Andrew Doyle is a writer and anti-transgender activist who created the Titania McGrath character, a satire of social justice warriors.
Background
Doyle was born in Derry, Northern Ireland and grew up Catholic. Doyle cearned a bachelor’s degree at Aberystwyth University, a master’s degree at University of York, and a doctorate from University of Oxford.
Doyle co-wrote satiric news reporter Jonathan Pie and has published two books as Titania McGrath: Woke: A Guide to Social Justice (2019) and My First Little Book of Intersectional Activism (2020).
Doyle joined GB News in 2021 as host of Free Speech Nation.
Anti-trans activism
UnHerd published an overview of Doyle’s anti-transgender views, which center on the “gay erasure” conspiracy theory that claims trans people are a plot to eliminate gay people like Doyle:
certain Left-leaning activists are doing their utmost to advance a social constructionist view of both sex and gender. The result has been a curious theoretical alliance between gender ideologues — for whom outmoded stereotypes are taken to signify an authentic self — and traditionalists who similarly feel that male and female behaviour ought to be strictly defined.
[…]
In her new book Time to Think, Hannah Barnes has revealed that between 80-90% of adolescents who were referred to the Tavistock paediatric gender clinic were same-sex attracted. Other writers, such as Helen Joyce, have already drawn on studies that confirm a strong correlation between gender non-conformity in youth and homosexuality in adult life. Members of the staff at the Tavistock itself joked that soon “there would be no gay people left” and whistle-blowers revealed that homophobia was endemic.
[…]
It is significant that activists who insist that stereotypes of male and female behaviour are suggestive of an innate “gender identity” should also seek to deny the reality of sexual dimorphism. The view that sex is a “spectrum” has even infiltrated major academic literature, including the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine.
References
Doyle, Andrew (March 24, 2022). Have we reached peak trans?UnHerd https://unherd.com/2022/03/have-we-reached-peak-trans/
Miquel Missé Sánchez is a Spanish sociologist. Missé, who is transgender, has been published in anti-trans publication UnHerd.
Background
Miquel Missé Sánchez was born in 1986 in Barcelona. Missé graduated from Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Missé has written several works about the intersection of gender and medicine:
El género desordenado: críticas en torno al patologización de la transexualidad (Egales: 2010)
Políticas trans.Una antología de textos desde los estudios trans norteamericanos (Egales: 2015)
Transexualidades, otras miradas posibles (Egales: 2013)
A la conquista del cuerpo equivocado (Egales: 2018)
The Myth of the Wrong Body
In 2018 Missé published The Myth of the Wrong Body (A la conquista del cuerpo equivocado). As philosopher Talia Mae Bettcher and author Janet Mock have explained, the “wrong body” metaphor has a number of versions:
born in the wrong body
trapped in the wrong body
soul of a [woman] in the body of a [man] (or vice versa)
Unfortunately, many cisgender people and some trans people take these metaphors literally. Critics will retort “no one is born in the wrong body.”
Most trans people reject all forms of the “wrong body” idea. That’s why this convenient and lazy description is mainly used by cisgender people, gender-diverse children, and low-information trans adults.
As I wrote in the academic journal Gender Medicine in 2006:
Gender identity and expression take on different meanings within different systems of thought. Because medical technologies are available to assist in the somatic expression of these identities, several medicalized disease models of the phenomena have developed.
Both Missé and I are critical of these medicalized approaches to gender identity and expression. Being transgender is a trait, neither good nor bad. Disease models are a major historical source of our oppression.
The traditional focus on the so-called “triadic therapy” of hormones, genital surgery, and living “in role” has diminished in my lifetime. Trans and gender diverse people have many more choices for how to express themselves. Unfortunately, some people believe that medical transition will make them a new person or solve problems it can’t. As my therapist once said, “There’s never a happy ending to an unhappy journey.”
The reason anti-trans publication UnHerd excerpted Missé’s book was because they had just published “You can’t be born in the wrong body” by Ellen Pasternack. They felt that Missé backs this up. UnHerd also promotes the anti-transgender conspiracy theory that transgender healthcare is a money grab by Big Pharma and greedy surgeons who are luring people into expensive medical options.
Missé does have a point that under consumer capitalism, some medical professionals are guilty of profiting off trans insecurity. Unfortunately, many trans people are gender schematic, meaning they very much believe in a rigid gender binary and traditional gender roles. These are people most likely to believe medical interventions will make them happy. In many cases, they might. Missé is right to question these assumptions and criticize the unethical, inept, and predatory healthcare providers selling a bill of goods to anxious and insecure trans people.
If UnHerd editors grasped the more radical ideas underpinning what Missé is saying, they would almost certainly not have published this excerpt. You do not need hormones or surgery to claim your identity as a man, woman, or any other identity. Trans people existed long before those technologies were available, and we are the vanguard of humanity’s future possibilities.
Bettcher TM (2014). Trapped in the Wrong Theory: Rethinking Trans Oppression and Resistance. Signs Vol. 39, No. 2 (Winter 2014), pp. 383-406 https://doi.org/10.1086/673088
Paul Embery is a British firefighter and union leader who has made several anti-transgender comments.
Background
Embery was born and raised in Dagenham. he served as a firefighter in London. He won a case affter being dismissed from his union for supporting Brexit. In 2020, Embery published Despised: Why the Modern Left Loathes the Working Class..
Anti-transgender activism
His central thesis is that the Labour Party has abandoned workers in favor of “trans rights” and other social issues.
It has over recent years become blindingly apparent that only a handful in the party ever venture to discuss these sorts of macroeconomic questions. Matters of employment, growth and prosperity can jolly well take their place behind the campaign for trans rights and Palestine in the queue of priorities.
As it happens, the publication of the report coincided with the International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia. You can guess which took precedence on the Twitter feeds of Labour MPs during those 24 hours.
Embery has made a number of anti-trans statements.
In 2017 he wrote on Twitter, “There’s something Orwellian about allowing someone to insert a lie on their birth certificate & forcing society to accept the lie as truth.”
There's something Orwellian about allowing someone to insert a lie on their birth certificate & forcing society to accept the lie as truth.
He added, “Coming next: short people may identify as tall, fat people may identify as thin, and ugly people may pretend to be George Clooney.”
Coming next: short people may identify as tall, fat people may identify as thin, and ugly people may pretend to be George Clooney. pic.twitter.com/Crxau2dZtz
In 2022 Embery quoted a Spiked article titled “Eddie Izzard was born male and he will die male,” then said, “Pretty much sums it up.”
"This is the trans ideology summed up. Everything – the entire physical, social and scientific world – must be sacrificed to the therapeutic needs of men who think they’re women."
In 2023, he denied the UK’s relentless attacks on trans people, writing, “There is no “war” on trans people. There is simply resistance to increasingly strident and unscientific demands.”
There is no “war” on trans people. There is simply resistance to increasingly strident and unscientific demands. https://t.co/rRJjVVvzzc
Imara Jones is an American journalist. Jones was named to the Time 100 list of most influential people of 2023.
Background
Jones was born on May 9, 1972 and grew up in the Atlanta area.
Jones earned a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University in 1994 and a master’s degree from The London School of Economics and Political Science.
Jones held posts at Viacom, which included work on the campaign “Know HIV/AIDS and Fight for Your Rights: Protect Yourself” which garnered two EMMY Awards and a Peabody Award.
Jones was a Soros Equality Fellow and chaired the first-ever UN High-Level Meeting on Gender Diversity.
Jones’ Translash podcast did a limited series titled “The Anti-Trans Hate Machine: A Plot Against Equality.” The series profiles a number of key anti-trans activists. Season 2 examines how through “the disinformation ecosystem constructed by the Christian Nationalist movement, anti-trans lies are laundered through some of the biggest and most respected news rooms in the country, and how this effort creates a world where the existence of trans people is questioned.”
Coan, Jamie Shearn (April 25, 2019). Imara Jones.New York Trans Oral History Project https://nyctransoralhistory.org/content/uploads/2021/12/NYC-TOHP-Transcript-144-Imara-Jones_UPDATED.pdf
2003 Peabody Awards Know HIV/AIDS and Fight For Your Rights: Protect Yourself Campaigns https://peabodyawards.com/award-profile/know-hiv-aids-and-fight-for-your-rights-protect-yourself-campaigns/ https://vimeo.com/160099072
Paul Thomas is a government employee and co-founder of The Leeds Salon. Thomas has complained in UnHerd about “the collaboration between the unions and management” regarding diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the University and College Union’s “disgraceful lack of support for Kathleen Stock.”
Michael Shellenberger is an American author, environmental policy analyst, politician, and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Michael D. “Mike” Shellenberger was born in 1971 in Colorado and grew up in Greeley. Shellenberger has three siblings born to parent Nancy and two step-siblings via stepparent, Don (1942–2021). Shellenberger graduated from Greeley Central High School and earned a bachelor’s degree from Earlham College in 1993. In 1996 Shellenberger earned a master’s degree from University of California, Santa Cruz.
Shellenberger is married to sociologist and policy analyst Helen J. Lee Shellenberger (born July 31, 1975). They have two children, Joaquin B. Rosman Shellenberger (born 1999) and Kestrel Shellenberger (born November 2, 2005). They live in Berkeley, California.
Environmental policy work
In 2003 Shellenberger co-founded the Apollo Alliance, an umbrella organization now called BlueGreen Alliance.
Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus founded market research firm American Environics. They wanted to look at “mistaken assumptions in progressive political movements.”
After working in public relations, Shellenberger co-founded the Breakthrough Institute with Ted Nordhaus in 2003. In 2016, Shellenberger left Breakthrough to found Environmental Progress, focused on keeping American nuclear power plants online.
Shellenberger is a cofounder of anti-drug organization California Peace Coalition and in 2022 founded Shellenberger LLC.
Anti-progressivism
Like many anti-trans people, Shellenberger began as a progressive, then by being critical of progressive political positions, primarily around the environment. Twenty years later, Shellenberger is among many self-described “centrists” whose anti-progressivism has curdled into conservatism.
Shellenberger is author of the 2021 book San Fransicko: How Progressives Ruin Cities.
Political career
Shellenberger ran for California Governor in 2018 as an independent, coming in 9th in the primary with 31,692 votes, or 0.5%.
In 2022 Shellenberger came in third in the primary with 290,286 votes, or 4.1%.
Anti-trans activism
Shellenberger is a heavy Twitter user and was hand-picked by Elon Musk in 2022 to review non-public discussions by former Twitter employees and current users. Anti-trans activist Bari Weiss brought Shellenberger on to write for The Free Press in 2022.
In 2023, Shellenberger started being more open and militant about anti-transgender views. Shellenberger has a Substack called Public which frequently platforms anti-transgender views and guests, notably Leighton Woodhouse, Mia Hughes, and Alex Gutentag. Most of the regular contributors were associated with Shellenberger’s previous project Environmental Progress.
References
Ashton, Mia; Shellenberger, Michael (May 25, 2023). Why The Media Attacks Detransitioners. Public https://public.substack.com/p/why-the-media-attacks-detransitioners
Shellenberger, Michael (May 4, 2023). Join The Pro-Freedom Resistance.Public https://public.substack.com/p/join-the-pro-freedom-resistance
Shellenberger, Michael; Woodhouse, Leighton (February 13, 2023). Normies Of The World, Unite! Public https://public.substack.com/p/normies-of-the-world-unite
Woodhouse, Leighton (February 13, 2023). What Happened to the Left?Public https://public.substack.com/p/what-happened-to-the-left
Shellenberger, Michael (December 10, 2022). The Twitter Files, Part 4 https://twitter.com/shellenberger/status/1601720455005511680
Shellenberger, Michael (November 11, 2021). Why Wokeism Is A Religion.Public https://public.substack.com/p/why-wokeism-is-a-religion
Shellenberger, Michael (March 20, 2013). The Ecology of Obesity. The Breakthrough Institute https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-agriculture-environment/the-ecology-of-obesity
Jeffrey Marsh is an American author and media personality. Marsh identifies as nonbinary and is known for positive and affirming videos about self-acceptance.
Background
Jeffrey Earl Marsh was born on July 7, 1977 in York, Pennsylvania. Marsh earned a bachelor’s degree from University of the Arts in 1999. Marsh was then a member of Le Cabaret Mélange in Philadelphia. In 2003 Marsh premiered An Evening with Jeffrey Marsh in Philadelphia.
In 2007, Marsh moved to New York and continued performing at cabarets. Works included a 2010 tribute to performer Julian Eltinge and a 2012 tribute to self-help guru Richard Simmons.
Marsh began a relationship with American art historian Jeffrey “Jeff” Fraiman and shared a website.
Activism
Marsh is well-known for affirming short-form videos on social media, particularly Vine, YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
Marsh is the author of two books:
How to Be You: Stop Trying to Be Someone Else and Start Living Your Life (2016)
Take Your Own Advice: Learn to Trust Your Inner Voice and Start Helping Yourself (2023)
Marsh has worked with youth organization Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network and has contributed to TIME, Oprah.com, and Huffington Post.
Marsh is frequently criticized by social and religious conservatives, some of whom accuse Marsh of encouraging minors to reach out directly if they are in unaccepting homes. Marsh has also advised that in some cases it may be necessary to go “no contact” with unaccepting family members. In 2023 TikToker Shamirun Nessa made videos mocking Marsh, which Nessa says led to harassment. Nessa quickly became a cause célèbre among anti-trans activists, with Julie Bindel, Meghan Murphy, and others writing about the controversy.
Marsh says two things bring peace when faced with hatred. The first is Marsh’s mission in life to “bring forth what needs to be healed” in everyone. The second is a belief that people hate “so they don’t have to face their own pain,” something Marsh knows of from personal experience.
References
Whittington, Lewis (June 5, 2003). Taking the Stage. mycitypaper.com. [archive] https://mycitypaper.com/articles/2003-06-05/art.shtml
Hunka, George (February 11, 2010). Julian at Dixon Place. Culturebot. [archive] http://www.culturebot.org/2010/02/5530/julian-at-dixon-place/
Staff report (August 8, 2016). Jeffrey Marsh, Viner of the Year, says stop trying to be someone else and start living your life. cbslocal.com [archive] http://jackseattle.cbslocal.com/2016/08/08/jeffrey-marsh-viner-of-the-year-says-stop-trying-to-be-someone-else-and-start-living-your-life/
Jazz Jennings is an American media personality and transgender activist. Jennings is one of the most notable transgender youth to make a gender transition as a minor.
Background
Jennings was born October 6, 2000 in Florida. Parents Jeanette and Greg have four children in total. The surname Jennings is a pseudonym they chose to help protect their family’s privacy.
In 2007, Jennings was interviewed on 20/20 by Barbara Walters, leading to national recognition and additional appearances. In 2015, Jennings was the subject of the reality show I Am Jazz.
Jennings graduated from Broward Virtual School in 2019. Jennings was accepted to Harvard University, but deferred enrollment until 2023 to deal with “mental health setbacks.”
Jennings is involved in TransKids Purple Rainbow Foundation, an organization the family founded to support trans youth.
References
Reischel, Julia (May 30, 2006). See Tom Be Jane.Village Voice https://www.villagevoice.com/see-tom-be-jane/
David Paisley is a Scottish actor and trans-inclusive LGBTQ+ rights activist.
Background
Paisley was born February 2, 1979 is originally from Falkirk. Paisley is one of seven children; Paisley’s parent Janet Paisley is a noted author.
David Paisley began acting as a teen and came out as gay at age 18. Paisley studied at University of Glasgow and Glasgow Caledonian University before committing to acting full-time.
Paisley is known for roles in Tinsel Town, River City, Holby City, Casualty, and Eastenders.
Transgender activism
Paisley has been critical of trans-exclusionary queers like the LGB Alliance.
In 2021, Paisley had a dispute with Joanna Cherry, a Scottish politician and gender critical activist. Paisley called out Cherry for making a donation to a crowdfunder backed by anti-trans pressure group Fair Cop. Cherry sent a letter demanding Paisley retract the message, apologize, pay £500 to a charity of Cherry’s choice, and pay £2,000 in legal costs.
Following significant online abuse, Paisley considered deleting all social media accounts and leaving Scotland.
India Willoughby is an English journalist and media personality. Willoughby is Britain’s first transgender national television newsreader and the first transgender co-host of an all-women talk show, Loose Women.
Background
Willoughby was born September 2, 1965 in Carlisle, Cumbria and attended Trinity School in Shaw, Newbury.
Willoughby began working in journalism in 1986. Willoughby trained as a journalist (NCTJ) in newspapers before moving into radio and then television.
After presenting the news for ITV from 1999 to 2010, Willoughby then transitioned, going public in 2015 before returning to ITV in 2016.
In 2017, Willoughby was a guest on BBC’s Woman’s Hour. Host Jenni Murray asked several pointed questions, then wrote an op-ed telling trans women to stop calling themselves real women.
Willoughby then presented on Channel 5 from 2017 to 2018 before returning to ITV in 2018. Willoughby appeared on Celebrity Big Brother 2018.
Willoughby has made a number of controversial statements and often gets into arguments on social media. At one point the death threats against Willoughby got so bad that the UK’s counter-terrorism unit got involved.