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 OâMalley, Nina Paley, and Carole Hooven.
Pamela Paresky is an American psychologist and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Pamela Beth Prestyn Paresky was born on February 16, 1967 to David Paresky and Linda Sue (Kotzen) Paresky.
Paresky earned a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 1990, a master’s degree from Pepperdine University in 1994, and a doctorate from University of Chicago in 2005.
Paresky was an aspiring actor and musician. Paresky met and married Hugh Zuker, and they moved to Aspen, Colorado. Zuker became a sheriff’s deputy in Aspen, the president of Mountain Rescue Aspen, and a victim of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. They have one adult child, Jared Aiden Zuker (born 1999).
As Pamela Zuker, Paresky authored the 2010 book A Year of Kindness.
Anti-transgender activism
Pareskyhas served as a Senior Fellow at the Network Contagion Research Institute and as primary researcher for The Coddling of the American Mind by anti-trans activists Greg Lukianoff of FIRE and Jonathan Haidt of Heterodox Academy.
On Substack, Paresky promoted many of the usual suspects, including:
Marco Del Giudice is an American psychologist and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Del Giudice attended University of Turin, earning a bachelor’s degree in 2003 and a master’s degree in 2007.
Del Giudice taught at University of Turin from 2007 to 2014 and at University of New Mexico from 2014 to 2023. In 2023 Del Giudice began teaching at University of Trieste.
Anti-transgender activism
Del Giudice is an evolutionary psychologist and sex segregationist keen on shoring up the idea of sex differences.
In 2023, Del Giudice appeared with anti-trans activist Debra Soh and conservative trans activist Buck Angel on a show about “The Scientific Realities of Biological Sex” hosted by evolutionary psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman.
Also in 2023, Del Giudice and Paul Golding of the Santa Fe Boys Foundation organizaed an event called The Big Conversation about sex/gender differences.
IN 2024, the Italian Ministry of Health convened a panel on trans healthcare guidelines. The panel includes Del Giudice and other prominent skeptics of gender-affirming medical interventions for minors, including ethicist Assunta Morresi and journalist Sarantis Thanopulos.
Marco Mattei, Capo di Gabinetto del Ministro della salute, con funzioni di Coordinatore;
Assunta Morresi, Vice Capo di Gabinetto della Ministra per la famiglia, la natalitĂ e le pari opportunitĂ ;
Maria Rosaria Campitiello, Capo della Segreteria tecnica del Ministro della salute;
Giulia Ferrari, Vice Capo di Gabinetto del Ministro della salute;
Alfonso Peluso, Vice Capo dellâUfficio Legislativo della Ministra per la famiglia, la natalitĂ e le pari opportunitĂ ;
Francesco Saverio Mennini, Capo del Dipartimento della programmazione, dei dispositivi medici, del farmaco e delle politiche in favore del Servizio sanitario nazionale;
Giovanni Leonardi, Capo ad interim del Dipartimento della prevenzione, della ricerca e delle emergenze sanitarie;
Gianfranco Costanzo, Capo del Dipartimento per le politiche della famiglia della Presidenza del Consiglio dei ministri;
Carlo Petrini, Presidente del centro di Coordinamento Nazionale dei comitati etici territoriali per le sperimentazioni cliniche sui medicinali per uso umano e sui dispositivi medici;
Alessandro Nanni Costa, Presidente del Comitato Etico Nazionale per le sperimentazioni cliniche in ambito pediatrico;
Valentino Cherubini, SocietĂ italiana di endocrinologia e diabetologia pediatrica (SIEDP);
Vito Trojano, Presidente Federazione Italiana di Ginecologia e Ostetricia (Sigo);
Andrea Isidori, SocietĂ italiana di andrologia e medicina della sessualitĂ (SIAMS);
Elisa Fazzi, SocietĂ italiana di neuropsichiatria dellâinfanzia e dellâadolescenza (SINPIA);
Fabio Monticelli, SocietĂ italiana di terapia cognitiva e comportamentale (SITCC);
Antonio Lo Iacono, SocietĂ italiana di psicologia (SIPS);
Nicola Colacurci, SocietĂ italiana di ginecologia e ostetricia (SIGO);
Sarantis Thanopulos, SocietĂ psicoanalitica italiana (SPI);
Annamaria Staiano, SocietĂ italiana di pediatria (SIP);
Francesco Lombardo, SocietĂ italiana genere, identitĂ e salute (SIGIS);
Gianluca Aimaretti, SocietĂ italiana di endocrinologia (SIE);
Francesco Frasca, Professore Ordinario di endocrinologia presso lâUniversitĂ degli Studi di Catania;’
Rosario Pivonello, Professore Ordinario di endocrinologia presso lâUniversitĂ Federico II di Napoli;
Emmanuele Angelo Jannini, Professore Ordinario di Endocrinologia, Andrologia e Sessuologia Medica presso lâUniversitĂ Tor Vergata di Roma;
Arnaldo Morace Pinelli, Ordinario di Diritto Privato nellâUniversitĂ di Roma – âTor Vergataâ;
Marco Del Giudice, Professore Associato UniversitĂ di Trieste;
Luca Savarino, Professore di bioetica presso lâUniversitĂ del Piemonte Orientale;
Gian Vincenzo Zuccotti, Professore Ordinario di Pediatria presso la FacoltĂ di Medicina e Chirurgia dellâUniversitĂ degli Studi di Milano;
Furio Lambruschi, Direttore della Scuola bolognese di psicoterapia cognitiva (SBPC).
Lee Jussim is an American psychologist and anti-transgender activist. Jussim has been a heavy promoter of the disputed diagnosis “rapid onset gender dysphoria.”
Lee J. Jussim was born on December 2, 1955 and grew up in New York City before moving to Levittown, Long Island around age 12. About a year later, one parent died of cancer and the other became unreliable in caring for Jussim and sibling. Jussim began cultivating a “rebel” persona that continued into academia.
Like many academics who fancy themselves edgy rebels (or in Jussim’s case, a “dread pirate”), their entire careers have been about defending the status quo.
Jussim dropped out of SUNY-Binghamton in 1975. Jussim later earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Massachusetts, Boston in 1981 and a doctorate from University of Michigan in 1987. Jussim has taught at Rutgers University since 1987.
Jussim and spouse Lisa Baum (born 1956) have three adult children: Rachel (born 1986), Kayla (born 1988), and Joshua (born 1993).
Jussim, Lee (December 22, 2019). Help Stop Another Academic Outrage Mob.PsychRabble https://psychrabble.medium.com/help-stop-another-academic-outrage-mob-eca601397495
Clark CJ, Jussim L, Frey K, Stevens ST, al-Gharbi M, Aquino K, Bailey JM, Barbaro N, Baumeister RF, Bleske-Rechek A, Buss D, Ceci S, Del Giudice M, Ditto PH, Forgas JP, Geary DC, Geher G, Haider S, Honeycutt N, Hrishikesh J, Krylov AI, Loftus E, Loury G, Lu L, Macy M, Martin CC, McWhorter J, Miller G, Paresky P, Pinker S, Reilly W, Catherine Salmon C, Stewart-Williams S, Tetlock PE, Williams WM, Wilson AE, Winegard BM, Yancey G, von Hippel W (2023). Prosocial motives underlie scientific censorship by scientists: A perspective and research agenda. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Vol. 120, Issue 48). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2301642120
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
Megan McArdle is an American writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Megan J. McArdle was born January 29, 1973. McArdle earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1994, and a master’s degree from the University of Chicago in 2001.
McArdle blogged under the name Jane Galt at Asymmetrical Information:
McArdle has something of a contrarian streak. Sheâs the âblack sheepâ of her ârabid Democratâ family. She took her pseudonym from the Ayn Rand novel Atlas Shrugged, solely to irk a frequent commenter on a New York Times Internet forum who smeared anyone to the âright of Chairman Maoâ as a âRandroid.â
McArdle authored the 2014 book The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success.
McArdle is married to Peter Suderman (born September 30, 1981), who ran the blog alarm-alarm.com. Suderman writes for Reason and previously worked for National Review, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, FreedomWorks, Doublethink, and Culture11.
McArdle has described distress from being personally misgendered: “Iâm 6-foot-2, tall enough that distracted store clerks often call me âsir,â a fact that caused me great distress as a young woman.”
McArdle, Megan (February 24, 2022 ). Opinion: Donât forget the other women swimming against Lia Thomas. [alt title: Donât forget the other women in the pool]. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/02/24/lia-thomas-ivy-league-swimming-championships/
“Shannon Thrace” is the current stage name of an American author and anti-transgender activist. Thrace is part of the “trans widow” movement of people upset that their spouses made a gender transition.
Background
Thrace was married for about 14 years to someone who came out as trans. Their relationship fell apart over the following 18 months.
Thrace originally published under the pseudonym “Sharon Thrace.”
Linda Blade is a Canadian athlete, coach, and anti-transgender extremist. Blade considers transgender athletes “almost an existential threat to our sport.”
Background
Linda Blade was born on May 26, 1962 in Bolivia. Blade and spouse moved to Nigeria in the 1990s. They returned to Canada after they had a child.
Blade competed in track and field. Blade earned a doctorate from Simon Fraser University in 1994. In 1997, Blade began work as a sports performance coach.
In 2014, Blade was elected as president of the board for Athletics Alberta and was involved in shaping Canadian sport policy. Blade is president of the Edmonton Track Council, and is responsible for overseeing athletics programs across Alberta, including at Kinsmen Field House.
Anti-transgender activism
Blade is a frequent collaborator with Raine McLeod of AB Radical Feminists.
According to a 2021 report by The Canadian Anti-Hate Network, “Bladeâs staff bio at the Royal Glenora Club, an Edmonton-based private fitness and social club, describes her ‘struggle to preserve sports for biological females’ as ‘the hill I am prepared to die on.’â
Blade and Barbara Kay wrote the 2021 book Unsporting: How Trans Activism and Science Denial are Destroying Sport.
Blade is involved in anti-trans organization Independent Council on Womenâs Sports and maintains anti-trans website N=8. According to Blade, this equation “denotes the number of male born runners it took to change the rules of sport for ALL female athletes in the world across ALL sports.”
Blade was announced as a speaker at a 2023 anti-trans conference by Genspect.
Yamauchi, Mara (July 2, 2022). Dr Linda Blade and a life in athletics.World Athletics https://worldathletics.org/personal-best/lifestyle/linda-blade-life-in-athletics
Wesley Yang is an author and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Yang was born on October 3, 1974 and grew up in New Jersey.
Yang attended Rutgers University from 1993 to 1997. Yang began freelance writing in 2005. From 2011 to 2013, Yang was a contributing editor at New York. Since 2017 Yang has been a columnist at Tablet. In 2018 Yang became a contributing editor at Esquire.
Yang is author of the 2018 book The Souls of Yellow Folk: Essays. That book includes Yang’s provocative 2008 piece on mass shooter Seung-Hui Cho.
Yang coined the term “successor ideology.,” which was popularized by other reactionary centrists and conservatives. Yang describes it as “authoritarian Utopianism that masquerades as liberal humanism while usurping it from within.”
In 2022 Yang, spouse, and child were living in Montreal.
Anti-transgender activism
Yang got involved in anti-transgender activism through Jesse Singal, Lisa Selin Davis, and “Eliza Mondegreen.” Yang cites anti-trans activism in Sweden and Finland as what finally provided cover for coming out as anti-trans. Yang walked around with anti-trans extremist “Billboard Chris” and found that nearly everyone agreed with the anti-trans messages Billboard Chris wears, yet still claims that anti-trans views are “heterodox.” Yang also had an extensive conversation with anti-trans extremist Leor Sapir.
Claire Lehmann is an Australian writer and anti-transgender activist. Lehmann is a key figure in the so-called intellectual dark web, described as a gateway to the far right. Lehmann is founding editor of anti-trans publication Quillette, also classified a pathway to right-wing radicalization.
Background
Claire (Jensen) Lehmann was born on July 18, 1985 and grew up in Adelaide, South Australia. Lehmann earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Adelaide in 2010. Jensen married Harold M. “Harry” Lehmann at age 27 and dropped out of graduate school when their first child was born in 2013.
Lehmann worked 2011-2014 as a Policy Research Assistant at Australian College of Nursing and 2015-2016 as a Communications officerâ at National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance.