Kate Bornstein is a nonbinary American author, playwright, and performer. Bornstein’s important work on gender theory helped lay the groundwork for the resurgence of trans rights and culture in the 1990s.
Background
Bornstein was born March 15, 1948, grew up in Asbury Park, New Jersey and graduated from Brown University in 1969. Bornstein joined the Church of Scientology, moving into high ranks before leaving in 1981. Bornstein transitioned in 1986 and began doing theatre in San Francisco.
In 2012, Bornstein was diagnosed with lung cancer, saying it had been cleared for two years in 2015.
Bornstein is the subject of the 2014 documentary Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger. Bornstein appeared with Caitlyn Jenner on the reality show I Am Cait.
Books
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us. ISBN 978-0679757016.
Nearly Roadkill: An Infobahn Erotic Adventure. ISBN 978-1852424183.
My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely. ISBN 978-0415916721.
Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws. ISBN 9781583227206.
Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation. ISBN 9781580053082.
A Queer and Pleasant Danger: A Memoir.
My New Gender Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving World Peace Through Gender Anarchy and Sex Positivity. ISBN 978-0415538657.
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us (Revised and Updated). ISBN 978-1-101-97461-2.
Cheryl Chase is the pseudonym of Bo Laurent an American activist associated with internet troll Denise Magner and historian Alice Dreger. All three were involved with Intersex Society of North America prior to its 2008 dissolution.
Cheryl Chase, the intersex activist, told me that transsexuals frequently join intersex groups because they are convinced that they are also intersexual. In most cases, they are not.
Background
Chase’s self-reported personal and medical history is murky and often contradictory. She claims she had multiple names starting at birth:
Sidhbh Gallagher is an Irish plastic surgeon practicing in the United States. Gallagher is known for performing masculinizing top surgery.
Background
Sidhbh Treasa Gallagher (pronounced “sive”) was born in ~1981 and grew up in Louth and Dundalk, Ireland. Gallagher earned an undergraduate degree from University College Dublin. In 2006 Gallagher studied at Emory University, then did a residency at Abington Memorial Hospital in Philadelphia from 2007 to 2012. Gallagher did plastic surgery training at Indiana University School of Medicine. In 2016 Gallagher took a surgical appointment at Eskenazi Health Transgender Health & Wellness Program in Indianapolis.
Gallagher relocated to Miami, Florida in 2019 and founded Gallagher Plastic Surgery and Gallagher Med Spa.
Gallagher is known for promoting on social media, particularly TikTok.
University Gender Affirmation Surgery (universitygenderaffirmationsurgery.com) [archive]
Lee Leveille is a former member of the “ex-transgender” movement. In January 2021, Leveille and partner Ky Schevers launched the organization Health Liberation Now!
Background
Leveille was born in June 1988 on a military base in San Diego, California. They moved to Sumner, Maine in around 1997. Leveille has a sibling who is four years younger. Leveille earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Maine at Machias. Leveille is an intentional peer support (IPS) specialist.
Leveille converted to Judaism in 2016 and identifies as disabled and trans androgynos.
Activism
Following a gender transition, in the late 2000s Leveille became active in disability justice, trans rights, and opposing psychiatric oppression. Leveille experienced vision loss during a change in gender identity and expression.
Leveille resigned from the group in 2020 and has since been heavily involved in exposing anti-trans activists, particularly those who exploit and uplift “detransition” narratives.
Leveille is a coauthor of the 2023 CAPTAIN report by Southern Poverty Law Center that traces the origins of 21st-century anti-transgender extremism.
Student interviewer (March 14, 2019). Lee Leveille. Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer+ Collection, Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine, University of Southern Maine Libraries. https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/querying_ohproject/41/
Admiral Rachel L. Levine, MD is an American pediatrician and government health official. Levine is the first out transgender four-star officer in the US uniformed services. Levine was appointed as Assistant Secretary for Health by the US Senate in 2021.
Background
Levine was born October 28, 1957 and grew up in Wakefield, Massachusetts. Both of Levine’s parents were lawyers. Levine has an older sibling.
After private school, Levine graduated from Harvard College, then Tulane University School of Medicine. Levine did a pediatrics residency and adolescent medicine postdoc at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, then took a position at Penn State College of Medicine as well as Penn State Hershey Medical Center.
Levine married Martha Peaslee Levine in 1988. They have two children. Levine transitioned in 2011, and they divorced in 2013.
Levine was appointed Pennsylvania Physician General in 2015 and Secretary of Health in 2017. In 2020 Levine was responsible for the commonwealth’s COVID response. In 2021, the Senate confirmed Levine as Assistant Secretary for Health following President Joe Biden’s nomination.
Among Levine’s first initiatives were addressing bullying, suicide, discriminatory policies, and isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic as pressing issues among LGBTQ youth. Levine has criticized Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill and the push in some conservative states to investigate parents who provide gender-affirming care to their children.
Levine became a lightning rod for anti-transgender hatred from anti-trans lawmakers and media figures after taking office.
Support of gender affirming care for youth
Levine supports the position of the American Academy of Pediatrics regarding trans and gender diverse youth. The AAP states that the gender affirming model of care is the current medical consensus.
Levine discussed this in a 2023 keynote at Yale University:
Levine described gender-affirming care — which includes puberty blockers, gender-affirming hormones and surgical procedures, among other interventions — as “safe,” “effective” and “medically necessary.”
Levine described how transgender and nonbinary youth are disproportionately burdened by mental health challenges. She noted that gender-affirming interventions are associated with lower odds of depressive symptoms, self-harm and suicidal thoughts. Given this, Levine said, gender-affirming care has been life-saving for thousands of young LGBTQI+ people across the country.
Loveland, Barry (February 6, 2017). LGBT Oral History: Rachel Levine. (PDF). LGBT Center of Central PA History Project Dickinson College Archives & Special Collections. Carlisle, PA, USA. [archive] http://archives.dickinson.edu/sites/all/files/files_lgbt/LGBT-interview-transcription-Levine-Rachel-064.pdf
Buck Angel is an American model, pornographic performer, entrepreneur, and cultural critic.
Although many of Angel’s views on sex, sexuality, and gender are progressive, Angel is considered a prominent transgender conservative for using terms and concepts that have largely fallen out of use. These views have made Angel a favored source among conservative and anti-transgender journalists and commentators.
Background
Angel was born June 5, 1962 in Los Angeles, California. After high school Angel worked as a model but felt disconnected from the world, self-medicating with alcohol and drugs. After identifying as lesbian until age 28, Angel began taking hormones, later opting for top surgery but not bottom surgery. Angel later had a hysterectomy.
Beginning around 2005, Angel began to appear in pornographic films, billed as “the man with a pussy.” Angel earned industry recognition for this groundbreaking career.
Angel eventually moved into sex education, appearing in films and speaking at conferences and schools. Angel has frequently appeared in the media. Angel’s entrepreneurial projects include a dating site, an outreach site for trans men, a cannabis company, and sex toys.
Angel was married to Karin Winslow, a dominatrix who left Angel for filmmaker Lana Wachowski. Angel was then in a one-year marriage to a body piercer that ended in an acrimonious split. Angel later married filmmaker Rachel Mason.
Political views
Angel identifies as transsexual and as a “female who lives as a man.” Most people in the community reject these older terms and conceptualizations. Angel advocates for maintaining sex-segregated spaces like competitive sports and takes issue with the phrase “trans women are women.” Progressive members of the community characterize Angel’s views as transmedicalist and sex segregationist. Angel has been affiliated with extremist group Gays Against Groomers.
Ana Valens is an American journalist who frequently writes about gaming and sexuality from a progressive and pro-transgender perspective.
Background
Valens earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University in 2016.
Valens has written and edited at New Brunswick Today, TRIM Magazine, Gamemoir, The Anthologist, Kill Screen Media, Inc., CGMagazine, PRIDE, Now Loading, Dot Esports, The Toast, Bitch Media, Fanbyte, Kill Screen, Waypoint, Glixel, Daily Dot, and The Mary Sue.
Valens has also worked with gaming companies Sekai Project and FemHype.
Luka Hein is an American ex-transgender activist. Hein gets money and attention by making it more difficult for others to get trans healthcare.
Background
Luka “Bunny” Hein was born January 29, 2002. Hein is a Minnesota native and grew up in Nebraska.
Hein had a “rough home life” and claims, “I was a young teenager with a history of mental health issues who was groomed and preyed upon online” which reached “the point of authorities getting involved.”
Hein’s parents were “scared” but supportive of Hein’s requests for trans healthcare after reportedly being “bullied and emotionally blackmailed” by healthcare professionals.
Hein received care at University of Nebraska Medical Center. Hein’s chest “was the biggest issue” and led to binding. In 2018, Hein requested and received top surgery with parental consent, then started hormones.
Hein stopped testosterone at age 20. Hein moved to Wisconsin for school and began traveling the country testifying against trans healthcare.
2023 lawsuit
The same activist law firm representing the handful of American ex-trans activists filed suit in Nebraska in 2023.
According to the filing, Hein’s alleged disorders, diseases, “comorbidities,” problems, and maladies include:
parents divorced in 2015 (age 13)
struggled in school
could not concentrate
lost motivation
anxiety
panic attacks
lost appetite
easily angered
cutting
suicidal ideation
placed in a “partial care psychiatric program” (February 2017)
diagnosed depression (2017)
diagnosed generalized anxiety disorder (2017)
prescribed antipsychotic medication
groomed online by an older man
sent sexually explicit pictures to older man
police investigation after man made threats
traumatized
returned to a “partial care psychiatric program” (May 2017)
antipsychotic medication increased
prescribed SSRI
Coming out as trans (June 2017)
hated menses
uncomfortable with developing breasts
found transgender influencers online
ordered a chest binder
transferred from an all-girls school
moved from childhood home
changed name
began identifying as male
referred to UNMC Gender Clinic
UNMC Gender Clinic
met with Megan Smith-Sallans (July 2017)
met with Nahia Jean Amoura
diagnosed gender identity disorder (2017)
prescribed Xanax (August 2017)
More mental health care
stopped going to school
returned to a “partial care psychiatric program” (September 2017)
prescribed ADHD medication (September 2017)
overwhelmed by the custody arrangements
loneliness
UNMC Gender Clinic
referred for requested top surgery (October 2017)
Met with Perry Johnson, who noted “Typically, we would wait until the patient is a little bit older, but this would be influenced by the potential negative impact psychologically on the patient by prolonging the transition. […] I would require a letter from the patient’s therapist regarding the appropriateness of the operation and the appropriateness of the timing of the procedure.”
preoperative evaluation (July 3, 2018)
top surgery with Perry, assisted by Stephen Barrientos (July 26, 2018, age 16)
prescribed testosterone by Amoura (November 2018, age 16)
parents did not consent to hysterectomy
legal adulthood (January 29, 2020)
quit taking testosterone (late 2022, age 20)
informed Amoura of change in gender identity (January 10, 2023, age 20)
The lawsuit cites 2019 publications by anti-trans activists Paul Hruz and James Cantor.
Cat Cattinson is the stage name of Cat Girton, an American ex-transgender activist. Girton gets money and attention by making it more difficult for others to get trans healthcare.
Background
Catherina R. “Cat” Girton was born in April 1991 to John Girton (born 1942) and Linda Girton (born 1956).
When Girton brought up gender issues at age 15, both parents expressed concern. Girton earned an associate’s degree from Sierra College in 2014, then took a job at Biotechnology Calendar in 2016.
John and Cat occasionally perform music together. In 2017, Cat Girton released the album Local Vocals & Bizarre Guitar.
Girton began a medical transition at the start of the COVID pandemic in 2020, taking hormones for four months at age 29 before stopping. Girton claims that in that short time “my health and professional singing voice were damaged by experimental gender medicine.”
Girton earned a bachelor’s degree from University of California Santa Cruz in 2022.
Transition Justice
Girton teamed up with anti-trans group Partners for Ethical Care on “The Transition Justice Project, which connects “detransitioners and others negatively affected by gender medicine with legal assistance.”
Laura Becker is an American artist and ex-transgender activist.
Background
Laura Becker was born around 1997 in Wisconsin and has two younger siblings. Around age 11, Becker was reportedly diagnosed with “what would be considered autism now” and polycystic ovary syndrome.
Becker has reportedly been a mental hospital inpatient four times. Through Tumblr, Becker learned about gender identity and expression. Becker graduated from Wauwatosa East High School.
In 2016, at age 19, Becker began a medical transition with hormones, followed by top surgery at age 20 with Clifford King in Madison, Wisconsin.
Becker began the development of Funk God in 2017 after using it as a blog name.
Becker says identity and self-esteem issues led to “depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other mental health concerns.” Around 2022, Becker made additional changes in gender identity and expression.
Becker earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in 2022. Becker lives in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin metro area.
Ex-trans activism
Becker appears in No Way Back: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care, a 2023 anti-transgender film focusing on the ex-transgender movement. The film is controversial for including convicted sex offender David Arthur Kendall as one of the original ex-trans activists featured alongside Becker. Becker also provided artwork for the film.