Wesley Yang is an author and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Yang was born on October 3, 1974 and grew up in New Jersey.
Yang attended Rutgers University from 1993 to 1997. Yang began freelance writing in 2005. From 2011 to 2013, Yang was a contributing editor at New York. Since 2017 Yang has been a columnist at Tablet. In 2018 Yang became a contributing editor at Esquire.
Yang is author of the 2018 book The Souls of Yellow Folk: Essays. That book includes Yang’s provocative 2008 piece on mass shooter Seung-Hui Cho.
Yang coined the term “successor ideology.,” which was popularized by other reactionary centrists and conservatives. Yang describes it as “authoritarian Utopianism that masquerades as liberal humanism while usurping it from within.”
In 2022 Yang, spouse, and child were living in Montreal.
Anti-transgender activism
Yang got involved in anti-transgender activism through Jesse Singal, Lisa Selin Davis, and “Eliza Mondegreen.” Yang cites anti-trans activism in Sweden and Finland as what finally provided cover for coming out as anti-trans. Yang walked around with anti-trans extremist “Billboard Chris” and found that nearly everyone agreed with the anti-trans messages Billboard Chris wears, yet still claims that anti-trans views are “heterodox.” Yang also had an extensive conversation with anti-trans extremist Leor Sapir.
Yang was a guest of Stella O’Malley and Sasha Ayad on their anti-trans podcast Gender: A Wider Lens in 2022 and was announced as a speaker at their 2023 Genspect conference.
References
Lin, Alexander (March 2022). Review: The Souls of Yellow Folk: Essays. Strange Matters https://strangematters.coop/wesley-yang-souls-of-yellow-folk-review/
West, Ed (June 23, 2020). As a conservative, I mourn the loss of liberalism. UnHerd https://unherd.com/thepost/as-a-conservative-i-mourn-the-loss-of-liberalism/
Yang, Wesley (Winter 2008). The Face of Seung-Hui Cho. n+1 https://www.nplusonemag.com/issue-6/essays/face-seung-hui-cho/
Yang, Wesley (August 18, 2023). “It’s possible to criticize and raise questions about pediatric gender medicine today in a way that was not possible even six months ago. We have definitely turned a corner.” Year Zero https://wesleyyang.substack.com/p/its-possible-to-criticize-and-raise
Media
Stella O’Malley and Sasha Ayad (October 28, 2022). EPISODE 93 – A Takedown of Gender Politics: Wesley Yang. Gender: A Wider Lens https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOZE820t1V4
Resources
Twitter (twitter.com)
Substack (substack.com)
- Year Zero
- wesleyyang.substack.com
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Patreon (patreon.com)