Tom Chivers is a British science writer and anti-transgender activist. Chivers was the science editor at UnHerd when they published numerous unscientific articles about sex, gender, and biology. Chivers and podcast co-host Stuart Ritchie frequently logroll for anti-trans activist Jesse Singal.
Note: for the British poet and archaeologist born in 1983, see thisisyogic.com
Background
Thomas “Tom” Chivers began writing for the Telegraph in 2007. Chivers was science editor at UnHerd from 2018 to 2022, then became the science writer at the i newspaper.
Chivers has written for the Times, the Telegraph, the Observer, the Guardian, politics.co.uk, New Scientist, CNN, Wired, Smithsonian Air & Space, BuzzFeed UK.
Chivers is author of The Rationalist’s Guide to the Galaxy (2019), How to Read Numbers (2021), and Everything is Predictable (2024).
Anti-trans activism
Setting aside some questionable pieces on “Thai transvestites” and what-not, Chivers’ first salvo in anti-transgender activism was a 2014 piece using Laverne Cox to assert that trans women are not women. Chivers then characterizes biologists who use value-neutral terms and conceptualizations as engaging in “science denial.” Chivers defends the term “biological sex ” and supports anti-transgender reparative therapy.
Chivers is situated within the right-wing media landscape in the UK:
The UK has an increasing number of small but influential online-only media, in addition to the websites, apps and podcasts of many of the titles listed above. On the political right, sites like Conservative Home, Spiked, UnHerd, CapX, Reaction and The Spectator’s Coffee House blog are sources of right-wing opinion and debate but play relatively little role in breaking news stories.
CMDS (2021)
In 2024, Chivers promoted the anti-trans Cass Review on The Studies Show.
References
Chivers, Tom; Ritchie, Stuart (April 23, 2024). Paid-only Episode 7: Youth gender medicine & the Cass Review. The Studies Show https://www.thestudiesshowpod.com/p/paid-only-episode-7-youth-gender
Chivers, Tom (December 7, 2021). Trans counselling is not conversion therapy. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2021/12/trans-counselling-is-not-conversion-therapy/
Center for Media, Data and Society (November 2021). Media Influence Matrix: United Kingdom. https://cmds.ceu.edu/sites/cmcs.ceu.hu/files/attachment/basicpage/1923/mimukfinalreport_0.pdf
Chivers, Tom (December 10, 2019). Of course biological sex exists. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2019/12/yes-of-course-biological-sex-exists/
Chivers, Tom (December 10, 2019). The Left’s science denial. UnHerd https://unherd.com/2021/09/the-lefts-science-denial/
Chivers, Tom (April 2, 2015). 25 Quite Unexpected Facts About Sex. Buzzfeed https://www.buzzfeed.com/tomchivers/facts-about-sex
Chivers, Tommy (June 1, 2014). Whether or not Laverne Cox is a woman is not a question of biology; it’s a question of language. https://tommychivers.wordpress.com/2014/06/01/whether-or-not-laverne-cox-is-a-woman-is-not-a-question-of-biology-its-a-question-of-language/
Tom Chivers (June 1, 2008). Thai transvestites compete in Miss Tiffany Universe. The Telegraph https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/2061631/Thai-transvestites-compete-in-Miss-Tiffany-Universe.html
Resources
Tom Chivers (tomchivers.com)
WordPress (wordpress.com)
Twitter (twitter.com)
i news (inews.co.uk)
Substack (substack.com)