Louise Perry is a British writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Louise M. “Lulu” Perry is based in London. Perry grew up in a left-leaning household with a younger sibling. Perry studied anthropology and women’s studies at the SOAS University of London [School of Oriental and African Studies]. Perry published a fashion blog called Make Do On Trend. Perry’s early career involved working in a rape crisis center.
Perry has written for the New Statesman, the Daily Mail, The Critic, UnHerd, and Quillette.Â
Perry’s debut book, The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century, was published by Polity.Â
Perry is the Press Officer for the campaign group We Canât Consent To This, documenting women allegedly killed during “rough sex.” Perry is also the Research Director and Co-founder of think tank The Other Half. Â
Perry is married and has one child.
Anti-transgender activism
Perry frequently promotes anti-transgender views in publications. Perry came to believe in college that “it was completely impossible to say anything critical about trans activism in public.” That was the “first domino” that led Perry to radical feminism.
Perry left the rape crisis center after they began serving all people who had experienced sexual assault.
References
Balls, Katy (September 23, 2022). The Louise Perry Edition. The Spectator https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/the-louise-perry-edition/
Perry, Louise (June 22, 2022). Why the gender wars become so extreme.New Statesman https://www.newstatesman.com/quickfire/2022/06/gender-wars-trans-critical-activists-become-extreme
Perry, Louise (October 2020). The real facts of life.The Critic https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/october-2020/the-real-facts-of-life/
Perry, Louise (September 18, 2020). The Dishonest and Misogynistic Hate Campaign Against J.K. Rowling. Quillette https://quillette.com/2020/09/18/the-dishonest-and-misogynistic-hate-campaign-against-j-k-rowling/
Perry, Louise (November 6, 2019). What Is Autogynephilia? An Interview with Dr Ray Blanchard. Quillette https://quillette.com/2019/11/06/what-is-autogynephilia-an-interview-with-dr-ray-blanchard/
Sall Grover is an Australian writer, app developer, and anti-transgender activist. Grover founded giggle, a networking app designed to exclude transgender women.
Background
Sally “Sall” Grover was born on October 11, 1984. Parent Rob Grover is a real estate agent. After attending Bond University, Grover then moved to Hollywood.
In 2011, Emma “Em” Jensen and Sall “Face” Grover published a blog called The LA Team, chronicling their experiences in Los Angeles. Their story was optioned by Gold Circle Films and developed as Sex on the First Date. It was never produced.
For eight years, Grover lived in Los Angeles, writing and pitching: “It was a horrible life.” Grover then moved to Brooklyn and lived with a group of women.
Grover has since returned to Australia as a freelance copywriter and screenwriter for Screen Queensland and Be Media. Grover operates Wadd Holdings Pty Ltd.
Grover had a child in 2022 named Isabelle Lily.
Anti-transgender activism
In 2019, Grover set up Giggle For Girls Ltd Pty. Grover then fundraised and developed a networking app “for females.” The app used facial recognition and other techniques to exclude people, including trans woman Roxanne Tickle:
On 3 March 2022, Giggleâs lawyers at the Feminist Legal Clinic responded to the complaint, saying Tickle was âconsidered maleâ based on her appearance in the selfie and that this was why she had been removed.
Grover described Tickle as a “trans identified male” in a social media post less than three weeks later. Grover was represented by Katherine Deves.
In 2022, Grover protested a Medicare form that used the term “birthing parent.”
Podcast
In 2022, Grover released 15 episodes of The Giggle Podcast. Guests included many key anti-trans activists in Australia.
Anonymous guests
“UPenn Swimmer”
Twitter account NoSelfIDinQLD
Critic of gender-affirming group acon (AIDS Council of New South Wales)
John McWhorter is an American linguist and anti-transgender activist. McWhorter’s first public foray into discussing trans issues was banned by YouTube for violations of their hate speech policies.
Background
John Hamilton McWhorter V was born on October 6, 1965 in Philadelphia. McWhorter’s parents were both educators. McWhorter earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University in 1985, a master’s degree from New York University, and a doctorate from Stanford University in 1993. McWhorter taught at Cornell University from 1993 to 1995 and at University of California, Berkeley from 1995 to 2003. McWhorter then joined the conservative Manhattan Institute. In 2008 McWhorter took a teaching position at Columbia University.
Views on trans issues
McWhorter has made a case for singular they as a gender neutral pronoun.
In 2023, McWhorter and Glenn Loury had anti-transgender activist Mark Goldblatt on to discuss Goldblatt’s transphobic book I Feel, Therefore I Am: The Triumph of Woke Subjectivism. YouTube removed the episode for violation of their terms of service.
McWhorter stated:
We are supposed to reform our sense of what a man and a woman are. And I think any idiot knows that there is a biological business with the chromosomes. Nobody’s going to deny that.
When Loury asked about transgender youth, McWhorter said:
My gut sense is that we’re allowing people to make decisions like that too early. I haven’t thought deeply about it because the topic is so disturbing and frightening and doesn’t apply to me just yet, but my sense is that we need to consider that people are not mentally mature until they’re about 25.
And of course the counter argument is that, “Yes, but by then certain things are already irreversible.” And I would say, “Well maybe that’s the way it has to be.” That’s my gut sense of it.
And in general, the recreational ease with which one can be called “transphobic” these days is something that I am radically opposed to, as one might predict.
Regarding evolving use of the terms man and woman, McWhorter differed from Goldblatt:
But I must admit, once again I’m the weird one here because I can’t… maybe it’s probably because I’m a linguist and I study language change… I can’t quite get what’s wrong with the fluidity of those terms in our modern times.
McWhorter later related a story about speaking with a trans woman:
About eight years ago, I was at a thing, and there was somebody who was talking to me at a certain length, knew some of my work. This was somebody who was certainly born with a Y chromosome, and needed a bit of a shave, and was speaking in a voice higher than what would be normal, and Iâm sure this person was used to speaking that way, but that’s not how their voice would have come out if you woke them up in the middle of the night. And this person had long hair and was wearing a nice summer dress and high heels, and this person thought of themselves as a woman. And of course, a part of me, being somebody born in 1965, was thinking, “This is a man acting like a woman.” I canât help thinking it. But this person thought of themselves as a woman. And I thought my job is to open my mind to the idea that this person is a woman, although this person shaves, this personâ the past is clearly obvious, but this is a woman. You’re saying that I shouldâve thought. “This person on that score needs help.”
Goldblatt made a case that trans people are deluded and mentally ill, and that refining and updating terms like man and woman involve forcing others to “deny reality.”
Loury reuploaded the episode to Substack after the hate speech violation.
References
McWhorter, John (April 30, 2013). The Royal They.The New Republic https://newrepublic.com/article/112896/tyranny-pronouns-fighting-singular-they
McWhorter, John (September 4, 2018). Call Them What They Wants. The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/09/the-new-they/568993/
Peter Gajdics is a Canadian writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Peter Gajdics was born and raised in Vancouver. After undergoing “conversion therapy” in his 20s, he became a vocal opponent of the practice. He is the author of the 2017 book The Inheritance of Shame: A Memoir.
Anti-transgender activism
Rather than acknowledge that we all face the same coercive “therapies” from hateful psychologists, Gajdics complained in Quillette that the “trans rights lobby” had co-opted the movement to end conversion therapy.
Kathleen Hayes is an American writer and anti-transgender activist. Hayes believes the trans community is a “cult.”
Background
Hayes bas born in ~1968 and attended University of California, Berkeley. While there she joined the Spartacus Youth League, a revolutionary communist organization that espoused Trotskyist philosophies. Via Washington Post:
Kathleen Hayes, a Berkeley alum now working with the Spartacus Youth League, pauses from her task of passing out copies of the Workers Vanguard newspaper. She finds the disc disgusting: “The idea that the university that tried to squelch free speech is now putting up a monument to free speech is priceless. This is hypocritical. We know they can run anyone whose views they don’t like off campus.”
She said in 2022,”Since quitting in 2016, Iâve devoted myself to trying to better understand how and why so many leftistsâincluding myself all those yearsâimbibe and express antisemitism.”
Hayes earned a master’s degree at Birkbeck, University of London, in 2020. Her thesis was âMarxism, the âJewish Questionâ and the Holocaust: The Spectre Behind Contemporary Left Antisemitism.â
Her essay âAntisemitism and the Left: A Memoir,â was published in Fathom in 2021. At the time, she planned to work toward a doctorate.
Anti-transgender activism
In 2022 she presented a paper titled âPunch a TERFâ and âSmash the Zionistsâ: Misogyny and Antisemitism in the Contemporary Western Left:
Authoritarianism thrives on a dialectic of love and hate. Lonely, spiritually thirsty people in a fragmented modern world turn to authoritarian groups and movements not only for a sense of belonging and meaning, but what they experience as love. The exquisite comradeship the authoritarian group provides can only be enjoyed against another group, one deemed righteous to hate. That authoritarianism invariably fosters prejudice was best understood by the Frankfurt School, who noted that âthe authoritarian must [their emphasis], out of an inner necessity, turn his aggression against out groupsâ. They also found authoritarians hated predictable clusters of groups: their typical rightwing antisemitic subject also hated black people, foreigners and gays and had retrograde views about women.
Today many of the same illiberal, authoritarian âprogressivesâ who spew antisemitism support a misogynist rampage in the form of transactivism. Much as anti-Zionist vitriol is really directed against all Jews, transactivistsâ threats against âTERFsâ implicitly target all women. Both campaigns are driven by perverse claims about âprivilegeâ. For the authoritarian left, (âZionistâ) Jews and (âcisgenderâ) women are âoppressorsâ, so hating them is not only just, but obligatory. Raceâthe suggestion that both groups are âwhiteââplays an essential role. The contemporary struggle against antisemitism therefore calls for also grappling with the threatening, bizarre, overtly anti-materialist offensive occurring on the terrain of gender.
She posted a similar piece in Quillette titled “Gender Ideologyâs True Believers.”
Boudreau, John (July 28, 1992). Up against the scrawl.Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/07/28/up-against-the-scrawl/1d731e33-1992-486c-b299-d60786510ada/
Bernard Lane is an Australian writer and anti-transgender activist. Lane has written for anti-trans platforms including The Australian, MercatorNet, Quillette, and Substack.
Background
Lane earned a bachelor’s degree from UNSW in 1984.
Anti-transgender activism
Lane worked at The Australian from 1991 to 2022. While there, Lane created a dedicated section to attack transgender people.
In 2022 Lane began self-publishing the anti-transgender Substack Gender Clinic News.
Lane, Bernard (March 15, 2022). New media outlet examines the evidence for âgender medicine.â MercatorNet https://mercatornet.com/new-media-outlet-examines-the-evidence-for-gender-medicine/78051/ [archive]
Konstantin Kisin is a Russian-British podcaster and anti-transgender activist. Kisin gets money and attention by attacking the trans community, especially gender diverse children.
Konstantin Vadimovich Kisin was born on December 25, 1982 in the former Soviet Union and grew up in the United Kingdom after Kisin’s family emigrated there in 1994.
Beginning around 2016, Kisin began performing on stage at numerous venues. In 2018, Kisin was invited to perform at a Unicef fundraiser at London’s School of African and Oriental Studies. Kisin refused to sign a behavioural agreement requiring that controversial topics be covered in a respectful and non-abusive way.
Kisin’s 2019 show Orwell That Ends Well played at Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Kisin and Alina Kisina (born January 21, 1983 in Ukraine) were married on November 28, 2003. They have a child, Nikolai Kisin, born May 12, 2022.
Kisin is author of the 2022 book An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the West.
Anti-trans activism
Kisin and Foster founded the hard-right podcast TRIGGERnometry in 2018. In 2020 they co-founded Avian Appreciation Limited in the UK.
Kisin and Foster have platformed over 100 of the world’s most notable anti-trans activists and gender critical public figures.
In anti-trans publication Quillette, Kisin complained about alleged mistreatment due to the podcast:
Even though my co-host is an old school leftie and Iâm a centrist with a strong libertarian bent, weâve been banned from comedy clubs and lost friendships in the industry over our âright-wing podcast.â
Weâve interviewed people about the evolutionary origins of racism, the biological differences between men and women, the gender pay gap, populism, capitalism, socialism, communism and much else besides, but nothing has made us pariahs quite like defending free speech.
I have probably met and interviewed more transgender people, gender-critical feminists, detransitioners and people engaged in the âtrans debateâ than almost anyone. In preparation for these conversations, Iâve read extensively about the origins of gender ideology, the medical realities of transition and the ideological underpinnings of this emerging phenomenon.
There is no such thing as 'gender-affirming care for minors'.
The correct term is 'cutting bits off confused children'.
— Konstantin Kisin (@KonstantinKisin) May 29, 2023
References
McCubbin, Kelly (February 11, 2023). Konstantin Kisin Is Taking You for a Ride.Medium https://medium.com/@MightyMicroscope/konstantin-kisin-is-taking-you-for-a-ride-8796ec59ff11
“Vera Lindner” is the stage name of Penka Kouneva, a Bulgarian-American composer and anti-transgender activist. Kouneva is a producer of the 2023 anti-trans film No Way Back, directed by Laura VanZee-Taylor. As producer, Kouneva is responsible for including convicted sex offender David Arthur Kendall as one of the ex-trans activists featured.
Prior to engaging in anti-trans activism, Kouneva worked on the trans-created Matrix franchise and has done orchestration for the Oscars, many video games, and many science fiction media projects.
Background
Penka Dinkova Kouneva (ĐĐ”ĐœĐșĐ° ĐĐžĐœĐșĐŸĐČĐ° ĐŃĐœĐ”ĐČ) was born February 25, 1967 in Sofia, Bulgaria. Kouneva came to the US in 1990 to attend Duke University, earning a doctorate in 1997. In 2000 Kouneva moved to Los Angeles and brought several family members over.
Kouneva married musician Daniel M. Schweiger on August 29, 2004. Schweiger is a writer for assignmentx.com, buzzine.com, filmmusicmag.com, and Venice Magazine. Schweiger writes liner notes and has a composer podcast called On the Score.
They have one child born in 2006. Kouneva has stated, “The defining experience of my early 40âs was the birth of my daughter,” which came at a creative crossroads.
Kouneva is sometimes credited as Penka Kouneva-Schweiger. Because their child is likely a beneficiary of the Schweiger & Kouneva Living Trust, it’s likely not possible for their child to share any opinions that contradict Kouneva’s.
Kouneva has released several albums and has been involved in composing and orchestrating many projects. Kouneva frequently collaborates on orchestration with composers who include Steve Jablonsky, Nathan Barr, Don Davis, and Hans Zimmer.
Selected video games
Kouneva has created work for Atari, Activision, Blizzard, EA, Microsoft, Sony, Steam, Ubisoft, among others.
Enter the Matrix (2002)
World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria (2005) & Legion (2016)
Call of Duty 3 (2006)
Transformers: The Game (2007) & Revenge of the Fallen (2009)
Gears of War 2 & 3 (2008 & 2011)
The Sims 3 (2009)
Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands (2010)
StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty (2010) & Heart of the Swarm (2013)
Dragon Age II (2011)
Kinect Disneyland Adventures (2011)
Diablo III (2012)
Overwatch 1 & 2 (2016 & 2022)
Selected film and television
Kouneva has created work for Disney, DreamWorks, Lionsgate, New Line, Paramount, Regent, Sony Pictures, and Warner Bros., among others.
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Hostel (2005 & 2007)
Transformers (2007)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows (2016)
The Oscars (2020)
Anti-transgender activism
Kourneva became an anti-trans activist at the height of the 2020 pandemic lockdowns. Kouneva’s teenage child, who had previously come out as lesbian, came out as trans and asked to be referred to by a new name and masculine pronouns.
Kourneva was radicalized after reading the anti-trans book Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier.
Kourneva found a lesbian therapist, who affirmed the teen, much to Kourneva’s dismay. Kourneva refused their child’s requests for a binder and dietary supplements. Kourneva learned that the therapist suggested that Kourneva’s child speak with the family’s health insurance company about coverage for trans healthcare. That is when Kourneva pulled their child from therapy and left Los Angeles to have their child to volunteer on a farm. Concerned about losing custody because of these anti-trans views, Kourneva came up with a strategy:
What I had to do is show love, support, and kindness without affirming the delusion. Without affirming the ideology, and drawing a very clear boundary that youâre loved, youâre safe, but we will do absolutely nothing medical until you are 18.
In order to engage in anti-trans activism without having it connected to a lucrative career, Kouneva created the alias “Vera Lindner.”
Kouneva also uses the fictitious business name “Panacol Productions dba PKS, Inc.” PKS stands for “Penka Kouneva Studios, Inc.,” a California corporation Kouneva created in 2018. Under the Panacol banner, Kouneva produced the 2023 anti-trans film No Way Back.
The press release for the film was put out by Panacol and lists Kouneva as contact:
Eckerling, Debra L (August 3, 2018). Penka Kouneva Scores With Video Games.Jewish Journal https://jewishjournal.com/culture/arts/236837/penka-kouneva-scores-video-games/
American Federation of Musicians Local 47 (afm47.org)
Stephanie Winn is a conservative American therapist and anti-transgender activist associated with the ex-transgender movement. Winn collaborated with sex offender David Arthur Kendall on promoting the 2023 anti-trans propaganda project No Way Back. Winn is an associate producer on the project.
This close association with someone convicted of sex crimes against minors makes Winn a poor therapeutic choice for parents with minor children.
If you are trans or gender diverse, do not go to Winn under any circumstances at any age. If you are a minor forced to see Winn, try to end the sessions and find supportive local resources. Your parent or guardian will want to know about Winn’s poor judgment and unsavory associations.
Stephanie Winn and convicted sex offender David Arthur Kendall discussing their anti-trans propaganda project, later renamed No Way Back
Background
Winn earned a diploma in Ayurveda from the Ayurveda Institute of America in 2005. In 2007 Winn earned a teaching certification from Yoga Works and took courses at Santa Monica College. Winn earned a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Santa Cruz in 2009 and a master’s degree from California Institute of Integral Studies in 2013. While studying, Winn worked as a tutor and an administrative assistant.
Winn was a counselor for Albany Unified School District in 2012 to 2013, then did intakes at Casa de la Vida in Oakland from 2013 to 2014. In 2015 and 2016 Winn was a therapist at Native American Rehabilitation Association of the Northwest, Inc. (NARA). In 2016 Winn joined Western Psychological & Counseling Services as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT). Since 2020, Winn has been a LMFT at Real Talk Therapy PDX in Portland, Oregon.
Winn also hosts the podcast You Must Be Some Kind of Therapist.
Diana Fleischman is a Brazilian-American evolutionary psychologist and anti-transgender activist. Anti-trans activism is a family business; Fleischman’s spouse Geoffrey Miller also holds harmful views about sex and gender minorities.
Background
Diana Santos Fleischman was born in SĂŁo Paulo, Brazil and grew up in the United States. Fleischman earned a bachelor’s degree from Oglethorpe University. Under advisor David Buss, Fleischman earned a doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin 2009, then did postdoctorate work at UNC Chapel Hill.
In addition to evolutionary psychology, Fleischman is also a proponent of effective altruism, a philanthropic movement with a disproportionate number of anti-trans activists. The movement is best exemplified by cryptocurrency scammer Sam Bankman-Fried.
Fleischman is also a proponent of various aspects of eugenics, including polygenic embryo screening. Fleischman characterizes this as an aspect of transhumanism.
Fleischman and Geoffrey Miller married in 2019 and have one child.
Sex segregationism
Fleischman’s life’s work is shoring up the idea of a sex binary in humans. In a 2021 online course on “sex differences,” the syllabus included most of the key sex segregationists in academia.
The Distance Between Mars and Venus: Measuring Global Sex Differences in Personality with Tom Booth and Paul Irwing
Sex Differences in Brain and Behavior: Eight Counterpoints with David A. Puts, David C. Geary, and David P. Schmitt
Peter Fitzgerald
Biological sex differences relevant to mental health with Timothy G. Dinan
Diana Fleischman:
“Most people miss this reason women donât want casual sex”
(2014). Womenâs disgust adaptations. In Weekes-Shackelford VA, & Shackelford TK (Eds.), Evolutionary perspectives on human sexual psychology and behavior
David C. Geary
The Gender-Equality Paradox in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education. with Gijsbert Stoet
Sex Differences in Childrenâs Play
Sex differences in social development from Male, Female by David Geary
Sex Differences in Brain and Behavior: Eight Counterpoints â Marco Del Giudice, David A. Puts, David C. Geary, and David P. Schmitt
His Standards or Hers? How Men and Women Define Success
Matt Ridley
Red Queen hypothesis in The Red Queen
Stuart Ritchie
Cordelia Fine’s “Testosterone Rex” â A Review
David P. Schmitt
Would you agree to sex with a total stranger?
The Truth about Sex Differences
Sex Differences in Brain and Behavior: Eight Counterpoints â Marco Del Giudice, David A. Puts, David C. Geary, and David P. Schmitt
Aurora Sola
The science of sex differences is nothing for feminists to be afraid of
Steve Stewart-Williams
Men women and STEM with Lewis G Halsey
Larry Summers
President Summers’ Remarks at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Jan. 14 2005
Bo Winegard
The Myth of Pervasive Misogyny with Corey Clark
Unlike most of these people, Fleischman at least mentions a few people who disagree with this ideology, most notably Cordelia Fine, Daphna Joel, and Gina Rippon.
Anti-LGBT activism
Fleischman is associated with Aporia, formerly known as Ideas Sleep Furiously. Matthew Archer helped found it in 2021. In 2023 Bo Winegard joined after a long run as a Quillette contributor, and Fleischman became a podcast host.
Fleischman appeared with Louise Perry to discuss sex robots.
