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Thomas K. Hubbard vs. transgender people

Thomas K. Hubbard is an American historian and anti-transgender activist. Hubbard is a member of SEXNET, a mailing list about sex run by anti-trans extremist J. Michael Bailey.

In 2025, while serving as President of the William A. Percy Foundation, Hubbard announced plans for funding “autogynephilia” activists interested in developing “The Autogynephilia Project,” an idea Bailey had been suggesting for some time.

Background

Thomas K. Hubbard was born on July 19, 1956 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Hubbard earned a bachelor’s degree from Santa Clara University in 1975, then a master’s degree from University of California, Berkeley in 1977. Hubbard then attended Yale University, earning master’s degrees in 1978 and 1979, and a doctorate in 1980. Hubbard taught at Bard College from 1981 to 1982, Skidmore College from 1982 to 1984, University of Minnesota from 1984 to 1985, University of Texas from 1985 to 1986, and Cornell University from 1986 to 1987.

Starting in 1988, Hubbard taught at University of Texas-Austin, earning tenure in 1993. Prior to getting tenure, Hubbard’s scholarly work mainly engaged with Greco-Roman literature.

In the late 1990s Hubbard began focusing on ancient sexualities, especially homosexuality and pederasty in classical Athens and Rome. Hubbard challenged “phallocentric” interpretations of ancient masculine sex practices. Hubbard felt that the focus on dominance and penetration described by writers like Michel Foucault and Kenneth Dover was inaccurate. After publishing Greek Love Reconsidered in 2000, in 2003 Hubbard edited the volume Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents, which collected English-language translations of primary evidence concerning same-gender relations in ancient Greece and Rome. This was followed up in 2014 with A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities.

Also during this time, Hubbard began publishing more about pederasty and age of consent. In 2016 Hubbard and Beert Verstraete edited the book Censoring Sex Research: The Debate Over Male Intergenerational Relations. In Chapter 7 on “men who have sexual relations with male minors,” David F. Greenberg mentions J. Michael Bailey and Bailey’s 2003 anti-trans book The Man Who Would Be Queen.

In 2018, Hubbard was accused by students of defending sexual relationships between adults and minors in lectures and publications. During the students’ campaign to have Hubbard removed, Hubbard’s house was vandalized. Hubbard brought libel cases against some students and sued the University of Texas for employment discrimination. As part of a settlement, Hubbard retired in December 2021 and dropped all cases against students.

William A. Percy Foundation

The William A. Percy Foundation is an American nonprofit founded in 2013 that “promotes better understanding and greater tolerance of human sexual diversity.” Their funding priority is “sexual minorities or practices that tend to be marginalized or ignored by mainstream scholarship and media.”

William Alexander Percy (1885-1942) was the wealthy heir of US Senator LeRoy Percy (D-MS). According to the foundation website: “A lover of younger black men, Percy offers a fascinating window into the intersections of race, class, religion, age, and sexuality in the segregated South of the 1920s and 30s.” Historian William Armstrong Percy III (1933–2022), a relative and the foundation’s namesake, was also interested in studying intergenerational sexual relations and age of consent: “Sexually active since the age of five, he turned his scholarly attention to gay issues in the 1980s, co-editing the Encyclopedia of Homosexuality with Wayne Dynes, co-authoring with Warren Johansson Outing: Shattering the Conspiracy of Silence (Harrington Park 1994) and Pederasty and Pedagogy in Archaic Greece (University of Illinois Press 1996).”

People involved include:

  • Thomas K. Hubbard, President and Executive Director 
  • Ryan Conrad, Director
  • Michael Shimkin, former vice chair of National Association for Rational Sexual Offense Laws
  • Shawn Rolfe, sex offender registry reform advocate
  • former directors include:
    • Harris Mirkin
    • Gert Hekma
    • Beert Verstraete
    • Thomas Waugh
    • James Dubro

In October 2025, “Isaac Q” of the William A. Percy Foundation announced funding for “The Autogynephilia Project,” writing in part:

The Percy Foundation is funding further study of this marginalized identity by an international team of prominent sexual scientists, led by Prof. J. Michael Bailey of Northwestern, and including Blanchard, Ken Zucker (long-time editor of Archives of Sexual Behavior and former head of the Gender Identity Service at Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health), and the evolutionary psychologist Paul Vasey, as well as several others. They have already performed a survey of 429 “gender variant males” recruited from social media platforms such as Reddit and X, and found that a substantial percentage self-identify as autogynephilic, even though facing rejection of their identity by many of the most vocal trans activists. The team’s goal is to produce a series of open-access scholarly articles based on this data, to be published as a special issue of Archives. In addition, they wish to create a website with the goal of explaining autogynephilia compassionately to the general public. Their hope is to bring this shunned subpopulation of the trans community into public consciousness and reduce the stigma they face.

References

“Isaac Q” (October 3, 2025). The Autogynephilia Project. William A. Percy Foundation https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=1920

Volokh, Eugene (December 20, 2021). Dismissed Professor vs. Student Libel Lawsuit Leads to Sanctions Requests, Denied All Around. Reason https://reason.com/volokh/2021/12/20/dismissed-professor-vs-student-libel-lawsuit-leads-to-sanctions-requests-denied-all-around/

“crinto” (November 22, 2021). Percy Foundation President Retires from University Teaching. https://wapercyfoundation.org/?p=796

McGee, Kate (April 16, 2021). Texas lawmakers consider limiting tenure after UT-Austin professor sued students over accusations of promoting pedophilia. The Texas Tribune https://www.texastribune.org/2021/04/16/texas-tenure-ut-austin/

Hall, Katie (December 7, 2020). UT professor files new libel suits against students who accuse him of promoting pedophilia. Austin American-Statesman https://www.statesman.com/story/news/2020/12/07/ut-professor-files-new-libel-lawsuits-against-students/3860642001/

Korte, Lara (July 23, 2020). UT professor accused of promoting pedophilia sues student for libel. Austin American-Statesman  https://www.statesman.com/story/news/education/2020/07/23/ut-professor-accused-of-promoting-pedophilia-sues-student-for-libel/42515639/

Levine, Judith (February 16, 2020). Academics Keep Their Distance From Professor Over His Field of Study. The Intercept https://theintercept.com/2020/02/16/academic-freedom-free-speech-ut-austin/

Editorial Board (December 18, 2019). A UT Professor Researches Pederasty. Why Are We Paying For It? Dallas Morning News https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/2019/12/18/a-ut-professor-advocates-pedophilia-why-are-we-paying-for-it/

Messer, Olivia (December 5 2019). Students Want Professor Fired for Writing About ‘Pederasty’ but University of Texas Says It’s Protected Speech. Daily Beast https://www.thedailybeast.com/students-want-thomas-hubbard-fired-for-work-on-pederasty-but-university-of-texas-says-its-protected-speech/

Méndez, María (December 17, 2019). UT Students Protest at Professor’s House Over His Writings on Sexual Relations Between Men and Boys. Dallas Morning News https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2019/12/17/ut-students-protest-professors-house-over-his-writings-on-sexual-relations-between-men-and-boys/

Selected writing by Hubbard

Hubbard, T.K. (2011). Athenian Pederasty and the Construction of Masculinity. In: Arnold, J.H., Brady, S. (eds) What is Masculinity?. Genders and Sexualities in History. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230307254_10

Hubbard, T. K. (2010). Sexual Consent and the Adolescent Male, or What Can We Learn from the Greeks? Boyhood Studies, 4(2), 126–148. https://doi.org/10.3149/thy.0402.126

Hubbard, T. K. (1998). Popular Perceptions of Elite Homosexuality in Classical Athens. Arion: A Journal of Humanities and the Classics, 6(1), 48–78. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20163707

Selected lectures and presentations by Hubbard

  • “Were Athlete-Trainer Relationships Pederastic?” Classical Association of the Middle West and South, 2002 meeting (Austin).
  • “History’s First Child Molester: Euripides’ Chrysippus and the Marginalization of Pederasty in Athenian Democratic Discourse.” Greek Drama III Conference (Sydney), July 2002; also delivered at Exeter University, June 2002,
  • “The Myth of Chrysippus and Developing Attitudes Toward Pederasty in Democratic Athens.” Fall General Humanities lecture, Montclair State University, November 2002.
  • Series of three lectures on “Greek Pederasty” at the University of Crete, Rethymnon, March 2003.
  • “The Reputed Cretan Origin of Greek Pederasty.” Classical Association of the Middle West and South, 2006 meeting (Gainesville, Florida).
  • “Apollo, Admetus, and the Problem of Hierarchical Pederasty.” Classical Association of the Middle West and South, 2008
  • “Greek Pederasty and the Cultivation of Masculinity.” Conference: What Is Masculinity? How Useful Is It as a Historical Category? (Birkbeck College, London), May 2008
  • “Diachronic Parameters of Athenian Pederasty.” Conference: Diachrony in Greek Literature (Duke University), October 2009; also at Classical Association of Canada, 2010 meeting (Quebec), and at the University of Amsterdam, December 2012.
  • “Greek Pederasty, The Construction of ‘Childhood,’ and Academic Freedom.” American Philological Association, 2011 meeting (San Antonio).
  • “Plato’s Symposium and the Conceptual Architecture of Greek Pederasty.” Classical Association of the Middle West and South, 2011 meeting (Grand Rapids).
  • “Solon the Pederast.” Classical Association of Canada, 2011 meeting (Halifax).

Books

  • Hubbard, Thomas K; Verstraete, Beert (2016). Censoring Sex Research: The Debate Over Male Intergenerational Relations. Taylor & Francis, ISBN 9781315432441
  • Hubbard, Thomas K. (2014). A Companion to Greek and Roman Sexualities. Wiley-Blackwell, ISBN 978-1405195720
  • Hubbard, Thomas K. (2003). Homosexuality in Greece and Rome: A Sourcebook of Basic Documents. University of California Press, ISBN 978-0520223813
  • Hubbard, Thomas K. (2000). Greek Love Reconsidered. W. Hamilton Press, ISBN 9780961549725.
  • Hubbard, Thomas K. (1998). The Pipes of Pan: Intertextuality and Literary Filiation in the Pastoral Tradition from Theocritus to Milton. University of Michigan Press, ISBN 9780472108558
  • Hubbard, Thomas K. (1991). The Mask of Comedy: Aristophanes and the Intertextual Parabasis. Cornell University Press, ISBN 978-0801425646
  • Hubbard, Thomas K. (1985). The Pindaric Mind: A Study of Logical Structure in Early Greek Poetry. Brill, ISBN 9789004073036

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Professor Watchlist (professorwatchlist.org)

William A. Percy Foundation (wapercyfoundation.org)

William A. Percy III (williamapercy.com) [archive]

  • Thomas Hubbard
  • williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Thomas_Hubbard [archive]
  • About Thomas Hubbard
  • williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=About_Thomas_Hubbard [archive]

University of Texas (utexas.edu)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)