“Jack Molay” and transgender people

“Jack Molay” is the pen name of a transfeminine activist living in Norway. “Molay” coined the term “crossdreaming” as a value-neutral descriptor of erotic interest in making a gender transition.

Background

The name “Jack D. Molay” is a play on Jacques de Molay, the last grand master of the Knights Templar. “Molay” is reportedly married to another queer activist, known as “Sally Molay” online. “Molay” has not come out publicly as trans under their legal name. In an autobiography supplied to this site “Molay” stated:

“They have not transitioned, but argue that this is not to be understood as an example of what other trans people ought to do. They support trans people’s right to get the necessary support for transitioning. One might argue, though, that the fact that Molay has not transitioned may partly explain why the crossdreamer community is particularly popular among trans and queer people who are in the process of exploring their gender identity.”

Crossdreaming and news aggregation

“Molay” established the blog now known as Crossdreamers in 2008, after experiencing “an existential crisis caused by gender dysphoria” and wanting to establish “an arena for discussing cross-gender erotic fantasies in an open and positive way, getting around the stigma associated with such fantasies.”

The term crossdreaming was originally coined as an alternative to the stigmatizing term “autogynephilia.” Even though the term crossdreaming has been presented as a neutral, and purely descriptive term (not referring to a particular explanation for such fantasies) “Molay” has personally dismissed the “autogynephilia” theory as a stigmatizing, sexist, pseudoscience. Instead they view crossdreaming fantasies as a natural expression of gender variance, dismissing strict binaries of sexuality and gender.

“Molay” has researched crossdreaming in different groups of queer, nonbinary and transgender people, documenting, for instance, crossdreaming among people assigned female at birth (as reflected in the slash and yaoi subcultures). “Molay” has also looked into crossdreaming in historical sources, discussing, for instance, crossdreaming in the Kama Sutra and in Medieval poetry. “Molay” hopes to undermine the idea that such fantasies are only found among “straight men.”

Molay co-founded the Crossdream Life internet forum in 2011, a place where gender variant people may discuss any form of queer, trans and nonbinary fantasies, gender expressions or identities.

Molay also runs Trans Express, a Tumblr blog covering transgender and nonbinary news and issues, which seems to be particularly popular among younger trans and queer people. As of 2019 this blog has more than 13,000 followers.