Heather B. Armstrong was an American “mommy blogger” nicknamed “dooce.” After one of Armstrong’s children began identifying as nonbinary, Armstrong made a number of anti-transgender statements.
Background
Heather Brooke Hamilton was born July 19, 1975, grew up in a Mormon household in Memphis, Tennessee, and was sexually assaulted shortly before earning a bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University in 1997.
After marrying web designer Jon Armstrong and and starting to blog in 2001, Heather Armstrong was terminated in 2002 after colleagues learned they were discussed on the blog. The couple had two children: Leta Elise (born 2004), and Marlo Iris (born 2009). In 2009 Armstrong published a memoir, appeared on Oprah, and was named one of “30 most influential women in media” by Forbes.
In 2012, the couple divorced. As social media began to replace blogging, Armstrong’s readership began to dwindle, leading to struggles with depression. Armstrong began a relationship with Utah internet executive Pete Ashdown. In 2019 Armstrong published The Valedictorian of Being Dead. Armstrong underwent medically induced comas to treat depression. In 2021 Armstrong went sober.
Anti-transgender views
Writers and readers of the “mommy blogging” genre have been particularly susceptible to anti-transgender radicalization. In 2022, Armstrong posted a long piece full of anti-trans views after Armstrong’s younger child began identifying as nonbinary.
Titled “America is wrong,” it revealed Armstrong was deeply involved in the “parental rights” faction of anti-transgender activists. Armstrong created a standalone page called “Trans Central Station” and solicited “desistance” and “detransition” narratives from “ex-transgender” activists:
Desisters and Detransitioners, America needs your stories.
You can trust that I will not censor you or expose you in any way. You are safe here.
You can make up a name and leave any field blank. We all just need to hear from you.
What do you wish you had known before you began to question your biological gender?
The pages were soon removed and Armstrong replaced them with a poem prefaced with this:
Your children are asking you through their behavior, “Why are you agreeing with me when I am telling you that I hate myself?” Remember that and consider it every day for the rest of your lives.
[emphasis in original]
The revelations had a significant impact on Armstrong’s reputation. Armstrong died by suicide on May 9, 2023.
References
Armstrong, Heather (2009). It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita. ISBN 978-1416936015
Armstrong, Heather (August 10, 2022). America is wrong. Dooce https://dooce.com/2022/08/10/america-is-wrong/ [archive]
Armstrong, Heather (August 10, 2022). Trans central station. Dooce https://dooce.com/trans-central-station/ [archive]
Greer was born 29 January 1939 in Melbourne. Greer’s parent lived under an assumed identity as an adult. Greer’s family was Catholic, but Germaine Greer longed to assume a Jewish identity as an adolescent. Greer learned Yiddish, joined a Jewish theatre group, dated Jewish people, and reportedly “felt Jewish.”
After graduating from convent school, Greer earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Melbourne, a master’s degree from University of Sydney and a doctorate in English from Newnham College, Cambridge.
Greer was sexually assaulted in college, which strongly influenced Greer’s thinking and writing on sex and gender.
In 1968, Greer began teaching at University of Warwick. Greer was officially married to Paul du Feu from 1968 to 1973, but Greer cheated on du Feu seven times in the first month, and they separated. Greer wrote for Oz and co-founded Suck, a “new pornogrqaphy” venture based around sexual liberation that sometimes depicted graphic nonconsensual sex. Suck published a nude photo of Greer, prompting Greer to resign.
In 1970 Greer published The Female Eunuch, an important second-wave feminist text. Greer said, “I don’t like women. I probably share in all the effortless and unconscious contempt that men pour on women.” Greer had notable debates with Norman Mailer, William F. Buckley, and others throughout a steady string of television appearances.
Greer founded the Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature as part of her work to reclaim women’s cultural contributions. Through the 1990s Greer continued to write about women’s issues.
Anti-transgender activism
Greer has made many inflammatory comments about trans people. One chapter of Greer’s 1999 book The Whole Woman is titled “Pantomime Dames.” In keeping with the views presented in The Female Eunuch, Greer wrote:
Governments that consist of very few women have hurried to recognise as women, men who believe that they are women and have had themselves castrated to prove it, because they see women not as another sex but as a non-sex.
She added: “When a man decides to spend his life impersonating his mother (like Norman Bates in Psycho), it is as if he murders her and gets away with it.”
Greer protested the appointment of trans physicist Rachael Padman to a women’s college and Glamour magazine’s 2015 Woman of the Year honor given to Caitlyn Jenner.
References
Greer, Germaine (1999). The Whole Woman. London: Transworld Publishers Ltd. p. 64. ISBN 978-0385720038
De Freytas-Tamura, Kimiko (24 October 2015). Cardiff University Rejects Bid to Bar Germaine Greer. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/25/world/europe/cardiff-university-rejects-bid-to-bar-germaine-greer.html
Campbell, Beatrix; et al. (14 February 2015). We cannot allow censorship and silencing of individuals. The Observer. Archived from the original on 13 October 2018. Retrieved 12 October 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181013014630/https://www.theguardian.com/theobserver/2015/feb/14/letters-censorship
Gad Saad is a Lebanese-Canadian marketing professor and anti-transgender activist involved in the intellectual dark web, a gateway to the far right.
Background
Gad Saad was born October 13, 1964 in Lebanon. Saad’s Jewish family fled during the civil war in 1975 and moved to Montreal.
Saad attended McGill University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1988 and a master’s degree in 1990. Saad then attended Cornell University, earning another master’s degree in 1993 and a doctorate in 1994.
Saad teaches marketing at Concordia University and is known for promoting evolutionary psychology. Saad has authored several books and articles and writes a blog on Psychology Today. Saad’s YouTube channel and podcast are titled The Saad Truth.
Anti-transgender activism
When psychologist Jordan Peterson refused to use gender-neutral pronouns for transgender people, Saad invited Peterson on The Saad Truth. The episode was extremely popular and started Saad on an anti-trans crusade.
Saad has appeared on The Joe Rogan Experience many times, often discussing Saad’s trolling and provocations about gender identity and expression.
Laroche, Michel; Saad, Gad; Cleveland, Mark; Browne, Elizabeth (2000). “Gender Differences in Information Search Strategies for a Christmas Gift”. Journal of Consumer Marketing. 17 (6): 500–522. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760010349920.
Raquel Rosario Sánchez is an anti-transgender activist involved in anti-trans group Woman’s Place UK.
Background
Raquel M. Rosario Sanchez is from the Dominican Republic. Rosario Sanchez has published work in Meghan Murphy’sFeminist Current, The Critic, and Quillette.
2018 University of Bristol incident
Rosario Sanchez began a PhD course at the University of Bristol in January 2018 with a focus on online communities for men who pay for sex. Itb is part of Rosario Sanchez’s work ending violence against girls and women.
In November 2017 Woman’s Place UK asked Rosario Sanchez to chair its upcoming meeting in Bristol, scheduled for 8 February 2018. During protests, Rosario Sanchez claimed that the university had failed to protect them from a “hate campaign” over the event.
Uwe Steinhoff is an academic and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Steinhoff earned a degree in philosophy at Goethe University Frankfurt. After graduation Steinhoff travelled for nine months in Central America. Steinhoff earned a doctorate in Würzburg. Steinhoff has held roles at Humboldt-University Berlin and Oxford University.
Steinhoff teaches in the Department of Politics and Public Administration at the University of Hong Kong.
References
Steinhoff, Uwe (June 11, 2022). The Transgender Craze and the Babble about “Self-Identifying as a Woman”: Why Men Who Think They’re Women Are Psychotic and the Politicians Humoring Them Are Opportunistic https://uwesteinhoff.com/2022/06/11/the-transgender-craze-and-the-babble-about-self-identifying-as-a-woman-why-men-who-think-theyre-women-are-psychotic-and-the-politicians-humoring-them-are-opportunistic/
Steinhoff, Uwe (20 Jul 2022) Gender Ideology Comes to Germany. Quillette https://quillette.com/2022/07/20/gender-ideology-comes-to-germany/
Allan Stratton is a Canadian playwright and novelist. Stratton has been critical of several aspects of the trans rights movement.
Background
Stratton was born in 1951 in Stratford, Ontario. Stratton attended University of Toronto, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1973 and a master’s degree in 1974.
Beginning in 1977, Stratton has written several plays and novels. Stratton’s 2017 novel The Way Back Home features a transgender character named Zoe Bird.
Stratton is gay and married.
References
Stratton, Allan (August 29, 2022). A call for nuance and clarity on trans terminology. The Line https://theline.substack.com/p/allan-stratton-a-call-for-nuance
Stratton, Allan (22 June 2021 ). The ‘Gender Supremacist’ Threat to the Progressive Alliance: Part One of a Three-Part Series https://quillette.com/2021/06/22/the-gender-supremacist-threat-to-the-progressive-alliance-part-one-of-a-three-part-series/
Stratton, Allan (27 Jul 2021). Rescuing the Radicalized Discourse on Sex and Gender: Part Two of a Three-Part Series https://quillette.com/2021/07/27/rescuing-the-radicalized-discourse-on-sex-and-gender-part-two-of-a-three-part-series/
Stratton, Allan (21 Sep 2021). The Progressive Case for Renouncing Gender Extremism: Last of a Three-Part Series https://quillette.com/2021/09/21/the-progressive-case-for-renouncing-gender-extremism-last-of-a-three-part-series/
Stratton, Allan (April 29, 2022). If You Care About Trans Rights, Don’t Let Predators Pick Their Pronouns https://quillette.com/2022/04/29/predators-dont-get-to-pick-their-pronouns/
Stratton, Allan (June 16, 2022). Ricky Gervais Knows No Fear https://quillette.com/2022/06/16/ricky-gervais-knows-no-fear/
Stratton, Allan (3 Aug 2022). Dave Chappelle vs. the New Puritans. https://quillette.com/2022/08/03/dave-chappelle-vs-the-new-puritans/
Cathy Young is a writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Yekaterina Jung was born on February 10, 1963 in Russia to Marina (born 1936) and Alexander Jung (1935–2011). Young’s family moved to the United States in 1980. Young became a naturalized US citizen in 1987 as Catherine Alicia Young and earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University in 1988.
Young is a writer at The Bulwark, a cultural studies fellow at the Cato Institute, a columnist for Newsday, and a contributing editor to Reason.
Young has authored two books.
References
Young, Cathy (October 5, 2023). Toxic culture on the right or left is wrong.Newsday https://www.newsday.com/opinion/columnists/cathy-young/culture-wars-transphobia-lgbt-gender-transgender-anthropology-i0un1yec
Young, Cathy (February 16, 2023). Transgender rights is a complex topic.Newsday https://www.newsday.com/opinion/columnists/cathy-young/transgender-rights-glaad-i0un1yec
Young, Cathy (June 21, 2022). Transgender rights require a more civil debate.Newsday https://www.newsday.com/opinion/columnists/cathy-young/transgender-rights-athletes-lia-thomas-swimming-i0un1yec
Sabine Hossenfelder was born September 18, 1976 in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany. Hossenfelder attended Goethe University Frankfurt, earning an undergraduate degree in mathematics in 1997 and a doctorate in physics in 2004. Hossenfelder has researched and taught at the GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, University of Arizona, University of California, the Perimeter Institute, the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics in Sweden, and the Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies.
Hossenfelder began working as a popular science writer in 2006. Hossenfelder’s first Youtube video was in 2011.
Hossenfelder married Stefan Scherer in 2006. They have twins born in 2010.
Views on trans and gender diverse people
Hossenfelder views trans youth as a scientific debate rather than a debate about science and its historic misuses.
Hossenfelder uncritically uses many disease models created by behavior scientists to describe sex and gender minorities. Diseases were once widely accepted among scientists to describe gay and lesbian people, until they were forced to stop by activists. It is still socially acceptable among people like Hossenfelder to describe trans, intersex, and gender diverse people using disorders, diseases, and metaphors of impairment and disability.
Among the contested diseases and terms Hossenfelder uses are:
comorbidities: trans people have other mental disorders
gender affirming care
“trapped in the wrong body”
“cutting off parts of the anatomy”
“some people are making a lot of money with this”
discusses puberty blockers risks, no discussion of benefits
“there are at present no high-quality studies that conclusively demonstrate these treatments are beneficial”
the shift in gender ratio among trans youth
“we don’t understand the long-term consequences”
YouTube
Videos include clickbait “just asking questions” titles:
“Trans athletes in women’s sports: Is this fair?” (2022)
This video looks at the field of sex science the way others use sports to make claims about race science. It does at least step back and take a big-picture look. Hossenfelder and I both believe that there is no long-term future for sex-segregated competitive sports.
“Is being trans a social fad among teenagers?” (2023)
This video is too caught up in a lot of unscientific assumptions about trans people being disordered and diseased.
Meghan Emily Murphy was born November 30, 1978 and grew up in Vancouver. Murphy’s family was reportedly “not just left, but most left.” Murphy’s parents were a Marxist labour activist who served as a shop steward at Canada Post and a feminist who worked in arts administration. Murphy has a sibling.
Murphy said, “I have left the left because I don’t wish to be part of a cult.”
Rejecting femininity was fine, except that it developed into a disdain for “wives” and “mothers” who had predictively and passively capitulated to the patriarchy, choosing mundane lives for reasons I could not possibly imagine.
Murphy says this rightward political trajectory felt like being excommunicated:
The left disavowed me long ago for insisting that pornography and prostitution was not an empowering choice sexually liberated women make for fun and wealth, then again for understanding that penises are male and girls who cut their hair short and replace pink frilly dresses with bowler hats and mismatched high top converse are not “non-binary” or “trans” or “boys,” but simply little girls who don’t want to play by old-fashioned rules.
Murphy, Meghan (September 7, 2016). Are we women or are we menstruators?Feminist Current https://www.feministcurrent.com/2016/09/07/are-we-women-or-are-we-menstruators/ [archive]
Nina Paley is an American animator and anti-transgender extremist.
Paley is involved in the free culture and “gender critical” movements.
Background
Nina Carolyn Paley was born May 3, 1968 in Urbana, Illinois. Paley’s parent Hiram Paley was a mathematician.
Paley graduated from University High School in 1986 and attended University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for two years before dropping out.
Paley began publishing comics at a young age before moving into animation in 2002 following a divorce.
Paley directed the animated features Sita Sings the Blues (2008) and Seder-Masochism (2018). After having many problems navigating legal clearance for music recorded in the 1920s by Annette Hanshaw, Paley got involved in the free culture movement. Paley releases work under a copyleft license and has created work supporting intellectual property reform.
Paley has been active in debates about overpopulation and has done work for the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.
Anti-trans activism
Paley identifies as gender critical and has made a number of controversial comments about gender identity and expression.
In 2020, Paley was one of 58 signatories to an open letter defending author and anti-transgender activist J.K. Rowling. A number of the signatories have been involved in gender critical activism.
In 2021, Paley and Corinna Cohn started the podcast Heterodorx to discuss gender controversies. In 2023 Paley created a set of playing cards featuring extremists and outliers in recent gender controversies.
Merli, Melissa (October 21, 2012). Studio Visit: Nina Paley. The News-Gazette http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2012-10-21/studio-visit-nina-paley.html
Merli, Melissa (June 13, 2013). Urbana artist Paley putting quilt art on display. The News-Gazette http://www.news-gazette.com/arts-entertainment/local/2013-06-13/urbana-artist-paley-putting-quilt-art-display.html
Merli, Melissa (August 10, 2014). Paley’s ‘This Land Is Mine’ a viral hit. The News-Gazette http://www.news-gazette.com/arts-entertainment/local/2014-08-10/paleys-land-mine-film-viral-hit.html
Ramanathan, Lavanya (September 25, 2008). An Ancient Tale, Newly Animated. The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/24/AR2008092404245.html
Dey, Jim (May 7, 2019). Furor over gender issues puts Urbana artist’s film in crosshairs. The News-Gazette https://www.news-gazette.com/news/jim-dey-furor-over-gender-issues-puts-urbana-artists-film-in-crosshairs/article_5a620967-c4dd-5b70-b86d-5729e2097134.html