Will Lloyd is a British journalist who writes for several anti-transgender publications. Lloyd is commissioning editor and writer at New Statesman.
Background
Lloyd earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Bristol in 2015 and an advanced degree from University of Oxford in 2020. Lloyd wrote for The Tab and freelanced before joining UnHerd in 2021. Lloyd joined New Statesman in 2023.
Writing on trans issues
In writing about Jan Morris, Lloyd says:
Asked about the pushback against the trans movement in 2017, an increasingly ancient Morris said our “moment is messy, but I think more and more people will move to my condition”. She believed it was possible that “everyone has the potential to have both genders in them”.
Jan Morris was an early adopter of an ideology that has swept across the Western world in the past 30 years. Conundrum has never been out of print. Morris’s belief — born from the collapse of empire, engineered to replace her imperial faith — that gender is ineffable and innate, are becoming commonplace in institutional settings. When Morris died, one of the leading tributes came from the chief executive of the Tavistock Clinic’s Gender Identity Development Service.
Is this simply fashion? Is this ideology “cronyistic” as Helen Joyce, and other gender-critical writers have suggested? Some feminists argue that gender-identity ideology will be abandoned “when it is no longer in the ascendent”, the politicians and tech billionaires will junk the pronouns in their emails, biology will reassert itself, and women will no longer have penises.
References
Lloyd, Will (October 19, 2022). Jan Morris: prophet of our gender troubles. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2022/10/the-prophet-of-our-gender-troubles/
Lloyd, Will (February 15, 2023). Hannah Barnes: Inside the collapse of the Tavistock gender clinic. New Statesman https://www.newstatesman.com/encounter/2023/02/hannah-barnes-inside-collapse-tavistock-gender-clinic-lgbtq-transgender-nhs
Resources
X/Twitter (x.com)
Substack (substack.com)
UnHerd (unherd.com)
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
Malcom Kyeyune is a conservative Swedish writer and anti-transgender activist. Kyeyune has described transgender rights as “gender Lysenkoism.”
Background
Malcom Kyeyune was born on December 19, 1987. Kyeyune is part of the steering council for the conservative think tank Oikos. Kyeyune identifies as a Marxist, but socialist/Marxist colleagues suspended Kyeyune from Sweden’s Young Left party as a result of conflicts within the Left Party.
References
Kyeyune, Malcom (June 24, 2022). The Rise of Gender Lysenkoism. Compact https://compactmag.com/article/the-rise-of-gender-lysenkoism
Resources
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
X/Twitter (x.com)
UnHerd (unherd.com)
Muck Rack (muckrack.com)
Madeleine Kearns is a conservative Scottish-American writer and anti-transgender acitivist.
Background
Madeleine Janet “Maddy” Kearns was born on June 11, 1995. Kearns’ parent Mary Elizabeth Kearns (born 1961) is a solicitor who was involved in the Scottish Council of Human Bioethics. Kearns’ parent Hugh C. Kearns was born in 1967.
Kearns grew up in Linlithgow, near Glasgow. Kearns is a singer/songwriter who writes and performs music. Kearns has a sibling named Patrick. Kearns’ sibling Lily is also a musician who married Daniel Santorum, a child of US Senator Rick Santorum, in 2020.
Kearns earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of St Andrews in 2015, a postgraduate diploma from the University of Glasgow in 2016, and a master’s degree from New York University in 2018.
In 2023 Kearns married Nicholas Joseph “Nick” Tomaino (born March 9, 1998) in a Catholic ceremony. Tomaino is a former National Review colleague and an assistant editorial features editor for the Wall Street Journal opinion page.
Kearns was a staff writer at National Review and a visiting fellow at the Independent Women’s Forum. Kearns has appeared on Issues, Inc. and on the Megyn Kelly podcast.
References
Kearns, Madeleine (October 19, 2017). At university, it’s risky to ‘come out’ as Christian. Catholic Herald https://catholicherald.co.uk/at-university-its-risky-to-come-out-as-christian/
Kearns, Madeleine (January 6, 2020). Has trans orthodoxy conquered the world? UnHerd https://unherd.com/2020/01/how-the-trans-orthodoxy-conquered-the-world/
Resources
Madeleine Kearns (madeleinekearns.com)
X/Twitter (x.com)
National Review (nationalreview.com)
Independent Women’s Forum (iwf.org)
YouTube (youtube.com)
Instagram (instagram.com)
Spectator World (thespectator.com)
Muck Rack (muckrack.com)
Soundcloud (soundcloud.com)
Joe Burgo is an American author and anti-transgender extremist. Burgo runs the anti-trans website Beyond WPATH, which is critical of mainstream healthcare organization WPATH. Burgo promotes “gender exploratory therapy” (GET) as well as gender identity change efforts (GICE), practices that are outlawed in California. Burgo is an advisor for anti-trans groups like Genspect and others.
Burgo appears in conservative and anti-trans media, including Daily Caller, Daily Wire, Benjamin Boyce, Wesley Yang, and Roger McFillin.
Background
Joseph Mark “Joe” Burgo was born on May 6, 1955. Burgo is from Taft, California, graduated from Inglewood High School, and got a bachelor’s degree in English from UCLA.
Burgo holds graduate diplomas from California Graduate Institute (CGI) in West Los Angeles. California’s Board of Psychology stated that CGI was an unaccredited institution from 1976 to 2008. CGI was merely approved by the now-defunct California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, but not accredited. As journalist Jeff Walker noted:
CGI’s repeated pleas for accreditation have been rebuffed because it lacks a sufficient number of full-time staff, a decent library, and other features that students of the thousands of accredited albeit mediocre colleges throughout North America take for granted. In prestige this Ph.D. is, aside from the mail-order variety, rockbottom.
Walker (2012)
Burgo has written a number of books about narcissism and shame.
Burgo was in a “heterosexual marriage” for 17 years and has three children. Burgo then married Michael George Eha (born September 1953), a publicist associated with Me Rep Inc. and Michael Eha & Associates. They have been together since about 2003 and split their time between Palm Springs and London.
Anti-transgender activism
Burgo stated in 2023:
One of my children is trans-identified and alienated from me. And that was my introduction to this space back in 2014, and it’s part of the reason I started getting interested in things like autogynephilia, because I just took a deep dive into everything about trans, trying to find out everything. And then I found out that there was this thing called autogynephilia, which seemed stunning to me. I’d never heard of it before, and read The Man Who Would Be Queen and Blanchard, and more recently read Anne Lawrence’s work. And I look at these guys… I suppose it’s partly because my journey has been about making peace with myself as a man, feeling better about my own masculinity, which oddly I feel better about in my gay life than I did in my heterosexual life… my ostensibly heterosexual life.
Yang (2023)
Burgo is convinced that trans people are driven to transition by narcissism and/or shame, particularly shame about being gay. Burgo promotes the “ex-transgender” movement, similar to the ex-gay movement. Anti-trans therapists call a shift in gender identity or expression “desistance” for children and “detransition” for adults. Via Slate:
Genspect also supports an organization called Our Duty, which has stated that “it should be the objective of any advanced civilization presented with this problem to TARGET 100% DESISTANCE, and as early as possible.” Desistance means when someone stops identifying as transgender and pursuing medical transition.
When asked for an interview, GETA team member Joseph Burgo—who is also vice-director of Genspect—said that he and the rest of the GETA team declined to comment.
Santoro (2023)
Burgo is very upset about being forbidden to practice “gender exploratory therapy” because California made it illegal:
In California, where I’m licensed to practise as a clinical psychologist, law prohibits me from engaging ‘in sexual orientation change efforts with a patient under 18,’ which includes alternative ‘gender expressions’. For this reason, I must turn away the many distraught parents who reach out for help with their gender nonconforming, autism spectrum, or gay and lesbian children who have recently become trans-identified. To do otherwise would expose me to potential malpractice lawsuits and challenges to my licensure, a vulnerability which trans-rights activists do not hesitate to exploit in order to intimidate those who question the affirmative-care model.
Burgo wrote in the conservative Daily Caller:
For the troubled young men in my psychotherapy practice who have de-transitioned — that is, lived for a number of years as if they were women and then reverted to their biological sex — their female identity represented such as idealized false self. By imagining themselves to be female, my clients had taken flight from a shame-ridden self which was felt to be defective, damaged, and beyond repair. When this defensive new identity finally broke down, they found themselves engulfed in pain, confusion and shame, and as a result sought professional help.
Meanwhile, the militant trans-identified male continues shoring up his idealized false self. He insists he’s no different from and deserves the same rights and privileges as biological females. When others insist upon the reality of biological sex and assert that trans women aren’t actually women, he feels persecuted; on some level, this challenge to his sense of self may even feel life-threatening. His envy of biological women — for embodying the idealized state he longs for but can never truly reach — may lead to vindictive and physical assaults upon their persons. He wants to destroy them and the truth they embody.
References
Santoro, Helen (May 02, 2023). How Therapists Are Trying to Convince Children That They’re Not Actually Trans. Slate https://slate.com/technology/2023/05/gender-exploratory-therapy-trans-kids-what-is-it.html
California State Postsecondary Education Commission (March 16, 1987). Changes in California State Oversight of Private Postsecondary Education Institutions. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED285479.pdf
Barrett, Stephen (February 15, 2007). California Psychology Schools That Were Approved But Not Accredited Between 1991 and 2016. CredentialWatch https://quackwatch.org/credential/non/california_approved/
California Board of Psychology (2003). Unaccredited California Approved Schools: A History and Current Status Report. https://web.archive.org/web/20070216203504/http://www.psychboard.ca.gov/licensing/unaccredited.htm
Walker, Jeff (2012). Ayn Rand Cult, p. 156. ISBN 9780812698190
Burgo, Joseph (April 14, 2023). Are Trans Rights Activists Victims — Or Bullies? Daily Caller https://dailycaller.com/2023/04/14/opinion-are-trans-rights-activists-victims-or-bullies-dr-joseph-burgo/
EPISODE 73 – Shame Narcissism and the Transition Fantasy w Joe Burgo -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqLEGg6e5zc
Burgo, Joseph (August 16, 2022). The ‘Failed’ Boy. Genspect https://genspect.org/the-failed-boy/
Burgo, Joseph (May 5, 2023). In Flight from Manhood. Genspect https://genspect.org/in-flight-from-manhood/
Buttons, Christina (October 19, 2022). New Declaration Launches Opposition To Leading Transgender Health Association. Daily Wire https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-declaration-launches-opposition-to-leading-transgender-health-association
Yang, Wesley (July 28, 2023). Joseph Burgo on autogynephilia, the state of psychotherapy, ROGD, and challenging WPATH. Year Zero with Wesley Yang https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9lhPyA7CAI
Resources
Joseph Burgo (josephburgo.com)
After Psychotherapy (afterpsychotherapy.com)
Beyond WPATH (beyondwpath.org)
Genspect (genspect.org)
Gender Exploratory Therapy Association (genderexploratory.com)
X/Twitter (x.com)
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
Facebook (facebook.com)
Open NPI (opennpi.com)
Kirsty Entwistle is a psychologist who supports the “ex-transgender” movement, an anti-trans project similar to the ex-gay movement. Entwistle also promotes a form of delayed transition for gender diverse youth called “gender exploratory therapy.”
Background
Entwhistle earned a bachelor’s degree from University College London (UCL) in 2003, then earned a post graduate diploma from University of Bolton in 2009. Entwistle earned a doctorate at UCL in 2013.
Entwistle worked in several NHS services in the UK: a paediatric psychology service in Cambridge, an adult secondary care psychology service in London and the gender identity development service for under 18s in Leeds.
Entwhitle is based in Portugal.
Anti-transgender activism
Entwhitle is a founding member of the International Association of Therapists for Desisters and Detransitioners (IATDD), an anti-transgender front group. Its members are key figures in “gender critical” anti-transgender activism.
IATDD supported the “ex-transgender” movement, people who describe themselves as “desisters” and “detransitioners.” They sell their services to parents who do not want their children to make a gender transition, known as the “parental rights” movement.
Entwhitle maintains the website Detrans Foundation with Anastassis Spiliadis.
References
Entwistle K (2020). Debate: Reality check – Detransitioner’s testimonies require us to rethink gender dysphoria. Child and Adolescent Mental Health https://doi.org/10.1111/camh.12380
Resources
Detrans Foundation (detransfoundation.com)
HCPC UK (hcpc-uk.org)
- Kirsty Entwistle
- PYL31852
IATDD (iatdd.com) [archive]
- Dr Kirsty Entwistle [archive]
- iatdd.com/dr-kirsty-entwistle
Dr Kirsty Entwistle Psychologist (uk-portugal-psychologist.com)
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
Miriam Ben-Shalom is an American educator and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Ben-Shalom was born May 3, 1948 in Waukesha, Wisconsin, one of six children in a Roman Catholic family. Ben-Shalom’s mother died when Miriam was six. After graduating high school in 1967, Ben-Shalom married and had a child. At 19, Ben-Shalom converted to Judaism, moved to Israel, joined the military, changed names, and remarried. In 1971, Ben-Shalom divorced and returned to the US, earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees from University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
In 1974, Ben-Shalom enlisted in the United States Army Reserve. After coming out as lesbian in the media, Ben-Shalom was honorably discharged in 1976. Ben-Shalom sued, and after a lengthy court battle, lost in 1990. Ben-Shalom then co-founded the Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Veterans of America (GLBVA), now American Veterans for Equal Rights (AVER). Ben-Shalom continued protesting until “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy was repealed.
Ben-Shalom taught English at Milwaukee Area Technical College. Ben-Shalom has been in a relationship with Karen Weiss (born September 1947).
Anti-transgender activism
In 2017, Ben-Shalom testified at the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs against trans rights and co-founded the Hands Across the Aisle Coalition with right-wing activist Kaeley Triller Haver. Ben-Shalom has worked with the Heritage Foundation to oppose trans rights.
Ben-Shalom also participated in the anti-trans group blog The Compassion Coalition.
Because of these hateful views, Ben-Shalom was disinvited from being grand marshal of the 2016 Milwaukee Pride Parade.
References
Jones, Andrea; Wood, Melody (March 3, 2017). Feminists and Conservatives Link Arms to Confront Transgender Ideology. The Daily Signal. The Heritage Foundation.
Anderson, Ryan T. (2018). When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment. New York: Encounter Books. p. 207. ISBN 978-1594039621.
The Bending and Twisting of Sex and Gender. Ms. Miriam Ben-Shalom on YouTube. CitizenGo. February 23, 2018
1st International Conference on Sex, Gender, and Education #GenderAndSex (February 2018). Madrid Declaration for Understanding, Respect and Freedom (PDF). Femina Europa
Polcyn, Bryan; Davis, Stephen (June 8, 2016). Transgender issues are driving a wedge in LGBT community, says activist ousted from Pride Parade. WITI
Milwaukee Pride Parade (May 3, 2016). Re: Former Grand Marshal Miriam Ben-Shalom. Facebook. Retrieved 17 April 2019.
Miriam Ben-Shalom (April 27, 2016). For your reading enjoyemnt (not sarcasm): I am no longer Milwaukee Pride’s Grand Marshal for their parade. Facebook.
-http://mcgarryfh.frontrunnerpro.com/book-of-memories/2215570/Samuel-Ages/obituary.php
Resources
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Library of Congress (loc.gov)
X/Twitter (x.com)
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
John Bickley is a conservative American writer and anti-transgender activist. Bickley is editor of The Daily Wire and co-host of Morning Wire with Georgia Mae Howe.
Background
John Taylor Bickley was born on December 24, 1976 and grew up in Tallahassee, Florida. Bickley graduated from Leon High School.
Bickley earned a master’s degree from UNC-Chapel Hill and a doctorate from Florida State University. Bickley spent several years teaching college before moving into producing conservative propaganda. Bickley is personally, spiritually, and professionally responsible for The Daily Wire’s sustained attacks on America’s 300,000 trans and gender diverse children and adolescents.
Bickley’s spouse is Danielle “Dani” Su Armstrong Bickley (born 1980). They married in 2011. They have two children.
References
Staff report (Jul 19, 2021). The Daily Wire Enters The Daily Morning News Podcast Race. Inside Radio https://www.insideradio.com/podcastnewsdaily/the-daily-wire-enters-the-daily-morning-news-podcast-race/article_09e46eda-e8b6-11eb-a33b-e35aec9f2203.html
Leonardi, Anthony (July 07, 2020). Ben Shapiro steps down as editor-in-chief in shake-up at Daily Wire. Washington Examiner https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/ben-shapiro-steps-down-as-editor-in-chief-in-shakeup-at-daily-wire
Resources
Daily Wire (dailywire.com)
Muck Rack (muckrack.com)
IMDb (imdb.com)
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Jeremy Boreing is a conservative American media executive and anti-transgender activist. He is a founder of conservative news and opinion website The Daily Wire.
Background
Jeremy Danial Boreing was born on February 5, 1979 in Slaton, Texas. After working in local theater, he moved to Los Angeles and produced several film and television projects.
In 2013, Boreing and Ben Shapiro founded conservative media watchdog Truth Revolt. In 2015 Boreing and Shapiro founded The Daily Wire.
Boreing has been involved in conservative networking in the entertainment industry. Boreing has advised PragerU on production, including using animation to avoid use issues around images and video.
After Hershey’s Chocolate included Canadian trans activist Fae Johnstone in a campaign celebrating five women for International Women’s Day, Boreing launched Jeremy’s Chocolate, with wrappers that said HeHim and SheHer.
References
Pritchett, Elizabeth (March 4, 2023). Daily Wire’s Jeremy Boreing offers alternative to Hershey’s after controversial International Women’s Day ad. Fox News https://www.foxnews.com/media/daily-wires-jeremy-boreing-alternative-hersheys-controversial-international-womens-day-ad
Resources
Jeremy Boreing (jeremyboreing.com)
I Hate Hersheys (ihatehersheys.com)
IMDb (imdb.com)
X/Twitter (x.com)
Daily Wire (dailywire.com)
- Jeremy Boreing [archive]
- https://www.dailywire.com/authors/jeremy-boreing
Michael Knowles is an American writer and anti-transgender extremist.
Background
Michael John Knowles was born March 18, 1990 in Bedford Hills, New York. He grew up in a Catholic family. As a teen he trained at the Stella Adler Studio of Acting. After he earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University, he acted in Los Angeles.
In 2016, Knowles was invited to join The Daily Wire.
He married Alissa Mahler in 2018 and has two children.
Anti-transgender activism
Knowles opposes marriage equality.
In 2019, Knowles gave a speech at the University of Missouri–Kansas City titled “Men Are Not Women,” which led to protests.
In February 2023, Knowles called for the elimination of the concept of being transgender, arguing that those who identify as transgender are “laboring a delusion, and we need to correct that delusion”. At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in March, he further stated that “there can be no middle way in dealing with transgenderism”, and that “for the good of society, transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely.”
References
Kilander, Gustaf (March 4, 2023). CPAC speaker sparks alarm with call for trans people to be ‘eradicated’. The Independent. [archive] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/cpac-transgenderism-daily-wire-michael-knowles-b2294252.html
Hawkinson, Katie (March 4, 2023). Michael Knowles Says Transgenderism Must Be ‘Eradicated’ at CPAC. The Daily Beast. [archive] https://www.thedailybeast.com/michael-knowles-calls-for-eradication-of-transgender-people-at-conservative-political-action-conference
McClure, Kelly (March 4, 2023). CPAC speaker says, “Transgenderism must be eradicated,” while claiming it doesn’t exist. Salon. [archive] https://www.salon.com/2023/03/04/cpac-speaker-says-transgenderism-must-be-eradicated-while-claiming-it-doesnt-exist/
Zoledziowski, Anya (March 6, 2023). CPAC Speaker Calls for Eradication of ‘Transgenderism,’ Crowd Goes Wild. Vice. [archive] https://www.vice.com/en/article/bvjgnq/cpac-transgenderism-speaker-called-for-eradication
Rodriguez, Matthew (March 6, 2023). CPAC Speaker Michael Knowles Says “Transgenderism Must Be Eradicated”. them [archive] https://www.them.us/story/michael-knowles-transgenderism-cpac
Resources
Michael Knowles (michaeljknowles.com)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
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James Damore is an American software engineer and conservative activist. Damore was fired from Google after writing a memo criticizing Google’s diversity policies, specifically about sex differences in cognitive ability.
Damore is considered part of the so-called intellectual dark web, a gateway to the far right. Damore was represented by anti-trans lawyer Harmeet Dhillon in subsequent legal matters. Damore was supported by many anti-trans activists and appeared on several shows connected to the alt-right.
Background
James Anthony Damore was born on April 24, 1989, in Romeoville, Illinois.
Damore earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Illinois and a master’s degree form Harvard. Damore left the Harvard doctoral program in 2013 to work at Google. Damore was determined to be autistic as an adult.
In 2017, after attending a diversity training that solicited feedback, Damore wrote a memo titled “Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber,” which asserted that due to sex differences, men are more suited to working in technology.
Activism
Damore gave interviews to numerous outlets, including many conservative and anti-trans people associated with the intellectual dark web:
Damore was supported in some of these assertions about sex differences by a number of writers, and some commented on the public reaction, including
References
Shankland, Stephen (May 9, 2020). James Damore’s diversity lawsuit against Google comes to quiet end. CNET https://www.cnet.com/culture/james-damores-diversity-lawsuit-against-google-comes-to-a-quiet-end/#google_vignette
Damore, James (July 2017). Google’s Ideological Echo Chamber. https://diversitymemo-static.s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Googles-Ideological-Echo-Chamber.pdf
Resources
James Damore (http://jamesdamore.com/)
Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/)
RationalWiki (rationalwiki.org)
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
X/Twitter (x.com)
Instagram (instagram.com)
Redbubble (redbubble.com)
- James Damore
- https://www.redbubble.com/people/jamesdamore/shop