Wilson was born in Detroit, Michigan and earned a bachelorâs degree in liberal arts from College of Wooster in 1982. She joined The Chronicle in 1985 and wrote for them until 2017. She and her husband Darryl Ozias (born 1956) have two sons. She joined the Iowa State University wrestling program as Director of Operations in 2017, having previously volunteered for Head Coach Kevin Dresser when one of her sons wrestled for Dresser at Virginia Tech.
The Man Who Would Be Queen (2003)
In 2003 and 2004, Wilson wrote six articles about the book and the fallout for the Chronicle. The first, which Dreger characterizes as “gossipy,” came out shortly after Bailey’s vulgar misuse of gender diverse children at Stanford University. Wilson joined Bailey on on one of his voyeuristic sex tours (see Charlotte Allen) to the gay nightclub Circuit with Anjelica Kieltyka and the woman called “Juanita” in his book. Wilson describes Bailey as using medical gatekeeping to gain access to young attractive trans women: “As a psychologist, he has written letters they needed to get sex-reassignment surgery, and he has paid attention to them in ways most people donât.”
In her 2008 article published by Kenneth Zucker, in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, Dreger singled out Wilson as the journalist who failed to cover the story objectively:
Wilson wrote these scandal reports as if she had just come upon the scene with no previous insider knowledge and no insider connections to use to figure out the truth behind this âcontroversy.â When I realized the strange role Wilson had played, I tried asking her and her editor why they hadnât used her before-and-after-scandal positioning to ask deep questions about why Baileyâs relationships appeared, at least in public accounts, to have suddenly changed with these women. Wilsonâs editor [Bill Horne] sent me back boilerplate: âWe stand by the accuracy, and fairness, of Robinâs reporting and are not inclined to revisit decisions Robin and her editors made here with regard to what to include or exclude from those stories in 2003.â But I was left obsessing about an if: If Wilson had used her special journalistic position as someone who was there just before the mushroom cloud, she might have seenâright awayâwhat I saw when years later I charted the journey.
Now, maybe Wilson would have concluded that Conway had just educated all these women into understanding they had been abused. But if she had taken this or any other theory of what had changed the scene so dramatically, and then bothered to look into the actual charges, as I was finally doing years later, she might have seen them fall apart one by one. And then she could have reported that. Was Wilson a good liberal simply afraid to look as though she was defending a straight, politically incorrect sex researcher against a group of supposedly downtrodden trans women? Had Conway and James scared the crap out of her, as they seemed to scare everybody else? Or was the explanation simpler? Was it just that trying to figure out what the hell was really going on would have taken too much time and other resources?
References
Dreger, Alice (2015). Galileo’s Middle Finger.
Dreger, Alice (2008). The Controversy Surrounding The Man Who Would Be Queen. Archives of Sexual Behavior.
Wilson, Robin (September 3, 2016). Citing Safety Concerns, Northwestern U. Bans Tenured ‘Gadfly’ Professor From Campus.
Wilson, Robin (December 10, 2004). Northwestern U. Will Not Reveal Results of Investigation Into Sex Researcher.
Wilson, Robin (December 1, 2004). Northwestern U. Concludes Investigation of Sex Researcher but Keeps Results Secret.
Wilson, Robin (December 12, 2003). Northwestern U. Psychologist Is Accused of Having Sex With Research Subject.
Wilson, Robin (July 25, 2003). Transsexual ‘Subjects’ Complain About Professor’s Research Methods.
Wilson, Robin (July 17, 2003). 2 Transsexual Women Say Professor Didn’t Tell Them They Were Research Subjects.
Horne earned a bachelor’s degree in communications from Cornell University and a law degree from Albany Law School of Union University in 1984. He was admitted to the New York Bar in 1985 and practiced for several years before going into journalism, where he has published with bylines including William W. Horne and Bill Horne.
Horne joined the Chronicle in 2000 as Deputy Managing Editor, rising to editor from 2004 to 2007. He then held editor positions at World History Group from 2008 to 2013, then joined AARP in 2014 as Executive Editor of their magazine. His wife Kathleen “Kathy” Broadbent Horne is also a lawyer.
The Man Who Would Be Queen (2003)
Chronicle staffer Robin Wilson wrote six articles covering the controversy, and Dreger was critical of the coverage, citing her correspondence with Horne:
When I realized the strange role Wilson had played, I tried asking her and her editor why they hadnât used her before-and-after-scandal positioning to ask deep questions about why Baileyâs relationships appeared, at least in public accounts, to have suddenly changed with these women. Wilsonâs editor sent me back boilerplate: âWe stand by the accuracy, and fairness, of Robinâs reporting and are not inclined to revisit decisions Robin and her editors made here with regard to what to include or exclude from those stories in 2003.â
References
Dreger, Alice (2008). The Controversy Surrounding The Man Who Would Be Queen: A Case History of the Politics of Science, Identity, and Sex in the Internet Age. Archives of Sexual Behavior. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-007-9301-1
Dreger, Alice (2015). Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and One Scholar’s Search for Justice. Penguin Books ISBN 978-0143108115
Christine McGinn is an American plastic surgeon based in Pennsylvania.
Background
Christine Noelle McGinn was born May 31, 1969 and grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. McGinn earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Moravian College in 1991, followed by a medical degree from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1995. McGinn then joined the United States Navy, Naval Aerospace Medicine Institute US Naval Flight Surgery Training.
McGinn made a gender transition starting in 2000.
McGinn was a consultand on the 2015 film The Danish Girl and has appeared on Dr. Oz, CNN with Anderson Cooper, IAm Jazz, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Memberships:
American Medical Association
American Osteopathic Association
American College of Osteopathic Surgeons
Society of United States Naval Flight Surgeons
Aerospace Medical Association
World Professional Association for Transgender Health
Gay and Lesbian Medical Association
Society for the Scientific Study of Sex
Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists
Marci Bowers is an American gynecologist, surgeon, media personality, and activist. Bowers is one of the transgender community’s most notable surgeons.
Background
Marci Lee Bowers was born January 18, 1958 in Wisconsin.
After earning a bachelor’s degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1980, Bowers earned a medical degree from University of Minnesota Medical School in 1986. Bowers completed an OB/GYN residency at the University of Washington in 1990, then worked at Swedish Medical Center. Bowers has licensure in Washington, California, New York, and Colorado.
Bowers was chosen by Stanley Biber to take over Biber’s Colorado practice in 2003. In 2010, Bowers relocated to Burlingame, California.
Bowers has completed many medical missions to Africa to make surgical revisions to the organs of women subjected to traditional genital cutting. Bowers is an elected board member of WPATH and has served on the board of directors for both GLAAD and the Transgender Law Center.
Media appearances
Bowers has appeared frequently in the media, including TransGeneration, Sex Change Hospital, Trinidad, The Tyra Banks Show, I Am Cait, and I Am Jazz.
2021 60 Minutes interview
Bowers was a source for a 60 Minutes piece on “detransition” by Lesley Stahl, Alexandra Poolos, and Collette Richards titled “Transgender Healthcare” on May 23, 2021. That report was described by GLAAD thus:
Tonight 60 Minutes / Lesley Stahl aired a shameful segment fearmongering about trans youth. Parents of trans youth could walk away with the false belief that young people are being rushed into medical transition. That is simply untrue. As the piece noted, every major medical association supports affirming, age-appropriate care for trans youth and the guidelines for that care are safe and well-established. And yet, the majority of the story was devoted to âraising concernsâ about youth accessing that care. [60 Minutes] heard concerns from several trans leaders and, after spending months on the segment, they delivered a piece which still promulgates the same anti-trans dog whistles that we hear from anti-LGBTQ activists and in state legislatures like Arkansas.
Bowers’ appearance has been cited in reporting critical of the transgender rights movement, including Fox News, The Daily Signal, and The Federalist.
In October 2021, Bowers and USPATH officer Erica Anderson chose to express their concerns about healthcare for gender diverse minors to Abigail Shrier, one of the most prominent anti-transgender activists.
When asked whether children in the early stages of puberty should be put on blockers, Bowers said: âIâm not a fan.â
When I asked Bowers if she still thought puberty blockers were a good idea, from a surgical perspective, she said: âThis is typical of medicine. We zig and then we zag, and I think maybe we zigged a little too far to the left in some cases.â She added âI think there was naivete on the part of pediatric endocrinologists who were proponents of early [puberty] blockade thinking that just this magic can happen, that surgeons can do anything.â
I asked Bowers whether she believed WPATH had been welcoming to a wide variety of doctorsâ viewpoints â including those concerned about risks, skeptical of puberty blockers, and maybe even critical of some of the surgical procedures?
âThere are definitely people who are trying to keep out anyone who doesnât absolutely buy the party line that everything should be affirming, and that thereâs no room for dissent,â Bowers said. âI think thatâs a mistake.â
The problem for kids whose puberty has been blocked early isnât just a lack of tissue but of sexual development. Puberty not only stimulates growth of sex organs. It also endows them with erotic potential. âIf youâve never had an orgasm pre-surgery, and then your puberty’s blocked, it’s very difficult to achieve that afterwards,â Bowers said. âI consider that a big problem, actually. It’s kind of an overlooked problem that in our âinformed consentâ of children undergoing puberty blockers, weâve in some respects overlooked that a little bit.â
Nor is this a problem that can be corrected surgically. Bowers can build a labia, a vaginal canal and a clitoris, and the results look impressive. But, she said, if the kids are âorgasmically naiveâ because of puberty blockade, âthe clitoris down there might as well be a fingertip and brings them no particular joy and, therefore, theyâre not able to be responsive as a lover. And so how does that affect their long-term happiness?â
Shrier called the article “probably the most important piece of my career thus far.” Bowers’ views were once again widely reported in the conservative press, including the Daily Mail, the Christian Post, TheFederalist, and the Patriot Post.
In response to Bowers’ ill-informed decision, USPATH and WPATH released a joint statement:
The United States Professional Association for Transgender Health (USPATH) and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) stand behind the appropriate care of transgender and gender diverse youth, which includes, when indicated, the use of “puberty blockers” such as gonadotropin releasing hormone analogs and other medications to delay puberty, and, when indicated, the use of gender-affirming hormones such as estrogen or testosterone. Guidelines for the assessment of transgender and gender diverse youth, as well as for the use of pubertal delay and gender affirming hormone medications have been published by reputable professional bodies, including the Endocrine Society, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, and the American Psychiatric Association.
USPATH and WPATH support scientific discussions on the use of pubertal delay and hormone therapy for transgender and gender diverse youth. We believe that such discussions should occur among experts and stakeholders in this area, based on scientific evidence, and in fora such as peer-reviewed journals or scientific conferences, and among colleagues and experts in the assessment and care of transgender and gender diverse youth. USPATH and WPATH oppose the use of the lay press, either impartial or of any political slant or viewpoint, as a forum for the scientific debate of these issues, or the politicization of these issues in any way. Furthermore, individual decisions about gender affirming interventions and treatments for transgender and gender diverse youth should be made only among the patient, their parent(s) or guardian(s), their medical and mental health provider(s), and any other identified stakeholders on a case-by-case basis, and opposes any attempts to dictate or restrict, by statute, judiciary, or otherwise, access to such treatment when recommended according to accepted standards and guidelines.
Anderson resigned from USPATH and WPATH, and Bowers posted a letter about the Shrier interview online in November 2021:
I remain disappointed by the tone and intent of the article. My comments were taken out of context and used to cast doubt upon trans care, particularly the use of puberty blockers. Worse, Jazz Jennings was disrespectfully and erroneously portrayed as a puberty blockade failure, based solely upon her television portrayal.
[…] What I hope for, most of all, is that my out-of-context comments will not be excerpted to weaponize ongoing attacks upon transgender persons.
In 2023, the New York Times published a piece by Bowers critical of the wave of anti-transgender legislation in America. Bowers touched on transgender youth medicine, low rates of regret and “detransition,” the history of WPATH and trans healthcare, then urged lawmakers not to interfere in medical decisions made by doctors with their patients.
To be sure, worthwhile questions about how best to address gender diversity, adolescent mental health and teensâ expectations about gender remain. But answers to them will not be found in legislation thatwillharm â not protect â children, families and their health care providers. We must ask ourselves: Why are legislators and politicians making medical decisions for patients and families instead of doctors?
[…]
Anti-treatment bills will not protect children, and they will not help the medical community provide better care for patients in need. We should instead take anti-transgender legislation for what it is: thinly veiled cruelty to a specific minority population of the country. These bills are symptoms of a larger problem, where belittlement and bullying are reminders of what many trans people endure as children, teenagers and young adults.
Bowers, Marci (November 2021). Dear colleagues, clients and friends. Marci L. Bowers, M.D. https://marcibowers.com/transfem/dear-colleagues-clients-and-friends/
WPATH (October 12, 2021). Joint Letter from USPATH and WPATH. (PDF) https://www.wpath.org/media/cms/Documents/Public%20Policies/2021/Joint%20WPATH%20USPATH%20Letter%20Dated%20Oct%2012%202021.pdf
Winters, Kelley (October 9, 2021). Transgender Affirmation in Retrograde. Trans Policy Reform. https://transpolicyreform.wordpress.com/2021/10/09/transgender-affirmation-in-retrograde/
Smith, Martin J. (2021). Going to Trinidad: A Doctor, a Colorado Town, and Stories from an Unlikely Gender Crossroads. ISBN 9781917895101
Publications
Bradley-Springer L (2010). Interview with Marci Bowers, MD. J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care. 2010 May-Jun;21(3):186-91. doi: 10.1016/j.jana.2010.02.008
Doo FX, Khorsandi A, Avanessian B, Bowers M, Somwaru AS. Gender Affirmation Surgery: A Primer on Imaging Correlates for the Radiologist. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2019 Dec;213(6):1194-1203. doi: 10.2214/AJR.19.21686
Kvach EJ, Hyer JS, Carey JC, Bowers M. Testicular Seminoma in a Transgender Woman: A Case Report. LGBT Health. 2019 Jan;6(1):40-42. doi: 10.1089/lgbt.2018.0173
Atkinson HG, Bowers M, Mishori R, Ottenheimer D. Comments on “Female Genital Mutilation Reconstruction: A Preliminary Report”. Aesthet Surg J. 2017 Oct 1;37(9):NP111-NP112. doi: 10.1093/asj/sjx096
Gaither TW, Awad MA, Osterberg EC, Romero A, Bowers ML, Breyer BN. Impact of Sexual Orientation Identity on Medical Morbidities in Male-to-Female Transgender Patients. LGBT Health. 2017 Feb;4(1):11-16. doi: 10.1089/lgbt.2016.0097
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
Kelley Winters (born April 18, 1957) is an American engineer and transgender rights activist. Winters has been an important figure in fighting against the pathologization of sex and gender minorities.
Background
Winters earned a bachelorâs degree from University of Illinois in 1979, then attended Eastern Illinois University and got married in 1980. She was later divorced after having two sons. Winters earned a PhD in computer engineering from University of Idaho in 1993.
In an interesting coincidence, her work built on the pioneering technology by Lynn Conway. Winters has since retired and focuses on activism.
Activism
Following her gender transition, Winters began working toward improving how trans people were depicted in clinical literature. Beginning in 2001, she began advocating for changes in the diagnosis “gender identity disorder” (GID) via her organization GID Reform Advocates.
âThis is my personal list of the most egregious problems with the current Gender Identity Disorder diagnosis. While far from comprehensive, it is perhaps a starting point for dialogue about how harm reduction of gender nomenclature might be possible in the DSMV.
Focus of pathology on nonconformity to assigned birth sex in disregard to the definition of mental disorder, which comprises distress and impairment.
Stigma of mental illness upon emotions and expressions that are ordinary or even exemplary for nontransgender children, adolescents and adults.
Lacks clarity on gender dysphoria, defined here as clinically significant distress with physical sex characteristics or ascribed gender role.
Contradicts transition and access to hormonal and surgical treatments, which are well proven to relieve distress of gender dysphoria.
Encourages gender-conversion therapies, intended to change or shame oneâs gender identity or expression.
Misleading title of âGender Identity Disorder,â suggesting that gender identity is itself disordered or deficient.
Maligning terminology, including âautogynephilia,â which disrespects transitioned individuals with inappropriate pronouns and labels.
False positive diagnosis of those who are no longer gender dysphoric after transition and of gender nonconforming children who were never gender dysphoric.
Conflation of impairment caused by prejudice with distress intrinsic to gender dysphoria.
Placement in the class of sexual disorders.”
Publications
Winters, Kelley (2009). Top Ten Problems with the GID DIagnosis. (PDF)
Winters, Kelley (2008). Gender Madness in American Psychiatry: Essays From The Struggle for Dignity (2008) BookSurge ISBN-13:Â 978-1439223888
Carey Callahan is an American therapist and prominent member of the ex-transgender movement. Despite being 30 years old when deciding to take hormones for nine months before stopping, Callahan was extensively featured in the 2018 Atlantic article, “When a Child Says She’s Trans” by Jesse Singal.
Callahan is also a founder of the Gender Care Consumer Advocacy Network (GCCAN), a group of activists with regrets about aspects of their gender transitions. GCCAN campaigns against current trans healthcare protocols, demanding more gatekeeping from therapists.
Callahan apparently does activism under the name Carey Callahan and works as a therapist under the names Carrie Maria Callahan, Carrie English, and Carrie Callahan-English.
Background
Carey Maria Callahan was born May 1, 1982. Callahan earned a bachelor’s degree from the The Ohio State University in 2004. After college, Callahan worked as a union field organizer, then as a counselor and educator at Marilyn G. Rabb Foundation, Lyon-Martin Health Services, and The Emily Program.
In June 2012, at age 30, Callahan came out as genderqueer and began therapy. In October 2012 Callahan began a course of bimonthly intramuscular testosterone injections. In March 2013, Callahan moved to San Francisco, but had trouble finding work. Callahan soon decided that the issue was “not a trans thing, but a trauma thing” related to past trauma, including a sexual assault in college. Callahan stopped testosterone in June 2013 and socially transitioned again about a year after that in 2014.
Callahan moved back to Ohio, earned a Master’s degree from the University of Akron in 2018, then worked at OhioGuidestone as a therapist from 2018 until May 2021. Callahan is married to lawyer James P. English (born 1977), and they are raising their child (born 2021).
In 2022 Callahan stated via email: “I sought out an affirming therapist when I should have been much more responsible about investigating the symptoms I was experiencing before seeking testosterone.”
Ex-trans activism
Callahan’s stated goal is “greater emphasis on and programming for those of us who explore but do not arrive at a trans identity.”
Callahan previously collaborated with Ky Schevers, another ex-trans activist who left the ex-trans movement because of “the role transphobic detrans communities play in organized transphobia.” In 2019 Callahan helped create Gender Care Consumer Advocacy Network (GCCAN). Callahan stated via email in part:
My focus when organizing GCCAN was on democratic decision making within the group and I wasn’t careful like I should have been about making sure Ky’s partner understood I was passing information on to the board for transparency’s sake, not trying to steer the group into supporting harmful legislation. I thought when we got the chance to vote against working with a ROGD parents group our decision making process was working. While I believe my intent and work was misunderstood, I can see how I was creating that risk.
Callahan’s email concluded, “It’s very sad to me that I wasn’t able to do more to steer detrans people away from being used as pawns.”
In 2019 Callahan spoke on a panel organized by anti-trans extremist organization Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF). The panel also included moderator Traci Nally and gender critical panelists Corinna Cohn and Nina Paley. Callahan discussed a 2017 USPATH presentation and a similar canceled presentation at Philadelphia Trans Wellness Conference. Callahan criticized informed consent and pediatric transition, promoted ex-trans media like Pique Resilience Project, and directed attendees to a since-deleted article titled “Advice for gender dysphoric teens” that contained links to other recommended ex-trans resources.
In 2023 Callahan testified in opposition to Ohio House Bill 68, a proposed law banning gender affirming healthcare for minors (the “Saving Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act”) and banning transgender athletes competing in sex-segregated sports in Ohio high schools, colleges, and universities (the “Save Women’s Sports Act”). Callahan’s testimony concluded:
“I am begging you to stop attacking trans healthcare and trans people. I am begging you to stop referencing detransitioners such as myself as a justification for attacking trans healthcare and trans people. You arenât protecting children from becoming a detransitioner like me. You are exiling good people from our state, traumatizing kids and families, and working hard to make Ohio a less safe place to raise kids. You are doing real harm to me personally, to my neighbors who live a cul de sac up, to the lovely trans kids I know, to the lovely discerning kids I know, to the doctors and therapists who have put in the years of education and experience to improve peopleâs quality of life. Please drop this misguided experiment and use your elected positions to help Ohioans live good lives. Thank you.”
Ohio House Bill 68 passed in 2024, banning gender affirming care for minors.
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
“Jack Molay” is the pen name of a transfeminine activist living in Norway. Molay established the blog now known as Crossdreamers back in 2008, after Molay experienced an existential crisis caused by gender dysphoria. Molay says the idea was to establish an arena for discussing cross-gender erotic fantasies in an open and positive way, getting around the stigma associated with such fantasies.Â
The term crossdreaming was originally coined as an alternative to the stigmatizing term “autogynephilia.” Even though the term crossdreaming has been presented as a neutral, and purely descriptive term (not referring to a particular explanation for such fantasies) Molay has personally dismissed the “autogynephilia” theory as a stigmatizing, sexist, pseudoscience. Instead they view crossdreaming fantasies as a natural expression of gender variance, dismissing strict binaries of sexuality and gender.
Molay has done a lot of research on crossdreaming in different groups of queer, nonbinary and transgender people, documenting, for instance, crossdreaming among people assigned female at birth (as reflected in the slash and yaoi subcultures). He has also looked into crossdreaming in historical sources, discussing, for instance, crossdreaming in the Kama Sutra and in Medieval poetry. By doing this they have undermined the idea that such fantasies are only found among “straight men.”
Molay co-founded the Crossdream Life internet forum in 2011, a place where gender variant people may discuss any form of queer, trans and nonbinary fantasies, gender expressions or identities.
Molay also runs Trans Express, a Tumblr blog covering transgender and nonbinary news and issues, which seems to be particularly popular among younger trans and queer people. As of 2019 this blog has more than 13,000 followers.
Jack Molay is a pseudonym, and they have not come out publicly as trans under their legal name. They have not transitioned, but argue that this is not to be understood as an example of what other trans people ought to do. They support trans people’s right to get the necessary support for transitioning. One might argue, though, that the fact that Molay has not transitioned may partly explain why the crossdreamer community is particularly popular among trans and queer people who are in the process of exploring their gender identity.
Molay is married to another queer activist, known as “Sally Molay” online.
Be Scofield is a transgender American activist critical of new religious movements. Scofield has characterized the progressive wing of the transgender rights movement as a âcult.â
Background
Scofield was born on October 29, 1980 and grew up in Naples, Florida. As a young adult, Scofield produced three albums of dance music under the name MC2000: Spiritual Awakening (1999), Musical Evolutions (2000), and Pyscho [sic, also sometimes styled correctly] (2000).
Scofield graduated from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in psychology/philosophy in 2006, then briefly attended the California Institute of Integral Studies before dropping out.
Scofield then worked at a yoga studio and ran a weekly âecstatic danceâ event called Metta Dance. After founding the education project Mettaversity and marketing project mettawebdesign, Scofield did marketing for sites GreenMedInfo.com and GreenMedTV.com while running a number of sites, including decolonizingyoga.com.
In 2011, Scofield came out as “trapped in the wrong body” and raised $1,640 in a crowdfunding campaign to cover gender transition costs. In 2013 Scofield earned a master’s degree in divinity at Starr King School.
Around 2018, Scofield began writing articles about alleged manipulative or abusive practices in new religious movements.
Scofield was banned from the platform Medium in July 2018 for violations including âmultiple instances of unverified and uncorroborated claims against individuals.â
Criticism of trans activism
In 2021, Scofield got involved in criticizing the transgender rights movement. Scofield specifically decries the âtactics used to silence Jesse Singal,â a writer known for laundering anti-transgender extremism into mainstream media outlets. Singal has parlayed attacks on transgender people into a lucrative career netting hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Singal has been âsilencedâ into dozens of subsequent media appearances as an expert on transgender people, usually in the place of actual medical and legal experts.
In a comparison using the ACLUâs 1978 defense of a march by Nazis in Skokie, Illinois, Scofield frames criticism of Jesse Singal as a First Amendment issue: âWhen the totalist left decrees something ideologically wrong or hateful, that should be the impetus for the speech to be protected, not censored.â If a privately-owned platform or publication decides not to publish someoneâs writing, that is not a First Amendment issue. If activists warn the public about biased people negatively influencing trans rights, that is not censorship.
In a remarkable analogy, Scofield likens Jesse Singal to Martin Luther King, and media watchdogs like GLAAD to the FBI. Scofield condemns Singal’s critics as working âto silence, ruin and derail people and ideas deemed dangerous, or ideologically wrong.â This is exactly why Singal is a once-in-a-generation problem. Singal’s masterful use of the Dregerian narrative has brainwashed followers like Scofield into believing progressive leaders of the transgender rights movement are akin to J. Edgar Hooverâs FBI, and Jesse Singal is akin to the persecuted thought leader of a civil rights movement.
Staff report (March 6, 2003). Students protest Iraq War. Fort Myers News-Press
Scofield, Be (October 28, 2011). Living Out Loud: Iâm Transgender.Tikkun http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2011/10/28/living-out-loud-im-transgender
Briedis et al. v. Scofield, Washington State 19-2-05077-28 https://dockets.justia.com/docket/washington/wawdce/2:2019cv01494/277812
Baxter, J (May 30, 2019). The Misdeeds of Be Scofield and the Mysterious Orcas Island Death of Carla Shaffer. https://baxtersjournal.com/index.php/2019/05/30/the-misdeeds-of-be-scofield-and-the-mysterious-orcas-island-death-of-carla-shaffer/ [archive]
Ky Schevers is an American writer and activist who left the transphobic “ex-trans” movement. Schevers states on the Reclaiming Trans website:
Ky Schevers played a significant role creating and promoting the radical feminist detrans womenâs community. Under the name CrashChaosCats, she wrote, made videos, presented workshops and gave media interviews in order to talk about her experiences detransitioning and promote anti-trans feminist ideology. Eventually she became disillusioned with the radical feminist movement and recognized her detransition as a harmful anti-trans conversion practice. She writes now to raise awareness of the harms of ideologically motivated detransition and the role transphobic detrans communities play in organized transphobia.
Background
Gender critical troll Katie Herzog featured Schevers prominently in a widely criticized 2017 article about “detransition” that appeared in The Stranger. Schevers is given the pseudonym “Cass” in Herzog’s piece. For seven years, neither Herzog nor The Stranger updated the original piece or covered the subsequent developments. In 2024, The Stranger republished Schevers’ 2021 update.
Schevers was also mentioned in the 2018 profile of ex-trans activist Carey Callahan in the documentary that accompanied the transphobic Atlantic piece on “detransition” by Jesse Singal. Schevers is called “CrashChaosCats” or “Crash” in that publication.
Herzog claimed that many people in the ex-trans movement “detransition” because they have a harder life from less social acceptance:
That may be true for some detrans peopleâespecially trans women, who generally have a harder time passing and who lose the benefits inherent with appearing male in societyâbut it wasn’t the case for Cass, a 31-year-old detrans lesbian in California. Cass was severely bullied as a gender nonconforming kid and says transitioning actually made life easier. She started taking testosterone at 20, and her community was largely supportive. She didn’t have a hard time finding work or people to date. “People were definitely nicer to me after I transitioned and they saw me as a man instead of a butch dyke,” Cass said.
Three months before Cass started taking testosterone, her mom committed suicide. “Transitioning was kind of a survival strategy,” Cass said. And that worked for a while, but over time, she started to sense that her dysphoria was rooted more in the trauma of her mother’s death and her own internalized misogyny than in gender identity. As an adolescent, she had been masculine, butch. “I got a lot of very harsh, negative messages about what it meant to be a woman,” Cass said. “It got to the point where I couldn’t see myself as a woman without feeling the horror other people felt toward me. Living as a man provided a kind of refuge until I was ready to dive into all that.”
When she was ready, Cass, like Jackie, looked online for advice, and she met a woman a few years older who had detransitioned. Her experiences were the sameâfrom childhood bullying and internalized misogyny to the sense that transitioning hadn’t really solved her dysphoria at all. They became friends, talking over the course of a few months, and then, after nine years living as a man, Cass came out as a woman.
It’s been four years since Cass detransitioned. She changed the gender marker on her driver’s license back to female and asked her friends and family to call her by her birth name, but she still passes as male, with a deep voice and a shade of hair on her cheeks.
“Psychologically, it was harder to detransition,” she said. She compares it to the process of working through her mom’s suicide. “It involved a lot more dealing with my trauma and facing the self-destructive parts of myself. It’s not fun, but it’s worth it.”
Cass still hasn’t told the health-care providers who helped her through her transition about the change. In some ways, she faults them for enabling her transition, even though it’s exactly what she wanted at the time. She writes about her experience online, and in one post, she says that a favored therapist “helped me hurt myself. That definitely wasn’t her intention but that’s still what happened. This contradiction is difficult to face and understand.”
In addition to her writing, Cass recently started posting videos to YouTube, where there are a growing number of detransitioning confessionals. In one video, which has been watched nearly 900,000 times, a young man reflects on his decision to detransition after living as a woman. He’s beautiful and androgynous, with long lashes framing bright-blue eyes. “I’m not like every other boy,” he said. “I can accept that now.”
There’s an offline community of detransitioners as well: In 2014 and 2015, Cass led a workshop on detransitioning at the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. (Michfest, as it was known, had a contentious history with the trans community due to its long-held “women born women” policy. The festival closed after nearly 40 years in existence in 2015.) Last year, Cass and 15 other detransitioned women got together on the West Coast for a weekend of workshops, meditation, and shared experience. Cass thinks it was the first gathering of its kind.
As one of the detransitioned women (“Cass”) interviewed for this article, I want to say I’m happy with how it came out and am glad women like me are finally getting more representation. I think it’s a very balanced and well researched piece of writing and best of all gives a marginalized group of people a chance to be heard. I’m very excited that detransitioned people are getting more opportunities to speak about our own experiences rather than having other people talk about what they think we are and what we mean. This is one of few articles out there that actually represents my life as a detransitioned woman.
I’m dismayed but not surprised by how some people are reacting to the issues this piece has raised. My life is not transphobic and making lives like mine more visible is not transphobic either. Reading that experiences like mine should not be talked about in public is infuriating. I get to be open and honest about my life and I get to work to make my experience and community more visible. There are people out there who need to know that there’s resources and support for them if they end up detransitioning. They need to know they’re not the only ones. I made a video in response to the article and people’s reactions to it that can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuI5rBWDâŠ
I would encourage people to also watch videos other detrans women made in response: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqN_9rM8⊠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kN6N6F6AâŠ
Since leaving the ex-trans cult
Schevers later teamed up with Lee Leveille to form Health Liberation Now! It is “a free, trans-run resource analyzing the social and political forces acting in opposition to health liberation for transgender, detransitioned, retransitioned, and gender diverse people, as well as those questioning their gender. We pair these analyses with collections of proactive resistance strategies that community organizers can use in pursuit of trans health liberation.”
References
Schevers, Ky (June 24, 2024). The Reality Behind the Story I Told The Stranger.The Stranger https://www.thestranger.com/queer-issue-2024/2024/06/05/79545098/the-reality-behind-the-story-i-told-the-stranger
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
Kate Bornstein is a nonbinary American author, playwright, and performer. Bornstein’s important work on gender theory helped lay the groundwork for the resurgence of trans rights and culture in the 1990s.
Background
Bornstein was born March 15, 1948, grew up in Asbury Park, New Jersey and graduated from Brown University in 1969. Bornstein joined the Church of Scientology, moving into high ranks before leaving in 1981. Bornstein transitioned in 1986 and began doing theatre in San Francisco.
In 2012, Bornstein was diagnosed with lung cancer, saying it had been cleared for two years in 2015.
Bornstein is the subject of the 2014 documentary Kate Bornstein is a Queer and Pleasant Danger. Bornstein appeared with Caitlyn Jenner on the reality show I Am Cait.
Books
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us. ISBNÂ 978-0679757016.
Nearly Roadkill: An Infobahn Erotic Adventure. Â ISBNÂ 978-1852424183.
My Gender Workbook: How to Become a Real Man, a Real Woman, the Real You, or Something Else Entirely. Â ISBNÂ 978-0415916721.
Hello, Cruel World: 101 Alternatives to Suicide for Teens, Freaks, and Other Outlaws. ISBNÂ 9781583227206.
Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation. ISBN 9781580053082.
A Queer and Pleasant Danger: A Memoir.
My New Gender Workbook: A Step-by-Step Guide to Achieving World Peace Through Gender Anarchy and Sex Positivity. ISBNÂ 978-0415538657.
Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us (Revised and Updated). ISBNÂ 978-1-101-97461-2.
