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“Jamie Paul” / Jamie Lerman and transgender people

“Jamie Paul” is the pen name of Jamie Lerman, an American insurance broker, writer, and conservative activist. In 2021, Lerman was named managing editor at reactionary anti-trans group blog Queer Majority.

Background

Jamie Lerman was born on July 19, 1986 to Larry and Andrea Lerman and grew up in New Jersey with a sibling.

Lerman founded Halcyon Pictures with Ben Levy and produced several short films in high school and college, including The Hidden Axis (2006), The Stranger of the Forest (2007), and Punch-Out!! (2008). Lerman earned a bachelor’s degree from Drexel University in 2008. On October 13, 2010, Drexel announced awards won by Lerman’s 2010 film Five Years Later:

Jamie Lerman, Film & Video alumna, won the “Best First Time Director” and “Best New Jersey Based Feature” at the Atlantic City Cinefest for her film Five Years Later. The film was also nominated for “Best Feature Drama,” “Best Director,” “Best Lead Actor,” Best Supporting Actor,” and “Best Supporting Actress.”

In 2010, Lerman earned an insurance producer license in New Jersey and joined the family’s Allstate brokerage. In 2021, Lerman began selling policies for Esurance Insurance Company of New Jersey.

Lerman has been very active online, particularly on DeviantArt and Tumblr. Lerman has used several aliases and handles:

  • americandreaming
  • americndreaming
  • jamie888
  • jamiepaul
  • jamielerman
  • lilgretzky

Conservative and reactionary views

Lerman’s conservative writing is particularly critical of trans “activists,” which Lerman uses as a thought-terminating cliché for anyone with more progressive views. In 2025, Lerman wrote:

By virtually any measure, trans activism has failed in the US. It has proven itself a decisively losing electoral issue, been repudiated by the Supreme Court, lost the culture war, alienated a majority of society, and caused public opinion to turn against trans people. Trans activism ignited a trans backlash — one whose flames now threaten to consume LGBT rights more broadly. As a result, many political moderates are now quietly backing away from trans issues. Nobody wants to be burned again. But trans activism was only a losing issue because it was pursued by extremist bullies within the framework of a radical and authoritarian far-left ideology. Critical social justice monopolized trans activism and sucked all the oxygen out of the room, giving the impression that their methods and beliefs were the only way to advocate for trans people.

Lerman is convinced that activism in general “hasn’t been effective in decades,” displaying an ahistorical and revisionist view of the extreme tactics and remarkable effectiveness of gay and lesbian activists in the 1960s and 70s and AIDS activists in the 1980s. Trans activism has been remarkably effective since the mid-1990s, ending employment discrimination in many jurisdictions, improving media depictions and medical care, and raising greater awareness.

The millennials who have benefited from that work have not lived through a backlash before, and some conservatives choose to blame “trans activists” instead of contextualizing political shifts within a century of trans rights gains and losses.

“Activists” are not a monolithic group. Activism occurs on multiple fronts by disparate people with overlapping as well as competing goals. Lerman enjoys every privilege and benefit that others have spent a century creating from nothing. Now Lerman gets money and attention by taking potshots at “activists” from that most privileged position.

References

Staff report (November 2, 2010). 2010 Downbeach Film Fesitval Atlantic City Cinefest – Festival Award Winners and Nominations. Daily Film Forum http://www.dailyfilmforum.com/2010/10/2010-downbeach-film-festival-atlantic.html

Drexel University (October 13, 2010). News and Events: Atlantic City Cinefest. https://drexel.edu/westphal/news-events/news/2010/October/2010-10-13_Atlantic_City_Cinefest/

Selected writing by Lerman

“Paul, Jamie” (October 24, 2025). How to Fix What Ails Trans Activism. Queer Majority https://www.queermajority.com/essays-all/how-to-fix-what-ails-trans-activism

“Paul, Jamie” (July 18, 2025). Trans Activists Are Society’s Most Accomplished Transphobes: The trans movement has been a once-in-a-generation gift to the political right. And LGBT people will pay the price. American Dreaming https://americandreaming.substack.com/p/trans-activists-are-societys-most

“Paul, Jamie” (July 18, 2025). Anti-Trans Activists are Unprincipled and Depraved: The many fraudulent facades of the politics of ick. American Dreaming https://americandreaming.substack.com/p/anti-trans-activists-are-unprincipled

“Paul, Jamie” (June 6, 2025). Activism Hasn’t Been Effective for Decades. What Happened? American Dreaming https://americandreaming.substack.com/p/activism-hasnt-been-effective-for

“Paul, Jamie” (June 3, 2023). Why We Speak Past Each Other on Trans Issues: We’re not just speaking different languages — we don’t even understand our own. American Dreaming https://americandreaming.substack.com/p/why-we-speak-past-each-other-on-trans

“Paul, Jamie” (December 2, 2022). Trans Is either Real or It’s Not: Committing crimes doesn’t change that. American Dreaming https://americandreaming.substack.com/p/trans-is-either-real-or-its-not

“Paul, Jamie” (November 5, 2021). Trans Activism Is the Worst: Any activism this obnoxious better have some damn good results. And they don’t. American Dreaming https://americandreaming.substack.com/p/trans-activism-is-the-worst

Resources

Substack (substack.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

Bluesky (bsky.app)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Bi.org (bi.org)

DeviantArt (deviantart.com)

GoodReads (goodreads.com)

  • Jamie888 [previously JamieLerman]
  • goodreads.com/user/show/5044276-jamie

YouTube (youtube.com)

Tumblr (tumblr.com)

  • american-dreaming.tumblr.com [not archived]

Patreon (patreon.com)

IMDb (imdb.com)

Quora (quora.com)

  • Jamie-806 [deactivated – not archived]

New Jersey Department of Banking & Insurance (www-dobi.nj.gov)

  • New Jersey Insurance Producer license 1283046
  • via National Association of Insurance Commissioners (naic.org)

Muck Rack (muckrack.com)