Simon Lancaster vs. transgender people

by Andrea James Reviewed October 31, 2026 2 min read

Simon Lancaster is a British researcher and anti-transgender activist. Lancaster has collaborated with anti-trans hate group Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine.

Background

Simon John Lancaster was born in June 1970.

Lancaster served as a Tutor for Student Affairs for Wycliffe and SCIO, University of Oxford. SCIO (Scholarship & Christianity In Oxford) is an educational institution and the UK headquarters of the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities. Lancaster later served as Associate Director at SCIO. Lancaster also served as a faculty member of Oxford’s Department for Continuing Education.

In 2022, Lancaster earned a doctorate from University of Oxford. Lancaster’s doctoral thesis was on an aspect of 19th-century Anglican history. From 2022 to 2025, Lancaster was a Research Associate and DPhil Supervisor at University of Oxford.

Lancaster is married to cellist Coral Joy Lancaster. Someone using that name signed a 2023 open letter that sought to stop NHS England’s trans-inclusive Maternity Gender Inclusion Programme.

In 2023, Lancaster joined The Listening Centre as a therapist. In 2024, Lancaster and spouse incorporated Canopy Clinical Support. According to their website, “Canopy offers research and editorial support at the highest level of academic expertise to clinicians and health researchers. Its research focus is mental health and related issues affecting people up to the age of 25. […] Canopy’s mission is to provide compassionate, evidence-based, therapeutic support for all its clients, and to support clinicians and researchers who share that goal.”

Anti-trans activism

In a 2024 article promoting the Cass Review, the authors mention Lancaster in the acknowledgements:

“The authors thank Dr Simon Lancaster for his support in researching the history of Independent Reviews, and manuscript support.”

In 2025, the Utah HHS report was published, which found that “overall, there were positive mental health and psychosocial functioning outcomes” from gender-affirming care. They also found that “patients that were seen at the gender clinic before the age of 18 had a lower risk of suicide compared to those referred as an adult.” In 2026, SEGM self-published an assessment criticizing the Utah HHS report. Named contributors include Lancaster, Zhenya Abbruzzese, Alison Clayton, Martín Endara-Coll, Sarah Jorgensen, and Ray Zhang.

References

Staff report (2018). The Boston Tea Party – SCIO hosts alumni event in Boston, MA. SCIO https://www.scio-uk.org/about/our-blog/the-boston-tea-party-scio-hosts-alumni-event-in-boston-ma/

Rachel (November 26, 2006). Break out the Christmas music! Adventures in Oxford https://rachelinoxford.blogspot.com/2006/11/break-out-christmas-music.html

Selected contributions by Lancaster

Abbruzzese, E., Clayton, A., Endara-Coll, M., Jorgensen, S., Lancaster, S., & Zhang, Y. (April 2, 2026). The “Utah Review” of Hormonal Treatments for Gender-Dysphoric Minors: A Methodological Appraisal. Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19388024 full text https://segm.org/sites/default/files/2026-04/The%20%E2%80%9CUtah%20Review%E2%80%9D%20of%20Hormonal%20Treatments%20for%20Gender-Dysphoric%20Minors-A%20Methodological%20Appraisal_v1.3.pdf

Cheung, C. R., Abbruzzese, E., Lockhart, E., Maconochie, I. K., & Kingdon, C. C. (2024). Gender medicine and the Cass Review: why medicine and the law make poor bedfellows. Archives of Disease in Childhood, 110(4), 251–255. https://doi.org/10.1136/archdischild-2024-327994