Jennifer Finney Boylan is an American author, professor, and activist. Boylan has written several memoirs and novels and has frequently appeared in the media to discuss trans issues.
Notable work involving gender and media includes:
The memoir She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders (2003)
Giving the thumbs up to an anti-trans article by Lisa Selin Davis (2017)
Signing the Harper’s letter with J.K. Rowling and dozens of other anti-trans activists, later withdrawn (2020)
Background
Boylan was born June 22, 1958.
Boylan graduated from Wesleyan University in 1980, then completed graduate work at Johns Hopkins University. Boylan was a professor at Colby College from 1988 to 2014, then took an appointment at Barnard. Several of Boylan’s early books were published prior to beginning transition in 2000. Boylan wrote an opinion column for the New York Times from 2007 to 2022 among other writing.
In 1988 Boylan married Deirdre Finney Boylan (born 1960). They have two children, Sean (born 1996), and Zaira (born 1994) who is also trans.
Boylan served on the board of GLAAD and has held other roles at organizations benefiting sex and gender minorities. Boylan has appeared on Oprah and the Caitlyn Jenner reality show I Am Cait.
Anti-drag factionalism
Boylan was a key figure with Christina Kahrl in the 2014 transbian attacks led by Parker Molloy that were critical of drag artists and the offensive language some of them use. This strain of respectability politics reached a boiling point when the three of them combined their ongoing anti-drag and anti-slur crusades to extract an apology from RuPaul and RuPaul’s Drag Race for a transphobic segment that was ultimately pulled. They bragged about taking over GLAAD, an organization built by the entire community that had previously helped settle intra-community disputes out of the public eye. In a mutually beneficial piece of logrolling, Boylan told Molloy:
“This is, to coin a phrase, not your father’s GLAAD, and this is not the work that was being done a decade ago. One reason why I think we’ve been able to make a little progress is that GLAAD is now largely run by trans people. We occupy positions from staff to volunteers to the board of directors, including its national co-chair, which is me. These are our lives we are talking about; the people demeaned by incidents like this one are the men and women who work here. And other cis staff members have been working for trans rights for years and years now. I am proud of the board and staff for their passion.”
Even after being presented with extensive evidence of Parker Molloy’s abuse and slurs toward other trans people, Boylan remained one of Molloy’s staunchest supporters. In exchange, Molloy would write publicity pieces for Boylan and launder them through Advocate.com until being suspended and ultimately resigning.
2020 Harper’s Letter
Boylan was a signatory on the 2020 “A Letter on Justice and Open Debate” in Harper’s Magazine. That open letter was criticized for the high percentage of “gender critical” people in the media, most notably anti-trans extremist J.K. Rowling. Boylan had been in awe of Rowling to the point that in 2010 Boylan created a children’s fantasy series called Falcon Quinn that shared remarkable similarities with Rowling’s Harry Potter franchise.
Boylan asked to be taken off the Harper’s Letter, claiming ignorance of the other signatories, while trans economist Deirdre McCloskey remained a signatory.
Books
Remind Me to Murder You Later (1988)
The Planets (1991)
The Constellations: A Novel (1994)
Getting In (1998)
She’s Not There: A Life in Two Genders (2003)
I’m Looking Through You: Growing Up Haunted: A Memoir (2008)
Falcon Quinn and the Black Mirror (2010)
Falcon Quinn and the Crimson Vapor (2011)
Stuck in the Middle with You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders (2013)
Foreword fo Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community (2014)
James, Andrea (July 24, 2014). The GLAAD Boardâs âTrannyâ Trouble: How Its Trans Takeover Is Reshaping LGBT Politics. Queerty https://www.queerty.com/the-glaad-boards-tranny-trouble-how-its-trans-takeover-is-reshaping-lgbt-politics-20140724 [archive]
J.K. Rowling is a British author and the most prominent anti-transgender activist in the world. Rowling has used wealth and influence to cause tremendous harm to the trans rights movement worldwide, and particularly in the United Kingdom.
opposing legal recognition on the basis of gender identity and expression
opposing value-neutral and inclusive scientific language about human anatomy and body functions
supporting the “LGB erasure” conspiracy theory, particularly the conspiracy that gender-affirming care is “conversion therapy” on lesbian, gay, and bisexual minors
opposing those who note Rowling is transphobic or a TERF, often threatening legal action against those who do
opposing what Rowling calls the “new trans activism”
Background
Joanne “Jo” Rowling was born on July 31, 1965 in Yate, Gloucestershire, England. Rowling’s parents both served in the British Navy before marrying. Rowling has a younger sibling Dianne. Rowling earned a bachelor’s degree from Exeter in 1987.
Rowling came up with the idea for the Harry Potter series in 1990. After holding several unfulfilling jobs, Rowling moved to Portugal to teach English. There, Rowling met journalist Jorge Arantes, and they married in 1992. They had a child Jessica in 1993, but Rowling left because the relationship was abusive. They divorced in 1995. Rowling earned a teaching certificate in 1996 and began teaching.
The first Harry Potter book was published in 1997. Since publication of the final book in 2007, the series has amassed a huge fandom for the franchise, including movie series, plays, video games, amusement park tie-ins, and extensive merchandizing. Rowling is one of the most successful authors in the history of publishing.
In 2001 Rowling married physician Neil Murray and purchased Killiechassie House, a Scottish estate. They have two children: David (born 2003) and Mackenzie (born 2005).
Rowling subsequently wrote additional children’s books and adult novels, including some under the pen name Robert Galbraith.
Anti-transgender activism
After a series of increasingly anti-transgender statements starting in 2019 with a tweet in support of anti-trans activist Maya Forstater. In 2022 Rowling came out against the proposed Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill. As Rowling’s anti-trans views became more strident, Rowling began openly supporting anti-transgender extremists in the UK and beyond.
Rowling also created Beira’s Place, a privately funded trans-exclusionary help center for cisgender women who have experienced sexual assault or domestic violence. Rowling was enraged that other local resources offered help to trans people who had been sexually assaulted. Rowling was also enraged that the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre’s CEO Mridul Wadhwa is transgender. In a 2021 interview, Wadhwa said “this is about who has power and who doesn’t,” adding:
Sexual violence happens to bigoted people as well. And so, you know, it is not discerning crime. But these spaces are also for you. But if you bring unacceptable beliefs that are discriminatory in nature, we will begin to work with you on your journey of recovery from trauma. But please also expect to be challenged on your prejudices, because how can you heal from trauma and build a new relationship with your trauma, because you can’t forget, and you can’t go back to life before traumatic incident or traumatic incidents. And some of us never, ever had a life before traumatic incidents. But if you have to reframe your trauma, I think it is important as part of that reframing, having a more positive relationship with it, where it becomes a story that empowers you and allows you to go and do other more beautiful things with your life, you also have to rethink your relationship with prejudice. Otherwise, you can’t really, in my view, recover from trauma and I think that’s a very important message that I am often discussing with my colleagues that in various places.
2024 comments on Nazi persecution of trans people (2024)
On March 13, 2024, X user jaytuberr posted in a thread on trans healthcare, “The Nazis burnt books on trans healthcare and research, why are you so desperate to uphold their ideology around gender?” Rowling then responded, “How did you type this out and press send without thinking âI should maybe check my source for this, because it mightâve been a fever dreamâ?” Many people interpreted Rowling’s post as denial of the 1933 Nazi looting and burning of Magnus Hirschfeld’s clinical books and research on trans people and sexual minorities. Rowling stated in part: “Iâm familiar with such activistsâ assertions that transgender people have been uniquely persecuted and oppressed throughout history, but claims that trans people were âthe first targetsâ of the Nazis â a claim I refuted on X, and which led to these accusations â and that I âuphold [Nazi] ideology around genderâ is a new low.”
Critics
Rowling’s critics include numerous LGBT rights organizations, authors, actors who have appeared in filmed versions of Rowling’s books, and the vast majority of the trans community.
Thorpe, Vanessa (14 June 2020). JK Rowling: from magic to the heart of a Twitter storm. The Observer. Archived from the original on 4 July 2020. Retrieved 6 July 2020. Arrayed on Rowling’s side are some of the veteran voices of feminism, including the radical Julie Bindel, who spoke out in support this weekend: “Her political position is nothing to do with transgender issues. She has always been a feminist and she has inspired generations of young women and men to look into issues of sex-based discrimination,” she told the Observer.
JK Rowling backs protest over Scottish gender bill. BBC News. 6 October 2022. Retrieved 28 December 2022. Author JK Rowling has supported a protest rally by wearing a T-shirt calling Scotland’s first minister a “destroyer of women’s rights”.
Schwirblat, Tatiana; Freberg, Karen; Freberg, Laura (2022). Chapter 21: Cancel culture: a career vulture amongst influencers on social media. In Lipschultz, Jeremy Harris; Freberg, Karen; Luttrell, Regina (eds.). The Emerald Handbook of Computer-Mediated Communication and Social Media. Emerald Publishing Limited. doi:10.1108/978-1-80071-597-420221021
Jennifer Lahl is an American nursing executive and anti-transgender activist. Lahl is is founder and president of The Center for Bioethics and Culture Network, an organization that opposes reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy.
In addition to opposing trans healthcare, Lahl opposes stem cell research, assisted suicide, egg and sperm donation, and surrogacy. Lahl calls these practices “egg and womb trafficking.”
Background
Jennifer D. Chenoweth was born on May 9, 1958, then earned a bachelor’s degree from California State University, Fullerton and a master’s degree from Trinity International University in 2000.
Lahl married marketing executive and church planter Daniel E. “Dan” Lahl (born October 7, 1956). Both attended Trinity International University. They have three children, Allison, Julia, and Katherine.
Jennifer Lahl has worked as a pediatric critical care nurse and administrator. Lahl’s California licenses were as a registered nurse (1982â2021) and public health nurse (1985â2019).
Lahl’s film projects have included:
Lines That Divide: The Great Stem Cell Debate (2009)
Eggsploitation (2010)
Anonymous Fatherâs Day (2011)
Breeders: A Subclass of Women? (2014)
Maggie’s Story (2015)
Compassion and Choice: Denied (2016)
#BigFertility: It’s All about the Money (2018)
Anti-transgender activism
Lahl produced the 2021 film Trans Mission: Whatâs the Rush to Reassign Gender? It is critical of gender affirming care for youth.
In 2022 Lahl produced a documentary on the ex-transgender movement The Detransition Diaries: Saving Our Sisters.
Trisha Posner is an American writer and anti-transgender activist who also publishes under the name Patricia Posner.
Anti-transgender activism is a family business; spouse Gerald Posner is also involved in the anti-transgender movement.
Background
Patricia Denise Levene was born in London on March 10, 1951 and grew up in Islington, doing some dance training at the Aida Foster Theatre School before dropping out of Arts and Media School Islington.
After coming to New York City in 1978 and working as an artist, hotel manager, and employee at the Swedish recording label SWS, Trisha Poser married Gerald Posner after they met on a blind date. They soon began collaborating on books. Posner’s website states:
I conduct every interview with him, sift through thousands of pages of original documents in government and private archives, and work on early drafts of manuscripts.
In a profile for Florida International University’s Artspeak, Posner reiterated this work as a researcher to the authors: “On those projects, she conducted every interview with him, sifted through thousands of pages of original documents in government and private archives, and worked on the early drafts of manuscripts.”
In the late 1990s Posner started a monthly column about developments in womenâs health.
This is Not Your Mother’s Menopause: One Qoman’s Natural Journey through Change (2000)
No Hormones, No Fear: A Natural Journey Through Menopause (2007)
The Pharmacist of Auschwitz: The Untold Story (2017)
In 2010, Gerald Posner was revealed to be a serial plagiarist, which was attributed to “a flawed research methodology.”
The Posners own Area 51 Consulting LLC. They are also officers of the non-profit Antisemitism Watch, Inc., a Florida Domestic Non-Profit Corporation filed on November 22, 2022. Miami DJ Oren Nizri is also an officer.
Anti-transgender activism
Posner was offended during cancer treatment when when a healthcare provider described the condition as chest cancer. Even though Posner is well-versed in the historic dangers of attacking a persecuted minority, Posner jumped into anti-transgender activism with zeal, offering up a version of the “great replacement” conspiracy theory that cisngender women are being “erased” by transgender people.
Posner claimed that friends were also afraid of expressing outrage about inclusive medical terms that encompass all people with the same disease:
you’re called a Republican for whatever reason that is, or [you’re called] transphobic. Then, of course, you had JK Rowling, who really stood up to everybody, and they canceled her. But then for me, there wasn’t much to cancel. So then I looked at the UK Health Project, and they had a woman with a man sitting next to her – pregnant man – it just seemed all a bit bonkers to me.
Posner, Patricia (May 9, 2022). When did “woman” become a dirty word?Wall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/woman-become-dirty-word-transgender-gender-fluid-nonbinary-lgbtqia-sogie-supreme-court-leak-dobbs-roe-wade-birthing-person-medicine-11652124897
Gerald Posner is an American writer, plagiarist, and anti-transgender activist.
Anti-transgender activism is a family business; Posner’s spouse Patricia Denise Levene “Trisha” Posner (born March 10, 1951) is also involved in the anti-transgender movement.
Background and plagiarism
Gerald Leo Posner was born May 20, 1954 in San Francisco. Posner’s parent Jerry was raised Jewish and was a shipping executive. Posner’s parent Gloria L. Posner was Catholic, and Posner was raised Catholic.
Posner attended St. Ignatius College Preparatory and earned a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Berkeley in 1975. Posner earned a law degree from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in 1978. Posner practiced law until 1986.
Posner’s books include:
Mengele: The Complete Story (1986)
Warlords of Crime: Chinese Secret Societies: The New Mafia (1988)
Hitler’s Children: Sons and Daughters of Leaders of the Third Reich Talk About Their Fathers and Themselves (1991)
Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK (1993)
Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. (1998)
Motown: Music, Money, Sex and Power (2003)
Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11 (2003)
Secrets of the Kingdom: The Inside Story of the Secret Saudi-U.S. Connection (2005)
Miami Babylon: Crime, Wealth, and Power–A Dispatch from the Beach (2009)
God’s Bankers: A History of Money and Power at the Vatican (2015)
Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America (2020)
Posner was Chief Investigative Reporter for The Daily Beast, until resigning over serial plagiarism charges in 2010. Posner’s excuse at the time was:
in the quick turnaround I then obviously lost sight of the fact that it belonged to a published source instead of being something I wrote.
Posner (2010)
It later emerged that The Daily Beast was the tip of the iceberg. Posner’s books also had extensive instances of plagiarism, most notably Miami Babylon. Author Frank Owen demonstrated in court filings that Posner plagiarized liberally from Owen’s 2003 book Clubland. Via the Miami Herald, a publication that was also one of Posner’s many plagiarism victims:
Earlier this week, Posner, who holds a law degree, told The Associated Press that a flawed research methodology caused him to put passages from Clubland in Miami Babylon without proper credit. Last month, Posner quit as chief investigative reporter of The Daily Beast after a Slate.com writer noted several instances in which Posner used material from Miami Herald articles.
In 2013, Posner was named in a complex federal lawsuit brought by Harper Lee, author of To Kill A Mockingbird, against Posner’s book agent Samuel Pinkus. Via Vanity Fair:
Filed in New York District Court, the suit names Pinkus, his wife, former TV-news writer Leigh Ann Winick, and Gerald Posner, a Miami-based attorney and investigative journalist with a questionable reputation, as defendants. […]
When Posner filed the incorporation papers of Philologus Procurator, Inc., [PPI] in 2011, he was digging out from a journalism scandal. In February of the previous year, he had resigned as chief investigative reporter of the Daily Beast Web site following allegations of serial plagiarism. Later that same year, he was sued for copyright infringement by the Miami writer Frank Owen, who charged Posner with such pervasive plagiarism in his book Miami Babylon from Owenâs book about Miami, Clubland, that, as Owen said in his lawsuit at the time, Posner should be âeligible for the Guinness Book of World Records for copyright infringement.â (The lawsuit was settled out of court.)
By the end of 2012 it seemed Posner wanted out. He filed an amendment stating that he was no longer associated with PPI: âAs of December 31, 2012, Sam Pinkus is the full and only owner of all shares of this corporation.â
Posner was later dismissed with prejudice from Lee’s suit, and the case was ultimately settled.
Posner and spouse are officers of the non-profit Antisemitism Watch, Inc, a Florida Domestic Non-Profit Corporation filed on November 22, 2022. Miami DJ Oren Nizri is also an officer.
Anti-trans activism
In 2023, Posner joined his wife in attacking healthcare for transgender children and adolescents. In a Wall Street Journal opinion piece about “transgenderism,” he criticized the legal off-label use of puberty blockers to halt unwanted puberty.
As an example of how Posner spins things, he mentions that puberty blockers are FDA approved to delay puberty, but he claims it is only for “a rare childhood disease caused by a genetic mutation.” He deliberately avoids saying “precocious puberty” because it undermines his entire thesis.
Delaying puberty, including in trans children and adolescents, is usually done to appease parents in addition to helping young people experiencing unwanted puberty. Most gender diverse youth (at least 19 in 20 in one study) continue transition, and many would prefer to go directly to hormones without delay. Posner concludes:
Ignoring the long-term dangers posed by unrestricted off-label dispensing of powerful puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, combined with the large overdiagnosis of minors as gender dysphoric, borders on child abuse.
If a minor wants to halt unwanted puberty for whatever reason, and their family and healthcare provider agree after weighing the potential risks and benefits, that option should be available to all Americans.
Shafer, Jack (February 5, 2010). Plagiarism at the Daily Beast.Slate https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2010/02/plagiarism-at-the-daily-beast-gerald-posner-concedes-lifting-from-the-miami-herald.html
Shafer, Jack (February 8, 2010). More Posner Plagiarism.Slate https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2010/02/case-reopened-reviewing-new-examples-of-plagiarism-by-the-daily-beast-s-gerald-posner.html
Shafer, Jack (February 11, 2010). The Posner Plagiarism Perplex.Slate https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2010/02/making-sense-of-the-blog-statement-by-former-daily-beast-reporter-gerald-posner.html
Rothaus, Steve (Mar 20, 2010 ). Authors confront each other amid book scandal. Miami Herald https://www.miamiherald.com/living/article1935676.html [archive]
Staff report (February 28, 2010). Gloria Posner. San Francisco Chronicle https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sfgate/name/gloria-posner-obituary?id=21926876
Elfrink, Tim (May 10, 2020). Posner Plagiarizes Again. Miami New Times https://www.miaminewtimes.com/2010-05-20/news/posner-plagiarizes-again/ [archive]
Seal, Mark (August 2013). To Steal* a Mockingbird*?Vanity Fair https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2013/08/harper-lee-dispute-royalties
United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (2013). Lee v. Pinkus et al. (1:2013-cv-03000) https://dockets.justia.com/docket/new-york/nysdce/1:2013cv03000/411469 https://www.sdnyblog.com/files/2013/07/13-Civ.-3000-2013.05.03-Complaint.pdf
Posner, Gerald (June 7, 2023). Opinion: The Truth About âPuberty Blockers.âWall Street Journal https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-truth-about-puberty-blockers-overdiagnosis-gender-dysphoria-children-933cd8fb
Patrick W. Lappert is an American plastic surgeon and anti-transgender activist.
Lappert has testified in litigation or advocated on behalf of legislation to limit trans rights in states across the country including Alabama, Arkansas, Utah and Florida.
Background
Patrick Walter “Pat” Lappert was born in Venezuela on September 30, 1954 and grew up Jewish. In 1960, the family moved to San Francisco, but Lappert’s parents divorced around 1966. Lappert became atheist as an adolescent, dropped out of high school at 15, and left home.
After earning a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Santa Barbara, Lappert earned a medical degree from Uniformed Services University School of Medicine in 1983 and completed a surgical residency at Naval Hospital Oakland in 1991. Lappert became board certified in surgery in 1992. Lappert then completed a plastic surgery residency at University of Tennessee-Memphis in 1994 and was certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery in 1997.
While stationed in Memphis, Lappert became suicidal, during which time a religious conversion to Christianity occurred. In 1995, Lappert was baptized in the Catholic church. In 2013, Lappert was ordained as a deacon in the Catholic church.
Lappert served in the Navy for 24 years, serving at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth from 1994 until retiring from the Navy as a Captain in 2002.
In 1981 Lappert married nurse Patrice Ann (Oberst) Lappert (born 1956), and they have six children.
Anti-transgender activism
Lappert is involved in Courage International, an organization that treats LGBTQ people like alcoholics who can overcome their urges through meetings.
Starting in 2014, Lappert began getting involved in criticizing transgender surgery, later expanding to all trans healthcare.
In his ruling that Arkansasâs 2021 law banning gender-affirming medical care for minors is unconstitutional,
US District Judge James M. Moody, Jr. commented on Lappert’s qualifications in ruling that the Arkansas ban on trans youth healthcare was unconstitutional:
âThe Court does not credit the testimony of Professor Regnerus and gives it no weight because the Court finds that he lacks the qualifications to offer his opinions and failed to support them.â […]
âDr. Lappert does not meet the requirements under Daubert to give opinions relevant to this case.â […]
âDr. Hruz has never treated a patient for gender dysphoria.â
Lappert appears in the 2022 propaganda piece Dysconnected.
References
John DeSilva Finley, ed. (2022). Sexual Identity: The Harmony of Philosophy, Science, and Revelation. Emmaus Road Publishing, ISBN 9781645851912 Contributors: Cara Buskmiller, Paul W. Hruz, Patrick W. Lappert, Andrew Sodergren, Lawrence J. Welch,
La Bouve, Janelle (February 23, 1996). A China doll couple adopt a Chinese child. The Virginian-Pilot https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1996/vp960223/02210182.htm
Family Watch International (August 17, 2021). Dr Patrick Lappert. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEiu6OQqcVE
Journey Home (November 21, 2016). Deacon Patrick Lappert. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2KCFtHHHVE
Marshall (September 20, 2023). Transgenderism: Can I Switch My Sex? | Speakin’ with the Deacons. Catholic Online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M9f_HaPaHA
Cynthia Breheny (October 30, 2023). Ethics of Gender Affirming Care | Dr. Patrick Lappert | Interviews Paradox Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTN35a8R7DA
Louise Perry is a British writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Louise M. “Lulu” Perry is based in London. Perry grew up in a left-leaning household with a younger sibling. Perry studied anthropology and women’s studies at the SOAS University of London [School of Oriental and African Studies]. Perry published a fashion blog called Make Do On Trend. Perry’s early career involved working in a rape crisis center.
Perry has written for the New Statesman, the Daily Mail, The Critic, UnHerd, and Quillette.Â
Perry’s debut book, The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century, was published by Polity.Â
Perry is the Press Officer for the campaign group We Canât Consent To This, documenting women allegedly killed during “rough sex.” Perry is also the Research Director and Co-founder of think tank The Other Half. Â
Perry is married and has one child.
Anti-transgender activism
Perry frequently promotes anti-transgender views in publications. Perry came to believe in college that “it was completely impossible to say anything critical about trans activism in public.” That was the “first domino” that led Perry to radical feminism.
Perry left the rape crisis center after they began serving all people who had experienced sexual assault.
References
Balls, Katy (September 23, 2022). The Louise Perry Edition. The Spectator https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/the-louise-perry-edition/
Perry, Louise (June 22, 2022). Why the gender wars become so extreme.New Statesman https://www.newstatesman.com/quickfire/2022/06/gender-wars-trans-critical-activists-become-extreme
Perry, Louise (October 2020). The real facts of life.The Critic https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/october-2020/the-real-facts-of-life/
Perry, Louise (September 18, 2020). The Dishonest and Misogynistic Hate Campaign Against J.K. Rowling. Quillette https://quillette.com/2020/09/18/the-dishonest-and-misogynistic-hate-campaign-against-j-k-rowling/
Perry, Louise (November 6, 2019). What Is Autogynephilia? An Interview with Dr Ray Blanchard. Quillette https://quillette.com/2019/11/06/what-is-autogynephilia-an-interview-with-dr-ray-blanchard/
Sall Grover is an Australian writer, app developer, and anti-transgender activist. Grover founded giggle, a networking app designed to exclude transgender women.
Background
Sally “Sall” Grover was born on October 11, 1984. Parent Rob Grover is a real estate agent. After attending Bond University, Grover then moved to Hollywood.
In 2011, Emma “Em” Jensen and Sall “Face” Grover published a blog called The LA Team, chronicling their experiences in Los Angeles. Their story was optioned by Gold Circle Films and developed as Sex on the First Date. It was never produced.
For eight years, Grover lived in Los Angeles, writing and pitching: “It was a horrible life.” Grover then moved to Brooklyn and lived with a group of women.
Grover has since returned to Australia as a freelance copywriter and screenwriter for Screen Queensland and Be Media. Grover operates Wadd Holdings Pty Ltd.
Grover had a child in 2022 named Isabelle Lily.
Anti-transgender activism
In 2019, Grover set up Giggle For Girls Ltd Pty. Grover then fundraised and developed a networking app “for females.” The app used facial recognition and other techniques to exclude people, including trans woman Roxanne Tickle:
On 3 March 2022, Giggleâs lawyers at the Feminist Legal Clinic responded to the complaint, saying Tickle was âconsidered maleâ based on her appearance in the selfie and that this was why she had been removed.
Grover described Tickle as a “trans identified male” in a social media post less than three weeks later. Grover was represented by Katherine Deves.
In 2022, Grover protested a Medicare form that used the term “birthing parent.”
Podcast
In 2022, Grover released 15 episodes of The Giggle Podcast. Guests included many key anti-trans activists in Australia.
Anonymous guests
“UPenn Swimmer”
Twitter account NoSelfIDinQLD
Critic of gender-affirming group acon (AIDS Council of New South Wales)
John McWhorter is an American linguist and anti-transgender activist. McWhorter’s first public foray into discussing trans issues was banned by YouTube for violations of their hate speech policies.
Background
John Hamilton McWhorter V was born on October 6, 1965 in Philadelphia. McWhorter’s parents were both educators. McWhorter earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University in 1985, a master’s degree from New York University, and a doctorate from Stanford University in 1993. McWhorter taught at Cornell University from 1993 to 1995 and at University of California, Berkeley from 1995 to 2003. McWhorter then joined the conservative Manhattan Institute. In 2008 McWhorter took a teaching position at Columbia University.
Views on trans issues
McWhorter has made a case for singular they as a gender neutral pronoun.
In 2023, McWhorter and Glenn Loury had anti-transgender activist Mark Goldblatt on to discuss Goldblatt’s transphobic book I Feel, Therefore I Am: The Triumph of Woke Subjectivism. YouTube removed the episode for violation of their terms of service.
McWhorter stated:
We are supposed to reform our sense of what a man and a woman are. And I think any idiot knows that there is a biological business with the chromosomes. Nobody’s going to deny that.
When Loury asked about transgender youth, McWhorter said:
My gut sense is that we’re allowing people to make decisions like that too early. I haven’t thought deeply about it because the topic is so disturbing and frightening and doesn’t apply to me just yet, but my sense is that we need to consider that people are not mentally mature until they’re about 25.
And of course the counter argument is that, “Yes, but by then certain things are already irreversible.” And I would say, “Well maybe that’s the way it has to be.” That’s my gut sense of it.
And in general, the recreational ease with which one can be called “transphobic” these days is something that I am radically opposed to, as one might predict.
Regarding evolving use of the terms man and woman, McWhorter differed from Goldblatt:
But I must admit, once again I’m the weird one here because I can’t… maybe it’s probably because I’m a linguist and I study language change… I can’t quite get what’s wrong with the fluidity of those terms in our modern times.
McWhorter later related a story about speaking with a trans woman:
About eight years ago, I was at a thing, and there was somebody who was talking to me at a certain length, knew some of my work. This was somebody who was certainly born with a Y chromosome, and needed a bit of a shave, and was speaking in a voice higher than what would be normal, and Iâm sure this person was used to speaking that way, but that’s not how their voice would have come out if you woke them up in the middle of the night. And this person had long hair and was wearing a nice summer dress and high heels, and this person thought of themselves as a woman. And of course, a part of me, being somebody born in 1965, was thinking, “This is a man acting like a woman.” I canât help thinking it. But this person thought of themselves as a woman. And I thought my job is to open my mind to the idea that this person is a woman, although this person shaves, this personâ the past is clearly obvious, but this is a woman. You’re saying that I shouldâve thought. “This person on that score needs help.”
Goldblatt made a case that trans people are deluded and mentally ill, and that refining and updating terms like man and woman involve forcing others to “deny reality.”
Loury reuploaded the episode to Substack after the hate speech violation.
References
McWhorter, John (April 30, 2013). The Royal They.The New Republic https://newrepublic.com/article/112896/tyranny-pronouns-fighting-singular-they
McWhorter, John (September 4, 2018). Call Them What They Wants. The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/09/the-new-they/568993/