Skip to content

people

George Rekers is an American psychologist and a key figure in the 20th-century conversion therapy controversy around gender diverse youth.

References

Bullock, Penn; Thorp, Brandon K. (May 6, 2010)  Christian right leader George Rekers takes vacation with “rent boy/” Miami New Times https://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/christian-right-leader-george-rekers-takes-vacation-with-rent-boy-6377933

Resources

Professor George (professorgeorge.com)

Wikipedia ()

SourceWatch (sourcewatch.org)

IMDb (imdb.com)

Helen Lewis is a British author and anti-transgender activist who launders gender critical extremism into mainstream media. Lewis is a sex segregationist who claims to be writing from a feminist/leftist viewpoint. Lewis demonstrates that anti-trans sentiment extends into every political point of view and movement.

Lewis’ anti-trans views center around:

  • Challenging legal recognition of trans people in systems developed on the basis of sex, particularly opposing the UK’s Gender Recognition Act
  • Maintaining systems of sex segregation, particularly in matters of law, public accommodation, prisons, sports, and other sex-segregated institutions
  • Maintaining the strict gatekeeping of trans healthcare via government control, developed under nationalized heath systems (so-called “gender clinics”) in the 20th century
  • Maintaining medico-juridical control over trans and gender diverse people though disease models and medical requirements for legal recognition (sterilization requirements, etc.)
  • Maintaining non-affirming models of care for gender diverse youth, developed last century for “the prevention of transsexualism” and now widely outlawed

Background

Lewis was born in 1983, grew up Catholic in Worcester, and attended St Mary’s School there. Lewis then read English at St Peter’s College, Oxford, followed by a journalism degree from City University London. Lewis no longer identifies as Catholic.

After graduating, Lewis worked at the Daily Mail, then joined the New Statesman in 2010. Lewis married designer and creative director Matthew “Matt” Hasteley in 2010 and wrote professionally as Helen Lewis-Hasteley from 2010 until their divorce in 2013. During the marriage, Lewis met and got involved with someone else, eventually leaving the marriage. Like many gender-critical public figures, this starter marriage seems to have had a significant impact on Lewis’ views about sex and gender.

Lewis married Guardian digital editor Jonathan Haynes in 2015. In 2019 Lewis joined the staff of The Atlantic, which has never had an out trans person listed on their masthead in its 160+ years of existence. In 2020 game developer Ubisoft removed Lewis’ voice from in-game audio in Watch Dogs: Legion due to transphobic views.

2017 Times op-ed

Lewis has been critical of the UK’s Gender Recognition Act, claiming that what used to be called the “real life test” that lasts for two years should be required for anyone to be legally recognized as their gender. In a piece titled “A man can’t just say he has turned into a woman,” Lewis wrote:

What the government proposes is a radical rewriting of our understanding of identity: now it’s a question of an internal essence — a soul, if you will. Being a woman or a man is now entirely in your head. In this climate, who would challenge someone with a beard exposing their penis in a women’s changing room? That’s why feminists have raised the alarm over the move to self-identification, along with some older trans people who fear that “trendsters” will erode the goodwill they have worked hard to acquire.

2018 New Statesman op-ed

Lewis was accused of laundering transphobic talking points into a major media outlet around the topics of sex segregation and trans healthcare for youth.

Want to talk about how letting people self-define their gender might affect female-only spaces such as prisons and changing rooms? Then you’re a bigot, cloaking your bigotry in the language of “legitimate concerns”. Want to discuss whether we are rushing to medicalise gender non-conforming children because they and their desperate parents have been sold the idea there is a universal “fix” for their profound, genuine unhappiness? These are yet more “legitimate concerns” that can be dismissed, even as medical professionals warn that not every gender non-conforming child will benefit from puberty blockers and (later) medical transition.

We should all be in favour of the right of transgender people to live their lives free of discrimination, harassment and abuse. […] But the right of someone who has been through male puberty, with the consequences for skeleton and muscle development that brings, to compete in women’s sports that depend on raw strength? That’s more difficult. […]

Our ideas about gender are undergoing a profound shift. I hope that they will end up in a place where a boy can wear a princess dress without people assuming he is “really” a girl. 

2018 GQ interview of Jordan Peterson

In September 2018, Lewis interviewed fellow anti-trans activist Jordan Peterson for GQ. It quickly turned into a tense but civil debate that went viral. One of the few times they agree in the 90-minute conversation is on what Lewis calls “transgender issues.” At about 1:09.45, Lewis’s views overlap significantly with Peterson’s anti-trans viewpoints. Lewis repeats the unsupported generalization that “transgender activists” believe they have a “female soul.” Lewis also believes “We are very quick to diagnose and treat children in a way that I find – and not waiting for the research – and that I find concerning.”

References

Jackman, Josh (25 July 2017). “Left-wing magazine boss says gender reforms will lead to bearded men exposing their penises to women”PinkNews. https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/07/25/backlash-against-the-governments-plans-to-reform-transgender-laws/

Wang, Esther (1 April 2019). The Atlantic has a transphobia problem. Jezebel https://jezebel.com/the-atlantic-has-a-transphobia-problem-1833677331

Stone, Gemma (28 September 2021) Helen Lewis: “We Need to Record Gender and Sex Separately” An Injustice Magazine https://aninjusticemag.com/helen-lewis-we-need-to-record-gender-and-sex-separately-3717c76a2061

Duffy, Nick (10 November 2020). ‘Gender critical’ journalist cut from Watch Dogs video game after developers discovered her views on trans people. PinkNews https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/11/10/watch-dogs-legion-helen-lewis-transgender-trans-podcast/

Muncy, Julie (11 November 2020) Ubisoft Removes a Controversial Voice in Watch Dogs: Legion. WIRED https://www.wired.com/story/war-dogs-legion-podcasts/

Selected media by Lewis

Books and audio

  • Difficult Women: A History of Feminism in 11 Fights (2021) alternatively titled Difficult Women: An Imperfect History of Feminism
  • The Spark: 11 Ideas to Change the World (2021) [narrator]

Articles

Lewis, Helen (25 July 2017). A man can’t just say he has turned into a woman. The Times (London) https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a-man-can-t-just-say-he-has-turned-into-a-woman-m5lltcgv7

Lewis, Helen (19 March 2018). From immigration to gender, the left is avoiding the hard work of persuasionNew Statesman https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2018/03/immigration-gender-left-avoiding-hard-work-persuasion

Lewis, Helen (17 October 2018). The problem that gender self-ID is designed to solve is real but the debate has failed. New Statesman https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk-politics/2018/10/problem-gender-self-id-designed-solve-real-debate-has-failed

Lewis, Helen (30 October 2018). My experience of interviewing Jordan Peterson. GQ https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/helen-lewis-jordan-peterson

Lewis, Helen (3 January 2019). Maria Miller called me a fake feminist over gender self-ID. Now she says I was right all along. The New Statesman https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2019/01/maria-miller-called-me-fake-feminist-over-gender-self-id-now-she-says-i

Lewis, Helen (26 February 2020). Things You Only Know If You’re Divorced Before 30. Grazia https://graziadaily.co.uk/life/real-life/divorce-before-30/

Lewis, Helen (July 2020). Why Millennial Harry Potter Fans Reject JK Rowling. [stealth edited to How J. K. Rowling Became Voldemort] The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2020/07/why-millennial-harry-potter-fans-reject-jk-rowling/613870/

Lewis, Helen (April 2021). What Happened to Jordan Peterson? The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/04/what-happened-to-jordan-peterson/618082/

Lewis, Helen (26 October 2021). In Defense of Saying ‘Pregnant Women.’ The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/10/pregnant-women-people-feminism-language/620468/ [headline stealth edited to Why I’ll Keep Saying ‘Pregnant Women’]

Resources

GLAAD Accountability Project (glaad.org/gap)

Helen Lewis Writes (helenlewiswrites.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

The Atlantic (theatlantic.com)

The Guardian (theguardian.com)

The New Statesman (newstatesman.com)

Tumblr (tumblr.com)

Flickr (flickr.com)

  • lewishasteley [deleted in 2022 in response to this profile]

Muck Rack (muckrack.com)

Substack (substack.com)

Wikipedia

Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.

Benjamin Boyce is an American YouTuber who promotes alt-right and intellectual dark web viewpoints, with a special focus on gender critical anti-transgender movements. Boyce is a key promoter of the ex-transgender movement.

Note: For the British musical artist born in 1968, see benjamin-boyce.com

Background

Benjamin Arthur Boyce was born on July 7, 1976 in Ukiah, California to Dan and Teresa Boyce. Boyce grew up in a religious household. Boyce’s family moved frequently around California, living in Milpitas, San Jose, Loomis, and Rocklin. Boyce’s parents met in Bible college and reportedly came under the influence of a charismatic minister named Gordon, who had been paralyzed after being shot. The families under Gordon’s control were split up. Teresa was given to another family, and Dan inherited two “spiritual children” from the minors who were part of other families. At 14 Boyce reportedly became “intensely sexual.”

Boyce’s family eventually left the group, and they were shunned. Dan went to a seminary school in Chicago while Benjamin remained behind in Rockland to complete high school, staying with a family that was part of their church.

Boyce attended Covenant Bible College in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, a vocational Bible college which has since closed. Boyce then moved to Chicago in 1995. Boyce’s parents then took over a church in Fresno, California, and Boyce remained in Chicago until age 24. Boyce moved many times looking for a church, eventually moving to Portland. Boyce has been involved in Subud, “a direct spiritual experience of the soul being reawakened by the power of God.”

Boyce got a job at a preschool and would write at night. Boyce is also an aspiring children’s entertainer who has recorded and performed under the names Benjamin, Benzo, Benjamin Arthur, and Benjamin Ampersand.

In 2010 Boyce released the album Scariously, which includes songs like “(I Have Had An) Accident,” about a young child accidentally defecating and then removing soiled clothes.

In 2011, Boyce released the album Wildling under the name Benjamin Arthur. In 2012, Boyce released the EP Combustible Sundress, and in 2013 released the EP confessions of a headless man under the name Eo Ipso. In 2013, Boyce self-published the book Iconogasms under the banner of Critically Othersuch Press.

Boyce attended Evergreen State College from 2013 to 2017 and witnessed a major conflict involving the school’s progressive faction that led to the resignations of professors Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying, members of the so-called intellectual dark web. Boyce began commenting about conservative politics following those experiences.

Boyce was an elementary school bus driver for the Griffin School District in Washington State from 2017 to 2020. During that time Boyce founded Othersuch Constructs LLC, which lasted from 2017 to 2018.

Anti-trans activism

In 2018, Boyce started a YouTube channel and podcast called Calmversations, alternately titled The Boyce of Reason. Despite the show’s relaxed tone, Boyce’s guests are often strident critics of progressive aspects of the trans rights movement.

Media appearances

Selected podcast appearances

  • The Podcast of the Lotus Eaters (2021)
  • TRIGGERnometry (2021)
  • Chatting with Candice (2020)

Interview (2022) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dHWhFYAdgJE

Gender: A Wider Lens with Sasha Ayad and Stella O’Malley (November 11, 2021) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LqTNvv1acNI

Interview (2021) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqEAePEAlTs

Resources

YouTube (youtube.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Bandcamp (bandcamp.com)

Medium (medium.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

WordPress (wordpress.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Soundcloud (soundcloud.com)

reddit (reddit.com)

Utreon (utreon.com)

Etsy (etsy.com)

Substack (substack.com)

Gettr (gettr.com)

Thinkspot (thinkspot.com)

Benjamin A. Boyce (benjaminaboyce.com) [archive]

Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.

Pamela Paul is an American writer and anti-transgender activist who laundered anti-trans extremism into the New York Times until 2025.

While editor of The New York Times Book Review, Paul hired anti-trans activist Jesse Singal to write a glowing review of anti-trans activist Helen Joyce’s book Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality, helping spark a newsroom crisis about anti-trans coverage that culminated in 2023. The day after the crisis reached its peak, Paul published a piece defending anti-trans activist J.K. Rowling.

Paul has published many opinion columns for the Times repeating anti-trans talking points and defending other anti-trans activists.

Background

Pamela Lindsey Paul was born on March 2, 1971. Paul graduated from Brown University, then was an editor at American Demographics. Paul’s first marriage to conservative Times columnist Bret Stephens ended in 1998. Paul married hedge fund manager Michael Stern in 2004.

Paul has authored several books.

New York Times

Paul was named children’s book editor of The New York Times Book Review in 2011 and editor in 2013. Paul became an opinion columnist at the Times in 2022.

https://twitter.com/mariskreizman/status/1543575801232228353?s=20&t=ZZnU8Od8nq9Yjp-iJJeFIg

Patrick Ness says the original line said “The culture wars have come for your transgender children.” The Times made Ness change it to something “less political.” A Times spokesperson later said Paul was not involved.

https://twitter.com/erikhane/status/1543568239917252608

The novel The Men by Sandra Newman is one of many sci-fi works in which all men or all women suddenly disappear. The concept can easily steer toward anti-trans sentiments, and some objected to Newman’s book. Paul defended Newman with a lot of anti-trans dogwhistles:

But apparently Newman got too creative — or too real — for some. That a fictional world would assert the salience of biological sex, however fanciful the context, was enough to upset a vocal number of transgender activists online. They would argue that “men” is a cultural category to which anyone can choose to belong, as opposed to “maleness,” which is defined by genetics and biology.

In this case, we can set aside contentious questions around gender identity and transgender politics. Even if you don’t believe the sex binary is as fundamental to human beings as it is to all other mammals, a fiction writer ought to be free to imagine her own universe, whether as utopian ideal, dystopian horror or some complicated vision in between.

In another piece, Paul claims these anti-trans views are a middle ground or a centrist political position. Rather than seeing reproductive rights and bodily autonomy as a shared goal of trans people and pro-choice activists, Paul sees trans people as engaging in “erasure” of women by proposing inclusive and value-neutral language around reproduction. Paul describes “female biological function,” meaning reproductive function and reduces women to their reproductive function and organs in order to exclude trans women.

Women, of course, have been accommodating. They’ve welcomed transgender women into their organizations. They’ve learned that to propose any space just for biological women in situations where the presence of males can be threatening or unfair — rape crisis centers, domestic abuse shelters, competitive sports — is currently viewed by some as exclusionary. If there are other marginalized people to fight for, it’s assumed women will be the ones to serve other people’s agendas rather than promote their own.

Daniel Froomkin notes that Paul builds on the anti-trans work of other Times writers, including Emily Bazelon, Michael Powell, and Anemona Hartocollis.

Both-sidesing would have been a step up for this column, which devoted only 52 words out of 1,300 to the right’s decades-long campaign to strip women of their rights. The rest was about how “the fringe left” is “jumping in with its own perhaps unintentionally but effectively misogynist agenda.”

The central thesis of Paul’s argument was an exaggerated summary of a scaremongering news article from last month by Michael Powell, one of the two star reporters the Times has assigned to the woke-panic/cancel-culture beat –the other being Anemona Hartocollis, who just a few days ago gave us this already infamous piece of soft-focus cancel porn.

Powell, Paul wrote, had concluded that “the word ‘women’ has become verboten.”

This conspiracy has become known as “Pamela Paul’s great replacement theory,” which Melissa Gira Grant described as “lightly laundered anti-trans propaganda, presented as a sensible centrist argument.”

2024 column on the ex-trans movement

Paul continued promoting anti-trans talking points in 2024 with a piece on the ex-trans movement. Activists cited included:

  • Grayson / Grace Powell (ex-trans activist)
  • “Kathleen” (unsupportive parent)
  • “KC Miller” / Kasey Emerick (ex-trans activist)

Conservative therapists cited include:

Other anti-trans writers cited include:

  • Zanny Minton Beddoes

In defending Paul, Opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury defended the disproportionate number of anti-trans articles the section publishes by citing three articles that are purportedly not anti-trans:

Given the state legislative fights over trans Americans and their civil liberties and access to medical and psychological care, we have published many columns and guest essays from health professionals and activists on issues affecting trans people, as well as a focus group last year hearing from trans Americans about their lives. 

Kingsbury (2024)

Since the ex-trans movement is a single-digit minority, the next 90+ articles should be on gender diverse youth who have benefited from the care that is the current US medical consensus.

References

Chu, Andrea Long (April 3, 2025). Goodbye, Pamela Paul: The contrarian columnist showed us the intolerable side of liberalism. New York https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/pamela-paul-goodbye-to-the-new-york-times-opinion-columnist.html

Urquhart, Evan (February 2, 2024). Pamela Paul Shows NYT Opinion’s Lack of Accountability to the Truth. Assigned https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/pamela-paul-shows-opinion-is-opinion-is-opinion

Reed, Erin (February 2, 2024). Debunked: Misleading NYT Anti-Trans Article By Pamela Paul Relies On Pseudoscience. Erin in the Morning https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/debunked-misleading-nyt-anti-trans

Reed, Erin; Urquhart, Evan (February 8, 2024). Readers Deserve Better Than Misinformation About Trans Care; A Response To Pamela Paul. Erin in the Morning https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/readers-deserve-better-than-misinformation

“Epistemophagy” (February 15, 2024). Pamela Paul: Several Problems. X https://twitter.com/epistemophagy/status/1758059449405870380

Strangio, Chase (February 22, 2023) The New York Times’ dehumanizing trans double down — and its consequences. MSNBC https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/new-york-trans-coverage-jk-rowling-controversy-consequences-rcna71615

Bolies, Corbin; Cartwright, Lachlan (February 16, 2023). New York Times blasts staffers who condemned paper’s trans coverage. The Daily Beast https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-york-times-blast-staffers-who-condemned-papers-trans-coverage

Bibi, Elizabeth (February 16, 2023). Human Rights Campaign Calls Out New York Times for Publishing Transphobic Column One Day After an Open Letter Condemning its Anti-Transgender Coverage. HRC https://www.hrc.org/press-releases/human-rights-campaign-calls-out-new-york-times-for-publishing-transphobic-column-one-day-after-an-open-letter-condemning-its-anti-transgender-coverage

Champion, Edward (). Pamela Paul, The Gray Lady’s in-house transphobe. Reluctant Habits http://www.edrants.com/pamela-paul-the-gray-ladys-in-house-transphobe/

Cauterucci, Chirstina (February 16, 2023). Impeccable Timing, Pamela Paul! Slate https://slate.com/business/2023/02/jk-rowling-pamela-paul-new-york-times-trans-coverage.html

Urquhart, Evan (February 16, 2023). Pamela Paul Doesn’t Know What Transphobia Is. Assigned https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/pamela-paul-doesnt-know-transphobia

Fischer, Molly (January 24, 2023). The rules according to Pamela Paul. The New Yorker https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/the-rules-according-to-pamela-paul

Fedorov, Andrew; Krichevsky, Sophie (August 18, 2022). What Is Pamela Paul Thinking? The Fine Print https://thefineprintnyc.com/article/pamela-paul-biography-career/

Pineda, Dorany (July 7, 2022). Pamela Paul criticized for anti-trans opinion about the word ‘woman.’ Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/books/story/2022-07-07/pamela-paul-criticized-for-anti-trans-opinion-about-the-word-woman

Grant, Melissa Gira (July 6, 2022). Pamela Paul’s Great Replacement Theory. The New Republic https://newrepublic.com/article/166991/pamela-paul-new-york-times-trans-great-replacement-theory

Froomkin, Dan (July 5, 2022). Who hates inclusivity? The question answers itself. Press Watch https://presswatchers.org/2022/07/who-hates-inclusivity-the-question-answers-itself/

Specter, Emma (July 5, 2022). Inclusive Language Around Abortion Costs Us Nothing and Makes the Movement Stronger. Vogue https://www.vogue.com/article/inclusive-language-abortion-rights

Factora, James (July 5, 2022). The Times Published Some Transphobic BS Over the Weekend. them https://www.them.us/story/new-york-times-op-ed-women-gender-inclusive-language-misogyny-trans-rights

Finnegan, Leah (May 23, 2022). Pamela Paul is the new worst columnist at the New York Times. Gawker https://www.gawker.com/media/pamela-paul-is-the-new-worst-columnist-at-the-new-york-times [archive]

https://twitter.com/KyleLukoff/status/1543957466320441344?s=20&t=aAhpDNOP-GssoCuz5x4vOA

https://twitter.com/timmaughan/status/1543942381933838337?s=20&t=bY_863plnaRXzb1i4_IOIg

Staff report (August 15, 2004). WEDDINGS/CELEBRATIONS; Pamela Paul, Michael Stern. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/15/style/weddings-celebrations-pamela-paul-michael-stern.html

Selected anti-trans writing by Paul

Paul, Pamela (July 3, 2022). The Far Right and Far Left Agree on One Thing: Women Don’t Count. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/03/opinion/the-far-right-and-far-left-agree-on-one-thing-women-dont-count.html

Paul, Pamela (June 12, 2022). She Wrote a Dystopian Novel. What Happened Next Was Pretty Dystopian. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/12/opinion/sandra-newman-men.html

Paul, Pamela (July 24, 2022). There’s More Than One Way to Ban a Book. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/24/opinion/book-banning-censorship.html

Paul, Pamela (February 16, 2023). In Defense of J.K. Rowling. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/16/opinion/jk-rowling-transphobia.html

Paul, Pamela (February 2, 2024). As Kids, They Thought They Were Trans. They No Longer Do. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/opinion/transgender-children-gender-dysphoria.html

Resources

Pamela Paul (pamelapaul.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Twitter (twitter.com)

  • PamelaPaulNYT (closed by Paul and later suspended after it was out of Paul’s control)

Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.

Carol Tavris is an American social psychologist and anti-transgender activist.

Tavris considers the safer and mpre accepting climate for gender diverse youth to be a “social contagion” that needs a correction.

Tavris’ attacks on the trans rights movement center on several gender critical tactics:

Tavris claims sexual orientation change efforts like “conversion therapy” are terrible, but gender identity change efforts are completely different.

Background

Carol Anne Tavris was born September 17, 1944 and grew up in Los Angeles. Tavris’s parent Dorothy was a lawyer, and parent Sam died when Tavris was 11.

Tavris earned a bachelor’s degree in comparative literature and sociology from Brandeis University. Tavris then earned a PhD in sociology from the University of Michigan.

Tavris was married to actor Ronan David O’Casey (1922-2012).

Tavris has written several widely-used psychology textbooks.

Anti-transgender activism

Tavris and other anti-transgender extremists like Cathy Young and Christina Hoff Sommers have been logrolling for each other for years.

2022 Skeptic piece

In 2022, Tavris published a piece in Skeptic repeating transphobic talking points packaged as “skepticism.”

Today, once again, the public is hearing only one side of an emotionally compelling issue: the transgender story. Once again, distinctions are ignored, this time between people for whom identification with the other sex began in early childhood and those whose rapid onset gender dysphoria started during adolescence. 

[…]

 Saying you suffer from “gender dysphoria” is cool and common, just as saying you were sexually abused in your youth once was. 

Tarvis is especially scornful of an On the Media episode, claiming it did not give time to the ex-transgender movement:

In its most glaring omission, “On the Media” said not a word about the “desisters,” a term often used for those who make a social transition (changing their names and pronouns) but do not persist in having surgery and hormones or changing their gender identity, and often change back; or about the many (possibly thousands of) “detransitioners” who now regret that they had medical procedures. Many of them are bitter and angry that they have had irreversible voice and hair growth changes, underwent surgical procedures that cannot be corrected, and have become infertile. 

[…]

Many gender professionals have marginalized, bullied, and tormented their colleagues who disagree. Politically organized “transactivists” protest that any research on, say, factors contributing to the rise of cases of gender transition, the potentially negative consequences of transitioning, or the importance of counseling and treatment before transitioning are indications of the unacceptable idea that gender transition is a pathological problem or disorder. 

[…]

But we may, at last, be entering a new phase. As usual, we can thank the first wave of writers who have refused to be cowed or bullied — Abigail Shrier in Irreversible Damage, Kathleen Stock in Material Girls, Helen Joyce in Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality. 

[…]

In November, 2021, Laura Edwards-Leeper and Erica Anderson, two psychologists whose practice has been devoted to offering transgender patients ethical, evidence-based treatment, wrote an editorial in the Washington Post. Their trans-supporting credentials are flawless. 

Tavris also cites “The Gender Affirmative Treatment Model for Youth with Gender Dysphoria: A Medical Advance or Dangerous Medicine?” by Alison Clayton.

“My thanks to Leonore Tiefer, PhD, for her resources, advice, and expertise.”

Selected publications

  • Estrogen Matters: Why taking hormones in menopause can improve women’s well-being and lengthen their lives–without raising the risk of breast cancer (with Avrum Bluming). Little, Brown Spark 2018 ISBN 978-0-316-48120-5
  • Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts (with Elliot Aronson) Mariner Books, 2020, ISBN 978-0-358-32961-9
  • Psychology (with Carole Wade, Samuel Sommers, and Lisa Shin) 2020, Pearson, ISBN 978-0-13-521262-2)
  • Invitation to Psychology (with Carole Wade) (6th edition, 2014, Pearson, ISBN 978-0-205-03519-9)
  • Psychobabble and Biobunk: Using Psychology to Think Critically About Issues in the News (Pearson, 2011, ISBN 978-0-205-01591-7)
  • The Scientist and the Humanist: A festschrift in honor of Elliot Aronson (with Marti Hope Gonzales and Joshua Aronson) (New York: Psychology Press, 2010 ISBN 978-1848728677)
  • Psychology in Perspective (with Carole Wade, Samuel Sommers, and Lisa Shin) (Three editions, latest 2001, Prentice Hall, ISBN 0-13-028326-6)
  • The Mismeasure of Woman: Why Women Are Not the Better Sex, the Inferior Sex, or the Opposite Sex (Simon & Schuster, 1992) (ISBN 0-671-66274-0)
  • Anger: The Misunderstood Emotion (1983, Revised edition 1989, Touchstone, ISBN 0-671-67523-0)
  • EveryWoman’s Emotional Well-Being: Heart & Mind, Body & Soul (Doubleday, 1986, ISBN 978-0385185615)
  • The Longest War: Sex Differences in Perspective (with Carole Wade) (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977, revised 1984, ISBN 978-0155511866)
  • The Redbook Report on Female Sexuality: 100,000 married women disclose the good news about sex (Delacorte, 1977, ISBN 978-0385288675)

References

Tavris, Carol (2022) Trans Reality: “I Didn’t Know There Was Another Side” Skeptic 27.1 (March 2022) https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/transgender-reality-i-didnt-know-there-was-another-side/

Resources

Dr. Carol Tavris (tavris.socialpsychology.org)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.

SaidIt is a social media platform created as an alternative to reddit. After many “gender critical” users and groups were banned on reddit for anti-transgender hate speech, some of those banned users moved to SaidIt.

SaidIt claims it has less censorship than reddit and claims to be “one of the safe havens for truth seekers, alt-historians, and conspirophiles in an increasingly globally thoughtpoliced state.” It is a toxic online community and a service of choice for online anti-transgender content.

SaidIt’s 2022 Google results show two anti-transgender subsaidits among the top results.

Background

SaidIt was founded in 2017.

Moderators

  • magnora7 (Texas)
  • d3rr (California)
  • TheAmeliaMay (Arkansas) aka conservative transgender woman Amelia May Johnson [resigned]

Anti-trans subsaidits

SaidIt subreddit

enlarge

In the past, when the saidit.net domain was shut down, the domain would sometimes redirect to the SaidIt subreddit (r/saiditnet). Calculating the Jaccard index of posts, participants on the SaidIt subreddit accrete into five reddit community clusters:

  • reddit critics
    • RedditAlternatives
    • RedditCensorship
  • conspiracists
    • Conspiracyundone
  • anti-porn / separatist lesbians
    • LesBiGay
    • FightFemaleErasure
    • nametheproblem
    • LesbianDating Strategy
    • ThePinkPills
  • substance use / dependence
    • crippling alcoholism [CA]
      • OutlandishAlcoholics
      • IsCrashAlive
    • drug use [Pharma]
      • PharmacoGreen
      • PharmaShopsLegal
      • KamagraGreen
  • Axis/Nazi fans
    • ConservativeWW2
    • RebuttalTime
    • Wehradudes
  • BlockedAndReported fans
    • ShitLibSafari

References

JasonCarswell (8 December 2018 ff.). SaidIt. Infogalactic. https://infogalactic.com/info/SaidIt

Greg Carlwood (July 8, 2017). “Magnora7 | The Rothschild World Order & The Ownership of Everything” The Higherside Chats

Sam Tripoli (January 11, 2018). “#60: The Rothschild with Magnora7” Tin Foil Hat With Sam Tripoli

Sam Tripoli (August 27, 2018). “#119 The Return of Magnora 7” Tin Foil Hat With Sam Tripoli

Greg Carlwood (August 31, 2018). “Magnora7 | Anthony Bourdain, Kate Spade, & The Suicide String Conspiracy” The Higherside Chats

Resources

SaidIt (saidit.net)

reddit (reddit.com)

Oren Amitay is a Canadian psychologist and anti-transgender activist involved in the gender critical movement.

Background

Oren Aaron Amitay was born in 1968. Amitay attended York University, earning a master’s degree in 1999 and a doctorate in 2006.

In 2014 Amitay founded Straight Kill Films and began promoting the work of several members of the so-called intellectual dark web, described as a gateway to the far right.

In 2017 Amitay was involved in a controversy over transgender discussions on the Ontario Psychological Association (OPA) listserv.

In 2019 Amitay was suspended from Twitter for gender critical activity and investigated for misconduct by employer Ryerson University.

 YouTube channel

References

Xavier-Carter, Breanna (December 5, 2019). Ryerson psychology instructor faces allegations of misconduct. Ryersonian https://ryersonian.ca/ryerson-psychology-instructor-faces-allegations-of-misconduct/

 Gallant, Jacques (October 15, 2019). Ontario psychologist completed assessments without children’s aids societies knowing he had been cautioned. Toronto Star https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/10/15/childrens-aid-societies-werent-told-psychologist-was-cautioned-and-ordered-to-have-mentor.html

Amitay, Oren (2018). Complete narrative of DocAmitay’s OPA listserv history [PDF] http://docamitay.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Complete_Narrative_of_DocAmitays_OPA_Listserv_History.pdf See also YouTube: 1 2 3 4 5

Amitay OA (1999) Introjected parental perceptions and choice of romantic partners in dependents and self-critics. [Master’s thesis] https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item?id=MQ56159&op=pdf&app=Library&oclc_number=1006984997

Amitay OA (2006). Supportive and undermining relational patterns in individuals vulnerable to major depression. [PhD dissertation] https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item?id=NR19829&op=pdf&app=Library&oclc_number=300580569

Resources

Dr. Oren Amitay (docamitay.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)

  • DocAmitay
  • Dr. James Cantor’s Revolutionary Theory on Transgender People
  • “autogynephilia” and “mirror neuron” hypotheses
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3Ub65CwiRI
  • Apparently Not ALL (Formerly) Autogynephilic Trans People Hate Me or Science/Facts/Reality
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHLPk1JrPzQ
  • Are *you* a Blanchophobe? I dare you to watch the *truth* behind Dr. Blanchard & Trans issues
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD9H2QAg7N8
  • Dr. Dreger Discusses the Balls on that Michael Bailey, and the Ins & Outs of Trans/Gender Issues
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud6Lb8GLlMg
  • Hard Science: The Measure of All Things Natural w/Dr. J Michael Bailey
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRKmJtKjEqE

Free Bird Media Canada

  • Differences between autogynephilic and homosexual transexuals
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UXE1zpgvQg

Debra Soh is a Canadian psychologist and anti-transgender activist.

Soh is a member of the intellectual dark web, a loose alliance described as a “gateway to the far right.” Soh has promoted a number of disease models of gender identity and expression:

Background

Debra W. Soh was born in 1990, is of Malaysian-Chinese descent, and grew up in Canada.

Soh earned a doctorate from York University in 2016. Soh’s dissertation is titled: “Functional and Structural Neuroimaging of Paraphilic Hypersexuality in Men” The examining committee included K. Schneider, James Cantor, G. Turner, D. Stevens, D. Vanderlann, C. Davis

Soh left academia in order to promote anti-trans views in the media.

Anti-transgender activism

Soh authored the 2020 anti-trans book The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society

Soh and anti-trans activist Jonathan Kay co-hosted the Wrongspeak podcast for anti-trans platform Quillette.

From 2021 to 2023, Soh hosted The Dr. Debra Soh Podcast. Guests included many other key members of the anti-transgender movement.

Soh is a regular guest at conservative and anti-transgender outlets, including

References

Jones, Zinnia (October 31, 2018 ) Debra Soh is really bad at trans science (part 1). Gender Analysis https://genderanalysis.net/2018/10/debra-soh-is-really-bad-at-trans-science-part-1/

Jones, Zinnia (October 31, 2018 ) Debra Soh is really bad at trans science (part 2). Gender Analysis https://genderanalysis.net/2018/10/debra-soh-is-really-bad-at-trans-science-part-2/

Jones, Zinnia (October 31, 2018 ) Debra Soh is really bad at trans science (part 3). Gender Analysis https://genderanalysis.net/2018/10/debra-soh-is-really-bad-at-trans-science-part-3/

Soh, Debra (22 February 2021). Attacks on Asian-Americans reveal a strange racial double standard. The Globe and Mail https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-attacks-on-asian-americans-reveal-a-strange-racial-double-standard/

Resources

GLAAD Accountability Project (glaad.org)

Trans Data Library (transdatalibrary.org)

  • Debra Soh
  • https://transdatalibrary.org/person/debra-soh/

Debra Soh (drdebrasoh.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Instagram (instagram.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)

Patreon (patreon.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

York University Psychology (psychology.gradstudies.yorku.ca)

  • https://psychology.gradstudies.yorku.ca/news/past-oral-defences/#2017

Muck Rack (muckrack.com)

Abigail Shrier is an American author who is a key figure in the “gender critical” movement of anti-transgender activists, focusing on:

Shrier is author of the 2020 book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters and has testified against the Equality Act before Congress in 2021.

Background

Abigail Brett Krauser Shrier was born June 21, 1978 and grew up in College Park, Maryland. Shrier’s parents are Sherrie L. Krauser, a judge of the Circuit Court of Maryland, and Peter B. Krauser, a judge of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals and former chairman of the Maryland Democratic Party.

Shrier attended Sheridan School and Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 2000, Shrier earned a bachelor’s degree from Oxford in 2002. Shrier then earned a law degree from Yale University in 2005. After clerking for Judith W. Rogers and Chief Justice Aharon Barak of the Supreme Court of Israel, Shrier was admitted to the New York Bar in 2006 and the California Bar in 2007. Shrier was an associate attorney at Irell & Manella from 2006 to 2008 before becoming a full-time writer in 2009. Shrier’s California license became inactive in 2009.

Shrier is a registered Republican and married wealth manager Zachary Loren Shrier in 2007.

References

Shrier A (March 15, 2021) Equality Act testimony

  • (PDF) https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Shrier%20EQUALITY%20ACT%20TESTIMONY%20-%20%203-15-21.pdf
  • (video) https://youtu.be/iK7eOudkkZg?t=4486

Irell & Manell (~2008). Abigail Shrier. http://www.irell.com/professionals-240.html [archive]

Ferguson CJ (January 19, 2021) A Review of “Irreversible Damage” by Abigail Shrier. Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/checkpoints/202101/review-irreversible-damage-abigail-shrier

Staff report (June 10, 2007). Achievement and Reasonable Pride. PrawfsBlawg https://prawfsblawg.blogs.com/prawfsblawg/2007/06/achievement_and.html

Resources by Shrier

Abigail Shrier (abigailshrier.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Substack (substack.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

IMDb (imdb.com)

Resources supportive of Shrier

PragerU

Jordan Peterson

Joe Rogan

Hillsdale College

The Rubin Report

Ben Shapiro

Matt Walsh

Benjamin Boyce

Resources critical of Shrier

GLAAD Accountability Project (glaad.org)

Science-Based Medicine

Irreversible Damage to the Trans Community: A Critical Review of Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage (Part One)

Cass Eris (youtube.com/casseris)

Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.

Michael G. Riley is an American writer and anti-transgender activist. Under Riley’s editorship, academic trade publication The Chronicle of Higher Education favorably covered contributor Alice Dreger’s anti-trans activism on several occasions. This ethically questionable arrangement is part of the publication’s pattern of bias favoring academics in the academic exploitation of sex and gender minorities.

Background

Michael George “Mike” Riley was born on February 10, 1959. Riley earned a bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University in 1981 and a master’s degree from Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government in 1985.

Riley’s first journalism job was at The Dispatch in Lexington, North Carolina. Riley was editor of The Roanoke Times, editor and senior vice president of Congressional Quarterly, and editorial director of Bloomberg Government as well as senior correspondent and bureau chief for TIME magazine.

Riley lives in Arlington, Virginia with spouse Arline and their two children.

Riley was named president and editor in chief of The Chronicle of Higher Education in 2013.

References

Staff report (April 17, 2013). Chronicle Names Bloomberg Editor as Its New Chief Executive. Chronicle of Higher Education https://www.chronicle.com/article/chronicle-names-bloomberg-editor-as-its-new-chief-executive/

Resources

Chronicle of Higher Education (chronicle.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)