Gloria Steinem is an American author and activist. Steinem is a key historic figure in second-wave feminism.
After publishing anti-transgender writings in the 1970s, Steinem revised some of those views and now supports trans-inclusive feminism.
Background
Gloria Marie Steinem was born March 25, 1934 in Toledo to Leo Steinem, a Jewish traveling antiques dealer, and Ruth Nuneviller Steinem, a Presbyterian homemaker. Steinem’s parents split in 1944.
Ruth Steinem grew increasingly unstable, leading Steinem to move in with older sibling Susanne Steinem Patch in Washington DC. After graduating from high school there, Steinem earned a bachelor’s degree from Smith College in 1956.
In 1957, Steinem had an abortion in London while traveling to India. After two years in India, Steinem returned to the United States and began researching and writing, publishing work in Help! Show, Esquire, Cosmopolitan, and New York.
In 1972, Steinem co-founded Ms. magazine. In July 1974, the magazine published an excerpt from trans travel writer Jan Morris, which led to backlash.
Throughout the 1970s, Steinem played a central role in the women’s rights movement and became a favored author and source on the subject.
Anti-trans views and reconsideration
In February 1977, amid increasing anti-trans sentiment surrounding transgender athletes in general and Renée Richards in particular, Steinem published an anti-trans article titled “If the Shoe Doesn’t Fit, Change the Foot.” Steinem claimed “transsexuals are paying an extreme tribute to the power of sex roles. In order to set their real human personalities free, they surgically mutilate their own bodies…” Steinem also embraced the conspiracy theory of “the transsexual empire” promoted by Janice Raymond.
In 2013, Steinem addressed “words circulated out of time and context” from those previous writings:
So now I want to be unequivocal in my words: I believe that transgender people, including those who have transitioned, are living out real, authentic lives. Those lives should be celebrated, not questioned. Their health care decisions should be theirs and theirs alone to make. And what I wrote decades ago does not reflect what we know today as we move away from only the binary boxes of “masculine” or “feminine” and begin to live along the full human continuum of identity and expression.
In 2021, Steinem signed an open letter supporting trans women and girls, saying, “I am proud to sign this letter because we all must fight against the unnecessary barriers placed on trans women and girls by lawmakers and those who co-opt the feminist label in the name of division and hatred.”
Steinem, Gloria (October 2, 2013). Op-ed: On Working Together Over Time.The Advocate https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2013/10/02/op-ed-working-together-over-time
Steinem, Gloria (1983). Transsexualism. in Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions. pp. 224–226. Henry Holt & Co, ISBN 978-0030632365
Steinem, Gloria (February 1977). If the Shoe Doesn’t Fit, Change the Foot. Ms. p. 76ff.
Martina Navratilova is a Czech-American tennis player and anti-transgender activist.
Navratilova is a sex segregationist whose primary concern is maintaining segregationism that keeps women and girls in inferior roles in society. Of particular interest is maintaining women’s subordinate place via sex-segregated competitive sport, primarily by attacking transgender athletes.
Martina Šubertová was born October 18, 1956 in Prague, Czechoslovakia to an athletic family. Martina’s stepparent Miroslav Navrátil coached Martina in tennis. Martina took that surname and went pro in 1975. Navratilova dominated professional tennis for the next three decades and is considered one of the greatest players of all time.
Navratilova was coached for a time by trans athlete Renée Richards.
Anti-transgender activism
In 2019, Navratilova made a number of comments about trans athletes that led to LGBT organizations cutting ties, including Athlete Ally.
Michael Powell is an American writer and anti-transgender activist involved in the New York Times anti-transgender coverage crisis of the 2020s. In 2024, Powell moved to anti-trans publication The Atlantic.
Background
Michael Henry Powell was born on January 20, 1957. Powell earned a bachelor’s degree from The State University of New York at Purchase in 1978 and then attended Columbia University.
In 1982 Powell married Evelyn M. Intondi (born March 14, 1956), a midwife and reproductive health specialist. They have two adult children.
Powell worked at New York Newsday from 1988 to 1995. Powell next moved to The Washington Postin 1996. Powell was with The New York Observer before joining the New York Times in 2007. After writing on the “Gotham” column, Powell moved to Sports in 2014.
“We needed somebody who was deeply experienced at covering controversies in a panoramic way, who was experienced enough that they wouldn’t get intimidated or really shaken by some of the criticisms on Twitter and elsewhere.”
In June, Powell ended work on the “Sports of The Times” column and began writing about “free speech and thought, identity, campuses and so on.”
In 2023 Powell moved to the even more transphobic Atlantic, which has not had a trans journalist on their masthead since their founding in 1857.
Anti-transgender activism
In 2014 Powell boasted about interviewing “transvestite prostitutes from Ecuador.” No reputable journalist was using the term transvestite in 2014.
Lia Thomas non-interview
In a 2022 story on transgender athletes, Powell wrote one of thousands of articles that used Lia Thomas as outrage bait, even though Powell failed to interview Thomas for the piece. Where an earlier piece in the Times by Billy Witz adhered to objective reporting, Powell chose to frame transgender people as debates to be solved. Powell claims the debates center on “science, fairness and inclusiveness, and cut to the core of distinctions between gender identity and biological sex.”
Many people across the political spectrum are deeply invested in maintaining sex segregation and shoring up the study of “sex differences,” and Powell uncritically presents their pettifogging about rules and measurements and what-not.
To Powell’s credit, the story briefly mentions Anna Posbergh among the usual suspects fixated on minutiae within a fatally flawed and fundamentally unfair institution. Posbergh is one of many who believe that there is no ethical future for sex-segregated competitive sport, which largely exists to further the belief that one half of the human population is “inferior” to the other half.
Powell polishes the classic “science vs. activism” chestnut, suggesting only “activists” believe biology is socially constructed:
Even nomenclature is contentious. Descriptive phrases such as “biological woman” and “biological man” might be seen as central to discussing differences in performance. Many trans rights activists say such expressions are transphobic and insist biology and gender identity are largely social constructs.
Powell concludes, “The solution, a balance of gender and biology, looks distant.” While the solution is distant, it is not a balance of gender and biology. It is a recognition that sex-segregated sport, just like any sex-segregated institution, has no place in an ethical society.
Background on the Thomas non-interview
Powell contacted GLAAD in the course of the story, and after they told Powell that Martina Navratilova holds views they consider objectionable, Powell naturally included Navratilova because it violates some sort of perceived taboo.
Press room (July 18, 2023). The Atlantic Hires Michael Powell and Zoë Schlanger as Staff Writers. The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/press-releases/archive/2023/07/atlantic-hires-michael-powell-and-zoe-schlanger/674739/
Derrick Jensen is an American environmentalist and author. Jensen is a founder of environmental organization Deep Green Resistance, a radical feminist group that has been criticized for anti-transgender views.
Background
Jensen was born on December 19, 1960. Jensen earned a bachelor’s degree from Colorado School of Mines in 1983 and a master’s degree from Eastern Washington University in 1991.
In 2011, Jensen, Lierre Keith, and Aric McBay founded Deep Green Resistance. McBay left due to the organization’s positions on transgender people.
Anti-transgender views
Jensen’s concerns center around postmodernism and queer theory. Jensen believes these theories are attempts to justify nonconsensual sex with minors. Jensen also claims any dissent from acceptable views will lead to cancelation:
This is the cult-like behavior of the postmodern left: if you disagree with any of the Holy Commandments of postmodernism/queer theory/transgender ideology, you must be silenced on not only that but on every other subject. Welcome to the death of discourse, brought to you by the postmodern left.
Jensen has laid out these anti-trans views in a number of essays and posts:
The Emperor’s New Penis
Liberals and the New McCarthyism
Letter to a Publisher: On the Destruction of Discourse and the Cult of the Postmodern Left
Derrick Jensen Resistance Radio
Jensen is host of a show that has included many environmentalists, some trans-inclusive feminists, and anti-transgender activists:
Houlberg, Laura (2017). “The End of Gender or Deep Green Transmisogyny?”. Routledge Handbook of Gender and Environment. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-88657-2.
Pellow, David Naguib (2019). Eco-Defence, Radical Environmentalism and Environmental Justice. Routledge Handbook of Radical Politics. Routledge. p. 112. ISBN 9781315619880.
Tim Ferriss is an American podcaster and lifestyle influencer. Although Ferriss is sometimes considered part of the intellectual dark web for having a few guests who are part of that movement, Ferriss has not engaged in anti-transgender activism.
The Joe Rogan Experience is an influential podcast hosted by entertainer Joe Rogan. It is notable for hosting a disproportionate number of conservative and anti-transgender guests, including:
Coleman Hughes is an American writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Coleman Cruz Hughes was born February 25, 1996 and grew up in Montclair, New Jersey. Hughes earned a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 2020.
Like Glenn Loury, Thomas Chatterton Williams, and John McWhorter, Hughes has gained a reputation for criticizing progressive views and policies around race.
“Zuby” is the stage name of Nzube Olisaebuka Udezue, a British rapper and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Nzube Olisaebuka Udezue was born on August 19, 1986. Udezue has four siblings and split time between the UK and Saudi Arabia while growing up. Udezue earned a bachelor’s degree from Oxford in 2007. Between 2006 and 2016, Udezue released several songs and albums while working as a consultant.
Podcast
In 2019, Udezue started a podcast, Real Talk with Zuby. Anti-trans guests include:
In 2019, Udezue performed an anti-trans stunt involving a women’s deadlifting record. Udezue claimed to have broken it while identifying as a female as a way to mock transgender athletes.
In 2020, Udezue signed a letter supporting anti-trans activist JK Rowling.
Stefan Molyneux is an Irish-born Canadian podcaster and key figure in the alt-right and the so-called intellectual dark web. Molyneux’s anti-feminist and white nationalist views have resulted in removal from many online platforms.