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Laura Targownik and transgender people

Laura Targownik is a Canadian physician and podcaster. Targownik co-hosts conservative trans podcast TransNormal Podcast with trans veteran Jo Ellis and Agree to Disagree about Gender with “gender critical” activist Yvette Nary.

Background

Laura Ellyn Targownik was born in November 1972 and grew up in Winnipeg. Targownik graduated from the University of Manitoba Medical School in 1997 and completed residency training in Internal Medicine in 2000. Targownik was a successful contestant on quiz show Jeopardy! prior to transition. Targownik began a medical transition at age 27 in 2000. Targownik then completed a 3-year fellowship in Digestive Diseases at University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). While there, Targownik earned a master’s degree from UCLA School of Public Health.

Targownik is a frequently cited expert in gastroenterology and has published many research papers on clinical findings.

Since 2019, Targownik has been a full-time faculty member at the University of Toronto, serving as Division Director for Gastroenterology & Hepatology. Targownik is based at Mount Sinai Hospital, providing clinical care and doing research. Prior to joining the faculty at the University of Toronto, Targownik was the Chief of the Section of Gastroenterology at University of Manitoba, an Associate of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, and the Associate Director of the IBD Research and Clinical Centre.​

Targownik is married and raising children.

Trans community involvement

Targownik joined Twitter in 2012 and continued to be a heavy user of the platform following its purchase by Elon Musk.

Targownik self-describes as “a binary assimilationist transsexual” and a “pragmatic progressive” who seeks to engage with opponents of progressive trans healthcare policy. Following the election of Donald Trump in 2024, Targownik began getting more involved publicly in trans community politics. In January 2025, Targownik wrote an op-ed for The Globe and Mail, stating in part:

I transitioned not to live as a trans woman, but as a woman, full stop, and I had no intent or desire to ever be publicly identifiable as trans again.

However, there has been an unmistakable negative shift in the public’s attitude toward trans people, fuelled by emerging concerns, primarily centred on whether children are being overdiagnosed with gender dysphoria and transitioned unnecessarily, and around fairness in athletic competition. However, these concerns have been weaponized by malevolent right-wing actors into an omnipresent campaign of hatred against trans people, especially trans women, featuring the most abominable stereotypes: the sex predator lurking in a public washroom or community pool; the man in a dress; the groomer of children. This transphobia was a core element of the campaign to elect Donald Trump in the U.S., and now feels firmly embedded in America’s political climate.

[…] In choosing private lives, assimilated trans people have shortsightedly abdicated the defence of our rights to activists for whom being trans is a primary identity, and whose priorities are less resonant with the general public. Unsurprisingly, this has led to erosion in support for the set of rights that most trans people had assumed were inviolable.

In March 2025, Targownik asked the X chatbot Grok “which public figure, past or present, do I sound like?” Grok responded that Targownik’s posts were similar to those of Trump loyalist Laura Loomer and fellow conservative trans commenter Blaire White. Targownik is close friends with conservative activist Brianna Wu.

In April 2025, Targownik launched the TransNormal Podcast with conservative trans veteran Jo Ellis.

In September 2025, Targownik interviewed McMaster University researcher Gordon Guyatt in the wake of the SEGM-McMaster research funding scandal. In their interview, Guyatt described attending a SEGM conference that led to the realization that SEGM is not an impartial research organization. In 2025, Guyatt cut ties with SEGM after Guyatt’s SEGM-funded research was misused as a pretext to ban trans healthcare for minors and to eliminate state-funded healthcare coverage for trans adults.

In December 2025, Targownik and “gender critical” activist Yvette Nary launched the podcast Agree to Disagree about Gender.

References

Staff report (June 28, 2023). Pride month member spotlight: Laura Targownik, MD. American Gastroenterological Association https://gastro.org/news/pride-month-member-spotlight-laura-targownik-md/

Staff report (November 18, 2022). Battle for Freedom: Laura Targownik on Transgender Day of Remembrance. Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto https://temertymedicine.utoronto.ca/news/battle-freedom-laura-targownik-transgender-day-remembrance

Selected publications by Targownik

Targownik, Laura (April 17, 2025). My birth sex is part of my medical history; it should be as private as the rest of my medical history. Healthy Debate https://healthydebate.ca/2025/04/topic/birth-sex-medical-history/

Targownik, Laura (January 31, 2025). I have long lived a quiet life. But I am also trans – and now I need to make myself heard. The Globe and Mail https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-i-have-long-lived-a-quiet-life-but-i-am-also-trans-and-now-i-need-to/

Media

TransNormal with Laura Targownik and Gordon Guyatt (September 17, 2025). Episode 12 – An Interview with Dr. Gord Guyatt. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=720QT7EKUJE

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

YouTube (youtube.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Substack (substack.com)

Google Scholar (scholar.google.com)