Allan Stratton is a Canadian playwright and novelist. Stratton has been critical of several aspects of the trans rights movement.
Background
Stratton was born in 1951 in Stratford, Ontario. Stratton attended University of Toronto, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1973 and a master’s degree in 1974.
Beginning in 1977, Stratton has written several plays and novels. Stratton’s 2017 novel The Way Back Home features a transgender character named Zoe Bird.
Stratton is gay and married.
References
Stratton, Allan (August 29, 2022). A call for nuance and clarity on trans terminology. The Line https://theline.substack.com/p/allan-stratton-a-call-for-nuance
Stratton, Allan (22 June 2021 ). The ‘Gender Supremacist’ Threat to the Progressive Alliance: Part One of a Three-Part Series https://quillette.com/2021/06/22/the-gender-supremacist-threat-to-the-progressive-alliance-part-one-of-a-three-part-series/
Stratton, Allan (27 Jul 2021). Rescuing the Radicalized Discourse on Sex and Gender: Part Two of a Three-Part Series https://quillette.com/2021/07/27/rescuing-the-radicalized-discourse-on-sex-and-gender-part-two-of-a-three-part-series/
Stratton, Allan (21 Sep 2021). The Progressive Case for Renouncing Gender Extremism: Last of a Three-Part Series https://quillette.com/2021/09/21/the-progressive-case-for-renouncing-gender-extremism-last-of-a-three-part-series/
Stratton, Allan (April 29, 2022). If You Care About Trans Rights, Donât Let Predators Pick Their Pronouns https://quillette.com/2022/04/29/predators-dont-get-to-pick-their-pronouns/
Stratton, Allan (June 16, 2022). Ricky Gervais Knows No Fear https://quillette.com/2022/06/16/ricky-gervais-knows-no-fear/
Stratton, Allan (3 Aug 2022). Dave Chappelle vs. the New Puritans. https://quillette.com/2022/08/03/dave-chappelle-vs-the-new-puritans/
Cathy Young is a writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Yekaterina Jung was born on February 10, 1963 in Russia to Marina (born 1936) and Alexander Jung (1935â2011). Young’s family moved to the United States in 1980. Young became a naturalized US citizen in 1987 as Catherine Alicia Young and earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University in 1988.
Young is a writer at The Bulwark, a cultural studies fellow at the Cato Institute, a columnist for Newsday, and a contributing editor to Reason.
Young has authored two books.
References
Young, Cathy (October 5, 2023). Toxic culture on the right or left is wrong.Newsday https://www.newsday.com/opinion/columnists/cathy-young/culture-wars-transphobia-lgbt-gender-transgender-anthropology-i0un1yec
Young, Cathy (February 16, 2023). Transgender rights is a complex topic.Newsday https://www.newsday.com/opinion/columnists/cathy-young/transgender-rights-glaad-i0un1yec
Young, Cathy (June 21, 2022). Transgender rights require a more civil debate.Newsday https://www.newsday.com/opinion/columnists/cathy-young/transgender-rights-athletes-lia-thomas-swimming-i0un1yec
Sabine Hossenfelder was born September 18, 1976 in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany. Hossenfelder attended Goethe University Frankfurt, earning an undergraduate degree in mathematics in 1997 and a doctorate in physics in 2004. Hossenfelder has researched and taught at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, University of Arizona, University of California, the Perimeter Institute, the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics in Sweden, and the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies.
Hossenfelder began working as a popular science writer in 2006. Hossenfelder’s first Youtube video was in 2011.
Hossenfelder married Stefan Scherer in 2006. They have twins born in 2010.
Views on trans and gender diverse people
Hossenfelder views trans youth as a scientific debate rather than a debate about science and its historic misuses.
Hossenfelder uncritically uses many disease models created by behavior scientists to describe sex and gender minorities. Diseases were once widely accepted among scientists to describe gay and lesbian people, until they were forced to stop by activists. It is still socially acceptable among people like Hossenfelder to describe trans, intersex, and gender diverse people using disorders, diseases, and metaphors of impairment and disability.
Among the contested diseases and terms Hossenfelder uses are:
comorbidities: trans people have other mental disorders
gender affirming care
“trapped in the wrong body”
“cutting off parts of the anatomy”
“some people are making a lot of money with this”
discusses puberty blockers risks, no discussion of benefits
“there are at present no high-quality studies that conclusively demonstrate these treatments are beneficial”
the shift in gender ratio among trans youth
“we don’t understand the long-term consequences”
YouTube
Videos include clickbait “just asking questions” titles:
“Trans athletes in women’s sports: Is this fair?” (2022)
This video looks at the field of sex science the way others use sports to make claims about race science. It does at least step back and take a big-picture look. Hossenfelder and I both believe that there is no long-term future for sex-segregated competitive sports.
“Is being trans a social fad among teenagers?” (2023)
This video is too caught up in a lot of unscientific assumptions about trans people being disordered and diseased.
Lionel Shriver is an American writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Shriver was born on May 18, 1957 in Gastonia, North Carolina. Shriver is a self-described tomboy who grew up with an older and a younger sibling. Shriver took social transition steps as a minor, including a name change at 15. Shriver earned a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College and a master’s degree from Columbia University. Shriver has written eight novels and has been a columnist.
Anti-trans activism
Shriver frequently logrolls for other anti-trans activists and appears on conservative media outlets:
“Western media has moved on to an enthrallment with transgenderism bizarrely out of proportion to the statistical rarity of true gender dysphoriaâthough children and people generally being so suggestible, the condition will doubtless grow more common.”
Shriver praised trans eliminationist Helen Joyce’s book Trans: “Reasonable, methodical, sane, and utterly unintimidated by extremist orthodoxy, Trans is a riveting read.”Â
Via Washington Post:
Writing about transgender people either sends her down slippery-slope thinking â âWe seem to be entering an era in which everything about ourselves that we donât like is subject to revisionâ â or infantile cracks about pronouns and LGBTQ+ culture. (âA three-year-old bashing the keyboard would produce a more functional shorthand.â)
From a Times profile:
Shriver is âmystifiedâ by the way in which the transgender debate has become so fraught, with death threats to writers and MPs. âThe transgender thing just seems to make people completely crazy,â she says. âI just donât think that what sex you are is that important. My sense of myself is not crucially female.â
As a teenager Shriver changed her name from Margaret Ann to Lionel because she was determined not to be eclipsed by her elder brother. âWomen are supposed to be soft and nurturing and pliable and driven to please and looking out for others. Men are strong and determined, and goal driven and powerful. If you look at the stereotypes, anyone with any self-respect would want to be a man. I reject the stereotypes . . . Iâm all for chucking them and one of my biggest problems with the transgender movement is itâs all about nailing them down.â
Meghan Emily Murphy was born November 30, 1978 and grew up in Vancouver. Murphy’s family was reportedly “not just left, but most left.” Murphy’s parents were a Marxist labour activist who served as a shop steward at Canada Post and a feminist who worked in arts administration. Murphy has a sibling.
Murphy said, “I have left the left because I donât wish to be part of a cult.”
Rejecting femininity was fine, except that it developed into a disdain for âwivesâ and âmothersâ who had predictively and passively capitulated to the patriarchy, choosing mundane lives for reasons I could not possibly imagine.
Murphy says this rightward political trajectory felt like being excommunicated:
The left disavowed me long ago for insisting that pornography and prostitution was not an empowering choice sexually liberated women make for fun and wealth, then again for understanding that penises are male and girls who cut their hair short and replace pink frilly dresses with bowler hats and mismatched high top converse are not ânon-binaryâ or âtransâ or âboys,â but simply little girls who donât want to play by old-fashioned rules.
Murphy, Meghan (September 7, 2016). Are we women or are we menstruators?Feminist Current https://www.feministcurrent.com/2016/09/07/are-we-women-or-are-we-menstruators/ [archive]
Hadley Freeman is an American-British journalist best known for manipulating notable authors into making statements about trans issues that they later must disavow. Freeman’s interviews with Margaret Atwood and Judy Blume both required the authors to issue statements.
Background
Hadley Clare Freeman was born May 15, 1978 in New York City. As an adolescent, Freeman was hospitalized several times for self-imposed food restrictions. Freeman read English literature at St Anne’s College, Oxford.
Freeman wrote for The Guardian starting in 2000 and is a contributor of anti-trans publication UnHerd.
Freeman and sports writer Andy Bull have three children.
Mayes, Ian (14 February 2004). A change, of course. The Guardian.https://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/feb/14/pressandpublishing.comment
Minou, C. L. (1 February 2010). Julie Bindel’s dangerous transphobia. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/feb/01/julie-bindel-transphobia
Ardehali, Rod (14 October 2015). ‘Stepford student’ culture threatening free speech. The Daily Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/student-life/11930441/Stepford-student-culture-threatening-free-speech.html
Nina Paley is an American animator and anti-transgender extremist.
Paley is involved in the free culture and “gender critical” movements.
Background
Nina Carolyn Paley was born May 3, 1968 in Urbana, Illinois. Paley’s parent Hiram Paley was a mathematician.
Paley graduated from University High School in 1986 and attended University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for two years before dropping out.
Paley began publishing comics at a young age before moving into animation in 2002 following a divorce.
Paley directed the animated features Sita Sings the Blues (2008) and Seder-Masochism (2018). After having many problems navigating legal clearance for music recorded in the 1920s by Annette Hanshaw, Paley got involved in the free culture movement. Paley releases work under a copyleft license and has created work supporting intellectual property reform.
Paley has been active in debates about overpopulation and has done work for the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.
Anti-trans activism
Paley identifies as gender critical and has made a number of controversial comments about gender identity and expression.
In 2020, Paley was one of 58 signatories to an open letter defending author and anti-transgender activist J.K. Rowling. A number of the signatories have been involved in gender critical activism.
In 2021, Paley and Corinna Cohn started the podcast Heterodorx to discuss gender controversies. In 2023 Paley created a set of playing cards featuring extremists and outliers in recent gender controversies.
Merli, Melissa (October 21, 2012). Studio Visit: Nina Paley. The News-Gazette http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2012-10-21/studio-visit-nina-paley.html
Merli, Melissa (June 13, 2013). Urbana artist Paley putting quilt art on display. The News-Gazette http://www.news-gazette.com/arts-entertainment/local/2013-06-13/urbana-artist-paley-putting-quilt-art-display.html
Merli, Melissa (August 10, 2014). Paley’s ‘This Land Is Mine’ a viral hit. The News-Gazette http://www.news-gazette.com/arts-entertainment/local/2014-08-10/paleys-land-mine-film-viral-hit.html
Ramanathan, Lavanya (September 25, 2008). An Ancient Tale, Newly Animated. The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/24/AR2008092404245.html
Dey, Jim (May 7, 2019). Furor over gender issues puts Urbana artist’s film in crosshairs. The News-Gazette https://www.news-gazette.com/news/jim-dey-furor-over-gender-issues-puts-urbana-artists-film-in-crosshairs/article_5a620967-c4dd-5b70-b86d-5729e2097134.html
Isabella Malbin is an American anti-transgender activist and former birth worker.
Malbin is also an artist, hypnotist, podcaster, and snake charmer.
Background
Isabella A. Malbin was born on August 14, 1991 and graduated from LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts. While attending Rhode Island School of Design, Malbin claims to have been “groomed into transgender ideology.”
The Isabella A. Malbin Trust fund was a shareholder in the Texas-based Simon C. Cornelius Partnership Ltd.
Malbin reportedly became concerned about value-neutral language after hearing a Caesarean section referred to as a belly birth. In March of 2020, a fertility education program dismissed Malbin for refusing to use gender-inclusive language such as people who menstruate or people with uteruses. Malbin claims the dismissal was for using the terms mother and woman.
Malbin frequently collaborates with other gender critical activists and maintains lists of “TERF approved” resources. Malbin and Mary Lou Singleton sell a $149.00 membership that includes a program called “Inoculating Our Children Against Transgender Ideology.”
Podcast
Malbin began the Whose Body Is It podcast in 2020. It contains “interviews with radical women raising consciousness on the harms of transgender ideology, pornography, prostitution, the medical industrial complex.”
2023
85. Escaping Sex Trafficking in the Age of “Sex Work is Work” â Olivia Ballard
84. Children Can’t Consent â Charlie’s Story
83. A Holistic & Spiritual Approach to Infertility â Kristin Hauser
82. False Promises & Exploitation: The Truth about IVF & Surrogacy â Marche’s Story
81. Standing for Women’s Sex Based Rights at NYC Pride 2023 â K. Yang
80. What has porn done to us? â Serendipiti Day
79. Navigating Betrayal & Belonging Post Mastectomy & Breast Implant Illness â Dr. Amanda Savage Brown
78. Detransition and Grow with Leigh Janet Marshall
77. âThe Second Colonizationâ: The Impact of Gender Identity on MÄori People with Michelle Uriarau
76. (Preview) What You Need to Know about the Medicated Shooters Headed to Our Schools with Robbie Rose
75. A New Look at Reproductive Sovereignty, Raising Boys and Recovering Our Instincts with Amy Ebert
74. The Ethics of Assisted Reproductive Technology with Jennifer Lahl
73. âIndigenous Feminism Redefined’ with Cherry Smiley
Rod Dreher is a conservative American author who frequently publishes anti-transgender articles.
Background
Raymond Oliver Dreher, Jr. was born February 14, 1967 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His father was a leader in the Ku Klux Klan and was involved in local politics through those connections.
Dreher earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Louisiana State University in 1989.
Dreher was a media critic for The Washington Times and New York Post before becoming an editor for the National Review.
The American Conservative
Dreher was a contributor to The American Conservative from 2008 to 2023. Dreher’s salary was covered by Howard Ahmanson, Jr., and his work had no editorial oversight.
According to Vanity Fair, the arrangement began to unravel in 2021, when Dreher published a vivid description of a Black elementary school classmate’s uncircumcised penis: “All us boys wanted to stare at his primitive root wiener when we were at the urinal during recess, because it was monstrous.” Two years later, Ahmanson had enough:
Some of Dreherâs commentary on the gay and transgender communities also proved off-putting to Ahmanson, such as his lurid musings on anal sex, rectal bleeding, and the âpartially rotted offâ nose of a gay man who contracted monkeypox. âAt some point, he basically decided, ‘This is too weird,ââ the source, paraphrasing Ahmanson, explained to me. ââI donât want to read this or pay for this anymore.ââ
Dreher advocates for what he calls the “Benedict Option,” where conservative Christians segregate from sex and gender minorities via intentional communities.
Anti-transgender writings
The Guardian described Dreher as “a man who appears to view fomenting transgender panic more as a vocation than a job.”
Dreher, Rod (October 4, 2021). Gary Shteyngartâs âgentile region.âThe American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/gary-shteyngart-circumcision-gentile-region/
), known as ,[1] is an American writer and editor living in a self-imposed exile[2] in Budapest, Hungary. He was a columnist with The American Conservative for 12 years, ending in March 2023, and remains an editor-at-large there.[3] He is also author of several books, including How Dante Can Save Your Life, The Benedict Option, and Live Not by Lies. He has written about religion, politics, film, and culture in National Review and National Review Online, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal, and other publications.
He was a film reviewer for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and chief film critic for the New York Post. His commentaries have been broadcast on National Public Radio’s All Things Considered, and he has appeared on CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Court TV, and other television networks.[4]
Crunchy Cons: How Birkenstocked Burkeans, Gun-Loving Organic Gardeners, Evangelical Free-Range Farmers, Hip Homeschooling Mamas, Right-Wing Nature Lovers, and Their Diverse Tribe of Countercultural Conservatives Plan to Save America (Or at Least the Republican Party) (2006)
The Little Way of Ruthie Leming: A Southern Girl, a Small Town, and the Secret of a Good Life (2013)
How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life-Changing Wisdom of History’s Greatest Poem (2015)
The Benedict Option: A Strategy for Christians in a Post-Christian Nation (2017)
Live Not by Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents (2020)