“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.
Mike Abrams is an American evolutionary psychologist who authored a college textbook which catalogs a number of “disorders” about sex and gender minorities.
Note: for the American journalist involved in the New York Times’ anti-trans coverage crisis in the 2020s, see Mike Abrams.
Background
Abrams is a Supervisor, Fellow and Diplomate of the Albert Ellis Institute.
Abrams and spouse Lidia Dengelegi Abrams (born October 1960) both practice at Psychology for New Jersey.
Transgender
In 2016, he mourned the firing of anti-transgender activist Kenneth Zucker:
“The accomplished researcher & clinician in transgender studies Ken Zucker was lost to false accusations of conversion therapy. Very sad.”
Ruth Barrett is an American spiritual leader and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Ruth Bienenfeld was born on February 4, 1954 in Los Angeles to a family deeply involved in Reconstructionist Judaism. After marrying William Q. Barrett in 1977, Ruth Barrett had a child, Amanda Rebecca Barrett, born in 1978.
Barrett attended University of California, Santa Cruz to pursue an interest in spirituality and folklore, eventually joining a coven in 1977.
Barrett began performing women’s music as a teen and recorded five albums with fellow mountain dulcimer player Cyntia Smith beginning in 1981.
Barrett divorced after coming out as lesbian in 1984.
From 1991 until its closure, Barrett was heavily involved with the trans-exclusionary Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival. Barrett performed with Kay Gardner after they met there. Barrett began releasing solo works in 1990.
Barrett led Moon Birch Grove coven until 1988. That year, Barrett founded Circle of Aradia, which affiliated with Reformed Congregation of the Goddess in 1993. Barrett relocated with partner Falcon River to the Midwest in 2000, founded the nonprofit Temple of Diana, Inc. in 2001, and continues to teach and perform at music events and festivals.
Trans-exclusionary activism
In addition to involvement in Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival, Barrett is an adherent to “Dianic Wicca,” an explicitly trans-exclusionary set of beliefs and practices.
Dianic tradition is celebrated in exclusively female-only circles.
Power is sourced through our wombs, and female embodied magic that is found in every cell of her body.
A woman is a person who is an adult human female (XX).
In the current climate where transgender activists seek to eliminate protections based on biological sex, we will not participate in our own oppression and erasure by pretending that our bodies are insignificant to what makes us female, as girls and women.
We encourage males who are trans identified to create their own rites of passage that address their significant life cycle events from birth into elderhood. We welcome females who have de-transitioned and wish to reclaim their female being free of patriarchal collusion.
Female Erasure (2016)
Barrett is editor of the anthology Female Erasure: What You Need To Know About Gender Politics’ War on Women, the Female Sex and Human Rights. The book puts forth a variety of anti-trans views centered on the conspiracy theory that trans people are “erasing” women and lesbians.
Jonathan Haidt is an American psychologist and anti-transgender activist.
In 2015 Haidt co-founded Heterodox Academy to promote “intellectual diversity” and challenge “enforced orthodoxies” in academia. These are buzzwords for people who want academic freedom without academic responsibility or accountability. The organization and its conference are popular among anti-transgender activists.
Background
Jonathan David Haidt was born October 19, 1963 in New York City and grew up in Scarsdale, New York.
Haidt earned a bachelor’s degree from Yale University in 1985, then attended University of Pennsylvania, earning a master’s degree in 1988 and a doctorate in 1992. Following postdoctoral work and time working in India, Haidt took an appointment at University of Virginia in 1995. While there, Haidt published several works on positive psychology and moral psychology.
Haidt and spouse Jayne K. Riew (born 1971) have two children, Max and Francesca.
Lukianoff, Greg; Haidt, Jonathan (2019). The Coddling of the American Mind How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure. Penguin, ISBN 9780735224919
Milli Hill is a British author and anti-transgender activist. Hill was upset after reading the term “birthing person,” a value-neutral and inclusive term to describe all people who can give birth. After getting pushback about her views, Hill leaned even harder into anti-transgender activism.
Background
Milli Hill was born in January 1975 and attended Leweston school before earning a degree from Durham University in 1996. After working as an actor and dramatherapist, Hill began a writing career focusing on birth, breastfeeding, and motherhood.
Hill gave birth to three children. Hill has written three book about pregnancy and childcare and founded the Positive Birth Movement in-person support group network that was active until 2021. Hill incorporated Milli Hill, Ltd. in 2020.
On November 25, 2020, Hill was tagged in a social media post about obstetric violence that used the term “birthing people.” Hill replied:
âThanks. Good to see this post. I would challenge the term âbirthing personâ in this context though, especially on international day to end violence against women. It is women who are seen as the âfragile sexâ etc, and obstetric violence is violence against women. Letâs not forget who the oppressed are here, and why.â
The original poster replied, âObstetric violence is violence against anyone on the receiving end of obstetric violence â women, trans men, non-binary people, anyone.â
Hill replied:
âPersonally I think itâs part of violence against women but if you disagree then at least donât leave them out and say âwomen and birthing peopleâ.Â
Hill has gone on to become a leading anti-trans voice, frequently criticizing the civil rights movement in general and specific activists in particular in the press and on social media.
Julie Jaman is an American anti-transgender activist. Jaman became a celebrity among other anti-trans activists after being banned from a local swimming pool for asking a trans employee to leave the sex-segregated changing area.
Background
Julie Jaman was born in March 1942 and is a resident of Port Townsend, Washington. Mountain View Pool is a City of Port Townsend facility operated in partnership with the Olympic Peninsula YMCA.
According to reports, Jaman verbally abused 18-year old pool employee Clementine Adams, whose job was to help supervise a group of young swimmers:
Three weeks ago, that employee was doing her job of supervising a group of kids when a patron named Julie Jaman began to hurl increasingly aggressive transphobic remarks at her. Other employees told Jaman to leave, but she later returned to picket the facility. Conservative media picked up the story, people started threatening YMCA employees, and now the entire facility has had to temporarily close due to those threatening messages.
Showering after my swim at Mt. View Pool, I heard a manâs voice. Peeking out I saw a man in a womanâs bathing suit watching little girls pull down their swimsuits In order to use the bathroom. âGet out of here,â I said.
This is the incident that caused a Y staff person to condemn me as discriminatory and banned me forever from using the pool â the pool with binary changing areas that my family has supported and used for 35 years. I sense I have arrived at the center of this topsy turvy world.
Jaman quickly became part of the anti-trans outrage cycle, appearing in anti-trans publications Quillette, Feminist Current, New York Post, Daily Mail, Fox News, Rebel News, and Washington Times. The pool and YMCA soon received harassment and threats, and a right-wing militia staged a protest.
Adams, who is a college student majoring in elementary education, was supported by the facility and the city. A GoFundMe to help Adams with transition costs raised over $20,000.
Sam Leith is an English author and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Leith was born on January 1, 1974 in London and was educated at Eton and Magdalen College, Oxford. Leith is a “nepo baby” whose parents were also involved in journalism and publishing. Leith authored the 2012 memoir Going Nowhere: A Life in Six Videogames.
Leith is an officer in Leith/Bowden Productions Limited with spouse Alice Bowden and was an officer in 69 Dalberg Road Freehold Ltd with Camilla Clare Cookson. Leith is a parent to children.
Anti-transgender activism
Like anti-trans New York Times counterpart Pamela Paul, Leith gatekeeps coverage of the literary and journalistic contributions of trans and gender diverse people and our allies. Leith is also in a position to promote anti-trans authors and books, which happens regularly. As an example, Leith is a signatory on a 2020 Sunday Times open letter supporting openly transphobic author J.K. Rowling. Leith also contributes to anti-trans publication UnHerd, criticizing Judith Butler and standing up for gender critical activists who dislike the term TERF.
While Leith believes trans people should be accommodated “within the constraints available to reality,” Leith felt moved go mask off in 2023 after deciding that convicted criminal Sarah Jane Baker was emblematic of transgender activism.
Leith’s beliefs and concerns:
this “directly affects a relatively tiny proportion of the population”
“housing male-bodied sex offenders in the female prison estate” is a problem
“ideologues promoting irreversible surgery or hormone treatments on pre-pubescent children” are a problem
“biological sex is a real thing”
activists make “ever more ludicrous and uncompromising claims about the nature of reality”
