Cristan Williams and transgender people

Cristan Williams is an American independent researcher and activist. Williams is editor of group blog TransAdvocate.

Background

According to a self-published bio, Williams “co-founded the first federally funded trans-only homeless program, pioneered affordable health care for trans people in the Houston area, won the right for trans people to change their gender on Texas ID prior to surgery, started numerous trans social service programs and founded the Transgender Center as well as the Transgender Archives.” Williams is a founding member of the Transgender Foundation of America and the Bee Busy Wellness Center.

Williams was an advisor on the books Trans Bodies, Trans Selves and The Gender Book and has contributed to The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies and TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly.

Williams earned a bachelor’s degree from Southern New Hampshire University in 2020, then took courses at online college Saybrook University, earning a master’s degree in 2024. Williams then began a doctorate program through Saybrook. Williams earned an MBA in 2025 from online school Western Governors University.

TransAdvocate

TransAdvocate.com was created in 2002. Williams became TransAdvocate’s managing editor in 2012. In 2013, Williams began the website The Terfs, which examines the “gender critical” movement of anti-trans trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs).

Williams was a key figure in the “call-out culture” within the trans community that reached its peak in 2014. Williams enlisted Laurelai Bailey, Marti Abernathey, Mari Brighe, Kelli Anne Busey, and other trolls heavily involved in online “drama” to delineate what they saw as the acceptable range of community behavior and representation. Williams was particularly invested in supporting call-out ringleader Parker Molloy, who had risen to notoriety in 2014 attacking trans artists and entertainers who did not share Molloy’s prescriptivist views on slang, slurs, and drag. Molloy resigned from group blog advocate.com that year after evidence of Molloy’s long pattern of attacks on other trans women came to light. Allison Woolbert of the Transgender Violence Tracking Portal listed Molloy in that project. In January 2015, Woolbert was revealed by TransAdvocate to have been convicted of aggravated sexual assault of a minor in 1991.

In 2014, Williams published a series called “Sexing the Body is Gender” that looked at the history of sex assignment. In 2017, Williams published a “Disco Sexology” series on anti-trans sexologists who emerged in the 1970s.

References

Brighe, Mari (July 29, 2014). Andrea James believes a straight cis woman is a better choice for the GLAAD Board than queer trans women. TransAdvocate https://www.transadvocate.com/andrea-james-believes-a-straight-cis-woman-is-a-better-choice-for-the-glaad-board-than-queer-trans-women_n_13991.htm

Brighe, Mari (April 23, 2014). Transmisogyny masquerading as parody: HuffPo’s Gay Voices promotes disturbing video from former Drag Race contestant. TransAdvocate https://www.transadvocate.com/transmisogyny-masquerading-as-parody-huffpos-gay-voices-promotes-disturbing-video-from-former-drag-race-contestant_n_13579.htm

Busey, Kelli Anne (April 9, 2014). Open letter to Andrea James and Calpernia Addams. TransAdvocate https://www.transadvocate.com/open-letter-to-andrea-james-and-calpernia-addams_n_13412.htm

Bailey, Laurelai (April 3, 2014). Lateral violence in the trans community. TransAdvocate https://www.transadvocate.com/lateral-violence-in-the-trans-community_n_13304.htm

Busey, Kelli Anne (March 26, 2014). Everyone, even fans, are appalled with Rupaul’s ‘shemale’ contest. Everyone, except GLAAD that is. TransAdvocate https://www.transadvocate.com/everyone-even-fans-are-appalled-with-rupauls-shemale-contest-everyone-except-glaad-that-is_n_13186.htm

Abernathey, Marti (August 30, 2011). To Calpernia Addams and Andrea James: Trans Cyberbullying is Never OK. TransAdvocate https://www.transadvocate.com/to-calpernia-addams-and-andrea-james-trans-cyberbullying-is-never-ok_n_4285.htm

Houston Area Rainbow Collective History (ARCH) oral histories (March 10, 2010). Cristan Williams oral history interview. https://digitalcollections.rice.edu/Documents/Detail/cristan-williams-oral-history-interview/249809

Selected writing by Williams

Williams, Cristan (August 20, 2025). Why “biological sex” is not real. TransAdvocate https://www.transadvocate.com/why-biological-sex-is-not-real_n_118140.htm

Williams, Cristan (January 23, 2024). Debunking the Dialectic of Design and Dimorphism. TransAdvocate https://www.transadvocate.com/debunking-the-dialectic-of-design-and-dimorphism_n_93273.htm

Williams C (2021). Women’s Movement, Trans Inclusion In/Exclusion From. In Goldberg AE, Beemyn G [Eds.] The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies, SAGE, ISBN 9781544393841

Williams C (2021). TERFs. In Goldberg AE, Beemyn G [Eds.] The SAGE Encyclopedia of Trans Studies, SAGE, ISBN 9781544393841

Williams C (2020). The ontological woman: A history of deauthentication, dehumanization, and violence. The Sociological Review, 68(4), 718–734. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038026120938292

Williams, Cristan (January 22, 2017). Disco sexology series. TransAdvocate

• Part 1: Dr. Zucker, CAMH, & conversion therapy (January 17). https://www.transadvocate.com/part-i-the-rise-and-fall-of-discosexology-dr-zucker-camh-conversion-therapy_n_19556.htm
• Part 2: The timeline (January 22). https://www.transadvocate.com/part-ii-the-history-the-rise-and-fall-of-discosexology-dr-zucker-camh-conversion-therapy_n_19630.htm
• Part 3: The report controversy (January 23,). https://www.transadvocate.com/part-iii-the-report-controversy-the-rise-and-fall-of-discosexology-dr-zucker-camh-conversion-therapy_n_19672.htm
• Part 4: interview with the CAMH medical director Kwame McKenzie (January 31) https://www.transadvocate.com/part-iv-interview-with-the-camh-medical-director-the-rise-and-fall-of-discosexology-dr-zucker-camh-conversion-therapy_n_19703.htm
• Part 5; Interview with Zucker’s patient Erika Muse (February 2). https://www.transadvocate.com/part-v-interview-with-zuckers-patient-the-rise-and-fall-of-discosexology-dr-zucker-camh-conversion-therapy_n_19727.htm
• Part 6: Interview with Gender Infinity co-founder Colt Keo-Meier (February 9). https://www.transadvocate.com/part-vi-interview-with-gender-infinity-co-founder-the-rise-and-fall-of-discosexology-dr-zucker-camh-conversion-therapy_n_19773.htm
• Part 7: Interview with Arlen Lev, affirmative therapy pioneer (February 15). https://www.transadvocate.com/part-vii-interview-with-affirmative-therapy-pioneer-the-rise-and-fall-of-discosexology-dr-zucker-camh-conversion-therapy_n_19880.htm
• Part 8: Interview with Dylan Scholinski author of The Last Time I wore a Dress (February 21). https://www.transadvocate.com/part-viii-interview-the-author-of-the-last-time-i-wore-a-dress-the-rise-and-fall-of-discosexology-dr-zucker-camh-conversion-therapy_n_19904.htm
• Part 9: Conclusion (March 1). https://www.transadvocate.com/part-ix-the-circular-logic-of-disco-sexology-the-rise-and-fall-of-discosexology-dr-zucker-camh-conversion-therapy_n_19923.htm

Williams C (2016). Radical Inclusion. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 3(1–2), 254–258. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-3334463

Roberts, Monica; Sandeen, Autumn; Williams, Cristan; Abernathey, Marti (January 10, 2015). THRI/TVTP Executive Director Resigns After Aggravated Sexual Assault Record Discovered (Updated). TransAdvocate https://www.transadvocate.com/thritvtp-executive-director-resigns-after-aggravated-sexual-assault-record-discovered_n_14862.htm

Roberts, Monica; Sandeen, Autumn; Williams, Cristan; Abernathey, Marti (January 8, 2015). Community Responsibility. TransAdvocate https://www.transadvocate.com/community-responsibility_n_14832.htm

Williams, Cristan (August 11, 2014). Sexing the Body is Gender series. TransAdvocate

• Intro to the ‘Sexing the Body is Gender’ Series (August 11). https://www.transadvocate.com/intro-to-the-sexing-the-body-is-gender-series_n_14019.htm
• Contextualizing the Body: Part II (August 12). https://www.transadvocate.com/contextualizing-the-body_n_14021.htm
• Debunking TERF Essentialism: Part III (August 13). https://www.transadvocate.com/debunking-terf-essentialism-part-iii-of-the-sexing-the-body-is-gender-series_n_14024.htm
• TERFs Selling Women into Rape Culture: Part IV (August 14). https://www.transadvocate.com/terfs-selling-women-into-rape-culture-part-iv-of-the-sexing-the-body-is-gender-series_n_14026.htm
• Critical of “Gender Critical:” Part V (August 15). https://www.transadvocate.com/critical-of-gender-critical-part-v-of-the-sexing-the-body-is-gender-series_n_14030.htm
• TERFism as an Obsessive Sadistic Fetish: Part VI (August 16). https://www.transadvocate.com/terfism-as-an-obsessive-sadistic-fetish-part-vi-of-the-sexing-the-body-is-gender-series_n_14033.htm

Williams, Cristan (April 28, 2014). Tranny: An Evidence-Based Review. TransAdvocate https://www.transadvocate.com/tranny-an-evidence-based-review-2_n_13593.htm

Williams, Cristan (April 15, 2014). Open Letter: 200+ Trans Women and Transfeminine People Stand Against Calpernia Addams and Andrea James. TransAdvocate https://www.transadvocate.com/open-letter-200-trans-women-and-transfeminine-people-stand-against-calpernia-addams-and-andrea-james_n_13507.htm

Williams C, Rawson KJ (2014). Transgender*: The Rhetorical Landscape of a Term. Present Tense, 3(2), 1–9. [PDF]

Williams C (2014). Transgender. TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly, 1(1–2), 232–234. https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-2400136

Williams, Cristan (2014). Alpha Male. In Ray, Douglas [Ed.] The Queer South: LGBTQ Writers on the American South, pp. 276-278. Sibling Rivalry Press, ISBN 978-1937420802

Resources

Cristan Williams: Ehipassiko (cristanwilliams.com)

TransAdvocate (transadvocate.com)

• Cristan Williams
• transadvocate.com/cristan-williams
• Author: Cristan Williams
• transadvocate.com/author/admin

Transgender Foundation of America (tfahouston.com)

The TERFS (theterfs.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

• cristanwilliams
• TransAdvocate [deleted and taken over by Summer Dylan]
• theterfs
• tgcenter

TG Center (tgctr.org) [archive]

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

• cristanwilliams

Facebook (facebook.com)

• cristan.williams
• tghelp

Amercan Board of Sexology (americanboardofsexology.org)

• Cristan Williams
• americanboardofsexology.org/sexologist/cristan-williams