Kara Dansky is an American lawyer, sex segregationist, and anti-transgender activist. She is president of WDI USA, the American chapter of Women’s Declaration International.
Background
Kara Patrice Dansky was born March 17, 1972.
Dansky earned a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University in 1994 and a juris doctor degree from University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Founder and Managing Director of One Thousand Arms.
Special Advisor to the Director of the New York City Mayorās Office of Criminal Justice
Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of Homeland Securityās Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties
Executive Director of the Stanford Criminal Justice Center.
Public defender and federal law clerk at the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico
Staff attorney at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
Senior Counsel with the ACLU Center for Justice
Dansky is a member of the bar for the District of Columbia and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
2021 book
In November 2021, she published The Abolition of Sex: How the āTransgenderā Agenda Harms Women and Girls.
Nina Paley is an American animator and anti-transgender extremist.
Paley is involved in the free culture and “gender critical” movements.
Background
Nina Carolyn PaleyĀ was born May 3, 1968 in Urbana, Illinois. Paley’s parent Hiram Paley was a mathematician.
Paley graduated from University High School in 1986 and attended University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for two years before dropping out.
Paley began publishing comics at a young age before moving into animation in 2002 following a divorce.
Paley directed the animated features Sita Sings the Blues (2008) and Seder-Masochism (2018). After having many problems navigating legal clearance for music recorded in the 1920s by Annette Hanshaw, Paley got involved in the free culture movement. Paley releases work under a copyleft license and has created work supporting intellectual property reform.
Paley has been active in debates about overpopulation and has done work for the Voluntary Human Extinction Movement.
Anti-trans activism
Paley identifies as gender critical and has made a number of controversial comments about gender identity and expression.
In 2020, Paley was one of 58 signatories to an open letter defending author and anti-transgender activist J.K. Rowling. A number of the signatories have been involved in gender critical activism.
In 2021, Paley and Corinna Cohn started the podcast Heterodorx to discuss gender controversies. In 2023 Paley created a set of playing cards featuring extremists and outliers in recent gender controversies.
Merli, Melissa (October 21, 2012). Studio Visit: Nina Paley. The News-Gazette http://www.news-gazette.com/news/local/2012-10-21/studio-visit-nina-paley.html
Merli, Melissa (June 13, 2013). Urbana artist Paley putting quilt art on display. The News-Gazette http://www.news-gazette.com/arts-entertainment/local/2013-06-13/urbana-artist-paley-putting-quilt-art-display.html
Merli, Melissa (August 10, 2014). Paley’s ‘This Land Is Mine’ a viral hit. The News-Gazette http://www.news-gazette.com/arts-entertainment/local/2014-08-10/paleys-land-mine-film-viral-hit.html
Ramanathan, Lavanya (September 25, 2008). An Ancient Tale, Newly Animated. The Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/24/AR2008092404245.html
Dey, Jim (May 7, 2019). Furor over gender issues puts Urbana artist’s film in crosshairs. The News-Gazette https://www.news-gazette.com/news/jim-dey-furor-over-gender-issues-puts-urbana-artists-film-in-crosshairs/article_5a620967-c4dd-5b70-b86d-5729e2097134.html
Mayes, Ian (14 February 2004).Ā A change, of course.Ā The Guardian.https://www.theguardian.com/media/2004/feb/14/pressandpublishing.comment
Minou, C. L. (1 February 2010).Ā Julie Bindel’s dangerous transphobia.Ā The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/feb/01/julie-bindel-transphobia
Ardehali, Rod (14 October 2015).Ā ‘Stepford student’ culture threatening free speech.Ā The Daily Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/student-life/11930441/Stepford-student-culture-threatening-free-speech.html
Christopher Rufo is an American professional anti-transgender activist. Attacking trans rights is part of Rufo’s conservative activism at the Manhattan Institute and elsewhere.
Christopher Ferguson “Chris” Rufo was born August 26, 1984 and grew up in Sacramento, California. Both parents are attorneys.
Rufo earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in 2006 and a master’s degree from Harvard Extension School in 2022. Rufo has worked at The Heritage Foundation, Claremont Institute, and Discovery Institute.
Rufo has produced documentaries and has run for public office in Seattle.
Rufo is best known for conservative activism around critical race theory, intersectionality, diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), and homelessness.
Rufo and spouse Suphatra “Kip” Paravichai live in Gig Harbor, Washington with their three children.
Anti-transgender activism
As part of a push to end public libraries and public education, Rufo has heavily promoted the idea that LGBTQ people are “groomers,” echoing similar efforts in the 1970s. As part of these “save the children” initiatives, Rufo seeks to stop schools from discussing LGBTQ people and their role in American history and culture (so-called “Don’t Say Gay” activism). Rufo is a major force behind threats and protests at Drag Queen Story Hour events.
In 2023, Florida’s anti-trans governor Ron DeSantis named Rufo to the board of trustees of New College of Florida, part of an attempt to turn the school conservative.
References
Bond-Theriault, Candace (April 19, 2022). The Right Targets Queer Theory.The Nation https://www.thenation.com/article/society/christopher-rufo-queer-theory/
Dreher, Rod (October 25, 2022). Chris Rufo Vs Drag Queen Story Hour Groomers.The American Conservative https://www.theamericanconservative.com/chris-rufo-vs-drag-queen-story-hour-groomers/
Hadley Freeman is an American-British journalist best known for manipulating notable authors into making statements about trans issues that they later must disavow. Freeman’s interviews with Margaret Atwood and Judy Blume both required the authors to issue statements.
Background
Hadley Clare Freeman was born May 15, 1978 in New York City. As an adolescent, Freeman was hospitalized several times for self-imposed food restrictions. Freeman read English literature at St Anne’s College, Oxford.
Freeman wrote for The Guardian starting in 2000 and is a contributor of anti-trans publication UnHerd.
Freeman and sports writer Andy Bull have three children.
Meghan Emily Murphy was born November 30, 1978 and grew up in Vancouver. Murphy’s family was reportedly “not just left, but most left.” Murphy’s parents were a Marxist labour activist who served as a shop steward at Canada Post and a feminist who worked in arts administration. Murphy has a sibling.
Murphy said, “I have left the left because I donāt wish to be part of a cult.”
Rejecting femininity was fine, except that it developed into a disdain for āwivesā and āmothersā who had predictively and passively capitulated to the patriarchy, choosing mundane lives for reasons I could not possibly imagine.
Murphy says this rightward political trajectory felt like being excommunicated:
The left disavowed me long ago for insisting that pornography and prostitution was not an empowering choice sexually liberated women make for fun and wealth, then again for understanding that penises are male and girls who cut their hair short and replace pink frilly dresses with bowler hats and mismatched high top converse are not ānon-binaryā or ātransā or āboys,ā but simply little girls who donāt want to play by old-fashioned rules.
Murphy, Meghan (September 7, 2016). Are we women or are we menstruators?Feminist Current https://www.feministcurrent.com/2016/09/07/are-we-women-or-are-we-menstruators/ [archive]
Stephanie Davies-Arai is a British anti-transgender activist. Davies-Arai is director of Transgender Trend, a clinical advisor to anti-trans organizationĀ Genspect, and has been involved in numerous anti-trans campaigns in the UK and beyond.
Background
According to Lily Maynard:
Stephanie & her twin sister Helen were born in Chester in the late 50s, hot on the heels of their older sister Gill. Their father was a bank manager and their mother a housewife and librarian, who managed and reorganised information systems for the Leicester police after their move to a small market town when the twins were seven.
Davies-Arai wrote: “I am a heterosexual woman who lived most of my childhood wanting to be a boy; for a few years my sister and I would answer to nothing except our ārealā names: Bill and Mike. I entered puberty kicking and screaming.” The twins dressed as schoolboys and engaged in “tomboy” activities until age 12. At puberty Davies-Arai reportedly became bulimic.
Davies-Arai trained as a sculptor after attending Wyggeston Grammar School for Girls in Leicester. Davies-Arai earned a bachelor’s degree from Gwent College of Higher Education in 1979, took courses at St. Martins College, and earned a master’s degree from Bidai University of Art & Design in 1990. While there, Davies-Arai gave birth to the first of four children. Davies-Arai’s sculptures began to be primarily about pregnancy and motherhood.
Davies-Arai and spouse moved back to England. Davies-Arai’s oldest child had behavioral problems. In 2000, Davies-Arai was a founder of Lewes New School, a small private school in East Sussex where that child might get specialized attention. Davies-Arai became a certified educational trainer in 2003.
Materials on how to deal with troubled children led to Davies-Arai’s “parental rights” activism:
āIt was too child-centred. It kind of treated children as victims in a way, as if they always had a problem. It didnāt seem to give permission for parental authority.ā
In 2008 Davies-Arai and spouse divorced. Davies-Arai began the training course Communicating with Kids, which was later developed into a 2014 book.
Anti-trans activism
As the four children reached adulthood, Davies-Arai was writing a weekly parenting blog.Ā
Davies-Arai founded Transgender Trend in 2015 after being outraged by an article titled “Parenting a Transgender Child” by Sarah Virginia White. Davies said:
Youāre validating a childās false belief. You wouldnāt get that in any other area, in any parenting book. Itās not healthy when listening to your child becomes so key that it becomes āyou must agree with your childā. If you believe that your child knows best, youāre then supposed to follow the child. The child becomes the adult and the adult becomes the child.ā
After getting more and more into the transphobic “parental rights” movement, Davies-Arai produced an anti-trans schools guideĀ “Supporting gender diverse and trans-identified students in schools”Ā in 2018.
After Liz Truss announced plans to change the UK’s Gender Recognition Act in 2020, an open letter signed by about 8,000 cisgender women said “we are incredibly concerned that the language you have used is very similar to the anti-trans rhetoric used by transphobic hate groups and organisations such as Womanās Place UK, Transgender Trend and the LGB Alliance.”
In 2022, Davies-Arai was awarded the British Empire Medal by Queen Elizabeth II.
Davis, Lisa Selin (June 13, 2022). From Tomboy to Transgender Trend. https://lisaselindavis.substack.com/p/from-tomboy-to-transgender-trend
White, Sarah Virginia (February 20, 2015). Parenting a Transgender Child. HuffPost https://www.huffpost.com/entry/parenting-a-transgender-child_b_6709858
Davies-Arai, Stephanie (2015). Is My Child Transgender? https://stephaniedaviesarai.com/is-my-child-transgender/
Graham Linehan is an Irish comedy writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Linehan was born May 22, 1968 in Dublin. Linehan’s initial career was as a comedy writer. Linehan helped create and write on shows includingĀ Father Ted,Ā Black Books,Ā The IT Crowd, Count Arthur Strong,Ā Brass Eye,Ā andĀ The Fast Show.
Anti-transgender activism
Linehan became an anti-transgender activist after the 2008 The IT Crowd episode “The Speech” was criticized as transphobic. Channel 4 pulled the episode from their streaming service in 2020, infuriating Linehan.
Linehan’s subsequent fixation on trans people led to the end of both Linehan’s comedy career and marriage. A review of Linehan’s 2023 book Tough Crowd summarizes “the extremity of Linehanās rhetoric”:
In my view, and that of his critics, some of his online remarks have been plainly and unapologetically transphobic: Linehan has characterised the trans rights movement as āpaedophilicā and called trans activists and allies āgroomersā. Itās true enough that his former life is in tatters: the controversies led to the end of his marriage, theĀ abandonment of a planned, lucrativeĀ Father TedĀ musical, and hisĀ agent dropping him.
[…] Often, Linehan paints trans women as predators, men looking to insinuate themselves into womenās spaces in order to assault them with greater ease. When convenient, they are made out to be victims, brainwashed and exploited young queer people who are convinced to āmutilateā their bodies in the name of ideology.Ā
[…] To an extent, the bookās very existence disputes the pretence of Linehan to have been deplatformed. If Linehan had siloed his anti-trans views somewhat, rather than warp them into a life-consuming vocation, his once-glittering TV career might well have remained intact to this day.
Derrick Jensen and Graham Linehan (9 December 2018). Resistance Radio ā Guest: Graham Linehan (Podcast). Podbean. The opposition is so extreme and so frightening that eventually everyone is asking you to stop. My feeling is that I can’t, because it’s too important. It’s too important to the women in my life and it’s too important to me. I’m now in a position where I can answer the question honestly of, if you were around at the time of something terrible happening like Nazism, or whatever it happened to be, would you be one of the people who said “no, this is wrong”, despite being opposed? I feel happy in myself that I’ve been one of the people standing up and saying “no, this is wrong”, despite everyone telling me not to do it.
Kate Coleman is an anti-transgender sex segregationist in the UK who runs the Keep Prisons Single Sex website. Coleman’s primary focus is the Gender Recognition Act and how transgender prisoners are housed.
Background
Coleman was born in September 1971. Coleman’s graduate work was done at King’s College London and University College London. Coleman’s academic work was in the division of psychiatry at the Centre for Behavioural and Social Sciences in Medicine under the supervision of Simon Dein, and:
examines the experiences of providing palliative care services to the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Stamford Hill, North London.
This research builds on her MSc research, conducted at the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy & Rehabilitation, King’s College London.
Coleman’s full name is Catharine Victoria Helen Coleman-Brueckheimer, since marrying telco executive Simon Daniel Brueckheimer. The two were officers in Synectyx Ltd.
2018 statement to Parliament
Written submission from Dr Catharine Coleman (EEA0206)
At present women and girls, as a sex, are a protected class. If self-ID becomes law, and it becomes possible for any male to legally become a woman, the status of women and girls as a protected class according to sex becomes impossible to maintain. Women and girls are vulnerable and require protection under the EA due to biological sex, not any vague notions of ‘gender identity’ – it is the material reality of biological sex that is the issue, not one’s identity as a consideration separate from sex. Pertinent issues include: Domestic violence refuges, prisons, hospital wards to name but a few. The status of women and girls as a protected class according to biological sex should not be put at risk.
October 2018
Website
Coleman created the Keep Prisons Single Sex website in 2020. Coleman is assisted in this work by Rob Brailsford and Beverley Dale (bev13thdisciple).
References
Written submission from Dr Catharine Coleman (EEA0206) -https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/95839/pdf/
Vigo, Julian Savage Minds https://savageminds.substack.com/p/kate-coleman#details
Graham Linehan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX_oL7gW8eA
British Thought Leaders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bkk_eosyuWc
Coleman, Kate (17 December 2020). Women’s prisons should be single-sex. Centre for Crime and Justice Studies https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/resources/womens-prisons-should-be-single-sex
Object UK https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMgYezcLrsg
Talk TV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUZ8QNiqyKQ
Coleman-Brueckheimer, Kate; Dein, Simon (2011). Health care behaviours and beliefs in Hasidic Jewish populations: a systematic review of the literature. J Relig Health. 2011 Jun;50(2):422-36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10943-010-9448-2.
Coleman-Brueckheimer K, Spitzer J, Koffman J (2009). Involvement of Rabbinic and communal authorities in decision-making by haredi Jews in the UK with breast cancer: an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Soc Sci Med. 2009 Jan;68(2):323-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.10.003.