Melanie Anne Phillips is an American artist, author, musician, filmmaker, software developer, and activist. Phillips is one of the most important historical figures in online transgender resources.
Background
Melanie Anne Phillips was born on February 20, 1953 and grew up in Burbank, California. After attending film school at University of Southern California, Phillips worked in film and television, including directing a horror feature in 1985. Phillips married, and they had two children.
Phillips, Chris Huntley, and Stephen Greenfield began a narrative software project called Write Brothers, which evolved into Dramatica interactive story engine. In 1997, Phillips founded Storymind to develop additional narrative development products.
Transgender activism
In 1989, Phillips began a gender transition and kept a detailed journal of the process. Over time, Phillips published the journal online, gathered an extensive collection of transition resources, and produced instructional videos that were available on physical media.
Phillips was an important community leader at America Online (AOL) and helped build out the transgender resources available there. Phillips moved these resources to a standalone site called Heart Corps in 1997.
Phillips has lived in several communities on the West Coast and continues to create music, photography, writing, and art. Outside of this public online persona, Phillips is a very private person in real life.
References
For a full bibliography of all 86 books published to date, see the Amazon author page for Melanie Anne Phillips: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Melanie-Anne-Phillips/author/B0744CGDLV
Phillips, Melanie Anne; Huntley Chris (2004). Dramatica: A New Theory of Story. ISBN 9780918973047
Phillips, Melanie Anne (2013). Be a Story Weaver – NOT a Story Mechanic! ISBN 9781489503541
Phillips, Melanie Anne (2014). Images and Visions: The Photography of Melanie Anne Phillips. ISBN 9781495283321
Phillips, Melanie Anne (2017). Raised by Wolves: Volume One in the Transcendental Trilogies Nine-Volume Set. ISBN 9781521859551
Esocoff, Sarah (). “Melanie Speaks.” Sounds Gay https://pod.link/1686975383/episode/27d697cd2d82b16116eb641e4da9f681
Charlie Evans is a British writer and ex-transgender activist. Evans gets money and attention by making it harder for others to get trans healthcare.
Background
Evans was born ~1991. Evans reportedly experienced abuse outside the family as a child. Evans also reportedly experiences generalised anxiety disorder and depression.
Evans has resided in Margate and Newcastle and reportedly has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology, with plans to seek a doctorate.
Ex-trans activism
Evans announced the Detransition Advocacy Network in November 2019.
Six months later, Evans reportedly took a full-time job as a COVID tester and announced a “retirement from the gender wars.” The website was deactivated in late 2021.
Keira Bell is a British ex-transgender activist. Bell gets money and attention by making it harder for others to get trans healthcare.
Background
Bell was born in 1997. At 15, Bell was referred to the Gender Identity Development Service, at the Tavistock and Portman clinic in London. At 16, Bell was prescribed puberty blockers, and at 17, Bell began taking hormones. Bell chose the name Quincy.
As an adult, Bell chose to get top surgery. Bell later had regret and made additional changes in identity and expression.
Bell brought a lawsuit against the Tavistock which ultimately helped lead to its closure in favor of the decentralized approach used in other countries.
Sinéad Watson is an ex-transgender activist. Watson gets money and attention by making it harder for others to access trans healthcare. Watson is affiliated with anti-transgender organization Genspect.
Background
Watson was born in ~1991 and reports being repeatedly sexually assaulted as a teen.
made a gender transition as an adult. Watson socially transitioned at age 20 and began medical transition at age 24. Watson had top surgery at age 26. In October 2019, at age 28, Watson made additional changes in identity and expression.
Ex-trans activism
Rather than taking personal responsibility for medical decisions made as an adult, Watson blames “the trans lobby.” According to anti-trans activist Julie Bindel:
Watson self-referred to the Sandyford in 2014, having spent time in a psychiatric unit following a severe mental breakdown. “I burned my house down while trying to kill myself,” she says, “and made out to the doctor it was because I was really a trans man and needed to transition. That was bullshit.” Watson was suffering from depression, dependent on alcohol, and struggling to accept that she was a lesbian.
Daisy Strongin is an American ex-transgender activist. Strongin gets money and attention by making it harder for other people to get trans healthcare.
Background
Daisy Marie Chadra was born in April 1998. Chadra came out as trans on May 29, 2015 at age 17, using the name Oliver “Ollie” Chadra. As an adult, Chadra obtained hormones at Planned Parenthood. At age 20, Chadra had top surgery.
After graduating York Community High School, Chadra earned an associate’s degree from College of DuPage in 2019. Chadra then attended North Central College.
Chadra made additional changes in identity and expression in October 2020, at age 22.
Jason Strongin and Daisy Strongin were married on December 12, 2021. They had a baby named Gabriel in 2022.
Daisy Strongin converted to Catholicism in 2023.
Ex-trans activism
Stongin appears in the 2023 anti-trans media piece DETRANS by PragerU and has also appeared on shows by anti-trans activists Benjamin Boyce and Preston Sprinkle.
Terrell was born in ~1984 and grew up in a conservative Evangelical Christian environment.
Terrell self-identifies as having a controversial disease called “autoandrophilia”: “I found gay men most attractive, and fantasized about being one.” Terrell transitioned in ~2011 and lives in the Pacific Northwest.
Activism
In 2021 Terrell was reportedly radicalized by J.K. Rowling.
Terrell co-founded the Gender Dysphoria Alliance website in 2020.
Calvin Lunt aka Cal Fox aka Calvin Fox is a British ex-transgender activist.
Background
Calvin Lunt was born in 1990 and has lived in the Fairfield area of Liverpool.
Fox was a contestant on MTV’s Beauty School Cop Outs in 2013.
Lunt performed in drag as Cal Fox in Liverpool clubs. Fox began a gender transition as an adult at age 24, documenting the steps on Facebook.
After about a year of hormones, Lunt made additional changes in identity and expression.
Ex-trans activism
In a podcast description, Lunt said:
“It has been 6 years now since I de-transitoned (returned back to my birth gender) and during these past 5 years I have spent my time learning more about myself, the reasons why I wanted to take the journey of completely changing my body and also exploring the reasons why so many young people are feeling the same. I am not sitting here writing this saying that everyones story will be like mine but I will be honest and transparent and say I do believe there are many more people out there like me who maybe making choices based on false thoughts and feelings.”
Staff (June 2, 2015). Cal Fox discovers she’s transgender by accident. news.com.au https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/true-stories/cal-fox-discovers-shes-transgender-by-accident/news-story/65c4eea38c8e032981c627c1a43c49a2
Tweedy, Jo (June 1, 2015). Aspiring model realised she was transgender by ACCIDENT after dressing up in hot pants and blonde wig for night out. Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3105504/Aspiring-model-realised-transgender-ACCIDENT-dressing-hot-pants-blonde-wig-night-out.html
Sara James Higdon was born in 1987 and grew up in Michigan. Higdon earned a bachelor’s degree from Central Michigan University in 2009. Higdon served in the United States Army from 2010 to 2017, then worked at Q² Solutions.
In 2018 Higdon founded apparel company Steubens Ltd. In 2021, Higdon launched the media platform TRANSform to Freedom.
Higdon has contributed to conservative publications The Post Millennial and Human Events.
Marcus Dib Jensen is a conservative Danish transgender activist.
Jensen uses the nickname “The Offensive Tranny” and has been affiliated with extremist group Gays Against Groomers.
Jensen lives in København, Denmark. Jensen identifies as “not a real man but a biological woman living life as a man.”
References
Wager, Kristjan (June 27, 2022). Dansk Regnbueråd is a front for Dansk Folkeparti. FreethoughtBlogs https://freethoughtblogs.com/kriswager/2022/06/26/dansk-regnbuerad-is-a-front-for-dansk-folkeparti/
Paglia has made a number of statements critical of the transgender rights movement. Paglia has said, “No one deserves special rights, protections, or privileges on the basis of their eccentricity.”
Paglia has also called trans healthcare for youth “child abuse.”
Background
Camille Anna Paglia waas born on April 2, 1947 in Endicott, New York. As a child, Paglia occasionally used the names Anastasia, Stacy, and Stanley.
Paglia earned a bachelor’s degree from Binghamton University in 1968, followed by a master’s degree and a doctorate from Yale in 1972. Paglia was menotred by Harold Bloom and inspired by Susan Sontag’s role as a celebrity public intellectual.
Paglia is best known the the 1990 book Sexual Personae (based on Paglia’s dissertation and originally titled The Androgynous Dream). Paglia is also known for criticism of feminist movements, thus winning praise from Christina Hoff Sommers, Germaine Greer, and other anti-trans activists.
Paglia and artist Alison Maddex were in a relationship, and Paglia adopted Maddex’s child before the two split up.