Lee Leveille is a former member of the “ex-transgender” movement. In January 2021, Leveille and partner Ky Schevers launched the organization Health Liberation Now!
Background
Leveille was born in June 1988 on a military base in San Diego, California. They moved to Sumner, Maine in around 1997. Leveille has a sibling who is four years younger. Leveille earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Maine at Machias. Leveille is an intentional peer support (IPS) specialist.
Leveille converted to Judaism in 2016 and identifies as disabled and trans androgynos.
Activism
Following a gender transition, in the late 2000s Leveille became active in disability justice, trans rights, and opposing psychiatric oppression. Leveille experienced vision loss during a change in gender identity and expression.
Leveille resigned from the group in 2020 and has since been heavily involved in exposing anti-trans activists, particularly those who exploit and uplift “detransition” narratives.
Leveille is a coauthor of the 2023 CAPTAIN report by Southern Poverty Law Center that traces the origins of 21st-century anti-transgender extremism.
Student interviewer (March 14, 2019). Lee Leveille. Querying the Past: LGBTQ Maine Oral History Project Collection, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer+ Collection, Jean Byers Sampson Center for Diversity in Maine, University of Southern Maine Libraries. https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/querying_ohproject/41/
Carey Callahan is an American therapist and prominent member of the ex-transgender movement. Despite being 30 years old when deciding to take hormones for nine months before stopping, Callahan was extensively featured in the 2018 Atlantic article, “When a Child Says She’s Trans” by Jesse Singal.
Callahan is also a founder of the Gender Care Consumer Advocacy Network (GCCAN), a group of activists with regrets about aspects of their gender transitions. GCCAN campaigns against current trans healthcare protocols, demanding more gatekeeping from therapists.
Callahan apparently does activism under the name Carey Callahan and works as a therapist under the names Carrie Maria Callahan, Carrie English, and Carrie Callahan-English.
Background
Carey Maria Callahan was born May 1, 1982. Callahan earned a bachelor’s degree from the The Ohio State University in 2004. After college, Callahan worked as a union field organizer, then as a counselor and educator at Marilyn G. Rabb Foundation, Lyon-Martin Health Services, and The Emily Program.
In June 2012, at age 30, Callahan came out as genderqueer and began therapy. In October 2012 Callahan began a course of bimonthly intramuscular testosterone injections. In March 2013, Callahan moved to San Francisco, but had trouble finding work. Callahan soon decided that the issue was “not a trans thing, but a trauma thing” related to past trauma, including a sexual assault in college. Callahan stopped testosterone in June 2013 and socially transitioned again about a year after that in 2014.
Callahan moved back to Ohio, earned a Master’s degree from the University of Akron in 2018, then worked at OhioGuidestone as a therapist from 2018 until May 2021. Callahan is married to lawyer James P. English (born 1977), and they are raising their child (born 2021).
In 2022 Callahan stated via email: “I sought out an affirming therapist when I should have been much more responsible about investigating the symptoms I was experiencing before seeking testosterone.”
Ex-trans activism
Callahan’s stated goal is “greater emphasis on and programming for those of us who explore but do not arrive at a trans identity.”
Callahan previously collaborated with Ky Schevers, another ex-trans activist who left the ex-trans movement because of “the role transphobic detrans communities play in organized transphobia.” In 2019 Callahan helped create Gender Care Consumer Advocacy Network (GCCAN). Callahan stated via email in part:
My focus when organizing GCCAN was on democratic decision making within the group and I wasn’t careful like I should have been about making sure Ky’s partner understood I was passing information on to the board for transparency’s sake, not trying to steer the group into supporting harmful legislation. I thought when we got the chance to vote against working with a ROGD parents group our decision making process was working. While I believe my intent and work was misunderstood, I can see how I was creating that risk.
Callahan’s email concluded, “It’s very sad to me that I wasn’t able to do more to steer detrans people away from being used as pawns.”
In 2019 Callahan spoke on a panel organized by anti-trans extremist organization Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF). The panel also included moderator Traci Nally and gender critical panelists Corinna Cohn and Nina Paley. Callahan discussed a 2017 USPATH presentation and a similar canceled presentation at Philadelphia Trans Wellness Conference. Callahan criticized informed consent and pediatric transition, promoted ex-trans media like Pique Resilience Project, and directed attendees to a since-deleted article titled “Advice for gender dysphoric teens” that contained links to other recommended ex-trans resources.
In 2023 Callahan testified in opposition to Ohio House Bill 68, a proposed law banning gender affirming healthcare for minors (the “Saving Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act”) and banning transgender athletes competing in sex-segregated sports in Ohio high schools, colleges, and universities (the “Save Women’s Sports Act”). Callahan’s testimony concluded:
“I am begging you to stop attacking trans healthcare and trans people. I am begging you to stop referencing detransitioners such as myself as a justification for attacking trans healthcare and trans people. You aren’t protecting children from becoming a detransitioner like me. You are exiling good people from our state, traumatizing kids and families, and working hard to make Ohio a less safe place to raise kids. You are doing real harm to me personally, to my neighbors who live a cul de sac up, to the lovely trans kids I know, to the lovely discerning kids I know, to the doctors and therapists who have put in the years of education and experience to improve people’s quality of life. Please drop this misguided experiment and use your elected positions to help Ohioans live good lives. Thank you.”
Ohio House Bill 68 passed in 2024, banning gender affirming care for minors.
Branham earned a bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in 2018 and a graduate certificate from University of Kansas in 2022. Following a stint at a dog daycare facility, in 2022 Branham took a job at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis as an animal research technician.
From the GCCAN site:
Grace Branham is a post-operative detransitioner who received gender care from the ages of 15 to 21. S/he did not feel adequately supported by providers before, during, or when ending treatment and believes all consumers deserve high-quality care whether they are considering transition, in the process, or detransitioning. S/he hopes GCCAN’s work will help providers better understand the varied experiences of consumers so they may better serve sexuality- and gender-diverse communities.
Carrie D. Mendoza is an American physician and anti-transgender activist. Mendoza leads FAIR in Medicine, the healthcare arm of anti-trans organization Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism.
Background
Carrie D. Edelstein was born June 29, 1966. After earning a bachelor’s degree in from Tufts University in 1988, Edelstein then attended University of Chicago, earning a master’s degree and a medical degree, followed by a residency and a fellowship at Denver General Hospital.
Much of Mendoza’s career has been in emergency medicine. Mendoza has practiced at Parker and Castle Rock Adventist in Colorado and as part of the Advocate system in Illinois.
Mendoza married education reform activist Myles X. Mendoza (born 1972). They have three children: Jesse, Noah and Max.
Carrie D. Mendoza has contributed to Republican causes and was elected to the Douglas County school board in 2013. Mendoza was one of several parents who complained that New Trier High School library held the gay teen novel Two Boys Kissing.
Anti-transgender activism
In 2021, Mendoza appeared on a FAIR panel. Panelists included several prominent conservative and anti-trans activists:
After working as the Illinois coordinator for FAIR, Mendoza was tapped to lead FAIR in Medicine.
In an introductory video, Mendoza likened the “orthodoxy” of gender affirming care to forced sterilizations in Nazi Germany and Iran.
There is also the orthodoxy that only one treatment for youth gender dysphoria – affirmation, hormones, surgery – is the correct one, regardless of the individual conditions that might have led them to their discomfort with their body. Mastectomies are being performed on children as young as 15 as part of routine transgender healthcare. So-called gender-affirming hysterectomies have been performed on minors as well.
Asking if there are other better ways for certain patients reporting gender dysphoria is often treated as transphobic, as advocating conversion therapy, or pushing dysphoric children into suicide. Never mind the rate of regret and detransition increasing to amounts that have not yet been properly studied. Multiple studies have shown that medical transition has no effect on reducing suicide rates. And two studies show postoperative transgender people have considerably higher risk for suicidal behavior.
Some states are passing misinformation bills that would ban medical professionals from speaking in ways that contradict contemporary scientific consensus. Unaware of how wrong previous medical consensus was that sought to cure homosexuality or treat hysteria with oophorectomies and how wrong we might discover we are in the present.
FAIR (December 17, 2021). FAIR’s Gender Webinar with Abigail Shrier, Colin Wright, Zander Keig, and more! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XYzCE1ph5s
FAIR in Medicine (March 9, 2023). Dr. Carrie Mendoza: Pro-Human Medicine Means Ending Unquestionable Orthodoxies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXkUU3cLRzsMedia
FAIR (May 18, 2023). https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1OdKrzvXNozKX Understanding Gender Dysphoria with Dr. Michael Bailey
Buck Angel is an American model, pornographic performer, entrepreneur, and cultural critic.
Although many of Angel’s views on sex, sexuality, and gender are progressive, Angel is considered a prominent transgender conservative for using terms and concepts that have largely fallen out of use. These views have made Angel a favored source among conservative and anti-transgender journalists and commentators.
Background
Angel was born June 5, 1962 in Los Angeles, California. After high school Angel worked as a model but felt disconnected from the world, self-medicating with alcohol and drugs. After identifying as lesbian until age 28, Angel began taking hormones, later opting for top surgery but not bottom surgery. Angel later had a hysterectomy.
Beginning around 2005, Angel began to appear in pornographic films, billed as “the man with a pussy.” Angel earned industry recognition for this groundbreaking career.
Angel eventually moved into sex education, appearing in films and speaking at conferences and schools. Angel has frequently appeared in the media. Angel’s entrepreneurial projects include a dating site, an outreach site for trans men, a cannabis company, and sex toys.
Angel was married to Karin Winslow, a dominatrix who left Angel for filmmaker Lana Wachowski. Angel was then in a one-year marriage to a body piercer that ended in an acrimonious split. Angel later married filmmaker Rachel Mason.
Political views
Angel identifies as transsexual and as a “female who lives as a man.” Most people in the community reject these older terms and conceptualizations. Angel advocates for maintaining sex-segregated spaces like competitive sports and takes issue with the phrase “trans women are women.” Progressive members of the community characterize Angel’s views as transmedicalist and sex segregationist. Angel has been affiliated with extremist group Gays Against Groomers.
Marci Bowers is an American gynecologist, surgeon, media personality, and activist. Bowers is one of the transgender community’s most notable surgeons.
Background
Marci Lee Bowers was born January 18, 1958 in Wisconsin.
After earning a bachelor’s degree from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1980, Bowers earned a medical degree from University of Minnesota Medical School in 1986. Bowers completed an OB/GYN residency at the University of Washington in 1990, then worked at Swedish Medical Center. Bowers has licensure in Washington, California, New York, and Colorado.
Bowers was chosen by Stanley Biber to take over Biber’s Colorado practice in 2003. In 2010, Bowers relocated to Burlingame, California.
Bowers has completed many medical missions to Africa to make surgical revisions to the organs of women subjected to traditional genital cutting. Bowers is an elected board member of WPATH and has served on the board of directors for both GLAAD and the Transgender Law Center.
Media appearances
Bowers has appeared frequently in the media, including TransGeneration, Sex Change Hospital, Trinidad, The Tyra Banks Show, I Am Cait, and I Am Jazz.
2021 60 Minutes interview
Bowers was a source for a 60 Minutes piece on “detransition” by Lesley Stahl, Alexandra Poolos, and Collette Richards titled “Transgender Healthcare” on May 23, 2021. That report was described by GLAAD thus:
Tonight 60 Minutes / Lesley Stahl aired a shameful segment fearmongering about trans youth. Parents of trans youth could walk away with the false belief that young people are being rushed into medical transition. That is simply untrue. As the piece noted, every major medical association supports affirming, age-appropriate care for trans youth and the guidelines for that care are safe and well-established. And yet, the majority of the story was devoted to ‘raising concerns’ about youth accessing that care. [60 Minutes] heard concerns from several trans leaders and, after spending months on the segment, they delivered a piece which still promulgates the same anti-trans dog whistles that we hear from anti-LGBTQ activists and in state legislatures like Arkansas.
Bowers’ appearance has been cited in reporting critical of the transgender rights movement, including Fox News, The Daily Signal, and The Federalist.
In October 2021, Bowers and USPATH officer Erica Anderson chose to express their concerns about healthcare for gender diverse minors to Abigail Shrier, one of the most prominent anti-transgender activists.
When asked whether children in the early stages of puberty should be put on blockers, Bowers said: “I’m not a fan.”
When I asked Bowers if she still thought puberty blockers were a good idea, from a surgical perspective, she said: “This is typical of medicine. We zig and then we zag, and I think maybe we zigged a little too far to the left in some cases.” She added “I think there was naivete on the part of pediatric endocrinologists who were proponents of early [puberty] blockade thinking that just this magic can happen, that surgeons can do anything.”
I asked Bowers whether she believed WPATH had been welcoming to a wide variety of doctors’ viewpoints — including those concerned about risks, skeptical of puberty blockers, and maybe even critical of some of the surgical procedures?
“There are definitely people who are trying to keep out anyone who doesn’t absolutely buy the party line that everything should be affirming, and that there’s no room for dissent,” Bowers said. “I think that’s a mistake.”
The problem for kids whose puberty has been blocked early isn’t just a lack of tissue but of sexual development. Puberty not only stimulates growth of sex organs. It also endows them with erotic potential. “If you’ve never had an orgasm pre-surgery, and then your puberty’s blocked, it’s very difficult to achieve that afterwards,” Bowers said. “I consider that a big problem, actually. It’s kind of an overlooked problem that in our ‘informed consent’ of children undergoing puberty blockers, we’ve in some respects overlooked that a little bit.”
Nor is this a problem that can be corrected surgically. Bowers can build a labia, a vaginal canal and a clitoris, and the results look impressive. But, she said, if the kids are “orgasmically naive” because of puberty blockade, “the clitoris down there might as well be a fingertip and brings them no particular joy and, therefore, they’re not able to be responsive as a lover. And so how does that affect their long-term happiness?”
Shrier called the article “probably the most important piece of my career thus far.” Bowers’ views were once again widely reported in the conservative press, including the Daily Mail, the Christian Post, TheFederalist, and the Patriot Post.
In response to Bowers’ ill-informed decision, USPATH and WPATH released a joint statement:
The United States Professional Association for Transgender Health (USPATH) and the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) stand behind the appropriate care of transgender and gender diverse youth, which includes, when indicated, the use of “puberty blockers” such as gonadotropin releasing hormone analogs and other medications to delay puberty, and, when indicated, the use of gender-affirming hormones such as estrogen or testosterone. Guidelines for the assessment of transgender and gender diverse youth, as well as for the use of pubertal delay and gender affirming hormone medications have been published by reputable professional bodies, including the Endocrine Society, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, and the American Psychiatric Association.
USPATH and WPATH support scientific discussions on the use of pubertal delay and hormone therapy for transgender and gender diverse youth. We believe that such discussions should occur among experts and stakeholders in this area, based on scientific evidence, and in fora such as peer-reviewed journals or scientific conferences, and among colleagues and experts in the assessment and care of transgender and gender diverse youth. USPATH and WPATH oppose the use of the lay press, either impartial or of any political slant or viewpoint, as a forum for the scientific debate of these issues, or the politicization of these issues in any way. Furthermore, individual decisions about gender affirming interventions and treatments for transgender and gender diverse youth should be made only among the patient, their parent(s) or guardian(s), their medical and mental health provider(s), and any other identified stakeholders on a case-by-case basis, and opposes any attempts to dictate or restrict, by statute, judiciary, or otherwise, access to such treatment when recommended according to accepted standards and guidelines.
Anderson resigned from USPATH and WPATH, and Bowers posted a letter about the Shrier interview online in November 2021:
I remain disappointed by the tone and intent of the article. My comments were taken out of context and used to cast doubt upon trans care, particularly the use of puberty blockers. Worse, Jazz Jennings was disrespectfully and erroneously portrayed as a puberty blockade failure, based solely upon her television portrayal.
[…] What I hope for, most of all, is that my out-of-context comments will not be excerpted to weaponize ongoing attacks upon transgender persons.
In 2023, the New York Times published a piece by Bowers critical of the wave of anti-transgender legislation in America. Bowers touched on transgender youth medicine, low rates of regret and “detransition,” the history of WPATH and trans healthcare, then urged lawmakers not to interfere in medical decisions made by doctors with their patients.
To be sure, worthwhile questions about how best to address gender diversity, adolescent mental health and teens’ expectations about gender remain. But answers to them will not be found in legislation thatwillharm — not protect — children, families and their health care providers. We must ask ourselves: Why are legislators and politicians making medical decisions for patients and families instead of doctors?
[…]
Anti-treatment bills will not protect children, and they will not help the medical community provide better care for patients in need. We should instead take anti-transgender legislation for what it is: thinly veiled cruelty to a specific minority population of the country. These bills are symptoms of a larger problem, where belittlement and bullying are reminders of what many trans people endure as children, teenagers and young adults.
Bowers, Marci (November 2021). Dear colleagues, clients and friends. Marci L. Bowers, M.D. https://marcibowers.com/transfem/dear-colleagues-clients-and-friends/
WPATH (October 12, 2021). Joint Letter from USPATH and WPATH. (PDF) https://www.wpath.org/media/cms/Documents/Public%20Policies/2021/Joint%20WPATH%20USPATH%20Letter%20Dated%20Oct%2012%202021.pdf
Winters, Kelley (October 9, 2021). Transgender Affirmation in Retrograde. Trans Policy Reform. https://transpolicyreform.wordpress.com/2021/10/09/transgender-affirmation-in-retrograde/
Smith, Martin J. (2021). Going to Trinidad: A Doctor, a Colorado Town, and Stories from an Unlikely Gender Crossroads. ISBN 9781917895101
Publications
Bradley-Springer L (2010). Interview with Marci Bowers, MD. J Assoc Nurses AIDS Care. 2010 May-Jun;21(3):186-91. doi: 10.1016/j.jana.2010.02.008
Doo FX, Khorsandi A, Avanessian B, Bowers M, Somwaru AS. Gender Affirmation Surgery: A Primer on Imaging Correlates for the Radiologist. AJR Am J Roentgenol. 2019 Dec;213(6):1194-1203. doi: 10.2214/AJR.19.21686
Kvach EJ, Hyer JS, Carey JC, Bowers M. Testicular Seminoma in a Transgender Woman: A Case Report. LGBT Health. 2019 Jan;6(1):40-42. doi: 10.1089/lgbt.2018.0173
Atkinson HG, Bowers M, Mishori R, Ottenheimer D. Comments on “Female Genital Mutilation Reconstruction: A Preliminary Report”. Aesthet Surg J. 2017 Oct 1;37(9):NP111-NP112. doi: 10.1093/asj/sjx096
Gaither TW, Awad MA, Osterberg EC, Romero A, Bowers ML, Breyer BN. Impact of Sexual Orientation Identity on Medical Morbidities in Male-to-Female Transgender Patients. LGBT Health. 2017 Feb;4(1):11-16. doi: 10.1089/lgbt.2016.0097
Matt Walsh is an American conservative commentator and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Walsh was born June 18, 1986 and grew up in a conservative Catholic household near Baltimore, Maryland. After graduating from high school, Walsh began working in radio in Delaware and later Kentucky. After Walsh’s show was cancelled in 2013, Walsh put more energy into a conservative blog started in 2012. In 2014 Walsh began contributing to The Blaze in 2014, then The Daily Wire in October 2017.
In April 2018, Walsh began hosting a weekday show on YouTube called The Matt Walsh Show. In April 2023 YouTube demonetized Walsh’s channel for repeated attacks on trans people, particularly Dylan Mulvaney.
Anti-trans activism
Walsh has accused “the media, Hollywood, and the school system” of recruiting children into the LGBT community.
Walsh is one of several media figures who gets money and attention by attacking trans and gender diverse children. In 2022, Walsh published an anti-trans children’s book titled Johnny the Walrus and released the anti-trans propaganda piece What Is a Woman? Walsh also helped organize a “rally to end child mutilation” protest in Nashville, part of Walsh’s campaigns against hospitals and clinics that provide trans health services.
Books
The Unholy Trinity: Blocking the Left’s Assault on Life, Marriage, and Gender (2017)
Church of Cowards: A Wake-Up Call to Complacent Christians (2020)
Johnny the Walrus (2022)
What Is a Woman?: One Man’s Journey to Answer the Question of a Generation (2022)
Christine McGinn is an American plastic surgeon based in Pennsylvania.
Background
Christine Noelle McGinn was born May 31, 1969 and grew up in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. McGinn earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from Moravian College in 1991, followed by a medical degree from Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1995. McGinn then joined the United States Navy, Naval Aerospace Medicine Institute US Naval Flight Surgery Training.
McGinn made a gender transition starting in 2000.
McGinn was a consultand on the 2015 film The Danish Girl and has appeared on Dr. Oz, CNN with Anderson Cooper, IAm Jazz, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Memberships:
American Medical Association
American Osteopathic Association
American College of Osteopathic Surgeons
Society of United States Naval Flight Surgeons
Aerospace Medical Association
World Professional Association for Transgender Health
Gay and Lesbian Medical Association
Society for the Scientific Study of Sex
Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists
Charlotte Anjelica Kieltyka is an American photographer and artist credited by both real name and by the pseudonym “Cher Mondavi” in J. Michael Bailey’s anti-transgender book The Man Who Would Be Queen. Kieltyka is prominently featured throughout the book and is also featured prominently in the defense of Bailey by Alice Dreger.
Background
Charlotte Anjelica Kieltyka was born February 5, 1951. Kieltyka grew up in the Chicago area and graduated from St. Joseph Catholic School in Westchester. Kieltyka attended University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign from 1969 to 1972. In 1973, Kieltyka won grand prize in the annual Chicago Tribune photography contest. Kieltyka made a gender transition in the 1980s.
After seeing Bailey on television talking about “transsexualism” in the mid-1990s, Kieltyka reached out. Kieltyka saw Bailey as a respected authority and sought Bailey’s approval. Kieltyka shared personal experiences and theories involving gender and sex. This led to a long-standing relationship where Kieltyka would get further validation and attention by performing in front of Bailey’s exploitative classes on sexuality; Northwestern University cancelled the course permanently in 2011 after Bailey arranged a live “fucksaw” demonstration. Kieltyka would in turn provide Bailey with access to young trans women, as well as older transgender people Kieltyka knew through a local support group. Bailey would then see these acquaintances in a clinical or lab setting, and Bailey would socialize with the young, attractive ones at nightclubs.
The Man Who Would Be Queen case report fabrication
Kieltyka also reported that Bailey admitted to fabricating key aspects of a case report in the book.
I soon recovered to ask about something else that was really troubling me about the ending to the book…..I meant the ending to the story about Danny, the last scene depicted in the Epilogue, (p. 214 – the last paragraph) :
“….A few moments later, Danny said : ‘Mummy, I need to go to the men’s room.’ I am certain that as he said that, he emphasized ‘men’s’ and looked my way. And off he went, by himself. At that moment, I became as certain as I can be of Danny’s future. “…….
What had me curious and uniquely troubled about Bailey’s description of this final scene was his absolute certainty of Danny’s future…..What had me perplexed was this presumptiveness and arrogance that he had displayed throughout his book and his life. ….Now he’s playing God or one of his prophets, in telling Danny’s future with such infallible foresight…..It was either that or he was some sort of charlatan……But Bailey is an honest and humble researcher……yet, how could he know with such certainty?
Let me re-phrase that….How could he know that Danny was going to turn out a gay man rather than a transexual woman like “Juanita”?…..His whole book was setting up this either/or proposition (leaving out a real third possible future which was Danny committing suicide!)…..Either Danny was going to be almost exactly like “Juanita” ….A real possibility because both Bailey and I knew about “Juanita’s” childhood and how it closely resembled Danny’s, and that being the case how could Bailey not be as certain of that outcome…..“How could he be so certain? is what I wanted to know…..
Asking him as I did in my best “National Enquirer” inquisitive tone of voice…..His reply……
“I made it up.”…… he said…..
Excuse me, What did you say?…..
“I said I made up that final scene….it never happened “……he replied……
I felt like my computer brain did not compute or could not compute this “DATA”, and so it just “crashed”…..This was even more incredulous then the first answer and I was not even asking whether the scene was true or fabricated ! ! ….I was dumbfounded and he was appearing to be playing both characters in …Dumb and Dumber…..maybe dumbest of all….. Of greater import, and with grave and serious consequences, he seemed to be playing both insidious and dangerous roles of quack and demi-god ….pretending to do research and creating the results that he predicted beforehand……
Kieltyka later sent the following to Bailey in the wake of Bailey’s claims they were friends:
Dr. Bailey, Please refrain from any future remarks about “Cher” and/or Anjelica Kieltyka as being your friend….I am not your friend…You could not be my friend and write that book….Do not link Anjelica Kieltyka to “Cher” and /or Autogynophilia and or/ non homosexual transexual except in the context that I , Anjelica Kieltyka , vehemently and emphatically refuse that classification/diagnosis/opinion by you. Any further remarks by you in print or spoken word or use of my image/video describing me, Anjelica Kieltyka as “Cher” and/or Autogynophilic/non homosexual I will consider libelous and/or slander. Most openly and honestly yours, C. Anjelica Kieltyka P.S. I hope to teach you a “great deal” more about the souls of transexual women in the days to come.
Kieltyka now sees that attempts to share experiences and opinions were exploited and misrepresented by Bailey to further a personal agenda and interests. The entire matter has left Kieltyka very troubled and distrustful, as Kieltyka feels duped and exploited by Bailey and others like Alice Dreger. Most people are not going to see past Kieltyka’s eccentricities or unique worldview. Like many of the trans people Dreger and Bailey exploit, Kieltyka is an eccentric hoarder who is socially isolated and experiences significant poverty. It is much easier for people like Bailey to reduce people like Kieltyka to caricatures rather than to treat them like human beings.
Since the 2003 controversy, Kieltyka has done forensic photo analysis for the Arthur C. Pillsbury Foundation.
References
Surkan K (2007). Transsexuals Protest Academic Exploitation. [PDF] In Great Events from History: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Events, 1848-2006. Lillian Faderman, ed. Salem Press, 2007, ISBN 9781587652639
Dreger AD (2008). The Controversy Surrounding The Man Who Would Be Queen: A Case History of the Politics of Science, Identity, and Sex in the Internet Age. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 2008 Jun; 37(3): 366–421.Published online 2008 Apr 23. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-007-9301-1
Windsor EJ (2018). Power in the production of transgender knowledge: The controversy over The Man Who Would Be Queen. The Rutgers Journal of Sociology Knowledge in Contention, Volume II, 2018, pp. 2-37. [PDF]
Debbie Hayton is a conservative transgender British educator and critic of mainstream transgender activism. Hayton gets money and attention by siding with those opposed to rights for sex and gender minorities.
Hayton’s work frequently appears in anti-transgender publications, most notably UnHerd and The Spectator. Hayton’s views have also appeared in Daily Express, Global Research, The Critic Magazine, Fox News, TalkTV, Daily Mail, The Telegraph, and The Guardian.
Background
Deborah “Debbie” Hayton was born April 23, 1968. Hayton grew up in Consett in North East England. After graduating Blackfyne Comprehensive School in 1986, Hayton entered Newcastle University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1989 and a doctorate in 1992. Hayton worked in research until 1995, then began a career as a physics teacher. Hayton taught at Handsworth Grammar School in Birmingham from 1996 to 2002, then at King Henry VIII School in Coventry from 2002 to 2022. Beginning in 2016 Hayton began offering classroom timetable support and began freelance writing.
Hayton is based in Bristol, is married to Stephanie, and has three children. Hayton transitioned in 2012.
Activism and trolling
Hayton’s writing is a mix of first-person stories and gender critical views on several trans topics:
Hayton authored a letter supporting transphobic author Kathleen Stock. The letter was signed by like-minded gender critical trans people: Tina Daniels, Lily Geidelberg, Sophie Gibbons, Kristina Harrison, Seven Hex, Jennifer Kenyon, Claudia McLean, Sarah McDonnell, Fionne Orlander, Nyah Putzo, Toni Roche-Simmons, Katie Sangwell, Gillian Simpson, Sian Taylder, and Miranda Yardley.
Hayton appeared in the 2018 anti-trans propaganda piece Trans Kids: It’s Time to Talk hosted by Stella O’Malley.
Hayton enjoys trolling and mocking the trans community members who hold differing views. Hayton is known for wearing a T-shirt that says “Trans women are men. Get over it.”
Hayton, Debbie (May 9, 2022). My autogynephilia story. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2022/05/the-truth-about-autogynephilia/
Stanford, Peter (October 16, 2021). The trans women who support women’s rights.The Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/10/16/meet-trans-women-agree-publicly-question-gender-self-identification/
