Laura Becker is an American artist and ex-transgender activist.
Background
Laura Becker was born around 1997 in Wisconsin and has two younger siblings. Around age 11, Becker was reportedly diagnosed with “what would be considered autism now” and polycystic ovary syndrome.
Becker has reportedly been a mental hospital inpatient four times. Through Tumblr, Becker learned about gender identity and expression. Becker graduated from Wauwatosa East High School.
In 2016, at age 19, Becker began a medical transition with hormones, followed by top surgery at age 20 with Clifford King in Madison, Wisconsin.
Becker began the development of Funk God in 2017 after using it as a blog name.
Becker says identity and self-esteem issues led to “depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other mental health concerns.” Around 2022, Becker made additional changes in gender identity and expression.
Becker earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in 2022. Becker lives in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin metro area.
Ex-trans activism
Becker appears in No Way Back: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care, a 2023 anti-transgender film focusing on the ex-transgender movement. The film is controversial for including convicted sex offender David Arthur Kendall as one of the original ex-trans activists featured alongside Becker. Becker also provided artwork for the film.
Joel Koss is an American game developer who took medical gender transition steps as an adult for a few months. After deciding that path was not bringing fulfillment, Koss made additional changes back toward an earlier identity.
Koss appears in the 2023 anti-trans film No Way Back, about the ex-transgender movement. Koss has apologized, saying “I didn’t know what I was a part of. Informed consent saves lives.”
Background
Koss has stated “horrible things” happened as a child, adding: “Around the time I was 11 or 12 I developed anorexia nervosa. And then years later, it led me to develop a body dysmorphia, which I falsely, wrongly attributed to being gender dysphoria.” According to Koss:
Ever since I was young, since I could remember, I have had an issue with my identity, mostly the way that I looked, talked, dressed. I think I got into my head growing up I would be happier if I was a woman, Iâd be more satisfied with myself if I was a woman, I would love myself more if I was a different person.
I just know like how truly easy it is for you to go and get treatment if you live in an area with informed consent treatment. I literally made an appointment with the doctors office in Chicago. I live in Indiana. So I drove up to Chicago. I went to the doctor’s appointment that I had set up for two weeks prior. It was very quick. And then that day I received estrogen. There was definitely a honeymoon phase. In the beginning of hormone therapy, everything felt great. My body felt great. My mind felt clear. I was also becoming an Internet influencer pretty quickly.
Koss documented the transition on social media.
I am five months on hormones… about 5 1/2 months. And since my last update, there have been a lot of changes. So as many of you know, I take estrogen shots. But this one is particularly important. As I put this into my body., I will be six months on estrogen. Sometimes you never think that the things that you in life that you want are going to happen fully.
Three months later, Koss felt differently:
It turned out to make me more dysphoric. It turned out to make me uncomfortable. The more it happened to my body, the scareder I got. And I came to the realization that I donât feel like Iâm actually transgender. Itâs a hell of a realization to have.
Koss soon gave additional updates:
Whatâs up my beautiful people? How are we doing today? If youâve been around my channel for a minute, than you know that I am male to female to male. So I went through transition, and then, after about nine months, I came to the realization that, I am not transgender.
In July 2020 I started realizing that hormone therapy was no longer having a satisfactory effect on my mental health and my physical health. But now at this point in time, I had a lot of social media followers, people that looked up to me and made me feel like I was important to them. And I felt like I couldnât go back. And that the only option was to just keep pushing forward, which led me to spiral into a state of depression and being admitted to a psychiatric hospital.
Response to No Way Back
Koss appears in the 2023 anti-trans film No Way Back and is credited as “Joel Kass” in some promotional materials. In April 2023, Koss posted:
I was interviewed for this documentary. I was actually used quite a bit for the documentary. I was told that it would shine a positive light on informed consent. And it did not. […] The full interview and testimony of my experiences that I gave was chopped up into little bits and sprinkled throughout the documentary, not fully reflecting my actual views and thoughts on transgender healthcare. I apologize, and I hope that it did no damage. I would hate to think that something I was a part of could be viewed by a legislator and impractically influence thought-making, decision-making processes, or just scare the shit out of parents of trans kids that come out to them. As always, every single one of you has my love and my support.
Koss later added:
I am an advocate for trans rights, trans healthcare, everything to do with basic equality. I was approached by the director about April of last year. And when I asked about the scope of and the impact of the film, I was told it was going to be a positive film about informed consent. I was told that it was going to take an ethical and responsible perspective of getting proper mental healthcare before informed consent in terms of trans teens and not full-grown adults. I don’t know if I can take legal action because I signed a release. I gave very thoughtful, ethical, correct responses to interview questions, and every single thing I said was taken out of context, cut all apart, piecemealed into something that served the agenda of another party entirely. So I apologize. I didn’t know what I was a part of. I didn’t know what was being done. Informed consent saves lives. That’s it. […] I hope I did nothing damaging, and I that I can be forgiven.
Billy Burleigh is an American engineer and ex-transgender activist. Burleigh gets money and attention by making it more difficult for others to get trans healthcare.
Background
Clifton Francis “Billy” Burleigh, Jr. was born in November of 1966. Burleigh claims to have had several childhood issues, “including a speech impediment, a learning disability, and childhood sexual abuse.”
Burleigh attended Louisiana State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in 1991 and a master’s degree in 1993. After college, Burleigh had therapy for five to six years until “I told my therapist that I wanted to transition.”
Burleigh has worked as a hydraulic engineer at Motion Industries and transitioned on the job there. Around 1999, Burleigh started taking hormones, and about three years later had bottom surgery and facial surgery. During this time, Burleigh used the name Billie Frances Burleigh and worked at Belcan and Parker Hannifin.
Burleigh claims to have lived as a woman from ages 31 to 38. Around 2004, “After presenting myself as a woman for seven years, I detransitioned.” The process took about three years.
After making additional gender changes, Burleigh worked at Fluid Power Systems Consultants, Kemper Engineering Services, Teledyne Brown Engineering, Geocent, SpaceX, and ManTech.
Anti-trans activism
In 2017, Burleigh legally changed name and gender in Santa Barbara County Superior Courts.
Burleigh has gone on to be a key figure in testifying against trans healthcare at the state and federal levels:
Amicus Clifton Francis (âBillyâ) Burleigh Jr.âs biography is brief, however, his personal background still brings a valuable perspective to this case. Mr. Burleigh was one of the many who contacted Mr. Heyer, regretting the decision to transition. Initially, when Mr. Burleigh first transitioned to identifying as a female, he was excited. Unfortunately, soon after the transition he felt discomfort identifying as a female, and states that, âI was better off as I was before the surgery, before the hormone treatment.â After six years of identifying as a woman, Mr. Burleigh started maturing in his relationship with Jesus and, as a result, learned the truth â that he was not female — and a desire grew in his heart to transition back to identifying as male. After seven years of identifying as a female, Mr. Burleigh underwent surgery to revert back to identifying as male.
Burleigh has been active in Lompoc Foursquare Church.
Watson was born in ~1991 and reports being repeatedly sexually assaulted as a teen.
made a gender transition as an adult. Watson socially transitioned at age 20 and began medical transition at age 24. Watson had top surgery at age 26. In October 2019, at age 28, Watson made additional changes in identity and expression.
Ex-trans activism
Rather than taking personal responsibility for medical decisions made as an adult, Watson blames “the trans lobby.” According to anti-trans activist Julie Bindel:
Watson self-referred to the Sandyford in 2014, having spent time in a psychiatric unit following a severe mental breakdown. âI burned my house down while trying to kill myself,â she says, âand made out to the doctor it was because I was really a trans man and needed to transition. That was bullshit.â Watson was suffering from depression, dependent on alcohol, and struggling to accept that she was a lesbian.
Hinty grew up in Ohio. After moving to a new school at age 15, Hinty met trans and gender diverse peers. Before identifying as trans, Hinty briefly identified as nonbinary at 16, then trans at 17. Hinty did not take medical steps until adulthood, starting testosterone injections in 2016 at age 18. On April 4, 2017, Hinty’s name change petition was granted.
Hinty attended Otterbein University from 2016 to 2017, studying computer science. While there, Hinty was Student Program Coordinator for the Office of Social Justice & Activism.
Hinty moved to Chicago in 2017 and began a long-term relationship with future ex-trans activist Helena Kerschner, holding a number of service jobs following an internship on the docu-series America In Transition.
After 14 months of hormone use, Hinty stopped and briefly identified as nonbinary before identifying as a “bi lady with C-PTSD who finds relief from brain stuff through gaming and medical cannabis!”
Hinty worked at Argo Tea and Starbucks for about one year each. From 2019 to 2022 Hinty worked at cannabis dispensary GreenGate Chicago (now ZenLeaf) before embarking on a freelance graphic design career.
Pique Resilience Project
In 2019 PRP created a number of videos and made several media appearances in its year of operation. The project disbanded in 2020 after Hinty and Kerschner broke up.
Dagny Walton is an American artist and “ex-transgender” activist involved with the Pique Resilience Project. Members of the group have spoken at anti-trans conferences and appeared on fascist/conservative media outlets.
Background
Walton was born in 1996, grew up in Colorado, and graduated from Poudre High School in Fort Collins. Walton read a lot as a child and never identified with feminine characters. From age 15 to 19, Walton identified as non-binary, then as a trans man, then briefly back to nonbinary before identifying as a woman again.
Walton was diagnosed with “gender dysphoria” and had about 25 weekly therapy sessions over the course of 6 months, after which the options of hormones and surgery were available. After a long time of “breaking down” parental resistance, Walton then visited an endocrinologist but never opted for surgery. Walton was on hormones from age 17 (“six months before turning 18”) for just over 2 years before deciding to stop at age 19.
Walton earned an undergraduate degree in classical studies from University of British Columbia in 2018. After moving to Montana, Walton took a job at Sun Mountain Sports and began a graduate arts program at University of Montana in Missoula. Walton got engaged to another graduate of University of British Columbia.
Walton also claims there is a dominant narrative that suggests hormones are the only path to happiness and the only cure for “gender dysphoria.” Despite the best efforts of helping professionals and loved ones, Walton would not listen to those who suggested alternatives to medical options. Walton describes ignoring suggestions from the therapist to explore options like getting into a relationship.
The protocols for trans youth did not fail Walton. Walton gamed the system through deception and even self-deception. As I have said on this site since before Walton was born, there’s never a happy ending to an unhappy journey. With luck, Walton will one day stop blaming others and making it harder to get trans healthcare for young people who need it.
Ring earned a PhD in Physiology and Biophysics from the University of Uppsala, Sweden. Ring then taught there as an associate professor and worked in cellular electrophysiology. At the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI), Ring was a chief scientist, working on countermeasures to chemical warfare.
Ring and spouse Eva lived in the Lofthus borough of Oslo and had a transgender child named Jennifer (1985â2017). The family had a complicated relationship with Jennifer.
Anti-transgender activism
Ring’s child Jennifer transitioned at age 28. Jennifer dealt with a number of problems in living beyond trans issues, and committed suicide four years after transition, in 2017.
At the same time, Filter magazine profiled the case of Jennifer Ring, a 32-year-old trans woman who hanged herself four years after her surgery. An expert on psychosis who was shown her medical journal by her father, Avi Ring, was quoted as saying that she had shown clear signs of psychosis at the time she first sought treatment for gender dysphoria.
Indeed, the first clinic she approached refused to treat her, citing signs of schizotypal symptoms and lack of a history of gender dysphoria. But the team at Karolinska went ahead. âKarolinska donât stop anyone; virtually 100% get sex reassignment,â says Ring.
Ring founded GENID: Gender Identity Challenge and began connecting with other parents skeptical of trans healthcare:
Gender Identity Challenge Scandinavia (GICS) are behind the push to change the public debate. Set up by retired neurophysiologist Ring, toxicologist Karin Svens and Norwegian teacher Marit RĂžnstad, they label themselves as a group of concerned parents. Other actors are psychiatrist Christopher Gillberg whose article in newspaper Svenska Dagbladet decried hormone treatment and surgery for young people. An investigative TV programme also attacked a hospital providing gender-affirming care. The campaign against securing access to gender-affirming healthcare for trans people along with media transphobia led to the Swedish government halting plans to change the age for young people to access gender-affirming care. In February 2022, the National Board of Health and Welfare issued new guidelines preventing young trans people accessing puberty blockers, arguing incorrectly that âcosts outweigh the benefitsâ and in disagreement with guidance from the World Professional Association of Transgender Health. This was in response to seeing a rise in people assigned female at birth accessing services.
Anti-trans actors tend to verge on social media, particularly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. They place themselves outside the pro-feminist and pro-LGBTI+ rights discourse in Sweden, which they see as undermining the stateâs ability to protect people during the pandemic.
It is argued that this approach is not yet having the same impact as âgender criticalâ groups in the UK or Spain because feminism is a less politically charged idea in Sweden than other European countries. Barring one, all political parties include feminism in their policies. However, this appears to be shifting and concerningly, the HOPE not Hate Charitable Trust found the Swedish general public expressed more anti-feminist sentiment than Poland (30%), the UK (28%), France (26%), Hungary (22%), Germany (19%) and the Netherlands (15%).
Ring served on a panel with the Norwegian Directory of Health during development of new trans treatment guidelines and lectured at both the Norwegian and Swedish Parliament seminars.
In 2020 Ring and William Malone published a letter criticizing a 2019 study by Richard BrĂ€nström and John E. Pachankis. In the first total population study of transgender people, BrĂ€nström and Pachankis found that for the 2,679 trans people on Sweden’s national patient register diagnosed with gender incongruence, “the longitudinal association between gender-affirming surgery and reduced likelihood of mental health treatment lends support to the decision to provide gender-affirming surgeries to transgender individuals who seek them.”
On September 25, 2023, anti-trans group Genspect announced Ring’s death. This was confirmed in a posthumous piece Ring wrote for Subjekt. Ring asked relatives to publish a piece arguing against banning conversion therapy in Norway under paragraph 270.
BrĂ€nström R, Pachankis JE: Reduction in mental health treatment utilization among transgender individuals after gender-affirming surgeries: a total population study. Am J Psychiatry 2020; 177:727â734 https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.2020.19111169
Ring, Avi (October 14, 2023) [The Storting should not approve the ban on conversion therapy.] Stortinget bĂžr ikke godkjenne forbudet mot konverteringsterapi.Subjekt https://subjekt.no/2023/10/14/stortinget-bor-ikke-godkjenne-forbudet-mot-konverteringsterapi/
Williamson worked as Multi-Disciplinary Team Leader/Senior Practitioner at the Sheffield Gender Identity Clinic, an adult service in the UK. Williamson resigned in 2019 amid “clinical concerns” about the rapidly-changing demographics and increasing complexity of the patient population, and over the assessment process in NHS gender services.
Williams’ resignation stated in part:
Over the last eighteen months, I have repeatedly discussed my clinical concerns about the inadequacy of the assessment pathways at the clinic. I have also regularly highlighted the increasing vulnerability and complexity of people referred to the clinic. That is, that although a minority of people have gender identity concerns, for a majority, medical transition is the solution to difficulties separate from gender. This is supported by audits I have undertaken. These patients may meet the diagnostic criteria for gender dysphoria and transsexualism, but their primary difficulties are not about gender. These include autism, past trauma, significant childhood and adolescent bullying, personality disorder, mental illness, body dysmorphia and eating disorders. The clinic is wedded to a medically-focused pathway which does not adequately explore this context. The service fails to fully consider the psychological and social factors which might influence a personâs decision to transition. Wider political pressures and the demands of a lengthy waiting list have led to a focus on streamlining the service which has eclipsed clinical robustness. Similar concerns have been raised by clinicians working in gender services in other NHS Trusts.
References
Williamson C (2019). Resignation Letter to Senior Operational Manager Covering Sheffield Gender. Identity Service, Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS. cited in https://doi.org/10.1177/263440412110107
Jami Kathleen Taylor is an American political scientist who has published on the transgender rights movement.
Background
Taylor earned a Bachelor of Arts in Economics, then a Masters in Public Administration from Old Dominion University in 2001. She then earned a Masters in Library Science at University of North Carolina at Greensboro in 2005 before earning a PhD in Public Administration from North Carolina State University in 2008.