“Naozymandias” / Naomi Salama and transgender people

Naomi Salama is a transgender Finnish civil engineer and “autogynephilia” activist.

Naomi Salama on suomalainen rakennusinsinööri ja “autogynefilia”-aktivisti.

Background

Naomi Belinda Salama was born on July 7, 1998 and grew up in Espoo.

Under the name Janus Syndrome, Salama released an electronic dance music album titled MMXIV in 2014. Between 2018 and 2023, Salama did secretarial work at Helsingin yliopistollinen sairaala [Helsinki University Central Hospital] (HUS). From 2018 to 2021, Salama was music director for Espoon seurakunnat [Evangelical Lutheran congregations of Espoo].

Salama attended Aalto University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 2020, then earning a master’s degree in 2024. In May 2022, Salama began medical transition at age 23. While studying, Salama worked on planning projects for Malmö, Östersundom, and Kouvola.

“Autogynephilia” activism

Like a few other neurodiverse trans people with poor social skills, Salama became fixated on an obscure disease model of gender identity and expression created in 1989 by Ray Blanchard. It classifies transgender women into two types: gay men (homosexual transsexuals) and paraphilic men (“autogynephilic” transsexuals). Salama claims to be the “autogynephilic” (AGP) type, which according to Blanchard is a “defect in a male’s capacity for sexual learning” that predisposes people to having other “paraphilias,” like “sadism, and masochism, which––along with autogynephilia and gender dysphoria––are the most salient dimensions in nonhomosexual male gender identity disorders.” According to “autogynephilia” activist J. Michael Bailey in The Man Who Would Be Queen, “autogynephilia seems to be a type of paraphilia. Paraphilias comprise a set of unusual sexual preferences that include autogynephilia, masochism, sadism, exhibitionism (i.e., exposing one’s genitals to strangers for sexual excitement), frotteurism (rubbing oneself against strangers, such as in a crowded bus, for sexual excitement), necrophilia, bestiality, and pedophilia. Because some of these preferences (especially pedophilia) are harmful, I hesitated to link them to autogynephilia, which is not harmful. But there are two reasons to think that these sexual preferences have some causes in common. First, all paraphilias occur exclusively (or nearly exclusively) in men. Second, paraphilias tend to go together. If a man has one paraphilia, then his chances of having any other paraphilia seem to be highly elevated.”

Most experts and trans people consider this fringe terminology and taxonomy to be scientifically biased and unfalsifiable, but a few isolated activists like Salama embrace the idea. “Autogynephilia” as a taxonomy appeals to a very specific type of person: neurodiverse, fixated on collecting and categorizing, socially isolated/eccentric, rigid thinking.

Profile request (2023)

In June 2023 Salama sent this website a message titled “add me to your stupid agp activist list you hack.” The body of the email said:

hello!

I demand an explanation! why am I overlooked for your ridiculous agp activist list? after all, I seem to be an activist in this in the very literal word — very different to for example the researchers on the list.

I have repeatedly defended Blanchard, Bailey and Hsu and interact with all of them quite frequently. I am also friends with multiple other people on the list — such as Phil Illy or Naxela (why you would add him before me is beyond my comprehension, for example my twitter account @Naozymandias is way larger and I speak of agp way more and more publicly — even being retweetes by Blanchard occasionally)

as an academic myself, tho of different field of study, some of the researchers have urges me to do study into agp myself too, perhaps informally. I plan to do this after first finishing my thesis relating to urban economics.

I am also known to have created multiple “memes” relating to autogynephilia, folder of these has also been shared with multiple people on your list.

as you can clearly tell, I am invested in the subject and certainly should be considered an activist of sorts. this baffles me, why am I not on your list??? that feels rather insulting

thus, I demand to be added immediately
regards
undoubtedly in some sense of the word your enemy,
autogynephilic transsexual,
and student of urban planning and economics
Naomi Salama

Salama spoke with romantic partner Alice Chizita about these bizarre beliefs, then sent a second message clarifying:

while *I* would be glad to be added, my girlfriend hopes I am not, as she would feel bad of that — because she is not in agreement with the typology and “Blanchardism” makes her feel bad and dysphoric.

Hopefully Chizita can explain why this ideology is an unhealthy fixation and get Salama professional help. Perhaps Chizita can also guide Salama toward a better understanding of science and the importance of value-neutral terminology. If that is not possible, perhaps Chizita can get far away.

References

Salama, [Naomi] (May 3, 2020). Hämeenlinna Skylines: Cities Skylines osallistavan kaupunkisuunnittelun välineenä. Aalto-yliopisto https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/handle/123456789/47289 [deleted – no archive] https://aaltodoc.aalto.fi/items/7d62a723-bb38-4f9b-9d3a-873fe350f15b [deleted – no archive]