Skip to content

people

Arielle Scarcella is a conservative YouTuber and anti-transgender activist.

Scarcella is part of the trans-exclusionary lesbian movement and has been affiliated with anti-trans extremist group Gays Against Groomers. 

Background

Scarcella earned a bachelor’s degree from the Pratt Institute in 2008.

After graduating, Scarcella became a popular YouTuber. Around 2020, Scarcella began getting involved in anti-transgender activism.

Scarcella is just one voice in a growing movement defending homosexual rights. In the UK, coalitions like ‘Get the L Out‘ and Lesbian Alliance have been calling for lesbians to distance themselves from the monolithic, trans-centered LGBT movement. The LGB Alliance formed as a counter to the UK’s largest LGBT organization, Stonewall.

Macdonald (2020)

References

Stegmann, Elise (April 12, 2020). The Platform of a TERF: How Arielle Scarcella creates a trans exclusionary discourse on YouTube. diggit https://www.diggitmagazine.com/articles/platform-terf-how-arielle-scarcella-creates-trans-exclusionary-discourse-youtube

Macdonald, Jocelyn (February 28, 2020) Arielle Scarcella Has Left the Chat. After Ellen https://afterellen.com/arielle-scarcella-has-left-the-chat/

Resources

Project Toasty (projecttoasty.com) [archive]

YouTube (youtube.com)

Indiegogo (indiegogo.com)

  • indiegogo.com/projects/project-toasty–3#

Twitter (twitter.com)

Locals (locals.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Tumblr (tumblr.com)

  • projecttoasty.tumblr.com

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

Jenny Poyer Ackerman is an American anti-transgender activist. Ackerman is the unsupportive parent of a gender diverse child and author at anti-trans Substack blogs TransMuted and Year Zero.

Background

Jennifer Carol “Jenny” Poyer was born on January 20, 1964 and is married to real estate and construction executive Randall R. “Randy” Ackerman (born 1962). They have three adult children.

Jenny Ackerman has an interior design business called Glad Pad Interiors and an accessories business called Alchemy Leather Goods. Both are based in Alamo, California.

Ackerman’s Etsy profile says: “I am an interior decorator working in the San Francisco Bay Area. In the course of my work, I have found myself with piles of leftover fabrics and leather hides which I began upcycling into one-of-a-kind handbags and pillows.”

Anti-transgender activism

Ackerman is a proponent of the disputed disease “rapid-onset gender dysphoria.”

Ackerman also contributed to a 2023 anti-transgender book by Women’s Declaration International.

References

Yang, Wesley; Ackerman, Jenny Poyer (October 7, 2023).What Did You Do During the Transgender Social Contagion? Year Zero https://wesleyyang.substack.com/p/what-did-you-during-the-transgender

Staff report (February 28, 2001). Obituary: James B. Poyer. SFGate https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/James-B-Poyer-2947570.php

Ackerman, Jenny Poyer (2023). Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria and Its Discontents. In Women’s Rights, Gender Wrongs: the global impact of gender-identity ideology, Cath Aiken and SallyWainwright, eds.

Resources

Substack (substack.com)

Etsy (etsy.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)

Gary L. Francione is an American animal rights activist and anti-transgender activist. Francione claims transgender people hold “metaphysical spiritual beliefs,” so “it is not ‘transphobic’ to refuse to embrace trans belief claims.”

Background

Gary Lawrence Francione was born in May 1954. Francione earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Rochester, followed by master’s and law degrees from University of Virginia.

After clerking for judge Albert Tate, Jr., and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Francione practiced at Cravath, Swaine & Moore.

In 1984, Francione joined the faculty of University of Pennsylvania Law School, earning tenure in 1987. While there, Francione began teaching animal rights jurisprudence. In 1989, Francione took an appointment at Rutgers. In 1990, Francione co-founded the Rutgers Animal Rights Law Project with Anna Charlton, and it ran for about a decade. Francione developed the abolitionist theory of animal rights, which holds that the foundational right of animals is not to be property.

Anti-transgender activism

Francione is a sex segregationist who opposes restructuring social institutions to eliminate the remaining vestiges of sex segregation. Francione’s litany of anti-transgender complaints reveal a deep involvement in the anti-trans movement. Most of Francione’s complaints come down to “protection for women.”

In 2023, Francione posted an anti-trans manifesto on Medium, which promptly removed it it for being “content that may undermine the dignity and rights of transgender and/or non-binary individuals.” According to Francione, “I apparently violated the rules because I stated the fact that trans women are biological males.” Francione then reposted it on a personal blog.

Francione cites the work of other anti-trans activists, including Kathleen Stock, Holly Lawford-Smith, Helen Joyce, Colin Wright, Kenneth Zucker, Jo Bartosch, JK Rowling, Sonia Sodha, and Andrew Doyle. Francione also cites conservative trans people like Debbie Hayton.

Francione’s primary point is that the categories of “male” and “female” represent “biological reality.” Like many anti-trans people, Francione blames postmodernism for the current advances and refinements in thinking among biologists. Francione is especially anxious about advances in reproductive technology that threaten the sex segregationist worldview: “If you want to have offspring, you must find a member of the opposite sex.” Tell that to Dolly the Sheep. By the end of this century, the way people like Francione currently think about reproduction will be irrelevant.

Francione seems to be more annoyed and offended by transfeminine people than transmasculine people, attacking transgender athletes, transgender prisoners, “academic freedom,” and other anti-trans chestnuts. Francione finds the existence of same-gender loving trans people to be vexing and argues that refusing to date an entire group of people is not biased or prejudiced.

Francione is correct that single-occupancy toilets, changing rooms, and showering facilities for everyone are part of our movement’s goals.

References

Francione, Gary L. (August 2, 2023). The Trans Rights Issue: Equality Claims and Belief Claims. Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach https://www.abolitionistapproach.com/the-trans-rights-issue-equality-claims-and-belief-claims/

  • Original banned post: https://gary-francione.medium.com/the-trans-rights-issue-equality-claims-and-belief-claims-6511da0c843c [archive]

Francione, Gary L. (August 2, 2023). The Six Principles of the Abolitionist Approach to Animal Rights. Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach https://www.abolitionistapproach.com/about/the-six-principles-of-the-abolitionist-approach-to-animal-rights/

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Candice Horbacz is an American adult entertainer who performed as Eva Lovia. Horbacz frequently platforms conservative and anti-transgender guests.

Podcast

Horbacz has hosted Chatting with Candice since 2020. Conservative and anti-transgender guests include:

Resources

Eva Lovia (evasthings.com)

Chatting with Candice (chattingwithcandice.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

OnlyFans (onlyfans.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Laurence Fox is an English actor and conservative activist. Fox has made a number of provocative statements attacking sex and gender minorities.

Background

Laurence Paul Fox was born May 26, 1978.

Fox graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Fox appeared in several film and television roles, including The Hole, Gosford Park, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Lewis, and W.E.

Fox was married to Billie Piper from 2007 to 2016. They have two children.

Activism

Fox has disparaged the Progress Pride flag, sharing an image of it distorted into a swastika. Fox also set one on fire.

Fox has appeared on many conservative and anti-trans platforms, including Debra Soh’s podcast.

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Jonathan Chait is an American writer and anti-transgender activist. Chait defended the New York Times and their decades of anti-trans coverage. Chait frequently promotes and logrolls for other anti-trans activists, including Jamie Reed, Hannah Barnes, and Jesse Singal.

Background

Jonathan Benjamin “Jon” Chait was born on May 1, 1972 to Illene Seidman Chait and David Chait.

Chait is a writer for New York since 2011, including their newsletter titled “&c.”

Chait’s spouse Robin Joy Bouckris Chait (born 1972) is a “school choice” activist.

Anti-transgender activism

Chait credulously repeats the claims of anti-trans friends, most notably former coworker Jesse Singal.

After anti-trans activist Jamie Reed began the process of getting trans healthcare criminalized in Missouri, Chait approvingly cited fawning articles about Reed.

Reed’s article went viral on social media, and was cited by numerous conservatives and transphobes as conclusive proof that too many kids are getting transition care. A couple of prominent liberals joined in as well. Matthew Yglesias cited it as credible on Twitter and Substack. “The picture she paints of the clinic’s treatment of children is ghastly. The affidavit she signed is even worse,” wrote Jonathan Chait at New York magazine. (It’s of a piece with an ongoing trend in liberal and centrist publications of writing anxious articles raising questions about youth transition care.)

Cooper (2023)

In Splice, Noah Berlatsky noted:

Chait has embraced the idea that trans children are able to access health care too easily. In a recent New York article, he told his readers of reports that young people were coming into trans health care clinics claiming to be rocks or mushrooms, and immediately being given hormones.

This raises questions. What hormones would you give a rock? Why would you use your platform to spew unconfirmed and nonsensical rumors? Chait’s claims were quickly debunked by local reporting in St. Louis. At which point Chait wandered onto Twitter to say he was updating his “Bayesian priors” and whine because people were mocking him for being a credulous and bigoted fool. […]

Reactionary centrists like Chait want to have it both ways. They want to oppose fascism without having to stand with marginalized people, who make them uncomfortable, or just seem less respectable than middle-aged white male pundits with sinecures at major magazines. Why can’t you fight fascism and deny trans people health care? “Both sides!” Chait bellows, as he bashes out a column warning of the dangers of the powerful governor of Florida and then turns around and bashes out a column about the dangers of human rights for a despised, marginalized minority.

Berlasky (2023)

Hanna Phifer noted in The Nation:

Jonathan Chait of New York’s The Intelligencer published a piece saying that the suggestion that the Times, or any publication for that matter, has any systemic influence, is “unhinged” and that the blame “lies first with politicians and the party that pass them.” But as the open letter pointed out, that is demonstratively untrue “As recently as February 8th, 2023, attorney David Begley’s invited testimony to the Nebraska state legislature in support of a similar bill approvingly cited the Times’ reporting and relied on its reputation as the ‘paper of record’ to justify criminalizing gender-affirming care.”

Phifer (2023)

References

Phifer, Hanna (February 23, 2023). I Signed the New York Times Open Letter. I Have More to Say. The Nation https://www.thenation.com/article/society/new-york-times-open-letter-more-to-say/

Berlatsky, Noah (March 3, 2023). Jonathan Chait Tries to Be Both Anti-DeSantis and Anti-Trans. Splice Today https://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/jonathan-chait-tries-to-be-both-anti-desantis-and-anti-trans

Cooper, Ryan (March 2, 2023). The Useful Idiots Fueling the Right-Wing Transphobia Panic. The American Prospect https://prospect.org/blogs-and-newsletters/tap/2023-03-02-right-wing-transphobia-panic/

Urquhart, Evan (February 17, 2023) Jonathan Chait, Tavistock, and the Truth. Assigned Media https://www.assignedmedia.org/breaking-news/jonathan-chait-tavistock-and-the-truth

Chait, Jonathan (February 17, 2023). Fight the Anti-Trans Backlash With Accountability, Not Silence. Intelligencer https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/nytimes-letter-trans-gender-youth-accountability.html

Jonathan, Chait; Singal, Jesse (November 16, 2016). How Alarmed Should American Jews Be Right Now? Two Jews Kibitz. New York Magazine https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2016/11/is-there-a-new-american-antisemitism.html

Media

Chait, Jonathan (2007). The Big Con: The True Story of How Washington Got Hoodwinked and Hijacked by Crackpot Economics. ISBN 978-0618685400

Chait, Jonathan (2017). Audacity: How Barack Obama Defied His Critics and Created a Legacy that Will Prevail. ISBN 978-0062426970

Resources

New York Magazine (nymag.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Facebook (facebook.com)

James Esses is a British anti-transgender activist who was expelled from a university course for creating an anti-trans petition.

Esses is a founder of anti-trans trande group Thoughtful Therapists.

Background

Esses was a criminal defence barrister, later moving to civil service focused on criminal justice.

Esses was in a master’s program at Metanoia Institute. In 2021, Esses published an anti-trans petition to the UK government titled “Safeguard evidence-based therapy for children struggling with gender dysphoria.” This was in response to UK proposals to ban conversion therapies, including anti-transgender therapies.

Esses sued Metanoia after being expelled. Esses was represented by barrister Akua Reindorf and solicitor Peter Daly. Daly also represented anti-trans activists Maya Forstater, Allison Bailey, Raquel Rosario Sanchez, and Katie Alcock.

Declaration for Biological Reality

Esses promotes the anti-trans manifesto “Declaration for Biological Reality.” It is supported by numerous anti-trans organizations, including:

  • Bad Law Project
  • Critical Therapy Antidote
  • Don’t Divide Us
  • Evidence-Based Social Work Alliance (EBSWA)
  • Fair Cop
  • Family Education Trust
  • Genspect
  • HART
  • LGB Christians
  • Male Allies Challenging Sexism
  • New Culture Forum
  • Object!
  • Our Duty
  • Psychreg
  • Reclaim Party
  • Reduxx
  • Reform UK
  • ScotPAG
  • Scottish Feminist Network
  • Scottish Union For Education
  • Social Democratic Party
  • Thoughtful Therapists
  • UsForThem
  • Women’s Rights Network
  • WomenWon’tWheesht

Resources

Twitter (twitter.com)

Declaration for Biological Reality (declarationforbiologicalreality.org)

Thoughtful Therapists (thoughtfultherapists.org)

David J. Ley is an American psychologist and author. Ley has promoted and supported several anti-trans activists, including James Cantor, Benjamin Boyce, Jesse Singal, Lee Jussim, Zhana Vrangalova, Dan Savage, Debra Soh, Candice Horbacz, Kenneth Zucker, and Alice Dreger. Ley has quietly deleted some of that promotion and support after pushback.

Ley is on the editorial board of the most transphobic journal ever produced, Archives of Sexual Behavior.

Background

David Jonathan Ley, Jr. was born on January 26, 1973. Ley earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Mississippi in 1995 and a doctorate from University of New Mexico in 2001.

From 2003 to 2004, Ley was a manager at Lovelace Sandia Health System. Since 2004 Ley has been affiliated with New Mexico Solutions and was serving as Executive Director as of 2024.

Ley has served on the boards of Sexual Health Alliance, National Council for Mental Wellbeing, and New Mexico Behavioral Health Providers Association.

Ley has authored several books and frequently criticizes the spurious concept of “sex addiction.” Ley is also a critic of pathologizing many unusual sexual interests and frequently appears in mainstream media to discuss sexuality.

Ley lives in the Albuquerque, New Mexico area. Ley and spouse Roxanne Inez Candelaria-Ley (born 1973) have an adult child, Samantha. Ley trains and competes in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.

References

Ley DJ (2014). A Review of “Treating Transgender Children and Adolescents: An Interdisciplinary Discussion.” Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 40:1, 69-70, https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623X.2013.854548

Ley DJ (March 1, 2021). The Cancel Mob Is Coming. Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/women-who-stray/202103/the-cancel-mob-is-coming

Media

Benjamin Boyce (February 8, 2022). The Ins & Outs of Sex | with Dr. David J. Ley. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBAhe56Xzf8

Resources

David Ley PhD (davidleyphd.com)

New Mexico Solutions (newmexicosolutions.com)

Psychology Today (psychologytoday.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Joe Rogan is an American entertainer and one of the most influential figures in promoting and platforming conservative and anti-transgender views. Rogan is the host of The Joe Rogan Experience, which has disproportionately presented anti-trans beliefs and guests.

Background

Joseph James Rogan was born on August 11, 1967 in Newark, New Jersey. Rogan’s Catholic parents divorced when Rogan was five. Rogan lived in San Francisco and Gainesville, Florida before moving to Newton Upper Falls, Massachusetts. Rogan got involved in martial arts competitions as a teen and continued until age 21.

After graduating high school in 1985, Rogan briefly attended University of Massachusetts Boston. In 1988, Rogan began performing stand-up comedy, moving to New York City in 1990 to pursue it. In 1994 Rogan moved to Los Angeles and began acting while continuing stand-up, soon becoming a regular at The Comedy Store. Rogan starred in the sitcom NewsRadio from 1995 to 1999 and continued developing possible shows. In 1997, Rogan began a professional relationship with UFC as an interviewer and color commentator.

Rogan was an early online adopter among comedians, uploading blog posts and later video clips at joerogan.com starting in 1999. In 2000, Rogan released a comedy album. From 2001 to 2006 Rogan hosted reality show Fear Factor, and in 2003 Rogan co-hosted one season of The Man Show. In 2007 Rogan released a second stand-up special.

Rogan and Jessica Ditzel married in 2009 and have three children, one of whom is from Ditzel’s previous relationship. Rogan relocated to Austin, Texas in 2020 and opened the nightclub Comedy Mothership there in 2022.

The Joe Rogan Experience

In 2009, Rogan and Brian Redban began a podcast later titled The Joe Rogan Experience. In 2011, the podcast was picked up by SiriusXM. In 2020, Rogan made a deal with Spotify to move all but 42 episodes to their platform, with exclusive episodes starting in 2021. In 2022, about 70 additional episodes containing racially insensitive language were removed.

The podcast quickly became a key platform for laundering right-wing and anti-transgender extremism into mainstream media. A 2018 report by Data & Society found that the show was part of a network of YouTube channels logrolling alt-right and intellectual dark web extremism: “By connecting to and interacting with one another through YouTube videos, influencers with mainstream audiences lend their credibility to openly white nationalist and other extremist content creators.” Rogan dismissed the report as “guilt by association.”

See this list of selected conservative and anti-transgender guests. Themes of Rogan’s anti-trans guests include evolutionary psychology, biological essentialism, maintaining sex segregation (especially regarding transgender athletes), and attacks on policies and healthcare supporting trans and gender diverse youth. In contrast, the show has had far fewer guests with moderate or progressive views about trans people.

References

Lewis, Rebecca (September 18, 2018). Alternative Influence: Broadcasting the Reactionary Right on YouTube. Data & Society https://datasociety.net/library/alternative-influence/ [PDF]

Ellis, Philip (July 22, 2020). Joe Rogan Is Spreading Transphobic Hate Speech and It’s Putting Lives in Danger. Men’s Health https://www.menshealth.com/entertainment/a33391944/joe-rogan-abigail-shrier-interview-transphobia/

Shatto, Rachel (January 31, 2022). Joe Rogan Continues to Spew Anti-Trans Rhetoric on His Spotify Podcast. The Advocate https://www.advocate.com/news/2022/1/31/joe-rogan-continues-spew-anti-trans-rhetoric-his-spotify-podcast

Factora, James (January 31, 2022). Joe Rogan, Who Is Literally On Testosterone, Says Trans People Will Cause Societal Collapse. them. https://www.them.us/story/joe-rogan-trans-people-societal-collapse-testosterone-jordan-peterson

Factora, James (November 10, 2022). Nightmare Pairing Joe Rogan and Matt Walsh Compared Transness to Being in a Cult. them. https://www.them.us/story/joe-rogan-matt-walsh-transphobia

Resources

GLAAD (glaad.org)

Joe Rogan (joerogan.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

YouTube (youtube.com)

Spotify (open.spotify.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

IMDb (imdb.com)

Greg Lukianoff is an American author, lawyer, and anti-transgender activist. Lukianoff leads the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), a key resource for the “academic freedom” faction of anti-transgender activists.

Background

Gregory Christopher “Greg” Lukianoff was born in 1974 in New York City to Joanna Dalton Lukianoff and Basil Lukianoff. Lukianoff earned a bachelor’s degree from American University and a law degree from Stanford.

In 2012 Lukianoff married Michelle Aline LaBlanc (born 1977). Children Benjamin and Maxwell were born in ~2015 and ~2017.

Anti-transgender activism

In 2019 Lukianoff and Heterodox Academy founder Jonathan Haidt co-authored The Coddling of the American Mind.

They are key figures in promoting Alice Dreger’s cover-up of J. Michael Bailey’s fabricated “Danny Ryan” case report that got him tenure.

References

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

Staff report (October 14, 2012). Weddings: Michelle LaBlanc, Gregory Lukianoff. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/fashion/weddings/michelle-lablanc-gregory-lukianoff-weddings.html

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)