Amber Ault is an American social worker and anti-transgender activist. Ault was announced as a speaker at the 2025 conference for anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine and is a board member of anti-trans group Therapy First.
Ault is a critic of “the medicalization of youth gender nonconformity,” a phrase typically used by “gay erasure” conspiracy theorists.
Background
Amber Ault grew up in Marion, Ohio. Ault earned a master’s degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2012 and a doctorate from Ohio State University.
According to anti-trans group Therapy First:
Amber Ault, PhDÂ is a writer and interdisciplinary social scientist who studied the history of homophobia and sexism in psychiatric diagnoses during a National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral fellowship. Her clinical work focuses on supporting survivors of narcissistic abuse and her writing has been published in various academic journals including Social Work and The Sociological Quarterly. She is part of a growing number of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans adults highlighting concerns about the medicalization of gender non-conforming children and adolescents.
According to anti-trans group Beyond Trans:
Amber brings to her work in psychotherapy extensive training and experience in trauma-informed care (including EMDR) , crisis response, and sociological research on the medicalization of homosexuality and gender non-conformity. Her mental health career has included work in medical facilities and in private practice with survivors of narcissistic abuse and gaslighting. Together, these experiences draw her to working with detransitioners and parents of young people grappling with questions around sex and sexuality. Her most recent book encourages progressive parents support for helping daughters resist transition pressures.
Anti-trans activism
In August 2024, Ault held a Therapy First webinar on “Moral Injury & the Call to Recovery”: “As the harms of the gender affirming model for youth gender dysphoria become clearer, growing numbers of mental health professionals are experiencing moral injury relating to their own manipulated or coerced complicity with experimental medical interventions.”
In May 2025, Ault held a Therapy First, webinar of “Lessons from Gay & Lesbian History for Today’s Therapists”: “In addition to interdisciplinary training in the social sciences, she brings observations from work in medical contexts to her current understandings of the relationships among misogyny, homophobia, and the medicalization of youth gender nonconformity.”
In August 2025, Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine announced that Ault would be presenting at their Berlin conference on “Gender Dysphoria and Same-Sex Attraction” with Paul Garcia-Ryan and Jamie Reed. The names were later removed from the listing.
Selected publications by Ault
Ault, A., & Brzuzy, S. (2009). Removing Gender Identity Disorder from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: A Call for Action. Social Work, 54(2), 187–189. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/54.2.187
Ault, A. (1996). Ambiguous Identity in an Unambiguous Sex/Gender Structure: The Case of Bisexual Women. The Sociological Quarterly, 37(3), 449–463. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1533-8525.1996.tb00748.x
Book
Ault, Amber (2023). It’s Not Transphobic to Say Your Daughter Is a Girl: The Wise Lesbian Guide for Progressives. Close the Gaps Cultural Consulting LLC, ISBN 978-0982605363
Resources
Amber Ault (amberault.com)
Beyond Trans (https://beyondtrans.org/therapist/amber-ault/)
- Amber Ault
- beyondtrans.org/therapist/amber-ault/
Psychology Today (psychologytoday.com)
- Amber L Ault
- psychologytoday.com/us/therapists/amber-l-ault-powell-oh/790458
Facebook (facebook.com)
Quora (quora.com)