insights on transgender issues were labelled ‘hate speech.'”
The New Discourses podcast frequently attacks the trans community. Anti-trans episodes include:
Jaschik, Scott (May 22, 2017). Hoax With Multiple Targets. Inside Higher Ed https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/05/22/faux-scholarly-article-sets-criticism-gender-studies-and-open-access-publishing
Linda Kramer is an American writer and unaccepting parent of a gender diverse adult child.
Kramer publishes anti-trans propaganda under the pen name “Donna M.”
Background
Linda Marie Wolfgram was born in May of 1972 and married Peter Kramer (born 1971) at age 22. They have four children: Benjamin (born ~2001), Jonah (born ~2003), Emma Grace (born ~2004), and Anna (born ~2006).
Kramer created the Travels with Children blog, posting extensively about family trips in the area.
Anti-trans activism
“Mommy bloggers” are highly susceptible to anti-transgender extremism. When one of Kramer’s children came out as gender diverse, Kramer decided to vent on Medium with a cruel “open letter” to this child, but really written for the approval of other unsupportive and anti-trans parents.
The piece was taken down by Medium as a violation of policies on anti-trans content. The piece gained some notoriety among transphobes after being taken down. It was later republished by James Lindsay on New Discourses.
The piece, titled “You’re Not Trans. You’re Just Weird,” repeated many anti-trans talking points from the “parental rights” faction of anti-trans extremists:
You’re right. There is something different about you.
But you’re not trans, you’re just weird.
So we’re right here for you. We’ll always be here for you. But those online folks who urge you to “crack your trans egg” and rush to hormones and surgeries don’t know you at all. They don’t know that gifted kids and ADHD kids and Autism kids and Asperger’s kids are slower to develop emotionally and sexually. They don’t know that sexuality takes time and experience to figure out, and that the majority of trans teens seeking medical treatment haven’t even masturbated or kissed someone yet. They don’t know that 80% of trans children end up becoming comfortable with their birth sex if you just give them time. They don’t know that there are increasing numbers of desisting and de-transitioning people in their twenties. They don’t realize that hormones permanently stunt your growth, decrease your IQ, and can cause sterility. They don’t know that these hormones are prescribed off-label and there’s no research on the long-term outcomes. They don’t even know that the most recent research shows that short-term outcomes are clearly worse.
They don’t realize that you’re weird. But I do. You’re weird, kiddo.
Kramer believes peer pressure and social contagion led their child to identify as trans:
Forty-eight hours after my son announced to us that he thought he might be trans, this teen girl sent me a text congratulating me on having a trans son, saying I must be so proud, and offering to help educate me if I had any questions. You might be surprised to hear that I did not take a teenage girl up on her offer of advice on the psychosocial and sexual development of my son.
Her gall continued. It was clear she had found a new venue for her deep desire to venge justice upon the world. Clearly, this was a wounded and neglected trans boy whose parents just didn’t understand him. Despite her busy schedule of therapy to deal with her anorexia, cutting, and suicide attempt, she found time to provide him clothing and test out nail polish on him.
Over the next few months, we scrambled to find a good therapist, add in an anti-depressant and anti-anxiety medicine, and try to expand our son’s world. By January, he was pulling out of his depression, desisting from his trans identity, engaged and happy, and doing well in school.
According to what appears to be a final post in 2022, “Donna M. has unsubscribed from Twitter in order to protect her privacy and move on. Parents of gender-questioning teens looking for support should visit PITT”.
In the course of attacking 300,000 American children, Kramer publicly outed their own child, apparently feeling the best way to “protect their privacy” was to divulge deeply personal family information in order to promote anti-transgender propaganda.
References
Pfitzinger, Julie (May 28, 2011). It’s time for a family adventure.Minneapolis Star Tribune https://www.startribune.com/it-s-time-for-a-family-adventure/122695629/
“Donna M.” (September 22, 2021). A Call for a Defense of Parenting Act.New Discourses https://newdiscourses.com/2021/09/call-for-defense-of-parenting-act/
“Donna M.” (July 21, 2022). Nevertheless, He Desisted.New Discourses https://newdiscourses.com/2022/07/nevertheless-he-desisted/