James Lindsay is an American writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
James Stephen Lindsay was born on June 8, 1979 in Ogdensburg, New York and grew up in Maryville, Tennessee. Lindsay attended Tennessee Tech, earning a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree. Lindsay earned a doctorate from University of Tennessee in 2010. After completing the degree, Lindsay worked as a massage therapist.
Anti-transgender activism
Lindsay and Peter Boghossian published a hoax paper in 2017 titled “The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct.” They stated the paper parodied “poststructuralist discursive gender theory.” The paper was rejected by Norma, but later accepted by Cogent Social Sciences.
Lindsay, Boghossian, and Helen Pluckrose submitted 20 hoax papers, which they submitted to peer-reviewed journals using several pseudonyms. One recommended that people challenge their transphobia by inserting sex toys into their anuses.
The hoax was uncovered by Toni Airaksinen of Campus Reform in 2018.
Lindsay is a proponent of the right-wing LGBT grooming conspiracy theory and helped popularize “groomer” as a slur directed at LGBTQ educators and activists. Lindsay considers the Pride flag to be “the flag of a hostile enemy.”
Lindsay was a featured speaker at the 2023 anti-trans Genspect conference in Denver.
New Discourses
Lindsay founded the New Discourses wesbsite, now owned by Christian nationalist commentator Michael O’Fallon of Sovereign Nations.
Lindsay published a series of anti-trans posts by contributor “Donna M.,” the pen name of Linda Kramer, “a writer who was censored by Medium when her insights on transgender issues were labelled ‘hate speech.'”
The New Discourses podcast frequently attacks the trans community. Anti-trans episodes include:
2023
- Queer Education Is Evil (September 25, 2023)
- The American Library Association is Queering the Catalog (July 31, 2023)
- Groomer Schools 5: Comprehensive Sexuality Education (July 3, 2023)
- Why Bud Light and Target are Pushing the Woke Agenda (June 5, 2023)
- The Negation of the Real | James Lindsay (April 24, 2023)
- Feminism Is Feminist Gnosticism (April 17, 2023)
- The Queer Gnostic Cult (April 3, 2023)
2022
- “Groomer Schools” | James Lindsay (November 3, 2022)
- What is a Woman? (August 26, 2022)
- Queer Theory Is Queer Marxism (August 11, 2022)
- Queer Theory and “Cripping Incest Discourses(s)” (July 25, 2022)
- Groomer Schools 4: Drag Queen Story Hour (June 27, 2022)
- The Queer Subversion of Feminism: Gayle Rubin’s “Thinking Sex” Part 3 (June 20, 2022)
- Gayle Rubin’s “Thinking Sex” Part 2: Erasing Boundaries (June 13, 2022)
- The Origin of Queer Theory: Gayle Rubin’s “Thinking Sex” (June 6, 2022)
- Queer Theory is Gender Marxism, Et Cetera (March 30, 2022)
2021
- Groomer Schools 3: The Creation of an American Red Guard (December 27, 2021)
- Groomer Schools 2: Queer Futurity and the Sexual Abuse of Your Children (November 24, 2021)
- Groomer Schools 1: The Long Cultural Marxist History of Sex Education (November 19, 2021)
2020
- How Social Justice Silences | Peter Boghossian (September 4, 2020)
- The Evolution Of Postmodern Thought | Helen Pluckrose (June 22, 2020)
- The Way Forward | Peter Boghossian (March 26, 2020)
- Satire in the Digital Age | Andrew Doyle (March 10, 2020)
References
Airaksinen, Toni (July 25, 2018). Academic journal duped by author of ‘dog rape culture’ article. Campus Reform https://web.archive.org/web/20181009132026/https://www.campusreform.org/?ID=11158 [archive]
Airaksinen, Toni (August 7, 2018). Publisher questions credibility of ‘dog rape culture’ author. Campus Reform. https://www.campusreform.org/article/publisher-questions-credibility-of-dog-rape-culture-author/11199
Schuessler, Jennifer (October 4, 2018). Hoaxers Slip Breastaurants and Dog-Park Sex Into Journals. The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/04/arts/academic-journals-hoax.html
Jaschik, Scott (May 22, 2017). Hoax With Multiple Targets. Inside Higher Ed https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/05/22/faux-scholarly-article-sets-criticism-gender-studies-and-open-access-publishing
Tillberg, Anneli (June 12, 2017). Attack on gender studies despite rejection of hoax article. Genus https://www.genus.se/en/newspost/attack-on-gender-studies-despite-rejection-of-hoax-article
Editors (May 26, 2017). Statement regarding hoax article. Norma: International Journal for Masculinity Studies https://normajournal.wordpress.com/2017/05/26/statement-regarding-hoax-article/
Caitlin Dickson and Christopher Wilson (May 4, 2022). Right-wing ‘groomer’ attacks target suicide prevention service for LGBTQ youth. Yahoo! News https://news.yahoo.com/right-wing-groomer-attacks-target-suicide-prevention-service-for-lgbtq-youth-130037286.html
Staff report (April 27, 2022). How the Intellectual Dark Web Spawned ‘Groomer’ Panic. The Daily Beast https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-the-intellectual-dark-web-spawned-anti-lgbtq-groomer-panic
Fisher, Anthony L. (August 9, 2022). The Banned ‘OK Groomer’ Guy Is Not a Free-Speech Martyr. The Daily Beast https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-banned-ok-groomer-guy-james-lindsay-is-not-a-free-speech-martyr
“Donna M.” (April 7, 2021). Believe Moms: There’s Something Else Going on With Trans Teens. New Discourses https://newdiscourses.com/2021/04/believe-moms-theres-something-else-going-on-with-trans-teens/
Resources
New Discourses (newdiscourses.com)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Twitter (twitter.com)
Facebook (facebook.com)
Instagram (instagram.com)
YouTube (youtube.com)
reddit (reddit.com)
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
Patreon (patreon.com)