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Irving Binik is an American-Canadian psychologist who promoted pathologizing ideas about sex and gender minorities.

Background

Yitzchak M. “Irv” Binik was born February 6, 1949. He grew up in Rochester, New York. He earned a bachelor’s degree from New York University and a bachelor’s degree from Jewish Theological Seminary in 1970. He then attended University of Pennsylvania earning a master’s degree in 1972 and a doctorate in 1975, 

He taught at McGill University from 1975 until his retirement.

He studied factors that affect sexual response in women in women and men, including menopause and circumcision He believed sexual pain should be reclassified from a sex disorder to a pain disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

In 2008, Binik was selected for the DSM-V Sexual & Gender Identity Disorders Work Group chaired by Kenneth Zucker.

2014 anti-transgender book

Binik and Kathryn S.K. Hall edited the 2014 book Principles and Practice of Sex Therapy. They present the response to the 2003 anti-transgender book The Man Who Would Be Queen as that of “some militant gender activists.” It also allows psychologists Kenneth Zucker and Nicola Brown to make the case for non-affirmative models of care for minors. Zucker was fired the year after the book’s publication.

The Future of Sex Therapy

The relationship between sexual dysfunction and the other sexual disorders might be best characterized as a DSM-arranged marriage. Paraphilia and gender dysphoria clinicians and researchers have usually not been sex therapists. Yet in the view of previous DSMs and most of the North American mental health community, all sexual and gender issues are alike. The net result is that the sexual dysfunctions, paraphilias, and gender identity disorders have all been thrown into a single DSM chapter. This is not true in the World Health Organization (WHO) International Classification of Diseases (ICD) classification.

Whether sexuality is an important defining characteristic for gender dysphoria is matter of some controversy. Brown and Zucker (Chapter 11) point out that autogynephilia—that is, sexual arousal to the idea of oneself being a woman—may be a crucial mechanism in male-to-female gender dysphoria and that this “erotic location error” is considered by some as a sexual orientation. This theory has aroused bitter controversy, as evidenced by the recent brouhaha between J. Michael Bailey of Northwestern University and some militant gender activists (see special issue of Archives of Sexual Behavior, June 2008). Brown and Zucker also review the intervention literature and summarize the substantive changes in the DSM-5 diagnosis.

References

Binik YM, Hall KSK, Eds. (2014). Principles and Practice of Sex Therapy, Fifth Edition. Guilford Publications. ISBN 9781462513673

Resources

McGill University Psychology (psych.mcgill.ca)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Archival resources

Binik Lab (binik-lab.com) [archive]

Sex and Couples Therapy (sexandcoupletherapy.com) [archive]

American Psychiatric Association (psychiatry.org)

  • http://www.psych.org/MainMenu/Research/DSMIV/DSMV/WorkGroups/SexualGID/IrvingMBinikPhD.aspx [archive]

Debra Soh is a Canadian psychologist and anti-transgender activist.

Soh is a member of the intellectual dark web, a loose alliance described as a “gateway to the far right.” Soh has promoted a number of disease models of gender identity and expression:

Background

Debra W. Soh was born in 1990, is of Malaysian-Chinese descent, and grew up in Canada.

Soh earned a doctorate from York University in 2016. Soh’s dissertation is titled: “Functional and Structural Neuroimaging of Paraphilic Hypersexuality in Men” The examining committee included K. Schneider, James Cantor, G. Turner, D. Stevens, D. Vanderlann, C. Davis

Soh left academia in order to promote anti-trans views in the media.

Anti-transgender activism

Soh authored the 2020 anti-trans book The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths about Sex and Identity in Our Society. 

Soh and anti-trans activist Jonathan Kay co-hosted the Wrongspeak podcast for anti-trans platform Quillette.

From 2021 to 2023, Soh hosted The Dr. Debra Soh Podcast. Guests included many other key members of the anti-transgender movement.

Soh is a regular guest at conservative and anti-transgender outlets, including

References

Jones, Zinnia (October 31, 2018 ) Debra Soh is really bad at trans science (part 1). Gender Analysis https://genderanalysis.net/2018/10/debra-soh-is-really-bad-at-trans-science-part-1/

Jones, Zinnia (October 31, 2018 ) Debra Soh is really bad at trans science (part 2). Gender Analysis https://genderanalysis.net/2018/10/debra-soh-is-really-bad-at-trans-science-part-2/

Jones, Zinnia (October 31, 2018 ) Debra Soh is really bad at trans science (part 3). Gender Analysis https://genderanalysis.net/2018/10/debra-soh-is-really-bad-at-trans-science-part-3/

Soh, Debra (22 February 2021). Attacks on Asian-Americans reveal a strange racial double standard. The Globe and Mail https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-attacks-on-asian-americans-reveal-a-strange-racial-double-standard/

Resources

GLAAD Accountability Project (glaad.org)

Trans Data Library (transdatalibrary.org)

  • Debra Soh
  • https://transdatalibrary.org/person/debra-soh/

Debra Soh (drdebrasoh.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Instagram (instagram.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)

Patreon (patreon.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

York University Psychology (psychology.gradstudies.yorku.ca)

  • https://psychology.gradstudies.yorku.ca/news/past-oral-defences/#2017

Muck Rack (muckrack.com)

Oren Amitay is a Canadian psychologist and anti-transgender activist involved in the gender critical movement.

Background

Oren Aaron Amitay was born in 1968. Amitay attended York University, earning a master’s degree in 1999 and a doctorate in 2006.

In 2014 Amitay founded Straight Kill Films and began promoting the work of several members of the so-called intellectual dark web, described as a gateway to the far right.

In 2017 Amitay was involved in a controversy over transgender discussions on the Ontario Psychological Association (OPA) listserv.

In 2019 Amitay was suspended from Twitter for gender critical activity and investigated for misconduct by employer Ryerson University.

 YouTube channel

References

Xavier-Carter, Breanna (December 5, 2019). Ryerson psychology instructor faces allegations of misconduct. Ryersonian https://ryersonian.ca/ryerson-psychology-instructor-faces-allegations-of-misconduct/

 Gallant, Jacques (October 15, 2019). Ontario psychologist completed assessments without children’s aids societies knowing he had been cautioned. Toronto Star https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2019/10/15/childrens-aid-societies-werent-told-psychologist-was-cautioned-and-ordered-to-have-mentor.html

Amitay, Oren (2018). Complete narrative of DocAmitay’s OPA listserv history [PDF] http://docamitay.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Complete_Narrative_of_DocAmitays_OPA_Listserv_History.pdf See also YouTube: 1 2 3 4 5

Amitay OA (1999) Introjected parental perceptions and choice of romantic partners in dependents and self-critics. [Master’s thesis] https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item?id=MQ56159&op=pdf&app=Library&oclc_number=1006984997

Amitay OA (2006). Supportive and undermining relational patterns in individuals vulnerable to major depression. [PhD dissertation] https://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item?id=NR19829&op=pdf&app=Library&oclc_number=300580569

Resources

Dr. Oren Amitay (docamitay.com)

Twitter (twitter.com)

LinkedIn (linkedin.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

YouTube (youtube.com)

  • DocAmitay
  • Dr. James Cantor’s Revolutionary Theory on Transgender People
  • “autogynephilia” and “mirror neuron” hypotheses
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3Ub65CwiRI
  • Apparently Not ALL (Formerly) Autogynephilic Trans People Hate Me or Science/Facts/Reality
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHLPk1JrPzQ
  • Are *you* a Blanchophobe? I dare you to watch the *truth* behind Dr. Blanchard & Trans issues
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD9H2QAg7N8
  • Dr. Dreger Discusses the Balls on that Michael Bailey, and the Ins & Outs of Trans/Gender Issues
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud6Lb8GLlMg
  • Hard Science: The Measure of All Things Natural w/Dr. J Michael Bailey
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRKmJtKjEqE

Free Bird Media Canada

  • Differences between autogynephilic and homosexual transexuals
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UXE1zpgvQg