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Patrick W. Lappert is an American plastic surgeon and anti-transgender activist.

Lappert has testified in litigation or advocated on behalf of legislation to limit trans rights in states across the country including AlabamaArkansasUtah and Florida.

Background

Patrick Walter “Pat” Lappert was born in Venezuela on September 30, 1954 and grew up Jewish. In 1960, the family moved to San Francisco, but Lappert’s parents divorced around 1966. Lappert became atheist as an adolescent, dropped out of high school at 15, and left home.

After earning a bachelor’s degree from University of California, Santa Barbara, Lappert earned a medical degree from Uniformed Services University School of Medicine in 1983 and completed a surgical residency at Naval Hospital Oakland in 1991. Lappert became board certified in surgery in 1992. Lappert then completed a plastic surgery residency at University of Tennessee-Memphis in 1994 and was certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery in 1997.

While stationed in Memphis, Lappert became suicidal, during which time a religious conversion to Christianity occurred. In 1995, Lappert was baptized in the Catholic church. In 2013, Lappert was ordained as a deacon in the Catholic church.

Lappert served in the Navy for 24 years, serving at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth from 1994 until retiring from the Navy as a Captain in 2002.

In 1981 Lappert married nurse Patrice Ann (Oberst) Lappert (born 1956), and they have six children.

Anti-transgender activism

Lappert is involved in Courage International, an organization that treats LGBTQ people like alcoholics who can overcome their urges through meetings.

Starting in 2014, Lappert began getting involved in criticizing transgender surgery, later expanding to all trans healthcare.

In his ruling that Arkansas’s 2021 law banning gender-affirming medical care for minors isĀ unconstitutional,

US District Judge James M. Moody, Jr. commented on Lappert’s qualifications in ruling that the Arkansas ban on trans youth healthcare was unconstitutional:

ā€œThe Court does not credit the testimony of Professor RegnerusĀ and gives it no weight because the Court finds that he lacks the qualifications to offer his opinions and failed to support them.ā€ […]

ā€œDr. Lappert does not meet the requirements underĀ DaubertĀ to give opinions relevant to this case.ā€ […]

ā€œDr. HruzĀ has never treated a patient for gender dysphoria.ā€

Brandt v. Rutledge, 4:21CV00450 JM

Lappert appears in the 2022 propaganda piece Dysconnected.

References

John DeSilva Finley, ed. (2022). Sexual Identity: The Harmony of Philosophy, Science, and Revelation. Emmaus Road Publishing, ISBN 9781645851912 Contributors: Cara Buskmiller, Paul W. Hruz, Patrick W. Lappert, Andrew Sodergren, Lawrence J. Welch,

Redden, Molly (September 15, 2023). Inside The Cottage Industry Of ā€˜Experts’ Paid To Defend Anti-Trans Laws. HuffPost https://www.huffpost.com/entry/paid-experts-defending-anti-trans-law_n_65021a7ee4b01df7c3b6d513

Stahl, Aviva (June 9, 2023) Four controversial doctors helping Republicans attack trans healthcare. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jun/09/doctor-republican-trans-gender-affirming-minor-healthcare-lgbtq-rights

La Bouve, Janelle (February 23, 1996). A China doll couple adopt a Chinese child. The Virginian-Pilot https://scholar.lib.vt.edu/VA-news/VA-Pilot/issues/1996/vp960223/02210182.htm

Diocese of Lansing (October 3, 2022). Watch: Top Surgeon, Dr. Lappert | Vote NO to Prop 3 to protect children from “trans” lobby. https://www.dioceseoflansing.org/news/watch-top-surgeon-dr-lappert-vote-no-prop-3-protect-children-trans-lobby video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2g7ZlMpkAI

Media

Family Watch International (August 17, 2021). Dr Patrick Lappert. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEiu6OQqcVE

Journey Home (November 21, 2016). Deacon Patrick Lappert. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2KCFtHHHVE

Marshall (September 20, 2023). Transgenderism: Can I Switch My Sex? | Speakin’ with the Deacons. Catholic Online https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8M9f_HaPaHA

Cynthia Breheny (October 30, 2023). Ethics of Gender Affirming Care | Dr. Patrick Lappert | Interviews Paradox Institute https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTN35a8R7DA

Resources

GLAAD Accountability Project (glaad.org/gap)

Lappert Skin Care (lappertplasticsurgery.com)

  • previous site: drpatricklappert.com [archive]

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Flickr (flickr.com)

Courage International (couragerc.org)

Louise Perry is a British writer and anti-transgender activist.

Background

Louise M. “Lulu” Perry is based in London.Ā Perry grew up in a left-leaning household with a younger sibling. Perry studied anthropology and women’s studies at the SOAS University of London [School of Oriental and African Studies]. Perry published a fashion blog called Make Do On Trend. Perry’s early career involved working in a rape crisis center.

Perry has written for theĀ New Statesman, theĀ Daily Mail, The Critic, UnHerd, and Quillette.Ā 

Perry’s debut book,Ā The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century,Ā was published byĀ Polity.Ā 

Perry is the Press Officer for the campaign groupĀ We Can’t Consent To This, documenting women allegedly killed during “rough sex.”Ā Perry is also the Research Director and Co-founder of think tankĀ The Other Half. Ā 

Perry is married and has one child.

Anti-transgender activism

Perry frequently promotes anti-transgender views in publications. Perry came to believe in college that “it was completely impossible to say anything critical about trans activism in public.” That was the “first domino” that led Perry to radical feminism.

Perry left the rape crisis center after they began serving all people who had experienced sexual assault.

References

Balls, Katy (September 23, 2022). The Louise Perry Edition. The Spectator https://www.spectator.co.uk/podcast/the-louise-perry-edition/

Perry, Louise (December 2, 2022). Oxford students are going back to the dark ages. UnHerd -https://unherd.com/thepost/oxford-students-are-going-back-to-the-dark-ages/

Perry, Louise (June 9, 2022). Drag Queen Story Hour comes to the UK. UnHerd https://unherd.com/thepost/drag-queen-story-hour-comes-to-the-uk/

Perry, Louise (June 22, 2022). Why the gender wars become so extreme. New Statesman https://www.newstatesman.com/quickfire/2022/06/gender-wars-trans-critical-activists-become-extreme

Perry, Louise (October 2020). The real facts of life. The Critic https://thecritic.co.uk/issues/october-2020/the-real-facts-of-life/

Perry, Louise (October 2020). Trans activists ask us to redefine what most consider to be truth. New Statesman https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/feminism/2022/02/trans-activists-ask-us-to-redefine-what-most-consider-to-be-truth

Perry, Louise (July 8, 2019). Minds Without Bodies: Transgenderism and the Authentic Self. Areo https://areomagazine.com/2019/08/07/minds-without-bodies-transgenderism-and-the-authentic-self/

Perry, Louise (July 26, 2022). Her foolish critics can cancel Quidditch…but they’ll never cancel JK Rowling’s rare and precious courage. Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11051461/LOUISE-PERRY-foolish-critics-cancel-Quidditch-theyll-never-cancel-JK-Rowling.html

Perry, Louise (September 18, 2020). The Dishonest and Misogynistic Hate Campaign Against J.K. Rowling. Quillette https://quillette.com/2020/09/18/the-dishonest-and-misogynistic-hate-campaign-against-j-k-rowling/

Perry, Louise (November 6, 2019). What Is Autogynephilia? An Interview with Dr Ray Blanchard. Quillette https://quillette.com/2019/11/06/what-is-autogynephilia-an-interview-with-dr-ray-blanchard/

Resources

Louise Perry (louisemperry.co.uk)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Substack (substack.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

Sall Grover is an Australian writer, app developer, and anti-transgender activist. Grover founded giggle, a networking app designed to exclude transgender women.

Background

Sally “Sall” Grover was born on October 11, 1984. Parent Rob Grover is a real estate agent. After attending Bond University, Grover then moved to Hollywood.

In 2011, Emma “Em” Jensen and Sall “Face” Grover published a blog called The LA Team, chronicling their experiences in Los Angeles. Their story was optioned by Gold Circle Films and developed as Sex on the First Date. It was never produced.

For eight years, Grover lived in Los Angeles, writing and pitching: “It was a horrible life.” Grover then moved to Brooklyn and lived with a group of women.

Grover has since returned to Australia as a freelance copywriter and screenwriter for Screen Queensland and Be Media. Grover operates Wadd Holdings Pty Ltd.

Grover had a child in 2022 named Isabelle Lily.

Anti-transgender activism

In 2019, Grover set up Giggle For Girls Ltd Pty. Grover then fundraised and developed a networking app “for females.” The app used facial recognition and other techniques to exclude people, including trans woman Roxanne Tickle:

On 3 March 2022, Giggle’s lawyers at the Feminist Legal Clinic responded to the complaint, saying Tickle was ā€œconsidered maleā€ based on her appearance in the selfie and that this was why she had been removed.

Grover described Tickle as a “trans identified male” in a social media post less than three weeks later. Grover was represented by Katherine Deves.

In 2022, Grover protested a Medicare form that used the term “birthing parent.”

Podcast

In 2022, Grover released 15 episodes of The Giggle Podcast. Guests included many key anti-trans activists in Australia.

Anonymous guests

  • “UPenn Swimmer”
  • Twitter account NoSelfIDinQLD
  • Critic of gender-affirming group acon (AIDS Council of New South Wales)

Guests

  • Jess de Wahls
  • Katherine Deves
  • Jessica “Jess” Hoyle
  • Judith Hunter
  • Angie Jones
  • Jane Clare Jones
  • Holly Lawford-Smith
  • Bernard Lane
  • Karyn Lisignoli
  • Heather Mason
  • Linda McCarthy
  • Nicola Murray
  • Birdy Rose
  • Vaishavi Sundar
  • Jasmine Sussex
  • Michelle Uriarau
  • Bronwyn Winter

References

Grover, Sall (June 10, 2020). I guess I’m a TERF then. Medium https://sallceo.medium.com/i-guess-im-a-terf-then-a8e483ef9c06

Grover, Sall (June 10, 2020). An open letter to the media. Medium https://sallceo.medium.com/an-open-letter-to-the-media-53883dc71599

Smith, Kirralie (July 08, 2022). Tickle drops case against Giggle. Binary https://www.binary.org.au/tickle_drops_case_against_giggle

Australian Associated Press (December 30, 2022). Transgender woman sues female-only app Giggle for Girls for alleged discrimination. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/dec/31/transgender-woman-sues-female-only-app-giggle-for-girls-for-alleged-discrimination

Australian Associated Press (June 1, 2023). Female-only app represented by Katherine Deves fails to throw out transgender discrimination suit. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/media/2023/jun/01/female-only-app-giggle-for-girls-transgender-discrimination-suit-roxanne-tickle

-https://twitter.com/salltweets/status/1447346593691172864

Candice Horbacz (March 17, 2021) #35 Sall Grover- CEO of Giggle a platform for women only. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvwN85j3-MY

Patten, Dominic (February 7, 2013). Walt Becker To Direct ā€˜Sex On The First Date.’ Deadline Hollywood https://deadline.com/2013/02/walt-becker-sex-on-the-first-date-wild-hogs-directing-424849/

Day, Olivia (July 20, 2022). New mum is OUTRAGED after being called a ‘birthing parent’ instead of a mother by the Australian government – as Ally Langdon slams the move as ‘dehumanising.’ Daily Mail https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11033473/New-mother-reveals-outrage-referred-birthing-parent-healthcare-form.html

Resources

Twitter (twitter.com)

Medium (medium.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)

Patreon (patreon.com)

The Loop (theloop.com.au)

The LA Team (thelateamonline.com) [archive]

John McWhorter is an American linguist and anti-transgender activist. McWhorter’s first public foray into discussing trans issues was banned by YouTube for violations of their hate speech policies.

Background

John Hamilton McWhorter V was born on October 6, 1965 in Philadelphia. McWhorter’s parents were both educators. McWhorter earned a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers UniversityĀ in 1985, a master’s degree from New York University, and a doctorate fromĀ Stanford University in 1993. McWhorter taught at Cornell UniversityĀ from 1993 to 1995 and at University of California, Berkeley from 1995 to 2003. McWhorter then joined the conservativeĀ Manhattan Institute. In 2008 McWhorter took a teaching position at Columbia University.

Views on trans issues

McWhorter has made a case for singular they as a gender neutral pronoun.

In 2023, McWhorter and Glenn Loury had anti-transgender activist Mark Goldblatt on to discuss Goldblatt’s transphobic book I Feel, Therefore I Am: The Triumph of Woke Subjectivism. YouTube removed the episode for violation of their terms of service.

McWhorter stated:

We are supposed to reform our sense of what a man and a woman are. And I think any idiot knows that there is a biological business with the chromosomes. Nobody’s going to deny that.

When Loury asked about transgender youth, McWhorter said:

My gut sense is that we’re allowing people to make decisions like that too early. I haven’t thought deeply about it because the topic is so disturbing and frightening and doesn’t apply to me just yet, but my sense is that we need to consider that people are not mentally mature until they’re about 25.

And of course the counter argument is that, “Yes, but by then certain things are already irreversible.” And I would say, “Well maybe that’s the way it has to be.” That’s my gut sense of it.

And in general, the recreational ease with which one can be called “transphobic” these days is something that I am radically opposed to, as one might predict.

Regarding evolving use of the terms man and woman, McWhorter differed from Goldblatt:

But I must admit, once again I’m the weird one here because I can’t… maybe it’s probably because I’m a linguist and I study language change… I can’t quite get what’s wrong with the fluidity of those terms in our modern times.

McWhorter later related a story about speaking with a trans woman:

About eight years ago, I was at a thing, and there was somebody who was talking to me at a certain length, knew some of my work. This was somebody who was certainly born with a Y chromosome, and needed a bit of a shave, and was speaking in a voice higher than what would be normal, and I’m sure this person was used to speaking that way, but that’s not how their voice would have come out if you woke them up in the middle of the night. And this person had long hair and was wearing a nice summer dress and high heels, and this person thought of themselves as a woman. And of course, a part of me, being somebody born in 1965, was thinking, “This is a man acting like a woman.” I can’t help thinking it. But this person thought of themselves as a woman. And I thought my job is to open my mind to the idea that this person is a woman, although this person shaves, this person– the past is clearly obvious, but this is a woman. You’re saying that I should’ve thought. “This person on that score needs help.”

Goldblatt made a case that trans people are deluded and mentally ill, and that refining and updating terms like man and woman involve forcing others to “deny reality.”

Loury reuploaded the episode to Substack after the hate speech violation.

References

McWhorter, John (April 30, 2013). The Royal They. The New Republic https://newrepublic.com/article/112896/tyranny-pronouns-fighting-singular-they

McWhorter, John (September 4, 2018). Call Them What They Wants. The Atlantic https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/09/the-new-they/568993/

McWhorter, John (September 21, 2021). Gender Pronouns Are Changing. It’s Exhilarating. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/21/opinion/gender-pronouns-they.html

Media

Loury, Glenn (April 24, 2023) John McWhorter and Mark Goldblatt – I Feel, Therefore I Am. The Glenn Show https://glennloury.substack.com/p/john-mcwhorter-and-mark-goldblatt

Editor’s Note: YouTube took down the video of the above conversation, claiming that it violates their community standards. 

Maher, Bill (October 22, 2021). Andrew Yang & John McWhorter on Dave Chappelle and “Transphobia.” Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAUUgxQPwM0

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Peter Gajdics is a Canadian writer and anti-transgender activist.

Background

Peter Gajdics was born and raised in Vancouver. After undergoing “conversion therapy” in his 20s, he became a vocal opponent of the practice. He is the author of the 2017 book The Inheritance of Shame: A Memoir.

Anti-transgender activism

Rather than acknowledge that we all face the same coercive “therapies” from hateful psychologists, Gajdics complained in Quillette that the “trans rights lobby” had co-opted the movement to end conversion therapy.

References

Gajdics, Peter (June 4, 2022). Gender Ideologues Have Co-opted the Campaign Against Conversion Therapy. Quillette https://quillette.com/2022/06/04/gender-ideologues-have-co-opted-the-campaign-against-conversion-therapy/

Resources

Peter Gajdics (petergajdics.com)

Inheritance of Shame (inheritanceofshame.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Kathleen Hayes is an American writer and anti-transgender activist. Hayes believes the trans community is a “cult.”

Background

Hayes bas born in ~1968 and attended University of California, Berkeley. While there she joined the Spartacus Youth League, a revolutionary communist organization that espoused Trotskyist philosophies. Via Washington Post:

Kathleen Hayes, a Berkeley alum now working with the Spartacus Youth League, pauses from her task of passing out copies of the Workers Vanguard newspaper. She finds the disc disgusting: “The idea that the university that tried to squelch free speech is now putting up a monument to free speech is priceless. This is hypocritical. We know they can run anyone whose views they don’t like off campus.”

She said in 2022,”Since quitting in 2016, I’ve devoted myself to trying to better understand how and why so many leftists—including myself all those years—imbibe and express antisemitism.”

Hayes earned a master’s degree at Birkbeck, University of London, in 2020. Her thesis was ā€˜Marxism, the ā€œJewish Questionā€ and the Holocaust: The Spectre Behind Contemporary Left Antisemitism.’

Her essay ā€˜Antisemitism and the Left: A Memoir,’ was published in Fathom in 2021. At the time, she planned to work toward a doctorate.

Anti-transgender activism

In 2022 she presented a paper titled ā€˜Punch a TERF’ and ā€˜Smash the Zionists’: Misogyny and Antisemitism in the Contemporary Western Left:

Authoritarianism thrives on a dialectic of love and hate. Lonely, spiritually thirsty people in a fragmented modern world turn to authoritarian groups and movements not only for a sense of belonging and meaning, but what they experience as love. The exquisite comradeship the authoritarian group provides can only be enjoyed against another group, one deemed righteous to hate. That authoritarianism invariably fosters prejudice was best understood by the Frankfurt School, who noted that ā€˜the authoritarian must [their emphasis], out of an inner necessity, turn his aggression against out groups’. They also found authoritarians hated predictable clusters of groups: their typical rightwing antisemitic subject also hated black people, foreigners and gays and had retrograde views about women.

Today many of the same illiberal, authoritarian ā€˜progressives’ who spew antisemitism support a misogynist rampage in the form of transactivism. Much as anti-Zionist vitriol is really directed against all Jews, transactivists’ threats against ā€˜TERFs’ implicitly target all women. Both campaigns are driven by perverse claims about ā€˜privilege’. For the authoritarian left, (ā€˜Zionist’) Jews and (ā€˜cisgender’) women are ā€˜oppressors’, so hating them is not only just, but obligatory. Race—the suggestion that both groups are ā€˜white’—plays an essential role. The contemporary struggle against antisemitism therefore calls for also grappling with the threatening, bizarre, overtly anti-materialist offensive occurring on the terrain of gender.

She posted a similar piece in Quillette titled “Gender Ideology’s True Believers.”

References

Heni, Clemens (August 20, 2022). Ukraine, Holocaust trivialization, transphobia and tolerating the ā€œAmerican Nazi Partyā€ in the pro-Israel scene? https://clemensheni.net/ukraine-holocaust-trivialization-transphobia-and-tolerating-the-american-nazi-party-in-the-pro-israel-scene/

Hayes, Kathleen (September 13, 2022). ā€˜Punch a TERF’ and ā€˜Smash the Zionists’: Misogyny and Antisemitism in the Contemporary Western Left. Conference: 21st Century Antisemitism https://londonantisemitism.com/conference-21st-century-antisemitism/

Boudreau, John (July 28, 1992). Up against the scrawl. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1992/07/28/up-against-the-scrawl/1d731e33-1992-486c-b299-d60786510ada/

Staff report (February 12, 1988). “Smash Metzger’s Klan Terror!” Workers Vanguard https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/workersvanguard/1988/0446_12_02_1988.pdf

Staff report (April 1, 1993). Berkeley Spartacus Youth Club Protests “Right to Life” Bigots. Workers Vanguard https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/workersvanguard/1993/0573_09_04_1993.pdf

Hayes, Kathleen (May 19, 2022). Gender Ideology’s True Believers. Quillette https://quillette.com/2022/05/19/gender-ideologys-true-believers/

Hayes, Kathleen (July 2021). Antisemitism and the Left: A Memoir. Fathom https://fathomjournal.org/antisemitism-and-the-left-a-memoir/

Hayes, Kathleen (September 21, 2022). From Trotsky to Torah. Tablet https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/holidays/articles/trotsky-to-torah-rosh-hashanah

Resources

Quillette (quillette.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Jewish Journal (jewishjournal.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Bernard Lane is an Australian writer and anti-transgender activist. Lane has written for anti-trans platforms including The Australian, MercatorNet, Quillette, and Substack.

Background

Lane earned a bachelor’s degree from UNSW in 1984.

Anti-transgender activism

Lane worked at The Australian from 1991 to 2022. While there, Lane created a dedicated section to attack transgender people.

In 2022 Lane began self-publishing the anti-transgender Substack Gender Clinic News.

In 2024 anti-trans psychiatrist Mikael LandĆ©n leaked a pre-publication paper byĀ Sallie BaxendaleĀ to Lane. Baxendale’s academic literature review reflected LandĆ©n’s view that puberty blockade should be strictly controlled because of unknown risks, particularly cognitive effects. Baxendale then complained in anti-trans publication UnHerd, including a piece about how the literature review written by Baxendale was rejected by three journals as well as accepted by Acta Paediatrica. Baxendale claimed, “it wasn’t the methods they objected to, it was the actual findings.” Of the rejection reasons that Baxendale shared, all were about the obvious bias of the author and the stigmatizing potential from how the material is tendentiously presented.

References

Lane, Bernard (March 15, 2022). New media outlet examines the evidence for ā€˜gender medicine.’ MercatorNet https://mercatornet.com/new-media-outlet-examines-the-evidence-for-gender-medicine/78051/ [archive]

Resources

Gender Clinic News (genderclinicnews.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

Quillette (quillette.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

The Australian (theaustralian.com.au)

  • Gender [archive]
  • theaustralian.com.au/topics/gender
  • Bernard Lane
  • theaustralian.com.au/author/bernard-lane

Caitlyn Jenner is an American media personality and Olympic gold medalist. Upon coming out as transgender in 2015, Jenner became the most famous transgender person alive. Jenner’s conservative views frequently cause tension with more progressive trans community members.

Background

Caitlyn Marie Jenner was born on October 28, 1949 in Mount Kisco, New York. Jenner attended high school in Sleepy Hollow, New York and Newtown, Connecticut. Jenner earned a bachelor’s degree from Graceland College in 1973. While there, Jenner played football until an injury forced a switch to decathlon. Jenner placed 10th in decathlon at the 1972 Summer Olympics. After that, Jenner dominated the event through the 1976 Summer Olympics. That gold medal and world record made Jenner a national hero.

Jenner secured many endorsement deals and began appearing in film and television regularly for the next 30 years. In 2007 Jenner’s family starred in the hit reality series Keeping Up with the Kardashians.

Jenner has been married three times and has six children and four stepchildren. Jenner was married to Kris Kardashian from 1991 to 2015. In 2015, as transition rumors swirled, Jenner was involved in a fatal car crash. Jenner and trans entrepreneur Sophia Hutchins met in 2015 and have a close friendship.

As a transgender public figure

Jenner’s coming out as trans caused a media frenzy, including appearances on magazine covers and many interviews in print and television. Jenner starred in the reality series I Am Cait with “friends” Jennifer Finney Boylan, Candis Cayne, Zackary Drucker, Chandi Moore, Jen Richards, Mimi Marks, and Kate Bornstein. Jenner also made a cameo on Transparent and continued appearing in film and television. Jenner was named one of 25 Glamour Women of the Year and received other recognitions, including the 2016 Time 100. In 2017 Jenner published a memoir, The Secrets of My Life, and had facial feminization surgery and bottom surgery.

Jenner made a number of controversial comments after coming out, such as joking that the hardest part about being a woman “is figuring out what to wear.” The glib sexist comments combined with the media attention led to a backlash among many conservatives and anti-transgender activists.

Jenner has continued to take conservative positions and make controversial comments about LGBT issues that have led to backlash from the community. Ellen Degeneres pressed Jenner about opposing gay marriage. Jenner’s comments about transgender athletes became a major talking point in 2021 during an unsuccessful run for California governor. In 2022 Jenner joinedĀ Fox NewsĀ as an on-air contributor. In 2023 Jenner founded the Fairness First PAC “to keep boys out of women’s sports.”

References

Bissinger, Buzz (July 2015). Introducing Caitlyn JennerVanity Fair. [archive]

Alice Vincent (September 17, 2015). South Park takes on political correctness in Caitlyn Jenner episodeThe Telegraph. [archive]

Thomas Page McBee (October 29, 1015). Caitlyn Jenner, Olympic Hero and Trans Champion: “Maybe This Is Why God Put Me on Earth”. Glamour. [archive]

Melissa Maerz (November 24, 2015). EW’s 2015 Entertainers of the Year: Caitlyn JennerEntertainment Weekly. [archive]

Meredith B. Kile (December 18, 2015). Caitlyn Jenner Named Barbara Walters’ Most Fascinating Person of 2015. ETOnline. [archive]

Wayne Maines (April 21, 2016). Caitlyn Jenner by Wayne Maines: Time 100Time. [archive]

French, Megan (June 28, 2016). Caitlyn Jenner poses for Sports IllustratedUs Weekly. Sports. [archive]

Ennis, Dawn (November 18, 2015). Rose McGowan to Caitlyn Jenner: ‘We Are More than Deciding What to Wear’The Advocate. [archive]

Adrienne Tam (November 19, 2015). Did Caitlyn Jenner deserve her Glamour award? AbsolutelyThe Daily Telegraph

Jay Jay Nesheim (June 1, 2015). Caitlyn Jenner to be Honored with the Arthur Ashe Courage Award at The 2015 ESPYS on ABC July 15ESPN Media Zone. [archive]

Eun Kyung Kim (June 3, 2015). Caitlyn Jenner in new E! documentary declares: ‘I’m the new normal’Today [archive]

Matthew Breen (November 22, 2015). Out100: Caitlyn JennerOut. [archive]

Person of the Year: The FinalistsThe Advocate. November 5, 2015. [archive]

Bieler, Des (February 24, 2017). Caitlyn Jenner tells Trump his policy on transgender students ‘is a disaster’Washington Post. [archive]

Pallotta, Frank (July 26, 2017). Caitlyn Jenner, Laverne Cox condemn Trump’s transgender military ban. CNN. [archive]

Jenner, Caitlyn (October 25, 2018). I thought Trump would help trans people. I was wrongWashington Post. [archive]

Neumann, Sean; Sheeler, Jason (April 26, 2021). How Caitlyn Jenner Has Described Her Politics as She Launches Campaign for GovernorPeople. [archive]

Henderson, Cydney (March 24, 2022). Caitlyn Jenner says trans swimmer Lia Thomas is not the ‘rightful winner’ of NCAA titleUSA Today. [archive]

Resources

Caitlyn Jenner (caitlynjenner.com)

Fairness First PAC (fairnessfirst.us)

Jenner Racing (jenner-racing.com)

Caitlyn Jenner Foundation (caitlynjennerfoundation.org)

Twitter (twitter.com)

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Denise Caignon is an American author and anti-transgender extremist.

Caignon founded anti-transgender site 4thWaveNow in 2015 and has appeared in the media under a number of aliases, including:

  • “Marie Verite”
  • “Denise Canaan”
  • “Janette Miller”

Caignon’s site became one of the most prominent transphobic platforms, surviving a purge of similar anti-trans sites that violated hosts’ terms of service. Caignon is a key developer of the controversial “rapid onset gender dysphoria” diagnosis. Caignon’s child Chiara Caignon-Lewis is a prominent member of the “ex-trans” wing of anti-trans activists.

Background

Denise Jeanette Caignon was born in 1955 to a family that moved frequently. After graduating from Louisville Collegiate School in 1973, Caignon soon moved to California and began getting involved in second-wave feminism.

Self-defense and “take back the night” initiatives were an important focus of second-wave feminism starting in the 1970s. The belief was that direct confrontation can exert community control over rapists’ behavior. In 1972, not long before Caignon’s arrival, Santa Cruz Women Against Rape (SCWAR) was founded as an ā€œalternative anti-Rape organization in which women support women.ā€ The non-hierarchical collective had many lesbian members and offered a 24-hour rape hotline and free self-defense workshops. They also maintained a published list profiling alleged male rapists, assaulters, and harassers.

One of the women involved with the SCWAR hotline was queer activist Gail Groves. During six years working on the rape hotline, Groves realized that many stereotypes about sexual assault were inaccurate. Caignon and Groves studied judo together, and they soon founded Santa Cruz Women’s Self-Defense Teaching Cooperative. They also founded Women Who Resist: The Success Story Project to catalog strategies for preventing and surviving a sexual assault. In 1987, they published these first-hand reports as Her Wits About Her: Self-Defense Success Stories by Women. They taught a class that role-played real situations, recommending that students prepare for common issues like attack cues and verbal abuse from attackers.

Caignon has helped produce other publications and served as an editor of the Buddhist publication Turning Wheel for many years, guest editing three issues: intentional communities, engaged lives, and fundamentalism. Caignon ended that work in 1999 to spend more time with spouse Tim Lewis and their child Chiara.

After living in California for 27 years, Caignon moved to North Carolina and studied at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to be a speech-language pathologist. In keeping with a longstanding interest in intentional communities, Caignon has a residence in a cohousing community in Carrboro. Caignon earned a master’s degree in 2007 and practiced in the area until retiring in 2014. Caignon’s focus was on aphasia related to strokes. Caignon helped develop Life Interest and Value (LIV) Cards, a way for people with speech loss to improve communication.

Caignon’s child Chiara began identifying as transgender online in 2013, at age 16. Chiara had already come out as queer and had started dating, but an incident at school had left Chiara with few friends in real life. Chiara turned to online communities, claiming that popular trans users on Tumblr and YouTube caused a multi-year obsession with transition.

At age 17, Chiara came out to Denise via a texted link to a gender clinic. Denise refused to let Chiara take medical transition steps, which led to a lot of fighting. At the height of the fighting, Denise got heavily involved with posting anti-transgender materials online and attending trans-exclusionary events:

I was fortunate to be able to meet two detransitioners I’d discovered online in person when I attended the Michigan Women’s Music Festival in 2015.

In 2015, Denise sent Chiara to a Florida horse farm for nine months, after which Chiara says the desire to transition subsided without taking any legal or medical steps. Denise and Chiara have since teamed up to be the most high-profile family in the modern ex-trans movement.

Unlike the second-wave feminism of Caignon’s youth, third-wave feminism is largely trans-inclusive. Caignon’s site name 4thWaveNow is a call to replace that third-wave feminism with a transphobic fourth wave.

References

UC Santa Cruz: Regional History Project: The 1970s. https://library.ucsc.edu/reg-hist/the-1970s

Moller, Catherine Harper (1984). The Silence is Broken. My Experiences with Santa Cruz Women Against Rape. University of California, Santa Cruz

Caignon, Denise; Groves, Gail , eds. (1987). Her Wits About Her: Self-Defense Success Stories by Women. HarperCollins, ISBN 978-0060550783

Japenga, Ann (December 10, 1987). Rape Group Accused of ā€˜Smear’ List : Man Sues After Name Appears in Warnings. Los Angeles Times https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-12-10-vw-27980-story.html

Levoy, Gregg (November 6, 1990). Teaching women to fight back. Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/wellness/1990/11/06/teaching-women-to-fight-back/605287cd-e0cf-4672-b3a3-642e3f0074b4/

Groves, Gail (1995). “And He Turned Around and Ran Away.”
in Patricia Searles, Ronald J. Berger (eds) Rape and Society: Readings on the Problem of Sexual Assault. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429493201

Caignon, Denise, consulting ed. (1999). Turning Wheel: Journal of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship

Helena Norberg-Hodge, ā€ŽPeter Goering, ā€ŽJohn Page (2001). From the Ground Up: Rethinking Industrial Agriculture. [Caignon handled production and layout] Zed Books ISBN 978-1856492232

Moon, Susan (2004). Not Turning Away: The Practice of Engaged Buddhism. Shambhala Publications ISBN 9781590301036

Haley KL, Helm-Estabrooks N, Womack J, Caignon D, McCracken E (2007). A pictorial, binary-sorting system allowing ā€œself-determination despite aphasia. American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, Boston, MA.

Haley K, Helm-Estabrooks N, Caignon D, Womack J, McCulloch K (2009). Self-determination and life activity goals for people with aphasia. Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, New Orleans, LA

Haley KL, Womack JL, Helm-Estabrooks N, Caignon D, McCulloch KL (2010). The Life Interest and Values Cards. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Department of Allied Health Sciences.

Media appearances

Kennedy, Dana (May 11, 2022). Anguished parents of trans kids fight back against ā€˜gender cult’ trying to silence them. New York Post https://nypost.com/2022/05/11/meet-the-parents-of-trans-kids-fighting-gender-cult/

[McCann, Charlie] (September 1, 2018). Why are so many teenage girls appearing in gender clinics? The Economist https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/09/01/why-are-so-many-teenage-girls-appearing-in-gender-clinics

Williams, Grace (February 19, 2019). A grand conspiracy to tell the truth: An interview with 4thWaveNow founder & her daughter Chiara of the Pique Resilience Project. 4thWaveNow https://4thwavenow.com/2019/02/27/a-grand-conspiracy-to-tell-the-truth-an-interview-with-4thwavenow-founder-her-daughter-chiara-of-the-pique-resilience-project/

McIntyre, Carl (2010) Aphasia. Bonus materials: Interview with Denise Caignon, MS, CCC-SLP, Carl’s Speech Pathologist

Boyce, Benjamin (April 9, 2022). Biden Admin Goes All-In on Transitioning Children | with Denise from 4thWaveNow. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88Dk5U0uiqY

Resources

Trans Data Library (transdatalibrary.org)

  • 4thWaveNow
  • transdatalibrary.org/organization/4thwavenow

4thWaveNow (4thwavenow.com)

WordPress (wordpress.com)

  • 4thwavenow.wordpress.com [redirects]

X/Twitter (x.com)

Tumblr (tumblr.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

Internet Archive (archive.org)

Vimeo (vimeo.com)

  • 4th Wavenow [suspended]
  • vimeo.com/user57355387

Chiara Caignon-Lewis is an American “ex-transgender” activist and a founder of ex-trans website Pique Resilience Project. Anti-trans activism is a family business: Chiara’s parent Denise Caignon is also heavily involved in anti-transgender extremism as owner of the website 4thWaveNow.

Aliases include:

  • “Chiara Canaan”
  • “Rachel Miller”

Caignon-Lewis claims the transgender rights movement is “nothing more than misogyny disguised as progressive feminism.”

Background

Chiara Lucia Marie Caignon-Lewis was born August 21, 1997 in Santa Cruz, California to Denise Caignon and Tim Lewis. Caignon-Lewis stated, “I was dysphoric because my father sexually abused me as a child” and because of “my internalized homophobia.”

Denise and Chiara Caignon-Lewis moved to North Carolina. In 2013, at age 16, Caignon-Lewis became an ordained youth minister, then came out as transgender shortly after turning 17. Caignon-Lewis had already come out as lesbian and was dating as one, but an incident at school resulted in few friends in real life. Caignon-Lewis turned to online communities, claiming that popular trans users on Tumblr and YouTube led to a multi-year obsession with transition:

Had I not been exposed to the cultish mindset of Tumblr’s transactivists at a vulnerable phase of my life, I would not have become absorbed by a desire to permanently change my body.

Caignon-Lewis’ coming out involved texting a link to a gender clinic with no other details. Being forbidden to take medical transition steps caused Caignon-Lewis to have many family fights. At the height of the fighting, Denise Caignon got heavily involved with posting anti-transgender materials online at 4thWaveNow and elsewhere.

In 2015, Caignon-Lewis graduated from Chapel Hill High School and was sent to a Florida horse farm for nine months. Caignon-Lewis says the desire to transition subsided after that without taking any legal or medical steps. Denise and Chiara have since teamed up to be the most high-profile family in the modern ex-trans movement.

Caignon-Lewis sometimes performs music locally and has had a string of service jobs in the Triangle area, including at insightsoftware, bartaco, Orangetheory Fitness, Stoney River Steakhouse, Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille, and Hawthorne & Wood.

Caignon-Lewis has been riding horses since age two, got a Selle FranƧais cross mare named Tupelo Honey in 2011, and has been involved in competitive jumping and dressage with Honey in North Carolina and at FenRidge Farm in Florida. A self-described “huge horse nerd,” Caignon-Lewis was active on several online platforms, posting about horses and dressage in addition to identity issues (most of which was deleted). Since 2016, Caignon-Lewis has operated a part-time business called Novation Sporthorse, offering training, lessons, and marketing of sales horses.

Caignon-Lewis and three other ex-trans activists created the Pique Resilience Project in 2019 and disbanded in 2020, allegedly because two of the members stopped dating each other.

References

Kennedy, Dana (May 11, 2022). Anguished parents of trans kids fight back against ā€˜gender cult’ trying to silence them. New York Post https://nypost.com/2022/05/11/meet-the-parents-of-trans-kids-fighting-gender-cult/

“Williams, Grace” (February 27, 2019). A grand conspiracy to tell the truth: An interview with 4thWaveNow founder & her daughter Chiara of the Pique Resilience Project. 4thWaveNow https://4thwavenow.com/2019/02/27/a-grand-conspiracy-to-tell-the-truth-an-interview-with-4thwavenow-founder-her-daughter-chiara-of-the-pique-resilience-project/

Williams, Grace (February 19, 2019). A grand conspiracy to tell the truth: An interview with 4thWaveNow founder & her daughter Chiara of the Pique Resilience Project. 4thWaveNow https://4thwavenow.com/2019/02/27/a-grand-conspiracy-to-tell-the-truth-an-interview-with-4thwavenow-founder-her-daughter-chiara-of-the-pique-resilience-project/

[McCann, Charlie] (1 September 2018). Why are so many teenage girls appearing in gender clinics? The Economist https://www.economist.com/united-states/2018/09/01/why-are-so-many-teenage-girls-appearing-in-gender-clinics

  • Canaan, Chiara (2018). [response to Economist piece] https://chiaracanaan.tumblr.com/post/177791904093/why-are-so-many-teenage-girls-appearing-in-gender

Buddhist Peace Fellowship (1997). Turning Wheel. “Born on August 21, to TW associate editor Denise Caignon and her husband Tim Lewis: Chiara Lucia (Clear Light!)”

Media appearances

Caignon-Lewis and parent Denise Caignon have both spoken with Benjamin Boyce about their anti-trans activism.

Benjamin Boyce (February 22, 2019). Detransition & Self Acceptance | with Chiara. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fCOVjhZ3VI

Benjamin Boyce (August 14, 2020). Detrans Stories: Taking the Reins | with Chiara. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B05NuuduPro

Pique Resilience Project (September 27, 2019). Dagny & Helena Interview Chiara. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQPQ191LbSQ

Resources

Open Ministry (oministry.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Pique Resilience Project (piqueresproject.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)

X/Twitter (x.com)

Tumblr (tumblr.com)

chiaracanaan

https://chiaracanaan.tumblr.com/post/177791904093

I was interviewed for this magazine recently (I’m ā€œRachelā€), and have been pleasantly surprised at the positive response so far.

I was dysphoric because my father sexually abused me as a child until I learned to associate womanhood with fear and shame, and I was dysphoric because I am a lesbian, but my internalized homophobia jumped at the option of being a straight man instead.

Had I not been exposed to the cultish mindset of Tumblr’s transactivists at a vulnerable phase of my life, I would not have become absorbed by a desire to permanently change my body.

Reverb Nation (reverbnation.com)

WordPress (wordpress.com)

Soundcloud (soundcloud.com)

Quora (quora.com)

Myspace (myspace.com)

Pinterest (pinterest.com)

LinikedIn (linkedin.com)

Novation Sporthorse (novationsporthorse.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)