Aaron Kimberly is a Canadian former nurse and conservative transgender activist. Kimberly is an advisor to SPLC-designated anti-trans hate group Genspect. Kimberly is a founder of conservative groups Gender Dysphoria Alliance and LGBT Courage Coalition (now LGB Courage Coalition).
Kimberly is cohost of the conservative podcast Transparency. Kimberly frequently testifies against gender affirming care for minors and promotes academic work that is frequently characterized as anti-trans.
Kimberly is especially interested in promoting disease models of gender diversity, including “gender dysphoria,” “autogynephilia,” and “autoandrophilia.” Kimberly has occasionally expressed interest in a personal “detransition,” or making additional gender changes.
Kimberly enrolled in the Women’s and Gender Studies graduate program at University of Alberta.
Background
Aaron Kimberly was reportedly born in 1973. In a self-reported biography, Kimberly makes the following claims:
- “at age 19 I had surgery to remove a grapefruit-sized cyst from one of my ovaries”
- following a biopsy was reportedly diagnosed with “Ovotesticular Disorder of Sex Development (DSD)”
- Kimberly earned a bachelor’s degree from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design
- in 2006 saw a documentary on mainstream TV about “trans kids” that led to a trans identification
- began medical transition that year at age 33
- in 2008 became a registered nurse/BScN wtih a specialty in Psychiatric Nursing
- worked in the mental health department at St Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver, Canada, for 10 years
- In 2017 moved to Kelowna, Canada, to help launch a multidisciplinary youth clinic and do intake assessments
- consulted with the Provincial Health Services Authority (PHSA)’s Trans Care BC
- during this consulting, “I started to become confused and concerned about the current state of trans healthcare”
- began promoting studies by anti-trans psychologists Ray Blanchard, J. Michael Bailey, Kenneth Zucker, Lisa Littman, and Paul Vasey.
- “I was removed from the clinical mentorship mailing list, I was accused of using the listserv for anti-trans activism, our clinic was boycotted, and I was moved to another program”
- “this prompted me to create the Gender Dysphoria Alliance (GDA) in January 2021″
- was registered in British Columbia as a Practising RN from 2008 until that registration was canceled on April 1, 2023
Conservative activism
Kimberly began engaging in conservative activism in 2021 after being alarmed about how the clinic where Kimberly worked was treating trans and gender diverse youth. Kimberly explained to anti-trans activist Pamela Paul:
In 2021, Aaron Kimberly, a 50-year-old trans man and registered nurse, left the clinic in British Columbia where his job focused on the intake and assessment of gender-dysphoric youth. Kimberly received a comprehensive screening when he embarked on his own successful transition at age 33, which resolved the gender dysphoria he experienced from an early age.
But when the gender-affirming model was introduced at his clinic, he was instructed to support the initiation of hormone treatment for incoming patients regardless of whether they had complex mental problems, experiences with trauma or were otherwise “severely unwell,” Kimberly said. When he referred patients for further mental health care rather than immediate hormone treatment, he said he was accused of what they called gatekeeping and had to change jobs.
“I realized something had gone totally off the rails,” Kimberly, who subsequently founded the Gender Dysphoria Alliance and the L.G.B.T. Courage Coalition to advocate better gender care, told me.
In a profile provided to this site in June 2025, Kimberly stated:
My major influences are second wave lesbian feminism and early queer theory. In the early days (1990s), lesbians like Butler and Halberstam conceptualized the FTM experience as a form of female masculinity (eg. Halberstam’s book Female Masculinity, in which she included FTM as under the banner of lesbian masculinities). That’s still a view I hold, in my self-conception. My current work focuses on applications of radical feminism to transmen, looking for ways, throught a sex-realist perspective, at quality of life measures and the nature of our oppression as masculinized/male passing females.
2024 Stone Butch Disco collaboration
Stone Butch Disco is a Substack newsletter described as “q butch-femme lesbian feminist project: nerd comedy, experiential insights, & alt-academic analysis.”
In September 2024 members of the collective began collaborating on podcast episodes with Kimberly. By November, they announced a split in a since-deleted post:
Aaron repetitively focused conversation onto specific women that Aaron felt slighted by. Due to Rachel and Akiva’s personal histories in abusive relationships, they entertained conversation around uniquely butch vulnerabilities to abuse for a few weeks, culminating in an unreleased 6th podcast episode in which Aaron’s relationships with these women were discussed under the false premise that they were targeting Aaron. It became clear from conversations on and off the recording that Aaron’s treatment of women and especially feminine women was of serious concern. Despite the fact that Rachel requested that Aaron not post the 6th episode anywhere, including on Aaron’s personal channels, Aaron posted it to personal YouTube and Facebook accounts, and used pieces of the audio to harass women via direct message. We were lied to, manipulated, and used. Following these revelations, we removed Aaron from the Stone Butch Disco team.
Kimberly said via email in June 2025 that the announcement was removed “after legal action” because it contained false statements and defamation. Kimberly also stated “my lawyers have evidence that the Statements by both parties are false and defamatory.” This site has requested that evidence for inclusion here.
2024 MIT event
According to anti-trans philosopher Holly Lawford-Smith, Kimberly has exhibited concerning behavior after the two met in 2024 at a debate also attended by anti-trans activists Alex Byrne and Alice Dreger. On February 3, 2025, Lawford-Smith posted:
On the 17th of April 2024, Alex Byrne & I took part in a debate at MIT. Our opponents were Aaron Kimberly and Alice Dreger. Alex and Alice took opposite sides on the question of whether sex is biological and binary, and Aaron and I took opposite sides on the question of whether gender identity should replace sex in social policy. Aaron & I had some friendly communications in the lead-up to the debate, much of which were me making suggestions as to a topic that we could disagree about productively. We met up for a couple of hours on the afternoon of the debate. At the time, Aaron was associated with the LGBT Courage Coalition, and I was occasionally doing freelance interviews for the LGB Alliance Australia. I figured it would be good to establish some kind of link between the two organizations.
Since April 2024 or so, I have been dealing with inappropriate and unwanted behaviour by Aaron Kimberly. This includes him repeatedly sending emails to my work address (after I had blocked him on Twitter); contacting my friends and colleagues about me; attempting to organize an in-person event to take place on my campus, at which I would be a speaker, without my permission or input; mischaracterizing our brief interaction to mutual acquaintances; publishing a full podcast episode mischaracterizing our interaction; posting three separate Substack articles about me (one sharing personal information about me and embedding deleted video content that I own the copyright to); sending huge volumes of messages to other people about me; and, most recently, contacting my employer. This has all been the aftermath of Aaron making several romantic advances toward me, which I rejected. To say he’s taken rejection badly would appear to be an understatement.
On February 22, 2025, Kimberly posted a lengthy response refuting many of Lawford-Smith’s claims and assertions about their interactions.
References
Kimberly, Aaron (February 22, 2025). Holy, Holly! In response to Holly Lawford-Smith. https://www.aaronkimberly.com/holly-lawford-smith
Lawford-Smith, Holly (February 3, 2025). Tweet 4th February 2025 & email to my employer 31st January 2025.
Lawford-Smith, Holly (February 3, 2025). Aaron Kimberly: A Statement. https://hollylawford-smith.org/aaron-kimberly-a-statement/
Stone Butch Disco (Jan 02, 2025). S2 E2: “We’re living in a post postmodern world, get your sh** together!” https://stonebutchdisco.substack.com/p/s2-e2-were-living-in-a-post-postmodern-a4e
Staff (November 25, 2024). Ending our relationship with Aaron Kimberly. Stone Butch Disco https://stonebutchdisco.substack.com/p/ending-our-relationship-with-aaron [deleted]
Paul, Pamela (February 2, 2024). Opinion: As Kids, They Thought They Were Trans. They No Longer Do. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/opinion/transgender-children-gender-dysphoria.html
TT Exulansic on Odysee (February 27, 2022). Church of the Maculate Conception: Schrödinger’s Testicle [deleted]
Laval, Mary (July 26, 2021). Transition in hindsight: Aaron Kimberly’s story. Genspect https://genspect.org/transition-in-hindsight-aaron-kimberlys-story/
Selected writing by Kimberly
Kimberly, Aaron (June 26, 2022). GUEST OP-ED: What nobody told me about transition, but should have. True North https://tnc.news/2022/06/26/aaron-kimberly-transition-oped/
Kimberly, Aaron (2003). Autoportrait. Journal of Homosexuality https://doi.org/10.1300/J082v43n03_20
Media
In Response with Joey (March 12, 2025). Sex, Gender, & Politics – #14
Something For Everybody (January 28, 2025). #333 – Aaron Kimberly – Understanding the Trans Experience: Integrators vs.
The Lesbian Mafia (December 23, 2024). Luigi’s Mom, Cream Puffs & Oh Canada w/ Aaron Kimberly
Gender: A Wider Lens with Stella O’Malley and Sasha Ayad (Nov 09, 2024). Dysphoria Means Something Different to Different People
Gender: A Wider Lens with Stella O’Malley and Sasha Ayad (November 8, 2024). 192 – Paving a Way Back for Detrans Lesbians, with Aaron Kimberly
Heterodorx with Nina Paley and Corinna Cohn (October 30, 2024). Aaron Kimberly Look-a Like a Man
The Lesbian Mafia (October 10, 2024). Reconciling Gender: Aaron Kimberly’s Transition, Detransition, &
The Lesbian Project Podcast (May 24, 2024). Episode 28 FREE – a chat with Aaron Kimberly; plus the music of Chappell Roan, and bars (again).
Gender: A Wider Lens with Stella O’Malley and Sasha Ayad (October 6, 2023). Premium: Bonus Conversation with Aaron Kimberly.
Gender: A Wider Lens with Stella O’Malley and Sasha Ayad (October 6, 2023). 135 – Intersex, Identity, & Ideology with Aaron Kimberly
Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce and Jamie Reed (August 24, 2023). s05e118 | Challenging Gender Medicine from Within, with Jamie Reed & Aaron Kimberly
The Unspeakable Podcast with Meghan Daum (Jun 20, 2023). The Unspeakable PodcastWhen Queer Theory Meets Medical Practice: Aaron Kimberly On The Crisis In Transgender Health Care
The Rupa Subramanya Show (Apr 13, 2023). The reality of transitioning from a trans man (Ft. Aaron Kimberly)
BROADVIEW with Lisa Selin Davis (Mar 3, 2023). Heterodox Trans People #4: The Aarons
In Context (October 14, 2022). Episode 28 – Gender Dysphoria/Trans Issues with Aaron Kimberly
TT Exulansic on Odysee (February 27, 2022). Metoidioplasty Moments: Double Fistula
The MARS Show (January 6, 2022). #147 Gender Dysphoria Alliance with Aaron Kimberly & Aaron Terrell
Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce (Oct 27, 2021). s04e17 | Being A Woman Being A Man | A Transitioner’s Tale, with Aaron Terrell
The Just Checking In Podcast (August 8, 2021). JCIP #90 – Aaron Kimberly
Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce (July 24, 2021). s03e102 | Bullying in the Trans Community, with Aaron Kimberly
The MARS show (July 15, 2021). #135 Aaron Kimberly on the reality of transition
Gender: A Wider Lens with Stella O’Malley and Sasha Ayad (Jul 2, 2021). 30 — Sasha & Stella Answer Your Questions: Part 2
Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce (May 20, 2021). s03e81 | How Queer Theory Interferes with Good Therapy, with Aaron Kimberly
Resources
Aaron Kimberly (aaronkimberly.com)
Gender Dysphoria Alliance (genderdysphoriaalliance.com)
Lesbros Project (lesbrosproject.com)
Twitter (twitter.com)
Facebook (facebook.com)
YouTube (youtube.com)
- AGKimberly
- Bearded Lesbians Podcast
- youtube.com/playlist?list=PLd4td_o713fK_5ZU7pzyKLrkA6WvNaAFE
- Transparency Podcast
- youtube.com/playlist?list=PL1TbvgV-szO9MjE3y_cO-nH2kyHEzfzHH
TikTok (tiktok.com)