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Vaush is the stage name of Ian Kochinski, and American media personality supportive of trans and gender diverse people.

Background

Kochinski was born on February 14, 1994 in Los Angeles and grew up in Beverly Hills. Kochinski earned a bachelor’s degree from Humboldt State University in 2018.

Kochinski became known for debating conservative people and conspiracy theorists, including Stefan Molyneux, Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad), Tomas Bogardus, and Debra Soh.

Media

Vaush (April 25, 2022). DEBATE VS. Dr. Debra Soh On Trans Issues, Gender, and MORE. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fK0YPY1tjJQ

Vaush (June 10, 2022). TRANS WATER – Gender Debate Gets Scientific. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1B6gqZ7Vto

Modern-Day Debate (June 8, 2022). Vaush Vs Dr. Tomas Bogardus | Are Trans-Women Women? | Debate Podcast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHxHSD4qWEM

Destiny (July 5, 2022). Debating The “Aqua” Professor Vaush Made Crazy Arguments Against. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PuIIo5VEy0

Perspective Philosophy (July 4, 2022). Discussing The Vaush Debate and Gender with Dr Bogardus. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Lld4p2ADGc

Resources

The Vaush Pit (vaush.gg)

YouTube (youtube.com)

Wikpedia (en.wikipedia.org)

X/Twitter (x.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

TikTok (tiktok.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

Jennifer Krohn is an American artist, sex segregationist, and anti-transgender activist. Krohn is the unaccepting parent of a gender diverse child. Krohn is a co-founder of Partners for Ethical Care (PEC), an American anti-transgender front group. Krohn and spouse Cyrus Krohn are part of the “parental rights” faction of anti-transgender activists.

Krohn is also an opponent of allowing trans athletes in sex-segregated competitive sport.

Background

Jennifer Lynn Comer Krohn was born in February 1969. Krohn earned a bachelor’s degree from Western Washington University. Krohn was a graphic designer at Michael Courtney Design and Ilium Associates before leaving to raise a family. Krohn is married to tech entrepreneur and political operative Cyrus Krohn (born 1970), and they have three children.

After volunteering to teach art at their children’s child’s school, Krohn began teaching art classes in Issaquah, Washington at Jennifer’s Artistical Garage.

Anti-transgender activism

Krohn became upset when their fifth-grade child began using a different name and they/them pronouns at school before Krohn knew about it.

After the school alerted Krohn that the child had mentioned self-harm in a conversation, the school counselor

“kind of sold to me the idea of using this ‘special therapist’ that was contracted with the school. Because she was under 13, I had to come in and talk to this therapist and give her written permission. At 13, I might not have even known she was seeing this therapist. At 13 in our state, children can get their own mental health without a parent’s consent or knowledge.”

Krohn’s child had ten weekly sessions. In early 2020 the therapist called and “used male pronouns for my daughter” and let Krohn know that they were going to have a family therapy session in three days. “We decided not to have the meeting with the therapist.”

Krohn’s child was also friends with many LGBTQ+ classmates, which Krohn believes “was the source of a lot of her issues.” After Krohn’s child reportedly threatened suicide again, Krohn took all of the child’s devices away.

The final straw was a school camp where Krohn’s child was given the option of staying in the boys’ cabin. Krohn claims this forced the child to say yes. Krohn kept the child from the camp and took the child out of school soon after.

Now without devices, friends, and classmates, Krohn claims the child “desisted.”

Krohn co-founded Partners for Ethical Care to assist other unsupportive parents. “It’s like we have gone to war together. That’s what it feels like. This is like a war on our families.”

References

Berman, Sarah (March 17th, 2022). Protestors Against Lia Thomas Stand Outside & Attend Women’s NCAA Championship. Swim Swam https://swimswam.com/protestors-against-lia-thomas-stand-outside-attend-womens-ncaa-championship/

Krohn et al (February 23, 2021). Response to UN https://familywatch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2021/03/PEC-Response-to-UN-Final.pdf

Krohn, Jennifer (March 8, 2022). The power of mothers. Partners for Ethical Carehttps://www.partnersforethicalcare.com/post/the-power-of-mothers

Media

Independent Women’s Forum (August 10, 2022). Identity Crisis: School Affirms 11-Year-Old’s Identity Without Parental Consent. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUNo1lq3Oec

Benjamin Boyce (September 7, 2022). Are Washington Schools Transing Kids? | w Jennifer, Accidental Activist. YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do1Rt2a-ytM

Resources

Jennifer’s Artistical Garage (jennifersartisticalgarage.com) [archive]

Partners for Ethical Care (partnersforethicalcare.com)

Cyrus Krohn (cyruskrohn.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

Soundcloud (soundcloud.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

Maud Maron is an American lawyer and anti-transgender activist.

Maron is Executive Director of anti-trans organization Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR) and holds the following positions:

  • supports sex segregationism
  • opposed trans athletes participating in competitive sex-segregated sports
  • supports disease models of gender diversity like “rapid onset gender dysphoria“
  • opposes value-neutral language like “sex assigned at birth”
  • supports noted transphobe J.K. Rowling

Background

Maud Jane Maron was born on June 9, 1971 in New York, New York. Maron earned a bachelor’s degree from Barnard College in 1993 and earned a law degree from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, Yeshiva University in 1998. Maron was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1999. Maron’s career experience includes working as an Attorney with the Legal Aid Society. 

Maron is married to private equity executive Juan Pablo Pallordet and has four children: Clara Pallordet (born ~2005), Lucio Pallordet (born ~2006), Liam Pallordet (born ~2010), and Magnus Pallordet (born ~2016).

Maron began collaborating with Bari Weiss and Suzy Weiss to further their political aims around COVID.

Maron claims to have been cancelled in 2021 for opposing critical race theory in New York public schools.

ThirdRail

Maron is founder of ThirdRail, a consultancy created to “facilitate innovation, leadership, and strategy sessions designed to breakthrough thinking without fear of judgment.” The participants include several prominent anti-trans activists:

Anti-transgender views

Maron is a sex segregationist who opposes transgender athletes. Maron also claims to have been cancelled in 2022 for supporting “single-sex spaces” and opposing changes to Title IX,

Staying silent when activists and politicians insist “trans women are women” has real world consequences for real women. The truth is, trans women are biologically male and they should be treated with dignity, love and respect. But many trans activists insist on language that erases the reality of biological women. Their desire to transcend biology, no matter how heartfelt, does not, and cannot, require me to lie or teach a generation of children a falsehood.

Girls and young women are being swept up in a social contagion which has them believing they are men. Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria, in which young women with no early childhood expression of gender dysphoria suddenly identify as trans, has spiked in the last decade. 

References

Maron, Maud (September 12, 2021). Staying Silent When You Disagree With Woke Lies Gives Them Power. We Must Speak Up | Opinion. Newsweek https://www.newsweek.com/staying-silent-when-you-disagree-woke-lies-gives-them-power-we-must-speak-opinion-1628057

Campanile, Carl (July 11, 2022). Congress candidate Maud Maron says Democrats ‘canceled’ her over transgender stance. New York Post https://nypost.com/2022/07/11/congress-candidate-maud-maron-says-democrats-canceled-her-over-transgender-stance/

Alexander, Harriet (July 13, 2021). Public defender who opposed critical race theory being taught in NYC schools claims she was forced out of her job at the Legal Aid Society because ‘she is white’ and after ‘McCarthy’ style attack labeled her racist. Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9782647/Public-defender-claims-forced-job-Legal-Aid-Society-McCarthy-style-attack.html

Campanile, Carl (February 15, 2022). Mandate foe Maud Maron hoping for AOC-like defeat of NY Rep. Carolyn Maloney. New York Post https://nypost.com/2022/02/15/maud-maron-hoping-for-aoc-like-defeat-of-rep-carolyn-maloney/

Weiss, Suzy (February 8, 2022). ‘Hell hath no fury like an angry mom’ — Meet the nation’s new political power. New York Post https://nypost.com/2022/02/08/meet-nations-new-political-power-a-coalition-of-angry-moms/

Resources

Maud Maron (maudmaron.com)

ThirdRail (thirdrail.co) [archive]

Place NYC (placenyc.org)

Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (fairforall.org)

X/Twitter (x.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Federalist Society (fedsoc.org)

Lisanne Anderson is an American amateur photographer and “autogynephilia” activist. Anderson created and maintained The Autogynephilia Resource website between 2004 and 2012 and was one of the three people responsible for about two-thirds of all the content on the main “autogynephilia” discussion group before it was banned by Yahoo.

Background

Lisanne Ferne Anderson was born on January 11, 1956 and is a native and lifelong resident of Brooklyn, New York. Anderson has extensively documented Brooklyn neighborhoods and collects historical artifacts related to the borough.

Like Canadian counterpart Willow Arune, Anderson is on disability for some unspecified ailment and is a well-known internet kook. Anderson variously claims to have mild to moderate cerebral palsy, scoliosis, or anxiety disorders which leave Anderson unable to work. Anderson has “detransitioned” at least once in 1995 and was once married.

Anderson has previously had conversations and arguments online from 1998 to 1999 with Lori Anjou, a sockpuppet Anderson created.

“Autogynephiia” activism

Despite being one of the major proponents of the disease, Anderson said on 13 June 2004, “I am not autogynephilic… I believe that all views have credibility, but that those who attempt to silence those who disagree with them lose some of their credibility in doing so.”

All views do have credibility to someone who can argue with an alter ego online. This biography documents and contextualizes the statements made by all parties in this matter, so there’s a historical record of who said what when this fake disease is finally discredited.

Proponents featured on autogynephilia.org included:

Anderson on “autogynephilia”

From “About This Website” on autogynephilia.org:

Since I made the decision three years ago to involve myself with the question of Autogynephilia I have been constantly asked why I have placed myself in such a position. Indeed, there have been times when I have wondered so myself. The intensity of hatred shown towards anyone who considers autogynephilia to be scientifically sound would make most people pause in their tracks. But the realization that the causative factor for their animosity is often fear makes it imperative to provide a venue for the dissemination of factual information about the theory.

My initial step was to involve myself with the creation of an e-mail discussion list on Autogynephilia. My hope was to create a dialogue between those on both sides of the controversy regarding the theory. However, it was during this time that Autogynephilia was becoming a focal point of politicalism within the transsexual community, and civil discussion was becoming quite difficult. One of the casualties of this environment was my own neutrality. As the arguments against Autogynephilia grew more emotional, and the decision was made by some of more visible members of the community to extract an ounce of blood from advocates of the theory I found myself compelled to speak out against such excesses. Along the way I came to believe that the motivations of these individuals came more from self-aggrandizement than concern.

Their attempts at discrediting the theory had the result of increasing awareness of it. I cannot answer with certainty whether this was an unexpected outcome, or one which the leaders had no concern towards; their only true goal was increasing their own public profile.

The need for factual information on Autogynephilia became quite plain. The source for such information would have to be those who are most familiar with it, and best able to explain it precisely and clearly.

Since the Internet (and its various search engines) makes it relatively easy to find material on almost any subject a web site devoted to Autogynephilia would be invaluable. This despite the fact that there was some intelligent content already available.

Resources

The Autogynephilia Resource (autogynephilia.org) [2004–2012 – archive]

Flickr (flickr.com)

Pinterest (pinterest.com)

Gwendolyn Ann Smith is an American writer, designer, and transgender rights activist. Smith is a pioneer in online trans resources and created what became the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.

Background

Gwendolyn Ann “Gwen” Smith was born July 22, 1967. Smith attended Pasadena City College, then began doing desktop publishing and digital design under the entity designstylestudios. Smith was an early adopter in online communities, rising to Programming Director at America Online’s onQ community, which later merged with PlanetOut.

Smith has been involved with the game Second Life since its release in 2003 and since 2019 has offered high-end professional support to the game’s power users.

Smith is married to Bonnie “Bon” Smith and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Transgender activism

Starting in 1992, Smith was the driving force behind making America Online (AOL) trans-friendly, lobbying them to change anti-trans policies. Smith developed and maintained a repository of information and resources on AOL and hosted many chats. Smith developed the Transgender Community Forum (TCF), which AOL forced to close.

In 1998, Smith founded the Remembering Our Dead Project to document anti-trans murders. That project evolved into the annual Transgender Day of Remembrance.

In 2000, Jamison Green, Dallas Denny, Jessica Xavier, Gwen Smith, Penni Ashe Matz, and Sandra Cole launched the nonprofit Gender Education and Advocacy (GEA) at the website gender.org.

Smith has written and edited for many publications, including LGBTQ Nation, The New Civil Rights Movement, and Genderfork. Smith has written a column titled “Transmisisons” for the Bay Area Reporter since 2000.

Smith designed the accompanying booklet and attended our 2004 all-transgender benefit performance of The Vagina Monologues.

Smith is subject of the 2017 book Trans/Active: A Biography of Gwendolyn Ann Smith.

This site (transgendermap.com) is dedicated to Smith and Melanie Anne Phillips for their key roles in early online resources for the community.

References

Leveque, Sophia Cecilia (2017). Trans/Active: A Biography of Gwendolyn Ann Smith. ISBN 9781618460448

Burns, Katelyn (November 20, 2019). Founder Gwendolyn Ann Smith on the 20th Anniversary of Transgender Day of Remembrance. Vogue. https://www.vogue.com/article/gwendolyn-ann-smith-interview-transgender-day-of-remembrance

Inkster, Andy (2008). Gwendolyn Ann Smith (1967–). In LGBTQ America Today: An Encyclopedia. ISBN 978-0313339905

Resources

Gwen Smith (gwensmith.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Transgender Day of Remembrance (tdor.info) [archive]

Gender.org (gender.org) [archive]

  • Remembering Our Dead: gender.org/remember [archive]
  • Host: Above & Beyond (abgender.com) [archive]

Bay Area Reporter (ebar.com)

Genderfork (genderfork.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Bluesky (bsky.app)

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.”

Ennis (2021)

Controversies

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.

Anderson (2021)

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.)

Anderson (2021)

Savage says those views have evolved:

“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.”

Badash (2014)

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:

Here Savage cites Singal’s promotion of conservative clinician Erica Anderson as evidence Singal is not transphobic.

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.

References

Rude, Mey (March 24, 2021). Cis Men Like Jesse Singal, Dan Savage Don’t Decide What’s Transphobic. The Advocate https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2021/3/24/cis-men-jesse-singal-dan-savage-dont-decide-whats-transphobic

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/

Anderson, LV (September 23, 2021). Dan Savage Revolutionized Sex. Then the Revolution Came for Him. Slate https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/09/dan-savage-advice-savage-love-criticism-interview.html

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

Dan Savage Gets Glitterbombed, Called Transphobic At University Of Oregon. The Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/02/dan-savage-glitterbombed-oregon-transphobia-_n_1071627.html

Hill-Meyer, Tobi (November 2, 2011). Dan Savage Gets Glitter Bombed for Being Transphobic. The Bilerico Project. http://www.bilerico.com/2011/11/dan_savage_gets_glitter_bombed_for_being_transphob.php

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/

University of Chicago Institute of Politics (May 27, 2014). IOP Statement on Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion. http://politics.uchicago.edu/news/entry/iop-statement-on-commitment-to-diversity-inclusion

Johnson, Andrew (June 5, 2014). UChicago Students: Dan Savage’s Use of ‘T-Slur’ Made Us Feel ‘Unsafe’. National Review http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/379649/uchicago-students-dan-savages-use-t-slur-made-us-feel-unsafe-andrew-johnson

Soave, Robby (June 9, 2014). Dan Savage Stands Up to the Speech Police, Defends His Use of ‘Tranny’, Reason http://reason.com/blog/2014/06/09/dan-savage-stands-up-to-the-speech-polic

Savage, Dan (2014). About That Hate Crime I Committed at University of Chicago | Slog”. The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2014/06/07/about-that-hate-crime-i-committed-at-university-of-chicago

Ennis, Dawn (May 3, 2021). ‘It Gets Better’ Gets New Leadership. Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/dawnstaceyennis/2021/05/03/it-gets-better-gets-new-leadership/

Resources

Dan Savage (savage.love)

The Stranger (thestranger.com)

It Gets Better (itgetsbetter.org)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Instagram (instagram.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.

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.

Pedersen gave a blurb for the 2023 anti-trans book Sex and Gender: A Contemporary Reader:

‘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.’

References

Baker, Katie J. M. (January 2021). The Road to Terfdom. Lux https://lux-magazine.com/article/the-road-to-terfdom/

Davidson, Gina (May 8, 2019). University debate on women’s rights branded ‘transphobic.’ The Scotsman https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/university-debate-on-womens-rights-branded-transphobic-1418085

Reisz, Matthew (September 28, 2020). Books interview: Sarah Pedersen. Times Higher Education. https://www.timeshighereducation.com/books/books-interview-sarah-pedersen

Livingston, Eve (December 6, 2018). How an Online Forum for Moms Became a Toxic Hotbed of Transphobia. VICE https://www.vice.com/en/article/a3mn9k/mumsnet-uk-mom-forum-terf-transphobia-feminism

Selected writing by Pedersen

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

Media

Moray House School of Education and Sport (July 25, 2019). Women’s Sex-Based Rights: What Does (& Should) the Future Hold? panel event, 5 June 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjHn1Bj5It8

Resources

X/Twitter (x.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

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.

References

Staff (June 12, 2024). Lynn Conway obituary. Sherwood Funeral Home https://memorials.sherwoodfh.com/lynn-conway/5445916/index.php

Trip Gabriel (June 15, 2024). Lynn Conway, Computing Pioneer and Transgender Advocate, Dies at 86. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/15/technology/lynn-conway-dead.html

Lang, Kristy (June 21, 2024). Last Word: Lynn Conway. BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00208pq

Smith, Harrison (June 13, 2024). Lynn Conway, microchip pioneer and trans rights advocate, dies at 86. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/obituaries/2024/06/13/lynn-conway-dead/

Hicks, Mar (June 21, 2024). Remembering Lynn Conway, of the Conway Effect, Who Helped Launch the Computing Revolution. Scientific American https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/remembering-lynn-conway-of-the-conway-effect-who-helped-launch-the-computing/

Goodrich, Joanna (June 20, 2024). Honoring the Legacy of Chip Design Innovator Lynn Conway. IEEE Spectrum https://spectrum.ieee.org/chip-design-innovator-lynn-conway

Hiltzik, Michael (June 11, 2024). Column: Lynn Conway, leading computer scientist and transgender pioneer, dies at 86. Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2024-06-11/lynn-conway-leading-computer-scientist-and-transgender-pioneer-dies-at-85

Moore, Nicole Casal (June 11, 2024). The legacy of Lynn Conway, chip design pioneer and transgender-rights advocate. University of Michigan Engineering News https://news.engin.umich.edu/2024/06/the-legacy-of-lynn-conway-chip-design-pioneer-and-transgender-rights-advocate/

Dodds, Io (June 15, 2024). Why losing trans pioneer Lynn Conway feels like a death in the family. The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/lynn-conway-death-obituary-b2563216.html

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

Cramer, Maria (November 21, 2020). 52 Years Later, IBM Apologizes for Firing Transgender Woman. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/21/business/lynn-conway-ibm-transgender.html

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]

Staff report (May 29, 2014). 21 Transgender People Who Influenced American Culture. Time https://time.com/130734/transgender-celebrities-actors-athletes-in-america/

Dodds, Io (December 4, 2023). ‘I was completely, manically joyful’: How a trans woman changed computing in the modern world. The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/iphone-science-trans-woman-lynn-conway-b2458269.html

Alicandri, Jeremy. IBM Apologizes For Firing Computer Pioneer For Being Transgender…52 Years Later. Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/jeremyalicandri/2020/11/18/ibm-apologizes-for-firing-computer-pioneer/

Paul Wallich (December 2000). Profile: Lynn Conway—Completing the Circuit. Scientific American https://www.jstor.org/stable/26058967

Conway, Lynn (2012). Reminiscences of the VLSI Revolution: How a Series of Failures Triggered a Paradigm Shift in Digital Design (PDF). Solid-State Circuits Magazine. Vol. 4, no. 4. IEEE. pp. 8–31. doi:10.1109/MSSC.2012.2215752.

Media

Mead, Carver; Conway, Lynn (1980). Introduction to VLSI Systems. Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0201043580

National Inventors Hall of Fame (April 14, 2023). Providing Freedom: The Lynn Conway Story. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6tb8qBgWXU

Michigan Engineering (October 8, 2014). Lynn Conway reflects on her gender transition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kJ-N54cQu4

Resources

Lynn Conway (lynnconway.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Facebook (facebook.com)

National Inventors Hall of Fame (invent.org)

X/Twitter (x.com)

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.

In 2009, Allison joined our protest at the American Psychiatric Association protest for including Kenneth Zucker and Ray Blanchard on the revision committee for the DSM-V. After speaking at the protest, Allison gave a speech at the meeting:

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.

References

American Medical Association (2024). 2024 LGBTQ+ Interim Meeting – Rebecca Allison Memorial. https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/i24-lgbtg-rebecca-allison-memorial.pdf

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

Petros, George (November 2018). Dr. Becky Allison, Cardiologist. https://www.georgepetros.com/writings/tnt/Dr-Becky-Allison.htm

American College of Cardiology (July 1, 2016). Clinical Innovators: Advocating for Equal Treatment | An Interview with Rebecca Allison, MD. https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/articles/2016/07/19/10/14/clinical-innovators

Avicolli-Mecca, Tommi (May 21, 2009). Being Transgender is Not a Mental Disorder. BeyondChron https://beyondchron.org/being-transgender-is-not-a-mental-disorder/

Selected publications

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 (2012). Ten things transgender persons should discuss with their health care provider. Gay and Lesbian Medical Association https://glma.org/10_things_transgender_people_s.php

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]

Allison RA (1999, Summer). Autogynephilia: Reply to Dr. Anne Lawrence. Transgender Tapestry, 1(86), 50-52. https://archive.org/details/transgendertapes9220unse

Allison RA (December 16, 1998). Janice Raymond and Autogynephilia. Dr. Becky http://www.drbecky.com/raymond.html [archive] Also published in Transgender Tapestry #94, Spring 2001 https://archive.org/details/transgendertapes9320unse

Media

HRC Arizona (March 28, 2012). Dr Becky Allison Individual Equality Awardee. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7dsujnNDhDY

Shadow Rock UCC (December 8, 2024). Celebration of Life – Dr. Rebecca Allison. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTSQLZtIR7c

Resources

Dr. Becky (drbecky.com) [archive]

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Like Her (likeher.org)

LGBTQ Religious Archives Network (lgbtqreligiousarchives.org)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Prabook (prabook.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

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 (2018)

“Cancel culture” comments

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.

Marron (2020)

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 Times op-ed expressing compassion for Ryan Morgan, a 17-year-old Wisconsin boy profiled in a much-maligned Esquire cover 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.

Daum (2019)

References

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/

Daum, Meghan (June 26, 2019) The Outrage Antidote: Writer and recovering Twitter-holic Robyn Kanner on social media call-out culture and making a human connection. https://gen.medium.com/the-outrage-antidote-a8c2a76a4789

Christine, Theresa (March 9, 2021). After a Winning Election Campaign Design, Robyn Kanner Has Started Her Own Studio. Print https://www.printmag.com/post/after-a-winning-election-campaign-design-robyn-kanner-has-started-her-own-studio

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

Singal, Jesse (May 23, 2019). Those Who Speak Out Against Cancel Culture Must Be Cancelled Immediately (Robyn Kanner). Singal-Minded / Substack https://jessesingal.substack.com/p/those-who-speak-out-against-cancel

Essmaker, Tina (June 13, 2017). Robyn Kanner. The Great Discontent https://thegreatdiscontent.com/interview/robyn-kanner/

Zanger, Doug (April 25, 2017 ). Changing the transgender narrative through design and care. The Drum https://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/04/25/changing-the-transgender-narrative-through-design-and-care

Smith, Lilly (December 22, 2020). Design for all Americans: How Biden’s design team helped defeat Trump. Fast Company https://www.fastcompany.com/90583515/design-for-all-americans-how-bidens-design-team-helped-defeat-trump

Resources

MyTransHealth (mytranshealth.com) [last updated ~2018] [archive]

Studio Gradients (studiogradients.com)

Studio Mosaic (studiomosaic.co)

  • mosaicstg.com

Robyn Kanner (robynkanner.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

  • robynkanner [deleted]

Instagram (instagram.com)

  • robynkanner [deleted]

Medium (medium.com)

  • robynkanner [deleted – archive]

Muck Rack (muckrack.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)

Chartwell Speakers (chartwellspeakers.com)

  • Robyn Kanner [removed – archive]

The Atlantic (theatlantic.com)

New York Times (nytimes.com)

VICE (vice.com)

Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.