Jamie Reed is an American anti-transgender extremist who wants to eliminate gender-affirming healthcare for adolescents and young adults. Reed is also part of the LGB separatist movement, founding the anti-trans organization LGB Courage Coalition in 2023.
Jamie Lynn Smith was born in June 1980. After marrying Joshua David Rickly (born 1982), Jamie began using the name Jamie Lynn Smith-Rickly. During this time, Jamie was apparently using the email [email protected].
In 2009, Jamie Smith-Rickly, Zachary Smith, and Byron Case founded the Midwestern Liberty Foundation, but it was dissolved by the state of Missouri the following year for failure to submit required documents.
The couple had two children and later divorced.
Jamie then married librarian Tiger Reed, who at the time identified as a transgender man. They have Jamie’s two children from the first marriage as well as three foster children. In 2024, after announing a “detransition,” Tiger Reed began using the name Roxxanne Reed.
Reed earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri St. Louis and a master’s degree from Washington University in St. Louis. Reed began working at Washington in 2016.
Anti-trans activism
From 2018 until late 2022, Reed was a case manager at the Washington University Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Reed became increasingly upset that the clinic was not doing more psychological and psychiatric gatekeeping. As with many providers, Washington relied on patients to find a local therapist who would recommend them for treatment to reduce backlogs and improve patient care.
Reed was against prescribing hormone options for minors. Like many other people opposed to youth gender affirming care, Reed considers puberty blockers less problematic than hormones, but opposes those as well. Puberty blockers are a rarely-used short-term option prior to prescribing hormones. Some people opposed to gender-affirming care would prefer trans youth to stay on puberty blockers until they are adults, rather than start hormones and go through puberty with their non-transgender peers.
Like many other people opposed to gender-affirming care, Reed cites the conservative “Dutch protocol” that used extensive gatekeeping under a nationalized healthcare system.
2023 affidavit
In an affidavit presented to anti-trans Attorney General Andrew Bailey dated February 7, 2023, Reed stated:
I witnessed staff at the Center provide puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children without complete informed parental consent and without an appropriate or accurate assessment of the needs of the child. I witnessed children experience shocking injuries from the medication the Center prescribed. And I saw the Center make no attempt or effort to track adverse outcomes of patients after they left the Center.
[…]
One patient came to the Center identifying as a “communist, attack helicopter, human, female, maybe non binary.” The child was in very poor mental health and early on reported that they had no idea their gender identity.
[…]
Most children who come into the Center were assigned female at birth. Nearly all of them have serious comorbidities including, autism, ADHD, depression, anxiety, PTSD, trauma histories, OCD, and serious eating disorders.
[…]
last year Dr. [Chris] Lewis and Dr. [Sarah] Garwood told the Missouri legislature, “at no point are surgeries on the table for anyone under 18” and also, “surgeries are not an option for anyone under 18 years of age.” This was a lie. The Center regularly refers minors for gender transition surgery. The Center routinely gives out the names and contact information of surgeons to those under the age of 18. At least one gender transition surgery was performed by Dr. Allison Snyder-Warwick at St. Louis Children’s Hospital in the last few years.
[…]
The Center had two in-house psychologists. They were Dr. Alex Maixner and Dr. Sarah Girresch-Ward as well as several outside therapists.
[…]
Doctors knew that many of our former patients had stopped taking cross-sex hormones and were detransitioning. Doctors did not share this information with parents or children.
[…]
Children come into the clinic using pronouns of inanimate objects like “mushroom,” “rock,” or “helicopter.” Children come into the clinic saying they want hormones because they do not want to be gay. Children come in changing their identities on a day-to-day basis. Children come in under clear pressure by a parent to identify in a way inconsistent with the child’s actual identity.
[…]
I created a “red flag” list of children where other staff and I had concerns. The doctors told me I had to stop raising these concerns. I was not allowed to maintain the red flag list after that. During the time I was creating the red flag list, noting my concern that these children were not good candidates for permanent, irreversible medication treatment, the doctors would simply send these children to our in-house therapists. Those therapists would inevitably provide letters to the doctors, and then the doctors would say there can’t be any concern over these children because another therapist was fine with prescribing puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.
[…]
One doctor at the Center, Dr. Chris Lewis, is giving patients a drug called Bicalutamide. I know of at least one patient at the Center who was advised by the renal department to stop taking Bicalutamide because the child was experiencing liver damage. The child’s parent reported this to the Center through the patient’s online self-reporting medical chart (MyChart). The parent said they were not the type to sue, but “this could be a huge PR problem for you.”
[…]
the Center has prescribed puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones hundreds of times where they should not have.
Particularly upsetting to Reed are young people whose identities are fluid:
Patient was on hormones and had decompensating mental health, outlandish name changes, self-diagnosis of multiple personalities (DID).
[…]
Patient has desisted in male identity to a vague non binary with their own self-diagnosis of autism. Patient has changed their name numerous times and is clearly struggling with thoughts about desistence,
[..]
Patient changed to non-binary identity, then changed preferred name and stated that their identity was shifting day to day.
Reed gave several other vivid anecdotes, including one about a youth sex offender, and others about youths with history of self-harm, sexual trauma, forced cross-dressing, factitious blindness, and “gender identities that were likely the result of social contagion.”
2023 Free Press piece
Two days after the affidavit was signed, Reed repeated these allegations in the Free Press for anti-trans activist Bari Weiss.
“clinics like the one where I worked are creating a whole cohort of kids with atypical genitals—and most of these teens haven’t even had sex yet.”
“Some weeks it felt as though almost our entire caseload was nothing but disturbed young people.”
“Another disturbing aspect of the center was its lack of regard for the rights of parents.”
“In 2019, a new group of people appeared on my radar: desisters and detransitioners.”
“I believe that to ensure the safety of American children, we need a moratorium on the hormonal and surgical treatment of young people with gender dysphoria.”
Reed and the clinic’s nurse, Karen Hamon, kept a private spreadsheet, which they called the “red flag list.” Following a 2021 review that contained criticisms and a 2022 retreat where Reed was allegedly told “Get on board, or get out,” Reed transferred to a different department.
Jamie Reed on what needs to be done: no gender affirming care for people until we figure out how to tell which mice should transition pic.twitter.com/1Go2vJtNTo
Anti-trans activist Azeen Ghorayshi of the New York Times presented Reed as part of a long-running “cisgender person under siege” series the paper has been running since the early 2000s.
Ghorayshi mentioned the following people:
Jamie Reed, former case manager at a youth gender clinic at Washington University in St. Louis
Bari Weiss, anti-trans activist who first published Reed’s allegations in the Free Press
Andrew Bailey, Missouri’s anti-trans Attorney General
Colleen Schrappen, reporter at St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Annelise Hanshaw, reporter at Missouri Independent
Andrew D. Martin, Washington University in St. Louis Chancellor
Reporter Evan Urquhartwrote, “unlike other stories covering these allegations, the Times downplays the falsehoods and seeks to make a case that despite Reed’s lies there’s something to be taken seriously in her attacks on a highly-regarded, University-linked clinic serving transgender youth.”
LGBT Courage Coalition and purge of trans members
Reed founded LGBT Courage Coalition in 2023 as a Substack and later registered it as a nonprofit. About a year later, Reed purged all trans leadership and renamed in LGB Courage Coailition, installing Lauren Leggieri as co-executive director.
Lawsuits
In 2024 a subpoena was issued to Reed in the matter of Noe v. Parson (Missouri case # 23AC-CC04530). In it, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, Inc. and ACLU of Missouri Foundation requested communication between Reed and Karen Hamon, as well as any communication with Missouri officials and families at Washington University Pediatric Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
The subpoena also requested “All communications, including any documents exchanged, concerning Gender-Affirming Care involving media or between you and any media outlet or any member of the media,” as well as specifically requesting communications with Jesse Singal. Those requests were later removed.
The subpoena also requested any communication with the following organizations:
Lovelace, Eric (September 30, 2024). St. Louis gender clinic whistleblower testifies in Noe v. Parson.KOMU https://www.komu.com/news/midmissourinews/st-louis-gender-clinic-whistleblower-testifies-in-noe-v-parson/article_2f612e3c-7f53-11ef-ad63-abba11ecb77e.html
Sarah Mittermaier aka “Eliza Mondegreen” and “elizaoltramare” is an American-Canadian anti-transgender activist. Mittermaier is affiliated with numerous anti-trans organizations and figures:
Sarah Beth Mittermaier was born in May 1987 to Paul Mittermaier, an Episcopal minister, and Beth (Wagel) Mittermaier, an artist. Both parents are from Ohio, but Sarah Mittemaier grew up in Wisconsin.
Mittermaier attended University of Wisconsin-Madison, earning a bachelor’s degree in 2009. Mittermaier was a copy editor at the Daily Cardinal and a contributor to the Badger Herald. Mittermaier worked at several organizations, including the Prevention Institute, before returning to school at McGill University in Montreal.
Mittermaier was a member of WPATH while residing in Washington, DC.
Anti-transgender activism
In 2021 Mittermaier and Kitty Robinson founded the “LGB erasure” conspiracy website Unspeakable for “finding a language for female experiences in the LGBTQ+ community.” It allowed people to post anonymous rants, mostly from anti-trans people who identify as lesbian.
Mittermaier earned a master’s degree from McGill University in 2024. Mittermaier’s thesis was on “detransition” in the context of reddit communities, especially r/detrans. Mittermaier’s advisors were Samuel Veissière and Cecile Rousseau. Mittermaier includes a disclosure about being involved with SEGM:
During my time as an M.Sc. student, I worked with the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine to help organize three conferences for researchers and clinicians working in the area of youth gender dysphoria. The first conference took place at Tampere University in Finland in June 2023, drawing researchers and clinicians from 17 countries with the objective of facilitating dialogue across the divide between affirming and exploratory approaches to youth gender distress. The second conference took place in New York City in October 2023. The third—Questioning Gender: Psychotherapeutic Approaches to Youth Gender Dysphoria—will be hosted by the Medical School of Athens in October 2024.
Mittermaier’s profile for the 2024 SEGM conference states:
Researcher and writer exploring the online communities where young people adopt new attitudes and beliefs about gender and set expectations and intentions for transition. Her MSc. thesis, Questions and doubts in online trans communities, will be available this autumn through McGill University. She writes gender:hacked on Substack.
Somji, Alisha’ Mittermaier, Sarah (December 7, 2017). How we all together can build a future free from sexual harassment.San Francisco Chronicle https://web.archive.org/web/20171208115210/https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/How-we-all-together-can-build-a-future-from-12414346.php
Rousseau C, Johnson-Lafleur J, Ngov C, Miconi D, Mittermaier S, Bonnel A, Savard C, Veissière S. (2023). Social and individual grievances and attraction to extremist ideologies in individuals with autism: Insights from a clinical sample. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders (Vol. 105, p. 102171) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2023.102171
Sims J, Baird R, Aboelata MJ, Mittermaier S (2022). Cultivating a Healthier Policy Landscape: The Building Healthy Communities Initiative. Health Promotion Practice (Vol. 24, Issue 2, pp. 300–309). https://doi.org/10.1177/15248399221114341
Sandra Ramírez (Feb 1, 2024). Eliza Mondegreen, USA/Canada, The secret life of gender clinicians #FQT #WDI. Women’s Declaration International https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrbxNvEc-bY
Chloe Pacey and Keshia Tognazzini (Jan 22, 2024). Exploring Affirmative Care: Navigating Online Trans Communities with Eliza Mondegreen. The Road To Wisdom Podcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=APK-0Cw3DV0
Meghan Daum (Oct 24, 2023). Down The Rabbit Hole: Gender and Online Communities with Eliozan Mondegreen and Sarah Haider. A Special Place in Hell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJew30KNxqk
Sarah Phillimore (Feb 14, 2023). Eliza Mondegreen on WPATH conference, research on gender affirming care and more. [Rona Duwe, Eliza Mondegreen, Shannon Thrace] Women’s Declaration International https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6NFf8e3Is8
Julia Long (Jul 4, 2022). Language and the Values that Underlie Our Movement [Kara Dansky, Eliza Mondegreen, Jesika Gonzalez, and Amanda Stulman]. Women’s Declaration International https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6oKt-wLo5g
Corinna Cohn is an American software developer who identifies as transsexual and gender critical. Cohn frequently appears in media to share conservative opinions and criticize various aspects of the trans rights movement.
Corinna Ariel “Cori” Cohn was born on June 13, 1975 and transitioned in the 1990s.
Cohn ran a comic store and website called Otakurama from 2002 to 2005.
Cohn is a software engineer who has worked for Fusion Alliance and Indiana Farm Bureau Insurance.
Activism
Cohn is a longtime internet troll who participates in virulently anti-trans forums.
In 2018 Cohn was triggered by Twitter’s revised policies that prohibited deadnaming and misgendering trans and gender diverse people. Cohn began making media appearances soon after.
In 2021 Cohn and fellow gender critical activist Nina Paley began the podcast Heterodorx.
In 2022 Cohn published a regret narrative in the Washington Post, suggesting that minors and young adults considering transition should “slow down.” Cohn has expressed the following regrets:
“a lifetime set apart from my peers”
“I wasn’t old enough to make that decision”
“I have resigned myself to never finding a partner”
“became a medical patient and will remain one for the rest of my life”
“intercourse never became pleasurable”
“I’m still working out how much regret to feel”
Via Media Matters for America:
Cohn, who hosts the podcast Heterodorx, has recently begun to put her anti-trans views into action. In late January, Cohn spoke in front of the Indiana House of Representatives in favor of HB 1041, a legislative effort that Cohn claimed would “strengthen the rights for girls and young women competing in sport” by excluding trans student athletes from competition. In her testimony, Cohn defined herself as “a transsexual,” arguing that her “sex is male, and neither science nor medicine can change that.” In the months since, Cohn has served as an expert and a witness for legislative efforts to restrict gender-affirming care in both Alabama and Ohio.
Cohn signed her testimony to the Ohio General Assembly as the secretary and treasurer of Gender Care Consumer Advocacy Network. GCCAN was founded in 2019 under the stated mission “to empower recipients of gender transition-related care to become healthy and whole,” but it has rapidly aligned itself with the right-wing campaign against gender-affirming care policies, with Cohn serving as a board member.
Steve Hammer and Chuck Workman (September 3, 2003). 30 under 30: Innovators in the arts.Nuvo https://www.nuvo.net/arts/30-under-30-innovators-in-the-arts/article_c99ebd9c-ae71-5c71-93dd-4f0f26bc75bc.html
Ben Appel is an American author and anti-transgender activist. Appel is a regular contributor to Queer Majority, UnHerd, Quillette, and other anti-trans publications.
Background
Benjamin John “Ben” Appel was born in February 1983 to Nancy Sue (Lipman) Gunzelman (born 1954) and Randy Appel (1949–2019). Appel grew up in Catonsville and Ellicott City, Maryland in a “fundamentalist” Catholic household with three siblings: Erin, Jessica, and Bret.
Appel had many “feminine” interests as a child (particularly My Pretty Pony) and has concerns that children like him are now encouraged to make a gender transition:
“I, like a lot of other LGB (and some trans) people, believe that many children and some adolescents presenting at gender clinics today would likely desist and grow up to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual if they were given proper emotional support. In other words, in many cases, the medicalization of “trans kids” might actually be the medicalization of homosexuality.”
In 2015 Appel married attorney Andrew Charles “Drew” Leaser (born 1976). They live in New York.
Appel worked as a hairdresser in Maryland for ten years before earning a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 2020.
Appel has written about getting sober and has criticized Alcoholics Anonymous for working toward inclusivity:
“I was finishing my last year of study at Columbia University. Having entered the university in 2017 as a self-described radical progressive planning a career in LGBT activism, I was graduating an exile. I had become disillusioned with, and spoken out against, my fellow progressives’ tactics: suppressing free speech, purity policing and reducing every individual to his or her skin colour, gender and sexual orientation. During my last semester, which was moved online due to the pandemic, I’d sign on to virtual AA meetings after class, and immediately be struck by how similar the two spaces had become. Pronouns lit up the screen. Whereas opening readings once consisted of the AA preamble, the 12 Steps and 12 traditions, and details about the meeting, now some groups chose to add a thinly veiled threat: ‘We will not tolerate racist, homophobic, sexist or transphobic rhetoric in this space.’”
Appel was also upset that AA revised its language to be more gender-inclusive.
Anti-transgender activism
Appel’s forthcoming memoir from Post Hill Press is titled Cis White Gay. The book was pitched as:
about growing up in a Christian fundamentalist cult before becoming a gay rights activist while a student at Columbia University, only to encounter there a cultural landscape ruled by gender ideology and a puritanical cult of social justice resembling The Handmaid’s Tale dystopia of his childhood
In 2023, Appel was announced as a participant in an anti-trans conference by SPLC-designated hate group Genspect.
Appel is an “autogynephilia” activist and frequently criticizes “gender ideology.”
Appel, Ben (January 19, 2025). It’s Time for This Madness to End.Ben Appel’s Newsletter https://benappel.substack.com/p/perhaps-its-time-we-went-scorched
Appel, Ben (December 14, 2024). That Which Must Not Be Named.Ben Appel’s Newsletter https://benappel.substack.com/p/that-which-must-not-be-named
Appel, Ben (December 26, 2023). The Re-deminzation of the Gay Male.Queer Majority https://www.queermajority.com/essays-all/the-re-demonization-of-the-gay-male
Appel, Ben (September 2, 2022). Victimhood is one helluva drug. [alternate title: “Chase Strangio, you can have ‘fa**ot’ if you want it.”] Queer Majority https://www.queermajority.com/essays-all/victimhood-is-one-helluva-drug
Appel, Ben (January 17, 2018). How to Be Cisgender.Quarto https://quartomagazine.com/nonfiction/how-to-be-cisgender
Iacia, Samantha (January 14, 2015). Wedded: Ben Appel and Drew Leaser.Baltimore Sun https://www.baltimoresun.com/features/bs-lt-wedded-0118-20150114-story.html
Lisa Selin Davis is an American author and “gender critical” activist involved in anti-transgender extremism. Since 2013, Davis has become a key anti-trans voice in American media, part of the movement’s “parental rights” faction. Davis has a gender diverse child and is unaccepting of the child’s interest in gender transition.
Davis’ attacks on the trans rights movement center on several gender critical tactics:
using Davis’ own child to draw sharp distinctions between the “tomboy” identity and other gender diverse youth identities
amplifying outliers and edge cases in controversies to derail broader discussions
Davis claims “there is a dominant narrative about trans kids that the media is promoting.” According to Davis, this alleged narrative is merely “mantras by activists” and based on “feeling over fact.” Davis claims to have concerns about the affirmative model of care and is troubled that fellow anti-trans activists can no longer publish their conservative beliefs without consequence.
Davis claims to be a liberal who is part of the “silenced center.” Davis disavows being part of the gender critical world or the gender affirming world and simply wants to “diversify the media narrative.” So far, Davis’ “viewpoint diversity” efforts have largely been the promotion of extremist clinicians, cultural critics, and activists with similar gender critical beliefs.
Background
Davis was born January 18, 1972. Davis’ parent Peter is a musician who plays in a group called Annie and the Hedonists. Davis’ youth was spent in a Massachusetts suburb with parent Helaine Selin (born 1946), a librarian and author.
Helaine Selin worked at Hampshire College and helped “nepo baby” Davis attend, then graduate in 1993 with a bachelor’s degree in film studies. Davis then moved to New York City and lived with sibling Benjamin Lazar Davis, a musician. Davis built props at Nickelodeon for a few years, then earned an MFA in writing from Arizona State University in 2003.
Davis has edited a number of publications and websites, including Upstate House magazine, Senior Planet, KGB Bar, upstater.net, and brownstoner.com. Davis is the author of young adult novels Belly (2005) and Lost Stars (2016). Davis stopped writing in the genre, alleging it was no longer possible to write about characters from other demographic groups. Davis’ non-fiction writing has appeared in several publications, including Grist, The Wall Street Journal, Time, the New York Times, Quillette, and Quartz.
Davis and spouse Alex F. Sherwin live in New York with their two children, Enna and Athena. Davis’ 2020 book Tomboy is dedicated to them.
2013 Parenting article
In 2013, Davis wrote a piece for Parenting just before the magazine closed, titled “My Daughter Wants to be a Boy!” The title was stealth edited in 2017 to “My Daughter Is a Tomboy!” and the article was edited to remove some identifying information. The article was removed from the Parenting.com website in 2018, though the site remains online as part of a 2021 asset transfer from Meredith to Dotdash. The original version describes Davis’ child:
She insisted on being Spiderman for Halloween, and on getting light-up superhero sneakers “like my friend Luca’s” when she needed new shoes. They told us at school that she gravitated toward the boys, and though she is quite small for her age, and not particularly hearty, they told us she could hold her own with the rowdy bunch of them.
And again, I thought, “How great is she?”
Well, okay, 90% of me said that. The other 10% thought, “uh-oh.” As she started to announce in ways both subtle and direct that she’s a boy, and ask me questions like “Why can’t boys have vaginas and girls have penises?” the ratio of heartwarming to heart-sinking has shifted.
Let me say that I don’t hold particularly conventional views about gender or sexuality. There are so many lesbians in my family that I fully expect either or both of my daughters to be gay (though of course I will love and accept them if they turn out to be heterosexual). But there is something about having the only girl who won’t play princess, the only girl in the school who thinks and says she’s a boy, that has shaken me a bit. Dressing like a boy? Cool. Thinking you actually are a boy? Way more complicated. […]
Some of my fears for Enna-as-boy are rooted in reality. It’s a much harder way to move through the world, identifying with the gender you weren’t assigned at birth.
2017 New York Times op-ed
In 2017, Davis wrote an op-ed in the New York Times insisting that their child is not transgender, but instead a “tomboy.” Davis says author Jennifer Finney Boylan gave it the thumbs up, and Davis claims the whole community on Twitter then gave it the thumbs up.
Following its warm reception among conservatives and anti-trans thought leaders, Davis was given a book deal and turned the piece into the 2020 book Tomboy. Despite a book deal and many subsequent writing gigs and media appearances, Davis claims to have been “cancelled” for the op-ed. Davis reportedly met with Chase Strangio and Kate Bornstein about Davis’ “concerns about the dominant narrative” that affirming care benefited gender diverse youth.
Drawing parallels to the response to Jesse Singal’s transphobic 2018 piece in The Atlantic, Davis claims to be part of a group of “left wing” people who meet surreptitiously to plan strategies that undermine affirming care and promote the “Dutch protocol” for gender diverse youth, a gatekeeping model of care sometimes called “watchful waiting.”
2020 book Tomboy
In an expansion of the 2017 op-ed, Davis’ thesis is that masculine girls have recently disappeared from the cultural landscape. This erasure narrative about “tomboys” and lesbians is a major talking point among gender critical and trans-exclusionary separatists.
Cultural criticism
The narrative Davis puts forth is permeated with metaphors of disease and impairment. Davis describes some gender diverse youth as being influenced by peers and having “comorbidities” that should be cured before they are approved for gender affirming health services. Davis has concerns that medical transition is being used “as a panacea for other mental health issues.”
Davis’ binary view about transitioning to “the opposite sex” presents trans rights as a moral dilemma that could harm cisgender people: “Do we want to make decisions that are worse for the majority of people but they benefit a small group?”
Davis has criticized Stanford University School of Medicine psychiatrist Jack Turban for asking the media not to use the term “detransition.” Davis was offended after getting criticized by Turban during an interview request. Davis uses the term “activist” as a thought-terminating pejorative for anyone who does not share similar views, even subject matter experts like Strangio and Turban.
Meanwhile, Davis supports numerous controversial disease models of sex and gender diversity, including Ray Blanchard‘s sex disease “autogynephilia” and Kenneth Zucker‘s diseases like “gender identity disorder” and “gender dysphoria.” Davis has spoken with ex-trans activists like James Shupe and supports conservative trans people such as Aaron Kimberly and Scott Newgent.
2022 Quillette profile of Erica Anderson
Davis complained after The Nation noted that gender critical publication Quillette was deemed transphobic for promoting “rapid-onset gender dysphoria” and other conservative beliefs about gender diverse youth. Davis told fellow anti-trans activist Benjamin Boyce, “I don’t read Quillette, but I know they have a more diverse media narrative around this issue.”
A couple of months later, Davis profiled conservative transgender clinician Erica Anderson in Quillette. Anderson began litigating conservative clinical views about trans and gender diverse youth in the press in 2021. Because USPATH had specifically stated that clinical disputes should be discussed among professionals and not litigated in the lay press, Anderson resigned from USPATH in a move to get more attention for these conservative clinical views from people like Davis.
2022 Newsweek op-ed
In a classic case of false balance and “bothsidesism,” Davis made the case against affirmative care in a Newsweek piece titled “What Both Sides Are Missing About the Science of Gender-Affirming Care.” As usual, one of the best ways to analyze Davis’ bias is via the proportion of text and links. These pieces always start of with a veneer of journalism, then quickly make a case for one position. Unlike the infamous 2018 Atlantic piece by Jesse Singal, at least this one is labeled opinion.
Davis cites 3 neutral sources and 7 sources that reflect expert medical consensus. Davis cites 35 sources that dispute expert medical consensus and support the gender critical view, which could basically be summarized thus: being trans is a rapidly spreading disease that should be monitored and controlled by a state-run healthcare system overseen by conservative clinicians and legislators, where even one bad outcome must be prevented at all costs. Even if the cost is 100 good outcomes. Others with Davis’ cis-centric point of view would add even if the cost is prosecuting the families and doctors who work toward good outcomes.
2022 San Francisco Chronicle op-ed
This piece purports to condemn extremist anti-trans legislators. It also suggests that mainstream medical consensus is the extremism at the other end of the political spectrum. Davis once again praises federal healthcare systems that require children to travel to centralized clinics run by state-funded gatekeepers in hopes of receiving medical care capped by a federal budget. Despite extensive evidence about the drawbacks of such systems for minorities seeking health services, like the US Veteran’s Administration or Canada’s CAMH, Davis is convinced that systems like Sweden’s, or worse, the UK’s will prevent rare cases of regret.
2022 Skeptic special edition
Anti-trans activist Michael Shermer paid other members of the gender critical faction in the skeptic community to present their version of “the debate” about trans people. No trans contributors were invited. Joining Shermer in this attack were Harriet Hall, Carol Tavris, and Davis, whose piece is titled “Trans Matters: An Overview of the Debate, Research, and Policies.” Davis bristles about being lumped in with “conservative, transphobic bigots” and claims support for affirming models of care “is now a test of loyalty” among its supporters.
April 2022 Quillette piece
It was inevitable that Davis would become a regular contributor to Quillette’s steady stream of anti-trans articles. Davis’ efforts continued with a dogwhistle piece about “the encroachment of ideology on medicine by activists” and the “propaganda surrounding medical literature.” While the piece seems to condemn the national deluge of anti-trans legislation criminalizing trans healthcare, Davis’ real point is to claim that the government has gone too far in supporting trans youth. Davis cites several examples gleaned from anti-trans parenting forums.
September 2022 Boston Globe piece
Davis continues to place the same article in any outlet that will take it, in this case repurposing a Substack piece in the Boston Globe, which was then reprinted in the New York Post as “Kid gender guidelines not driven by science.” Davis blames WPATH for bomb threats against trans-affirming children’s hospitals, because they did not publish better Standards of Care. Davis quotes anti-trans allies including Julia Mason of Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine and James Cantor, formerly of CAMH. Davis once again holds up federally controlled conservative gatekeeping as the ideal protocol.
Podcast
Beginning in 2022, Davis began a series of interviews, mostly with conservative and anti-transgender guests.
August 22, 2023: Heterodox Trans People #6: Phil Illy
Davis, Lisa Selin (December 19, 2021). Tomboys, trans boys and ‘West Side Story.’Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2021-12-19/tomboys-west-side-story-anybodys-gender-nonconforming-trans-people
Shupe, James [edited by Lisa Selin Davis] (September 14, 2021). Auogynephilia: In seach of my cure. Freed from editors and media outlets to report the truth about autogynephilia. Autogynephilia Diaries https://autogynephilia.substack.com/p/autogynephilia-in-search-of-my-cure [archive]
Davis, Lisa Selin (2013). “My Daughter Wants to be a Boy!” [retitled in 2017 as “My Daughter Is a Tomboy!” and removed in 2018] Parenting http://www.parenting.com/article/tomboy [archive]
Books
Davis, Lisa Selin (2024). Housewife: Why Women Still Do It All and What to Do Instead. Legacy Lit, ISBN 978-1538722886
Davis, Lisa Selin (2020). Tomboy: The Surprising History and Future of Girls Who Dare to Be Different. Legacy Lit, ISBN 978-0316458313
To the Contrary with Bonnie Erbé and Lisa Selin Davis (December 27, 2020). Woman Thought Leader Lisa Selin Davis. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtnKjA48Uvc
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
Benjamin Ryan is an American writer and anti-transgender activist.
Ryan opposes US medical consensus on healthcare for trans and gender diverse youth. Ryan frequently supports other anti-trans colleagues like Dan Savage, Jesse Singal, Jon Kay, and Jennifer Block as objective experts covering trans issues.
Ryan also supports sexologist and anti-transgender activist Kenneth Zucker, believing Singal’s version of why Zucker was fired in 2015. In 2023, Ryan began pitching a piece seeking “physicians who might have misgivings about the gender-affirming care model, or who otherwise have theories about why we have seen such a recent surge in trans-identifying young people.”
Background
Benjamin R. “Ben” Ryan was born in June 1978 to Sara “Sally” Stubbs Ryan (1944–1999), an educator, and John A. Ryan, Jr. (born ~1943) a general surgeon. Ryan has two siblings. Ryan attended The Bush School, an elite private school in Seattle, graduating in 1997, then earned a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 2001. Ryan volunteered with the Northwest AIDS Foundation and New York’s Gay Health Advocacy Project prior to beginning a journalism career.
Ryan has been a guest on Sirius Satellite Radio, NPR, iHeart Radio’s Daily Dive, Dan Savage’sSavage Love podcast, Owen Jones’ podcast, and NBC News Now.
2023 pitch attacking gender affirming care
On April 14, 2023, Harvard lawyer Alejandra Caraballo revealed that Ryan was working on a story attacking gender-affirming care for youth, writing:
“The New York Times and Benjamin Ryan are writing another transphobic hit piece looking for providers who “have misgivings about gender affirming care.” Providers and advocates should ignore any outreach or requests for comment from Ryan as he is another Jesse Singal.”
From: Benjamin Ryan Date: Thu, Apr 6, 2023 Subject: New York Times article on how pediatricians are responding to rising rates of trans youth
I am writing an article for the New York Times about how pediatricians, family practitioners, psychologists and other front-line physicians who care for broad populations of children and adolescents are responding to the rising numbers of trans-identifying youths. What has it been like for these health care providers to care for such young people of late?
For one, I am interested in covering this subject from the perspective of a newly fractured legal landscape, in which various states have banned the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors with puberty blockers and hormones. What is it like for health care providers to care for trans-identifying kids in these states?
I am also interested in hearing from physicians who might have misgivings about the gender-affirming care treatment model, or who otherwise have theories about why we have seen such a recent surge in trans-identifying young people.
I would greatly appreciate your help in finding physicians for me to speak with. (Note that this article is not focusing on gender-care specialists.) I know this is a highly sensitive topic. So while I would prefer to get sources on the record, I am more than happy to accommodate anyone’s requests for anonymity.
Thanks very much for your help and your time.
All the best,
Ben Ryan
Benjamin Ryan benryan.net (917) [redacted] Follow me on Twitter: twitter.com/benryanwriter
Because the New York Times handles all transphobic content in-house now, Ryan published a different piece for NBC News instead on June 23, 2023. Ryan’s published piece has no mention of physicians who might have misgivings about the gender-affirming care treatment model.
Ryan told Jesse Singal:
“I sent that email and other versions of it to over 200 doctors and press reps at medical institutions. I asked people to send it to others and to email it to listservs. I knew very well that it would probably end up on Twitter and that Alejandra would post it. So I am fine with it being out there.”
Author and journalism professor Steven Thrasher minced no words in condemning Ryan:
Notice how in all your own tweets, you have yet to challenge any of the facts that @jonkay said about Singal. You have just attempted to discredit Kay and the website he writes for.
If you cannot make any substantive criticisms about ajonkay’s specific arguments supporting the thesis that Signal has been unfairly tarred and feathered, then we’re done here.
Please show where Signal defended Kenneth Zucker’s practices and describe how that means that Singal believes that conversion therapy is a-okay.
2023 deleted tweets
March
A bombshell article by @WritingBlock challenges claims by activists that the science supporting the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors is “settled” and that the use of puberty blockers and hormones in transgender kids is “evidence based.” http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/transgender.pdf
Many argue that giving puberty blockers and hormones to trans minors is uncontroversial & backed by high-quality science. Block’s reporting disputes this. Swedish health authorities, for example, say the risks “currently outweigh the possible benefits”. 2/ http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/transgender.pdf
[March 2, deleted] The Dutch protocol came about some 15 years ago. And the rise of the use of puberty blockers for this purpose is quite recent. That said, a very small number of children actually currently receive them. But the trend is heading upward quickly. Or it was before these bans.
[deleted]
The prescription of hormones to trans-identifying minors is often framed as a choice of life on meds vs death by suicide. But researchers have not actually shown that hormonal treatment for gender dysphoria impacts death by suicide. 5/ http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/transgender.pdf
@HRC said in a press release today that “ALL gender-affirming care is age appropriate and medically necessary.” But in the UK, health experts found there’s “scarce & inconclusive evidence to support clinical decision-making” for kids with dysphoria. 6/ http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/transgender.pdf
Mark Helfand of Oregon Health & Science University criticized @WPATH’s recommendations for treating #transgender minors, including a lack of grading system to assess the quality of scientific evidence backing the guidelines. #trans 7/ http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/transgender.pdf
At an October meeting of the AAP, @WritingBlock reports, @DrScottHadland of Harvard Med said, “Ten thousand pediatricians stand in solidarity for trans and gender diverse kids & their families to receive evidence-based, lifesaving, individualized care.” 8/ http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/transgender.pdf
Gordon Guyatt (@GuyattGH) of McMaster University found “serious problems” with the Endocrine Society’s guidelines for treating #trans kids, such as making strong recommendations based on weak evidence–meaning they should not be called “evidence based”. 9/ http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/transgender.pdf
In contrast to @DrScottHadland, @GuyattGH said, “When there’s been a rigorous systematic review of the evidence” about treating #trans kids “and the bottom line is ‘we don’t know,’ anybody who then claims they *do* know is not being evidence based.” 10/ http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/transgender.pdf
While myriad medical organizations in the US back prescribing puberty blockers & hormones to trans-identifying minors, standards abroad are very different. Sweden did systematic reviews in ’15 and ’22, found evidence was “insufficient and inconclusive.”11/ http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/transgender.pdf
The Endocrine Society ( @TheEndoSociety) commissioned 2 systematic reviews for its clinical practice guideline for treating #trans adolescents with sex steroids and found the quality of the evidence regarding health risks was “low” or “very low”. 12/ http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/transgender.pdf
In sum, @WritingBlock’s reporting suggests that @WPATH and @TheEndoSociety’s guidelines for treating #trans adolescents are not truly “evidence based”, nor uncontroversial, nor do they balance the known and potential risks v benefits of such treatment. 13/ http://press.psprings.co.uk/bmj/february/transgender.pdf
@MattWalshBlog, who doesn’t so much debate the science behind care for trans minors as douse the field with gasoline & set it on fire, has made the topic so combustible in Tennessee, he teed up the politicization of #HIV prevention there, I reported: 14/
Kindly do not come to this thread disrespectfully. I will not tolerate malicious statements toward anyone and the misgendering of transgender people.
Also, for anyone coming to this thread who thinks they know who I am, what I think or believe or what I’m about, do take note that I do not share my personal opinions about many issues on Twitter. I invite you to read my reporting on LGBTQ issues: http://benryan.net/lgbtq.html
When @JesseSingal, @WritingBlock and I or others report about the science of treating gender dysphoria in minors, we are constantly subjected to overtures of violence, commands that we should kill ourselves, or in my own case, expressions of regret that cancer didn’t kill me. 1/
Meanwhile, press freedoms are also being threatened from the right as Florida Republicans in particular seek to clamp down on reporters’ abilities to freely do their jobs and to seek the truth about contentious and important questions. 2/
When @JesseSingal, @WritingBlock and I or others report about the science of treating gender dysphoria in minors, we are constantly subjected to overtures of violence, commands that we should kill ourselves, or in my own case, expressions of regret that cancer didn’t kill me. 1/ https://t.co/ih9Marj29J
Hannah Barnes is a British author and anti-transgender activist. Barnes is a key historical figure in the oppression of trans and gender diverse youth.
Barnes earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Oxford in 2005 and a degree from City University of London in 2006.
After roles at DeHavilland and GCap Media, Barnes joined the BBC in 2014. Barnes is a significant contributor to anti-trans publication The New Statesman.
Anti-trans activism
Barnes is a key figure in FUD propaganda around healthcare for gender diverse youth, with a special focus on medications for unwanted puberty.
Time to Think
Barnes authored the 2023 book Time to Think: The Inside Story of the Collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children. The Tavistock was typical of bureaucratic centralized federally funded clinics that have emerged under nationalized healthcare systems. These clinics often deliver substandard care due to unacceptable wait times. Countries like Canada and the UK have closed these kinds of clinics in favor of decentralized options.
The acknowledgements list many key figures in global anti-trans activism:
This book would never have been written without the endless support of my husband, Pat, who has kept our family on track while allowing me to research, conduct interviews, write and rewrite. Enormous thanks are also due to my parents and step-parents for their love, and for their help with looking after their amazing grandchildren. To all those who shared their experience of GIDS as service users or as their family members, thank you for telling your stories. Ellie, Jack, Phoebe, Hannah, ‘Jacob’, ‘Michelle’, ‘Diana’, ‘Harriet’ – thank you for trusting with me with such personal accounts, and, in some cases, highly sensitive information.
I owe a huge debt of gratitude to all of the GIDS clinicians who have given me their time, shared their thoughts – whatever they may be – and who met or spoke with me, even if they did not feel comfortable being interviewed. To Anna Hutchinson, who patiently shared her experiences over many hours, to Matt Bristow, Will Crouch, Kirsty Entwistle, Sue Evans, Az Hakeem, Melissa Midgen, Natasha Prescott, Anastassis Spiliadis, and to the many, many others who have spoken on condition of anonymity – thank you. For some, I am aware it has been a difficult experience, and I do not take lightly how daunting it might have been to share your views – for a variety of reasons. There are also further, unnamed clinicians who have spoken out over several years, and who have tried to bring about change away from the public eye. Thanks too to all who have spoken with me who work or worked in the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, or were charged with its governance: Sonia Appleby, Juliet Singer, David Bell, Marcus Evans, Stanley Ruszczynski, David Taylor, Marilyn Miller and those who do not wish to be named. Paul Moran, Donal O’Shea, Russell Viner, David Freedman and Stephanie Davies-Arai also deserve my thanks, as do Lucy Bannerman, Susan Matthews and Richard Stephens.
My first, and exceptionally brilliant, reader was my uncle, Robert Barnes, and I thank him for his many thoughtful, wise suggestions and feedback. My second was Julia Murphy, who managed to squeeze in reading alongside work and family life. Thank you. This book would also not have been written without the encouragement of Innes Bowen, who convinced me that I had it in me. Nor would it have been possible without my agent Toby Mundy, who took it – and me – on, and who has been a consistent voice of calm when I have needed it. And to Mark Richards and Diana Broccardo at Swift Press, who were brave enough to publish it. For bringing coherence to the many, many references, thank you to the ever-patient Alex Middleton. The seeds were sown at BBC Newsnight, and there would have been no book without the original backing and courage of my former editor, Esmé Wren, and my friend and former colleague Deborah Cohen, as well as support from deputy editors Dan Clarke, Verity Murphy and Stewart Maclean. Finally, thank you to everyone who has sent me source material or shared information, and to those whose names I don’t know who have had the wisdom to archive hundreds of webpages. I am indebted to you all.
Barnes, Hannah (25 September 2024). The intolerant age.New Statesman https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2024/09/intolerant-age-free-speech-britain-institutions
Barnes, Hannah (25 June 2024). Labour’s women problem.New Statesman https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/labour/2024/06/labour-starmer-women-problem-jk-rowling-gender
Sallie Baxendale is a British psychologist and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Sallie Ann Baxendale earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Surrey in 1990, followed by a master’s degree there in 1992. Baxendale earned a doctorate from UCL in 1997.
Much of Baxendale’s research involves epilepsy and brain development.
Anti-transgender activism
Baxendale began appearing in anti-trans media in 2021, starting with Transgender Trend.
Baxendale supports the ex-transgender movement and is critical of gender affirming healthcare for minors, especially use of puberty blockade. Baxendale was alarmed that some people describe puberty blockade as “fully reversible.”
Since 2023 Baxendale has contributed to anti-trans publication UnHerd,
In 2024 Baxendale published a summary of the 2024 Acta Paediatrica literature review (described below) on anti-trans site Clinical Advisory Network on Sex and Gender (CAN-SG).
2024 puberty blockade literature review
In 2024 conservative Swedish psychiatrist Mikael Landén leaked a pre-publication paper by Baxendale to anti-trans activist Bernard Lane. Baxendale’s academic literature review reflected Landén’s view that puberty blockade should be strictly controlled because of unknown risks, particularly cognitive effects.
On the day of publication, Baxendale published a piece in UnHerd about how this puberty blockade literature review was rejected by three journals as well as accepted by Acta Paediatrica, which previously promoted more gatekeeping of healthcare for gender diverse youth in Sweden’s healthcare system. Baxendale claimed, “it wasn’t the methods they objected to, it was the actual findings.” Of the rejection reasons that Baxendale shared, all were about the obvious bias of the author and the stigmatizing potential from how the material is tendentiously presented.
The obvious and simple answer is to skip puberty blockers and go straight to hormones. Baxendale cites studies about young people who experience central precocious puberty having more robust brain development and cognition, so Baxendale has made a strong case for use of puberty-inducing drugs in all minors who desire improved cognition and IQ.
Baxendale, S. (2024). The impact of suppressing puberty on neuropsychological function: A review. Acta Paediatrica. https://doi.org/10.1111/apa.17150
Gender diverse youth studies cited:
Staphorsius AS, Kreukels BPC, Cohen-Kettenis PT, Veltman DJ, Burke SM, Schagen SEE, Wouters FM, Delemarre-van de Waal HA, Bakker J (2015). Puberty suppression and executive functioning: An fMRI-study in adolescents with gender dysphoria. Psychoneuroendocrinology (Vol. 56, pp. 190–199). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2015.03.007
Arnoldussen M, Hooijman EC, Kreukels BP, de Vries AL (2022). Association between pre-treatment IQ and educational achievement after gender-affirming treatment including puberty suppression in transgender adolescents. Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry (Vol. 27, Issue 4, pp. 1069–1076). SAGE Publications. https://doi.org/10.1177/13591045221091652
Schneider MA, Spritzer PM, Soll BMB, Fontanari AMV, Carneiro M, Tovar-Moll F, Costa AB, da Silva DC, Schwarz K. Anes M, Tramontina S, Lobato, MIR (2017). Brain Maturation, Cognition and Voice Pattern in a Gender Dysphoria Case under Pubertal Suppression. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (Vol. 11). Frontiers Media SA. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2017.00528
Ivan D. Florez-Gomez lists the following affiliations:
Pediatrician, M.Sc. Clinical Epidemiology, Ph.D. in Health Research Methodology
Full (tenured) Professor, Dept. of Pediatrics, University of Antioquia, Medellin, Colombia
Pediatrician (PedsICU), Clinica Las Américas-AUNA, Medellin, Colombia
Adjunct Professor, School of Rehabilitation Science, McMaster University, Canada
Leader of the Appraisal of Guidelines for REsearch & Evaluation (AGREE) Collaboration
Director, Cochrane Colombia
Editor-In-Chief: Clinical & Pub Health Guidelines (Guidelines International Network-GIN)
Editorial Board: Journal of Clinical Epidemiology; Journal of the American Heart Association, Cochrane Evidence Synthesis Methods, & Pediatric Discovery)
Membership: SPOR-EA, GIN, Cochrane & the GRADE working group
“Jack Molay” is the pen name of a transfeminine activist living in Norway. “Molay” coined the term “crossdreaming” as a value-neutral descriptor of erotic interest in making a gender transition.
Background
The name “Jack D. Molay” is a play on Jacques de Molay, the last grand master of the Knights Templar. “Molay” is reportedly married to another queer activist, known as “Sally Molay” online. “Molay” has not come out publicly as trans under their legal name. In an autobiography supplied to this site “Molay” stated:
“They have not transitioned, but argue that this is not to be understood as an example of what other trans people ought to do. They support trans people’s right to get the necessary support for transitioning. One might argue, though, that the fact that Molay has not transitioned may partly explain why the crossdreamer community is particularly popular among trans and queer people who are in the process of exploring their gender identity.”
Crossdreaming and news aggregation
“Molay” established the blog now known as Crossdreamers in 2008, after experiencing “an existential crisis caused by gender dysphoria” and wanting to establish “an arena for discussing cross-gender erotic fantasies in an open and positive way, getting around the stigma associated with such fantasies.”
The term crossdreaming was originally coined as an alternative to the stigmatizing term “autogynephilia.” Even though the term crossdreaming has been presented as a neutral, and purely descriptive term (not referring to a particular explanation for such fantasies) “Molay” has personally dismissed the “autogynephilia” theory as a stigmatizing, sexist, pseudoscience. Instead they view crossdreaming fantasies as a natural expression of gender variance, dismissing strict binaries of sexuality and gender.
“Molay” has researched crossdreaming in different groups of queer, nonbinary and transgender people, documenting, for instance, crossdreaming among people assigned female at birth (as reflected in the slash and yaoi subcultures). “Molay” has also looked into crossdreaming in historical sources, discussing, for instance, crossdreaming in the Kama Sutra and in Medieval poetry. “Molay” hopes to undermine the idea that such fantasies are only found among “straight men.”
Molay co-founded the Crossdream Life internet forum in 2011, a place where gender variant people may discuss any form of queer, trans and nonbinary fantasies, gender expressions or identities.
Molay also runs Trans Express, a Tumblr blog covering transgender and nonbinary news and issues, which seems to be particularly popular among younger trans and queer people. As of 2019 this blog has more than 13,000 followers.
