Susan Ann “Sue” Robins (born circa 1955) is an American transgender activist.
Note: for the American transgender activist based in Utah, see Susan Ann Robbins.
Background
Robins lives in the San Diego area and is involved in the local ham radio community, serving as editor of the newsletter for the Amateur Radio Club of El Cajon (WA6BGS).
Robins has been listed as involved in several LGBTQ activist organizations, including San Diego TransFamily, San Diego Transgender Community Coalition, and The Neutral Corner.
Robins is a well-known internet troll who has been banned from many social media platforms and websites. Blogger Bil Browning had to ban Robins from blog comments, and podcaster Rebecca Juro had to ban Robins from The Rebecca Juro Show. Activists Monica Helms and Monica Roberts have also described similar interactions.
Robins was involved in the USENET trolling at alt.support.srs and has also included a link to a site promoting the fake disease “Harry Benjamin Syndrome.”
Browning, Bil (March 4, 2008). I get fan mail. Bilerico Project. http://bilerico.lgbtqnation.com/2008/03/i_get_fan_mail.php
Abernathey, Marti (January 24, 2008). With Apologies to Radical Feminists. Bilerico Project. http://bilerico.lgbtqnation.com/2008/01/with_apologies_to_radical_feminists.php
Abernathey, Marti (October 14, 2007). When Will The GLB join the T? Bilerico Project. http://bilerico.lgbtqnation.com/2007/10/when_will_the_glb_join_the_t.php
Roberts, Monica (January 31, 2008). Hateraid From A WBT. TransGriot. https://transgriot.blogspot.com/2008/01/hateraid-from-wbt.html
Cooke, Suzan (March 2, 2009). Lynn Conway on Kenneth Zucker. Women Born Transsexual. https://womenborntranssexual.com/2009/03/02/lynn-conway-on-kenneth-zucker/
Note: an earlier version of this biography contained information which has been removed or corrected. My apologies for the mistake.
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
Susan W. Coates is an American psychologist and a key figure in the pathologization of gender diversity. Coates and Kenneth Zucker developed non-affirming “interventions” for gender diverse children as part of their gender identity change efforts. Coates was involved in revising the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) to reflect these views.
Background
Susan Winship Coates was born in 1940. Coates earned a bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence in 1962 and a master’s degree from Vassar in 1968. Coates earned a doctorate from New York University in 1976.
Coates served as Director of the Childhood Gender Identity Service at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center from 1980 to 1997. Coates served on the American Psychiatric Association DSM-IV Subcommittee on Gender Identity Disorders. Coates has served on the teaching faculty of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Coates has also served on the faculty of the Division of Sexuality and Gender in the Psychiatry Department of Columbia University.
In addition to work on childhood trauma, Coates has been an expert witness in a number of prominent trials, including the custody battle between Woody Allen and Mia Farrow. Coates had seen their child Satchel Ronan Farrow professionally.
Coates or someone closely associated has also heavily edited her Wikipedia biography to remove material Coates does not want reported.
Disease models of gender identity and expression
In 1989, a colleague summarized Coates’ presentation on the topic as follows:
Susan Coates spoke about “Conflict in Gender Identity of Boys.” She has studied boys with extreme boyhood femininity. All the boys in her study wished to be girls, preferred female activities, avoided rough-and-tumble play and liked cross-dressing. These boys all had other pervasive difficulties such as separation anxiety and depression. The mothers were often borderline narcissistic, depressed, dependent women who devalued men. Many of the mothers had been severely traumatized when their sons were two or three years of age. She postulated that maternal psychopathology impairs the child’s separation-individuation process. In order not to lose “Mommy” he merges with “Mommy.” Dr. Coates invoked a bio-psycho-social model but emphasized that the specific biological influences predisposing to childhood G.F.O. have yet been identified.
Leiter (1989)
In 1994, Coates spoke with the New York Times about therapy for “GIDC”:
With therapy, younger kids usually come to accept their own gender and feel good about their temperament. When we go back to evaluate them three years or so after therapy, they don’t have compulsive cross-gender fantasies anymore, or often don’t remember them. But if you don’t treat it until 9 or 10, it’s much harder to turn around. And beyond age 12 or so, there’s a good chance they’re on course to become a transsexual as adults.
(Goleman 1994)
Coates reiterated that maternal trauma when the child was two or three was often a factor (Goleman 1994). Coates reported with Kenneth Zucker that five to thirty times as many boys are treated for “GIDC” (Coates 1992).
In 2008, Coates published these “intervention” techniques for gender diverse children:
This paper reviews the origins of gender identity issues in preschool boys and presents an overview of treatment strategies for working with parents of boys and with the boy. The goals of treatment are to reestablish a secure attachment relationship with both of his parents, to develop a range of coping mechanisms for handling separation anxiety and aggression, to help the child to understand and enjoy his temperament, to help the child to be able to have same sex friendships, to develop gender flexibility and most importantly, restore his self esteem and his sense of authenticity. Specific treatment interventions are reviewed.
Coates (2008)
Selected publications by Coates
Listed by date of publication
Coates S, Lord M, Jakabovics E (1975). Field dependence-independence, social-non-social play and sex differences in pre-school children. Percept Mot Skills. Feb 1975 40:1, pp. 195-202 https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1975.40.1.195
Coates SW (1985). Extreme boyhood femininity: Overview and new research findings. In Ruth Corn, Zira DeFries, Richard C. Friedman, eds. Sexuality: New perspectives. Greenwood Press ISBN 9780313242076
Coates SW, Person ES (1986). Extreme boyhood femininity: isolated behavior or pervasive disorder? J Am Acad Child Psychiatry. 1985 Nov;24(6):702-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0002-7138(10)60113-6
Bradley SJ, Blanchard R, Coates SW, Green R, Levine SB, Meyer-Bahlburg HFL, Pauly IB, Zucker KJ (1991). Interim report of the DSM-IV Subcommittee on Gender Identity Disorders. Archives of Sexual Behavior Volume 20, Number 4 / August, 1991 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01542614
Coates SW, Friedman RC, Wolfe S (1991). The etiology of boyhood gender identity disorder: a model for integrating temperament, development, and psychodynamics. Psychoanal. Dial., 1:481-523. https://doi.org/10.1080/10481889109538916
Coates S, Zucker KJ (1992). Gender identity disorders in children. In Kestenbaum CJ, Williams DT (Eds.) Handbook of clinical assessment of children and adolescents NYU Press. ISBN 0814746284
Marantz S, Coates SW (1991). Mothers of boys with gender identity disorder: a comparison of matched controls. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (Vol. 30, Issue 2, pp. 310â315). https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-199103000-00022
Zucker KJ, Lozinski JA, Bradley SJ, Doering RW (1992). Sex-typed responses in the Rorschach protocols of children with gender identity disorder. Journal of Personality Assessment, Volume 58, Issue 2 April 1992 , pages 295 – 310. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa5802_9
Zucker KJ, Green R, Coates S, Zuger B, Cohen-Kettenis PT, Zecca GM, Lertora V, Money J, Hahn-Burke S, Bradley SJ, Blanchard R. Sibling sex ratio of boys with gender identity disorder. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1997 Jul;38(5):543-51. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1997.tb01541.x
Coates SW, Wolfe S. Gender identity disorder in boys: the interface of constitution and early experience. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 1995, 51:6-38. https://doi.org/10.1080/07351699509534015
Coates SW (2008). Intervention with preschool boys with gender identity issues. Neuropsychiatrie de l’Enfance et de l’Adolescence 56/6 (2008), 386-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurenf.2008.06.004
Bryant K (2006). Making gender identity disorder of childhood: historical lessons for contemporary debates. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 3(3), 23-39. https://doi.org/10.1525/srsp.2006.3.3.23
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
Susan Ann “Sue” Robbins is an American transgender activist who has been involved in philanthropic leadership at several LGBTQ activist organizations, including Utah Pride Center and Transgender Education Advocates (TEA) of Utah.
Note: for the American transgender activist based in California, see Susan Ann Robins.
Background
Robbins served in the Army from 1979 to 1999 and was married twice during that time. Robbins initially identified as a crossdresser and came out during the second marriage. After a period of negotiating a gender expression, in 2009 Robbins went out for a birthday makeover. Robbins then came out to an adult child and would go to events together. Robbins started Utah Tri-Ess Phi Delta chapter in 2011 and started hormones in 2014.
Robbins earned an Associates degree in computer studies from University of Maryland in 1995. Robbins then supervised training development for the US Army Signal Corps based at Fort Gordon, Georgia. Robbins then worked as an operations manager at Scientific Atlanta’s customer training center, then worked as a test engineer at L3 Technologies and L3Harris Technologies.
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
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 (1949â2019). 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 âtrans kidsâ 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:
“IÂ 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 progressivesâ 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, Iâd 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.’â
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 Handmaidâs 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). Itâs 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: âChase Strangio, you can have âfa**otâ if you want it.â] 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
“Tish Still” is the pen name of Tish Naughton, a British anti-transgender activist. Naughton is an unaccepting parent of a transgender child.
Background
Patricia “Tish” Naughton identifies as “a proud radical feminist mum” who is “spreading awareness about the impact of gender ideology on womenâs rights.”
Naughton identified in UnHerd as “the mother of a son who identifies as part of the transgender community.”
Anti-transgender activism
Naughton runs a website called Gender Critical Woman Blog. Naughton has done interviews with Erin Brewer, James of @HumanGayMale, Graham Linehan, Isla Macy of Parents Against Gender Ideology in Schools, Woman’s Place UK, and Women’s Declaration International (WDI). Naughton is a contributor to anti-trans blog Reduxx.
Naughton has signed several open letters and petitions, including
a letter to the editor of The Times prepared by LGB Alliance characterizing gender affirming care for minors as “conversion therapy.” (2021)
support for anti-trans activist Allison Bailey “[in] the name of parents whose Gay Offspring are once again believing they are #BornWrong thanks to all the teaching materials supplied by Stonewall or with their endorsement.” (2021)
a petition titled Beyond WPATH attacking WPATH (2022)
an open letter fo United Nations commissioners supporting anti-trans activist Reem Alalem’s criticisms of the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill (2022)
an open letter to Liz Truss and Boris Johnson claiming a Truss letter to the Equality and Human Rights Commission “undermines” EHRC’s upcoming guidance on single-sex services (2022)
an open letter by Sex Matters supporting anti-transgender activist Reem Alsalem, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and Girls (2023)
an open letter critical of a Maternity Gender Inclusion Programme for midwives with information on trans people who give birth (2023)
the WHO Decides petition targeting trans-supportive experts convened by the World Health Organization (2024)
Naughton, Tish et al. (June 2, 2019). Trans ideology is damaging children.The Times https://www.thetimes.com/uk/politics/article/trans-ideology-is-damaging-children-k5nlhwmc8?region=global
Joan Smith is a British writer, sex segregationist, and anti-transgender activist from the movement’s gender critical faction.
Background
Joan Alison Smith was born August 27, 1953. Smith attended University of Reading. Smith was on staff at The Sunday Times from 1979 to 1984.
Smith is author of the Loretta Lawson series of crime novels. Smith’s nonfiction books include Misogynies (1989), Different for Girls: How Culture Creates Women (1998), and Home Grown: How Domestic Violence Turns Men Into Terrorists (2019).
In 2015, Smith was elected chair of Labour Humanists, a group promoting secularist policies and humanist values within the Labour party.
Smith was married to journalist Francis Wheen from 1985 to 1993 and was partners with politician Denis MacShane from 2003 to 2010.
Anti-transgender activism
In 2021, Smith was fired as Co-Chair of the Mayor of London’s Violence Against Women and Girls Board, a volunteer role held since 2013. The decision came after a governance review. Officials denied Smith’s claims that it was because of anti-trans activities.
Smith frequently writes anti-trans articles for UnHerd. Smith is a member of Sex Matters Advisory Group.
References
Brook, Libby (August 19, 2021). The Guardian London mayorâs office denies feminist activistâs claims over sacking https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/aug/19/london-mayors-office-denies-feminist-activists-claims-over-sacking
Smith Joan (August 20, 2021). Why did Sadiq Khanâs office fire me? UnHerd https://unherd.com/2021/08/why-did-sadiq-khans-office-fire-me/
Giles Fraser is a British journalist, broadcaster and clergymember. Initially trans-supportive, Fraser says he became a TERF in response to tactics used against supporters of anti-transgender activist J.K. Rowling.
Background
Giles Anthony Fraser was born November 27, 1964 in Aldershot, Hampshire, England. Fraser studied at Newcastle University and Ripon College Cuddesdon, then earned a doctorate at University of Lancaster.
Fraser was ordained as a deacon in 1993 and as a priest in 1994. Fraser taught at Wadham College, Oxford, and Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral. Fraser is the author of Redeeming Nietzsche: On the Piety of Unbelief, How to Believe: Investigating Wittgenstein, and Christianity with Attitude.
Fraser hosts The Moral Maze and Thought for the Day on Radio 4. Fraser is a Vicar of St Anne’s, Kew, part of the Church of England.
Fraser has been married twice and has three children.
Anti-trans views
In 2015 Fraser wrote a column about how the church needs to welcome trans people. When interacting with trans people, Fraser uses their names and pronouns because “my default response is to affirm these decisions.”
Fraser’s opinion shifted in 2023. After anti-trans activist Suzanne Moore introduced Fraser to J.K. Rowling at an event at Italian restaurant Pino, the restaurant was vandalized and review-bombed online.
Fraser reportedly became a TERF after that. Fraser also revealed several anti-trans views:
I believe in limits, in the givenness of some things. And, it seems to me, biological sex is one of them. I find the use of medical technology to transgress these limits to be Faustian in its hubris.Â
Because some transactivists now behave as though anything they can do for the cause is justified, however cruel: get people sacked, ruin their businesses, be vile to others online. The public sphere is becoming so unpleasant, so full of vitriol and accusation, that many of us just put on our tin hats and retreat from the conversation. To be honest, I have been quite content that my privilege has, until now, encouraged me to think that the best thing for me to do is to sit this one out and say nothing. I have been hiding behind this terribly convenient self-denying ordinance, leaving the likes of J.K. Rowling and Suzanne Moore to take all the heat, my courage being a few pathetic âlikesâ on Twitter.
Timandra Harkness is a writer and comedian who has some gender critical positions about transgender youth and anti-transgender activists.
Background
Harkness presents the BBC Radio 4 series, FutureProofing and How To Disagree. Harkness is author of Big Data: Does Size Matter?
In the show Brainsex, Harkness came to the correct conclusion that “brain sex” is one of many ways sex science is similar to race science: a misuse of science to justify oppression.
Anti-trans statements
Harkness has written in anti-trans publication UnHerd about supporting anti-trans activist Kathleen Stock.
Harkness also stated opposition to gender affirming healthcare for transgender youth:
I support the rights of trans people to equal treatment. I don’t support encouraging teenagers into irreversible medical interventions by telling them they’re in the “wrong body” because they don’t fit narrow gender stereotypes. So I won’t sign this letter.
I support the rights of trans people to equal treatment. I don't support encouraging teenagers into irreversible medical interventions by telling them they're in the "wrong body" because they don't fit narrow gender stereotypes. So I won't sign this letter. https://t.co/uQQVKtufbb
— Timandra Harkness (@TimandraHarknes) July 1, 2020
References
Harkness, Timandra (October 13, 2021). The hounding of Kathleen Stock.UnHerd https://unherd.com/2021/10/the-hounding-of-kathleen-stock/
Mary Harrington is a British author and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Mary E. Harrington grew up in Kings Langley and graduated from Oxford in 2002.
“In 2005, I changed my name to Sebastian, because the internet told me to. That was a fairly eccentric thing to do 15 years ago. Now, it seems like everyoneâs at it.”
Harrington worked in marketing from 2006 to 2020, specializing in marketing for the shipping industry. Harrington is a contributing editor at anti-trans publication UnHerd.
Harrington is author of the 2023 book Feminism Against Progress.
Harrington, Mary (December 1, 2023). Ultra-Processed People.Reactionary Feminist https://reactionaryfeminist.substack.com/p/ultra-processed-people
Harrington, Mary (September 14, 2023). The Statistic No One’s Allowed To Study: Why are so many transgender prisoners sex offenders? Reactionary Feminist
Harrington, Mary (July 23, 2023). Which orifice? What organs? Who cares? Reactionary Feminist https://reactionaryfeminist.substack.com/p/which-orifice-what-organs-who-cares
Jacob Siegel is an American writer and critic of gender affirming healthcare.
Background
Jacob Rosenberg “Jake” Siegel was born November 13, 1980 to sociologist Jan Rosenberg Siegel and academic Frederick Fein “Fred” Siegel, (1945â2023), a progressive turned senior fellow at conservative think tank the Manhattan Institute.
Siegel served in the US Army, then commanded the New York Army National Guard Alpha Company, 1st Battalion 69th Infantry.
Siegel worked at The Daily Beast, where sibling Harry served as a senior editor. Siegel is an author and co-editor with Roy Scranton of Fire and Forget: Short Stories From the Long War, by Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Siegel has written for The New York Times, Tablet, Politico, the New York Daily News, The Baffler, Vice, and the National Endowment for the Humanities
Siegel is senior editor of News and The Scroll, Tabletâs daily afternoon news digest.
Siegel, Jacob (June 15, 2022). The Evil of Banality.The Scroll https://thedailyscroll.substack.com/p/the-evil-of-banality
Moulton, David (March 9, 2023). The Great Transitioning.Tablet https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/great-transitioning [Moulton thanked Siegel for his help with this]
