Dan Savage is an American author and activist. Savage has been glitter-bombed many times for anti-transgender views. Some of Savage’s views have evolved following criticism.
Savage has written about sex and relationships since the 1990s and has supported the work of many gender critical and transphobic public figures. Savage has also been involved in a number of important projects that have improved the lives of sex and gender minorities, including trans people.
Background
Daniel Keenan “Dan” Savage (born October 7, 1964) grew up in a Catholic household in Chicago. Savage graduated with a theater degree from University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, then moved to Germany for two years before moving to Madison, Wisconsin.
In 1991 The Onion founder Tim Keck told friend Savage about a plan to start The Stranger, an alternative newspaper in Seattle. Savage suggested writing a sex and relationship advice column. The title was proposed as Hey Faggot!, but Keck refused to use that title, so they settled on Savage Love. For years, all answered letters started with “Hey Faggot!” as the greeting. The column was syndicated, and Savage dropped the greeting in 1999 when the column started accepting emailed questions.
Savage moved to Seattle for the job. Under the stage name “Keenan Hollahan,” Savage also founded Seattle’s Greek Active Theater, producing reimagined classics in the mid-1990s. Savage was active in the Seattle theater scene until around 2003.
Savage created the It Gets Better project in 2010 with spouse Terry Miller. They were married in Canada in 2005 and remarried in the US when it was legalized. They have one child. The nonprofit has helped many trans and gender diverse young people through its message. The nonprofit’s President Paul Dien and founding member Seth Levy have noted that Savage is no longer involved in the project day to day:
“I don’t agree with what he has said, and I think it’s important to call out our privileges,” said Dien. “I think in our communities, cisgender white folks do have that privilege, and it’s okay to talk about when people are wrong or offensive to other parts of our community. And I think it’s important to have those discussions.”
“I really can’t comment on whatever Dan’s relationship with the trans community is; that’s been a complicated one for a long time,” added Levy. “All I know is that as a co-founder with them and having done a lot of work with them over the years, he’s done a lot for that community, often through this project. And so I hope at the end of the day, that’s what people start to understand, is that we’ve all really been trying to fight the same fight, even if we don’t always get along along the way.”
Savage’s strong opinions and acerbic tone have been criticized by numerous groups.
Biphobia allegations
Savage’s support of transphobic psychologist J. Michael Bailey and like-minded sexologists has caused the greatest reputational harm. Savage uncritically repeated Bailey’s claims that bisexual men don’t exist, and Savage told gay men “DON’T MESS AROUND WITH BISEXUALS” and likened bisexuality to “incest and dog-fucking.”
It was “the way most gay men were at the time, and it was shitty,” Savage says now. “A lot of my hostility to bi guys early was because I dated bi guys who were gay closet cases who felt superior to the gay men that they were dating, because they weren’t 100 percent polluted by gayness.” Over the years, “pushback from my readers” and some new bi lovers helped change his mind.
Bailey and friends magically “discovered” bisexuality as soon as they got a payment from The American Institute of Bisexuality. Savage supported Bailey’s claims about that “discovery” as well.
Transphobia allegations
Then there are the transphobic slurs that frequently appeared in Savage Love over the first 20-odd years, along with some gender nonaffirming advice about trans people and cheap jokes about the appearance of trans women. Savage told me that he used those words in the same spirit as he invited readers to call him a “faggot.” He offered a similar explanation when, at a much-covered event at the University of Chicago in 2014, he was challenged by a trans student who objected to his continued use of the slurs while talking about the slurs, and wrote a scorched-earth takedown of the student in the Stranger. (Savage now uses the phrase “t-slur” instead of saying the word out loud.)
“How do you disprove a charge like you’re transphobic? I’m not afraid of trans people. […] I certainly have had a journey in the last 20 years — as have we all — on trans issues. When I started writing Savage Love 20 years ago, and you can yank quotes 15, 18 years ago and flat them up today and say, ‘You know, that’s transphobic,’ I’d probably agree with you. 15 years ago I didn’t know as much as I know now — nor did anybody.”
Savage is one of the few people to reify “autogynephilia,” writing in 2010: “You might want to google autogynephilia. Not saying that’s where you’re at or headed, don’t know enough about it to endorse it, but . . . it seemed relevant.” Gender critical and anti-trans people Savage has platformed and supported include:
Jesse Singal (ex-trans movement, withholding trans youth healthcare)
Anyway, I'm speaking up now because this bullshit @glaad is pulling is just appalling. Putting Singal on a list with people like Tony Perkins and Brian Brown and Keith Ablow is just fucking bullshit. It's defamatory.https://t.co/kTKAs3aFnH
Here Savage cites Singal’s promotion of conservative clinician Erica Anderson as evidence Singal is not transphobic.
I want to say, "I challenge anyone to listen to this interview @jessesingal did with youth-gender clinician Dr. Erica Anderson and tell me he's transphobic," but I know people will continue to insist he's transphobic. But he isn't.https://t.co/GnkNFG44kD
There is a tendency among this collection of people to back each other up and logroll for each other when accused of acting against the best interests of the trans community. Let’s hope that changes in the future, as their monopolization of media opportunities by shutting out trans critics is one of the key ways they perpetuate harm.
Badash, David (April 29, 2014). Dan Savage Does Not Hate You. The New Civil Rights Movement. https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2014/04/dan_savage_does_not_hate_you/
Savage, Dan (December 2, 1999). Gay Ol’ Time. Savage Love https://www.thestranger.com/seattle/SavageLove?oid=2686 [archive]
Abad-Santos, Alexander (November 3, 2011). Dan Savage: Queer-on-Queer Glitter-Bombing Victim. The Wire via The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/11/dan-savage-queer-queer-glitter-bombing-victim/335921/
Lowder, J. Bryan (November 4, 2011). Did Dan Savage Deserve to be Glitter-Bombed?. Slate. http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2011/11/04/did_dan_savage_deserve_to_be_glitter_bombed_.html
Hill-Meyer, Tobi (November 14, 2011). Dan Savage Glittered Again, Student Arrested. The Bilerico Project. http://www.bilerico.com/2011/11/dan_savage_glittered_again_student_arrested.php
Oommen, Isaac (January 21, 2012). Dan Savage Glitterbombed. Vancouver Media Co-op. http://vancouver.mediacoop.ca/photo/dan-savage-glitterbombed/9681
Schmidt, Christine (May 30, 2014). Comments at IOP spark controversy. [archive] Chicago Maroon http://chicagomaroon.com/2014/05/30/comments-at-iop-spark-controversy/
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
Dylan Mulvaney is an American media personality who documented the first year of gender transition in a popular video series called “Days of Girlhood.”
Background
Mulvaney was born December 29, 1996 in San Diego, California, grew up in Southern California, and earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Cincinnati in 2019.
Mulvaney performed in the musical The Book of Mormon on its national tour, as well as in other musical theatre productions. Mulvaney also was brought up from the audience to dance with a friend at the Ellen show and appeared as a contestant on The Price Is Right.
“Days of Girlhood”
At the start of the pandemic, Mulvaney began posting comedy videos on social media. Mulvaney quickly amassed a large following after the “Day One of Being a Girl” post went viral on TikTok. Mulvaney was soon doing many endorsement deals and sponsored posts. Several of Mulvaney’s videos sparked criticism, including one about tampons, one about Ulta cosmetics, one about wearing tight clothing to “normalize the bulge,” and several where Mulvaney dressed up as a young girl.
In October 2022, Mulvaney was invited to speak with Joe Biden at the White House, which led to significant backlash from conservatives, including conservative trans people like Caitlyn Jenner.
Following 2022 facial feminization surgery, Mulvaney did a face reveal of the results in January 2023. At the 2023 Grammy Awards, Mulvaney talked over Laverne Cox while filming their first introduction. Though Mulvaney had solicited Cox’s advice, Mulvaney was clearly not listening, leading a number of prominent trans people to comment on the dynamics of the encounter.
In March 2023 Mulvaney held the live fundraising event Dylan Mulvaney’s Day 365 Live! to celebrate one year since starting transition. Those who showed Mulvaney support, including cisgender allies like Drew Barrymore, faced criticism.
In April 2023 Mulvaney made sponsored posts for Bud Light and Nike. The Nike post showed Mulvaney exercising in their sports bra and sparked more criticism from anti-trans people. The Bud Light posts promoted an NCAA March Madness giveaway and revealed the brand had made a customized Bud Light can with Mulvaney’s face on it.
Bud Light immediately faced bomb threats and boycotts after conservative demagogues like Tucker Carlson and anti-trans groups decided to make an example of the beer. Anti-trans troll Matt Walsh made such pointed and cruel personal attacks that Walsh’s YouTube channel was demonetized. In the first weeks, several conservative entertainers joined the boycott, Bud Light sales dropped about 25% year over year, two ABInBev marketing executives were ousted, the stock was downgraded by several firms, and Senator Ted Cruz announced a planned investigation into whether the brand was marketing to underage audiences. ABInBev released a noncommittal statement and a poorly received patriotic ad, announced they would buy back unsold beer, and hired conservative consultants to help with a rebrand. Bud Light lost its place as America’s favorite beer, ABInBev laid off hundreds of employees, and North American organic sales dropped $1.4 billion. The fiasco instantly became one of the worst marketing blunders in history and a setback for national brands supporting trans inclusion or offering brand endorsements to trans people.
Facing extreme overexposure, Mulvaney reduced the frequency of posting and announced an upcoming book. In June 2023 Mulvaney reflected on the first three months of the controversy:
“What transpired from that video was more bullying and transphobia than I could have ever imagined. For months now, I’ve been scared to leave my house. I have been ridiculed in public. I’ve been followed. And I have felt a loneliness that I wouldn’t wish on anyone. And I’m not telling you this because I want your pity. I am telling you this because if this is my experience, from a very privileged perspective, know that it is much much worse for other trans people.”
Jones (2023)
In 2023 Attitude magazine honored Mulvaney as Woman of the Year.
To mark the 2024 anniversary of starting transition, Mulvaney posed with Lady Gaga and shared several messages with fans. In 2025, Mulvaney released the book Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer and announced a podcast called The Dylan Hour.
References
Mulvaney, Dylan (2025). Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer. Harry N. Abrams, ISBN 978-1419770395
Lange, Maggie (February 18, 2025). Dylan Mulvaney Dreams of Privacy. Really.New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2025/02/18/style/dylan-mulvaney-paper-doll-book.html
Transgender Trend is a British anti-transgender pressure group founded by Stephanie Davies-Arai. It is an important hub for the “parental rights” faction of anti-transgender activists.
Background
Davies-Arai founded the group in 2015 after reading an article that recommended affirming children in their gender identities and expression.
Davies-Arai believes that children are being “groomed” and “brainwashed” into thinking they are transgender by “gender ideology.”
According to progressive publication Truthout:
“Groups like Transgender Trend, an organization that campaigns against LGBT-inclusive relationship and sex education to schools (and was allowed to contribute to the Keira Bell case as an expert witness), are now refocusing on targeting trans health care for anyone under 25.”
“As the number of children identifying as transgender has increased, schools have consulted trans charities such as Stonewall and Mermaids about how best to approach the topic. These charities have, however, come under criticism by campaigners, including Transgender Trend and Safe Schools Alliance, for reinforcing a rigid belief in gender roles, and for encouraging children who don’t conform to gender stereotypes to believe they might be trans.“
WPATH Global Board of Directors (4 September 2018). WPATH Position on “Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD).” (PDF) https://www.wpath.org/media/cms/Documents/Public%20Policies/2018/9_Sept/WPATH%20Position%20on%20Rapid-Onset%20Gender%20Dysphoria_9-4-2018.pdf
Lisa Littman is an American public health researcher and anti-transgender activist.
Littman is involved in efforts to restrict gender affirming care for children and youth. Littman created the disputed diagnosis “rapid onset gender dysphoria” (ROGD) and is a key figure in the ex-transgender movement.
Littman contributed a chapter titled “Psychosocial factors and gender dysphoria: emerging theories” to the 2023 ant-trans book Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader.
References
Sullivan, Alice; Todd, Selina [Eds.] (2023). Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader. Taylor & Francis, ISBN 9781032261195
Littman, Lisa (2021). Individuals Treated for Gender Dysphoria with Medical and/or Surgical Transition Who Subsequently Detransitioned: A Survey of 100 Detransitioners. Archives of Sexual Behavior 50, pages3353–3369 (2021) https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02163-w
RI Business Portal (January 15, 2o01). Fictitious name: ICGDR https://business.sos.ri.gov/CorpWeb/CorpSearch/CorpSummary.aspx?FEIN=001717167
According to self-reports, Thomas Scott Newgent was born in Tucson on November 6, 1972 to Scott and Cindy King (other sources give November 10). In several recent interviews, Newgent referred to previously living under the name Kellie Ellen King. Newgent attended Missouri State University before earning a bachelor’s degree from Middle Tennessee State University in 1994. Newgent worked in sales. Newgent is reportedly a parent to three, including giving birth to a set of twins; their names are Joshua, Julia, and Justice. Newgent has listed over 30 different places in eight states as residences:
Indiana: Kendallville, South Bend, Fort Wayne
Texas: Rockwall, Ben Wheeler, Fort Worth, Dallas, Denton
Kansas: Olathe, Overland Park
Washington: Spokane, Port Angeles
Idaho: Post Falls
Oregon: Deadwood
Tennessee: Murfreesboro, Antioch
California: San Diego, Jamul, El Cajon
As is common with people who move this frequently, Newgent has a criminal history that includes serving a sentence relating to a court order in 2019.
Gender transition
Newgent reportedly began transition in 2016 but applied for a legal name and gender change in Texas in 2015. This took longer than usual because the court needed Newgent’s certification of criminal history record information, which Newgent’s lawyer supplied on November 2, 2015.
Newgent is dissatisfied with the reported seven surgeries, claiming that medical complications include:
a massive pulmonary embolism
a helicopter life-flight ride
an emergency ambulance ride
a stress-induced heart attack
sepsis
a 17-month recurring infection due to “using the wrong skin during a (failed) phalloplasty”
16 rounds of antibiotics
three weeks of daily IV antibiotics
the loss of all my hair
(only partially successful) arm reconstructive surgery
permanent lung and heart damage
a cut bladder
insomnia-induced hallucinations
frequent loss of consciousness “due to pain from the hair on the inside of my urethra” (“six inches” of it)
a form of PTSD “that made me a prisoner in my apartment for a year”
Newgent would transition again, but differently. Newgent says transition came with many costs, including “home, car, savings, career, wife, medical insurance, and most importantly his faith within himself and God.”
TReVoices
During the COVID pandemic in 2020, Newgent founded Indiana for-profit company TRans Educational Voices (TReVoices), a group that opposes “radical gender activism.” Newgent claims the medical and pharmaceutical industries are pushing children to transition medically.
In 2023, Newgent briefly claimed to be done with anti-transgender activism and deleted some online presence. In 2024, Newgent self-published an autobiography titled THE LESBIAN DEVIL TO THE STRAIGHT MAN SAINT: – A trip through trans HELL & back!
Trans Regretters
In 2024 Newgent redirected the site TReVoices to a new site called Trans Regretters. The site listed several people with regret about aspects of their medical transitions:
Myers, Ashlyn (March 21, 2023). Emotions stir the House before committee’s approval of bill banning gender-affirming care. TheStatehouseFile.com https://www.thestatehousefile.com/politics/emotions-stir-the-house-before-committee-s-approval-of-bill-banning-gender-affirming-care/article_067d462c-c820-11ed-b589-0beadfab96ae.html
Newgent Scott (May 12, 2023). Scott Newgent, TReVoices [2023 Maine LD1735 (Summary) An Act to Safeguard Gender-affirming Health Care.] https://legislature.maine.gov/legis/bills/getTestimonyDoc.asp?id=10023409
Sandra Currie, Rose Medina (June 29, 2022) Scott Newgent Founder of TRevoices. An American Conversation Podcast™ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQMQ4VDiRZg
Sarah Pedersen is professor of communications and media at Robert Gordon University. Pedersen has researched the rise of the “gender critical” movement and has espoused “gender critical” views.
Background
Sarah Pedersen was born in October 1965. Pedersen attended University of York, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1987 and a master’s degree in 1989. Pedersen has been affiliated with Robert Gordon University since 2008.
Gender critical activism
Pedersen has researched toxic online community Mumsnet, a key forum for anti-trans extremism.
The June 2019 event “Women’s Sex-Based Rights: What Does (& Should) the Future Hold?” featured a panel of “gender critical” speakers including Pedersen, Julie Bindel, Rosa Freedman, Louise Moody, Lucy Hunter Blackburn, and Claire Heuchan. There, Pedersen acknowledged a recent move into gender critical activism:
“I am often asked at these talks whether I would have been a militant suffragette or a constitutional suffragist. I have always answered that I saw myself very much as a suffragist, quietly writing letters and signing petitions, only dipping a toe in the public sphere of the day, and probably rather disapproving of the militant actions of the suffragettes. However, by coming here today and speaking so publicly, I think I am beginning to embrace my inner suffragette.”
Pedersen drew comparisons between suffragette protests against Scotland’s 1911 census and efforts by “gender critical” groups like For Women Scotland to confound sex data in the 2022 Scottish census.
‘Debates on sex and gender go back a long way, but recently they’ve become more contentious—and for many people, more confusing—than ever. This collection, covering a range of subjects from biology and neuroscience to law and public policy, is a welcome attempt to clarify what’s at stake in current disputes about the significance of sex and gender both in theory and in everyday life. I hope the book will be read by the confused and the undecided as well as by those who are already inclined to agree with it.’
Pedersen S (2022). “It’s what the suffragettes would have wanted”: the construction of the suffragists and suffragettes on Mumsnet. Feminist Media Studies https://doi.org/10.1080/14680777.2022.2032788
Pedersen, Sarah (February 18, 2022). The SNP won’t silence women.UnHerd https://unherd.com/2022/02/scotlands-women-wont-be-erased/
Pedersen, Sarah (2020). The Politicization of Mumsnet. Emerald Publishing, ISBN 9781839094712
Pedersen, Sarah (June 5, 2019). [speech at Women’s Sex-Based Rights panel] https://forwomen.scot/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Sarah-Pedersen-Edinburgh-Uni-speech.pdf
Lynn Conway was an American engineer and one of history’s most notable computer scientists. Conway was also a key figure in online transgender resources.
Background
Lynn Ann Conway was born on January 2, 1938 and grew up in White Plains, New York. Conway enrolled at MIT in 1955, but dropped out. After working as an electronics technician, Conway enrolled at Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in 1962 and 1963.
Conway began at IBM Research in 1964, helping to develop new supercomputer technology. After coming out as transgender in 1968, Conway was fired by IBM.
After making a gender transition, Conway worked at Computer Applications and Memorex before joining Xerox PARC in 1973 to develop new integrated circuits. Conway co-authored Introduction to VLSI Systems with Carver Mead in 1978. The book’s insights are widely considered one of the most important advances in microchip technology.
Conway left Xerox to join DARPA’s Strategic Computing Initiative. Conway joined the University of Michigan in 1985 as professor of electrical engineering and computer science, and associate dean of engineering. Conway was appointed Professor Emerita in 1998.
Conway and engineer Charlie Rogers began a relationship in 1987, marrying in 2002.
Conway died on June 9, 2024 following heart issues.
Transgender activism
After creating an academic page in 1997, Conway bought the domain lynnconway.com in 2000 and began building a large personal website that included information about gender transition. Conway’s Transsexual Women’s Successes pages were an important early source of community inspiration, later expanded with a similar page for notable trans men.
Conway was a key figure in the transgender community response to the 2003 publication of the anti-transgender book The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey. Conway methodically documented events as they unfolded, creating an important archive. Gender studies professor K. Surkan said our work “represented one of the most organized and unified examples of transgender activism seen to date.”
Conway also performed in our first all-trans performance of The Vagina Monologues in 2004.
Conway was also among the first to question academia’s deliberate undercounting of trans and gender diverse people.
Olyslager F, Conway L (2007). On the calculation of the prevalence of transsexualism. WPATH 20th International Symposium http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Prevalence/Reports/Prevalence%20of%20Transsexualism.pdf
Surkan, K. Transsexuals protest academic exploitation. In Faderman, Lillian (ed). Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Events, 1848-2006. Salem Press, 2007, pp. 700–702.ISBN 9781587652653 [PDF]
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
Rebecca Allison, aka “Dr. Becky,” was an American cardiologist who created one of the earliest and most important online resources for transgender medical information.
Allison was deeply involved in transgender activism and served in leadership roles at GLMA and AMA.
Background
Rebecca Anne “Becky” Allison was born in Greenwood, Mississippi on December 21, 1946. Allison’s parents were Errol Ward Atkinson and Mabel Blackwell Atkinson.
Allison earned a medical degree from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1971. After working as a general practitioner, Allison completed a specialty in cardiology in 1987, but lost that practice within a year of making a gender transition.
Allison served as chief of cardiology at CIGNA based in Arizona starting in 1998. Allison was named one of Phoenix Magazine’s Top Doctors in Phoenix for 2006, 2007, and 2008. In 2012 Allison went into private practice before retiring in 2018.
Allison died on August 11, 2024 following a long illness.
Activism
Allison was a frequent contributor to the Grace and Lace Letter, an evangelical publication for trans and gender diverse people founded and edited by Lee Frances Heller in 1990.
In 1998, Allison created drbecky.com, a resource site focusing on the medical, legal, and spiritual aspects of gender transition. Among Allison’s innovations were a state-by-state listing on how to update a birth certificate, criticism of “autogynephilia,” criticism of The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey, a digital version of a brochure on facial feminization surgery by Douglas Ousterhout, and a section on spirituality that collected Allison’s writings for the Grace and Lace Letter.
Allison and partner Margaux Schaffer performed in our 2004 all-transgender performance of The Vagina Monologues and appear in the accompanying documentary Beautiful Daughters.
Allison was instrumental in the passage of the 2008 American Medical Association policy “Removing Financial Barriers to Care for Transgender Patients” H-185.950.
Inside the conference, Rebecca Allison, MD, a transsexual and cardiologist from Phoenix, who also chairs the American Medical Association’s committee on LGBT issues, said that the ideal solution would be to remove GID from the DSM, but retain it in the International Classification of Diseases as a “gender variance.”
The reason? So that insurance companies continue to pay for expensive medical procedures, such as hormones and surgeries. “In a perfect world,” Allison said, “psychiatrists would treat patients with gender variance, but not for gender variance.”
Allison was also active in Soulforce and organized Phoenix Transgender Day of Remembrance with spouse Margaux Schaffer for many years.
Jackson NC, Berlew GK (2024). “There is Not One Shred of Evidence That [Being Trans] is Not a Divine Gift”: Grace and Lace Letter and the Rhetorical Construction of an Evangelical Transfeminine Identity. Rhetoric Review, 43(3), 187–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/07350198.2024.2349840
American Heart Association (June 2022). Pride With Heart Ambassadors. https://www.heart.org/en/about-us/diversity-inclusion/pride-with-heart
Deutsch MB, Green J, Keatley J, Mayer G, Hastings J, Hall AM, Allison R, Blumer O, Brown S, Cody MK, Fennie K, Moscoe G, St Claire R, Stone MR, Wilson A, Wolf-Gould C (2013). Electronic medical records and the transgender patient: recommendations from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health EMR Working Group. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Volume 20, Issue 4, July 2013, Pages 700–703, https://doi.org/10.1136/amiajnl-2012-001472
Allison RA (2010). Aligning Bodies with Minds: The Case for Medical and Surgical Treatment of Gender Dysphoria. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health, 14(2), 139–144. https://doi.org/10.1080/19359701003609872
Allison RA (2007). Transsexualism. In Fink G (ed.) Encyclopedia of Stress (2nd Edition). Elsevier, ISBN 978-0-12-088503-9
Allison RA (2007). Transsexualism. In Pfaff D, Arnold A, Etgen A, Fahrbach S, Rubin R (eds.) Hormones, Brain, and Behavior (2nd Edition). Elsevier, ISBN 978-0-12-532104-4
Allison RA (April 13, 2003). The National Academy Meets The National Enquirer. Dr. Becky http://www.drbecky.com/blog05.html [archive]
Robyn Kanner is an American marketing executive and graphic designer who has worked on several corporate and political projects. Kanner created a resource project for the trans community and has published several first-person essays.
Kanner is a favorite among anti-progressives for embracing “detransition” as a legitimate term.
Background
Robyn Grace Kanner was born July 9, 1987 and grew up in Fairfield, Maine. After initially studying history at a local college, Kanner took art classes at University of Maine at Farmington and University of Minnesota. Kanner then worked as a graphic designer at several companies in Portland, Maine before moving to Boston to do graphic design at Staples and New Balance. After working on user experience design at Amazon, Kanner moved to Brooklyn and did design work for Etsy.
In 2015 Kanner and The Betsy Community Fund crowdfunded $33,000 via Kickstarter for MyTransHealth, a website and app listing gender-supportive resources. The project included co-founders Kade Clark and Amelia Gapin, but at some point Gapin left the project for unstated reasons. Their service provider directory was updated for a couple of years, until around 2018.
After working on the creative for Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign, Kanner worked as a creative advisor on the 2020 Biden campaign. Kanner’s work included revising Aimee Brodbeck’s campaign logo to include Kamala Harris as well as various designs within the themes of the campaign and inauguration. In 2021 Kanner founded design firm Studio Gradients and serves as Vice President of Digital at STG.
Kanner has written about struggling with alcohol and drugs. In 2010 Kanner was arrested in Farmington, Maine for driving under the influence of drugs after crashing into parked cars and a sign. Kanner got sober in summer 2018 and has described how running helps in staying sober.
When a Child Says She’s Trans (2018)
Kanner has been critical of podcasters Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal for the ways in which they have covered trans issues, especially the ex-transgender movement. Kanner has written about struggling with gender identity and has unfortunately embraced the controversial term “detransition” to describe that gender expression. In fact, Kanner’s reification of the term is one reason Herzog and Singal are so keen to put Kanner forth as a representative of the trans community.
Kanner was one of the people who published responses to Singal’s widely-criticized 2018 Atlantic piece, “When a Child Says She’s Trans.” Below are some key passages:
Singal is eager throughout his piece to stress to his readers that young people who are exploring a trans identity might not be trans. Singal notes, “Some kids are dysphoric from a very young age, but in time become comfortable with their body.” With this, Singal is attempting to provide hope to parents that their child who says they’re trans might not be. He leaves enough doubt for you to consider gatekeeping your child’s identity. This is irresponsible.
Singal goes on to express how investigating that identity could cause harm, if adolescents begin physical transitions: “Some of these interventions are irreversible. People respond differently to cross-sex hormones, but changes in vocal pitch, body hair, and other physical characteristics, such as the development of breast tissue, can become permanent.” Here, it sounds like Singal is essentially trying to scare readers into not letting young trans people be themselves.
He implies that if you are a parent of a child who is exploring a trans identity, then you should be in a state of panic. Moreover, it behooves you, as a parent, to draw a line in the sand, marking just how far you should let your child explore their identity.
When adults prevent young people from sifting through their identity, it leads to self-harm or worse.
There’s something so glaringly obvious about the people Singal interviewed for his feature on detransitioning. Did you catch it? They’re all alive.
Kanner became a darling of anti-progressives and members of the “intellectual dark web” after comments critical of online shaming. Kanner posted a personal phone number and invited critics to call. As part of this commitment to stopping the cycle of online shaming, Kanner has spoken directly with both Singal and Herzog on podcasts despite the criticisms of their work. Podcaster Dylan Marron described Kanner’s response to Herzog’s piece “The Detransitioners” for The Stranger:
In the summer of 2017 journalist Katie Herzog wrote a piece that was widely criticized. Ultimately she found herself at the bottom of a social media pile-on. 3,000 miles east of Katie, a woman named Robyn Kanner joined that pile-on tweeting “ur just trash.” In this episode, taped live in front an audience, Katie and Robyn meet onstage for the first time to discuss what happened between them, and the unlikely twist that brought them closer than they would have ever guessed.
In 2019, Kanner appeared on Singal’s podcast to discuss online shaming, but they did not go into Singal’s work or Kanner’s criticism of it. Singal claimed, “I think it would be great to have a critic of my work on the subject on my podcast at some point, whether it’s Robyn or someone else, and I’m looking into possibilities on that front because I’d like that to happen.”
Anti-trans activist Meghan Daum also praised Kanner for defending writers who have been criticized for their views:
In February of this year, Kanner was on the receiving end of the same kind of Twitter invective. Her crime: writing a New York Timesop-ed expressing compassion for Ryan Morgan, a 17-year-old Wisconsin boy profiled in a much-maligned Esquirecover story about the difficulties of growing up white, male, middle-class, and conservative (his parents support President Trump) in the era of #MeToo, MAGA and and “toxic masculinity.” The magazine itself was criticized for the story but Morgan himself also became a target of online invective.
Bryant, Ann (January 28, 2010). Driver arrested after crashing into two parked cars. Lewiston Sun Journal
Kanner, Robyn (June 22, 2018). I Detransitioned. But Not Because I Wasn’t Trans.The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2018/06/i-detransitioned-but-not-because-i-wasnt-trans/563396/
Marron, Dylan (January 26, 2020) Episode 32: Trash. Conversations with People Who Hate Me https://podbay.fm/p/conversations-with-people-who-hate-me/e/1580101260
Olcott, Mike (February 3, 2011). Making Noise: Designer making the seen with Portland’s best bands. Portland Press Herald
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
“Kiira Triea” aka Denise Magner was an American computer programmer, hoaxer, and troll. Magner was one of the worst transgender internet trolls of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, using many fake names and accounts to attack perceived enemies.
Like many “autogynephilia” activists, Magner was an eccentric hoarder living in desperate poverty. Dreger and Bailey are notorious for exploiting these kinds of people, who seek validation and attention from those they see as authority figures.
Magner falsely claimed to be born as late as 1964 in published interviews and writing. Magner was born September 2, 1951.
Magner claimed to have been a patient at Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic in the mid-1970s, having genital surgery at age 14. Magner was not at Johns Hopkins at age 14. Magner did not have surgery at age 14. Magner did not know or interact with unethical sexologist John Money’s victim David Reimer in any way. There is no independent evidence that Magner was ever even at the Johns Hopkins clinic or the Psychohormonal Research Unit. It’s entirely possible Magner cobbled together this biography from relative Nancy Henley, who earned a Ph.D. there. Magner made countless other bogus biographical claims. Magner later tried to scrub these from the internet when the lies piled up so deep they began to contradict each other.
Magner died of cancer on November 2, 2012 at age 61.
Kiira Triea (right) with a non-transgender woman.Kiira Triea posing by a swastika.
Trolling
Magner used a multitude of aliases and sockpuppet accounts during decades of trolling. The primary ones were:
Denise Magner
Deni
Denise Tree
Kiira Triea (pronounced “KEER-uh TREE”)
Ariika Aeirt
Janelle Laren
Reykja Kirby Sigurdson
Stephanie Alexandra Velasquez
Gisle Benediktsson
Gender critical activism
Magner has been cited as evidence by those opposed to trans rights, including an amicus curiae brief submitted to the Supreme Court:
Transgender advocates seek to expand sex to include a host of subjective criteria, such as a person’s “brain gender” and the child-rearing they receive,42 “social activities,”43 and even “[w]ho one dates.”44 One amicus asserts that gender is “fluid” with a “continuous dimension of masculinity/femininity”45 But these ideological factors cannot define what it means to be male or female.46
This was submitted by anti-trans groups that include:
The American College of Pediatricians
The Austin Institute for the Study of Family and Culture
Bailey JM, [Magner D] (2007). What many transsexual activists don’t want you to know and why you should know it anyway. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 50, 521–534. https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2007.0041
Triea K, Diamond M, Reiner WG (2009). Results from a pediatric surgical center justify intervention in disorders of sex development. J Pediatr Surg 2009 Sep;44(9):1863; author reply 1863-4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpedsurg.2009.04.038
