Ray Alex Williams and transgender people

Ray Alex Williams is an American “autogynephilia” activist. Initially critical of the terminology, Willams began to embrace it after a 2023 “detransition.”

Background

Williams was born on February 13, 1988 to Frederick and Sara Williams and grew up in a religious household in the Orlando area. Williams had an older sibling Eric (1985–2022).

Williams earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Central Florida in Spring 2009. From 2009 to 2013, Williams published the Philosophy and Psychology blog.

Williams then earned a master’s degree from Louisiana State University in 2011. From 2011 to 2017, Williams pursued a doctorate at Washington University in St. Louis before dropping out. After dropping out, Williams filed for bankruptcy and began working in retail food service at Starbuck’s and delivering pizzas.

Williams made a gender transition to nonbinary in 2015 and published as Rachel Anne Williams, including the 2019 book Transgressive: A Trans Woman On Gender, Feminism, and Politics. Williams produced 7 episodes of a podcast called The R.A.W. Truth from 2018 to 2019.

Williams later made additional gender changes in 2023 and began using the name Ray Alex Williams. Williams stopped taking hormones after 8 years due to health concerns.

“Autogynephilia” activism

Williams has had extensive psychiatric interventions related to neurodiversity. This has led to a deep identification with metaphors of disease and impairment. Williams has discussed “cannabis use disorder,” “schizo-affective disorder,” and multiple involuntary hospitalizations. Williams has a lifelong pattern of intensely pursuing interests and relationships, then rapidly abandoning them.

In 2017, Williams commented on “autogynephilia” (AGP):

AGP is the kick in the face that keeps on kicking because it can’t be falsified. Any evidence to the contrary is spun into an epicycle and explained away by the transes being “deceptive” or essentially in bad faith. The AGP crowd has never explained what exactly it would take to prove the theory wrong even though it does not sit with the available evidence. But it fits into a convenient narrative that is spread by both the gender critical crowd and fundamentalist conservatives: trans women are sexual predators and they shouldn’t be allowed in women-only spaces. This is the narrative at the heart of AGP. It’s why the theory is so pernicious. AGP and bathroom bills are two sides of the same coin. They are spun from the same fabricated cloth. The only way bathroom bills are going to die is if AGP also dies a painful death.

After shifting from transfemme nonbinary to a male identity in 2023, Williams abandoned this position with the same zeal it had been embraced. Williams developed an intense interest in and strong identity with the idea of “autogynephilia” and began proselytizing for the movement. Williams began discussing the disease at length and attacking its critics on YouTube. Williams has promoted and collaborated with other “autogynephilia” activists, including “Phil Illy,” Anne Lawrence, Dani Caputi, Nina Paley, Corinna Cohn, Benjamin Boyce, Ray Blanchard, and J. Michael Bailey.

References

Williams, Rachel Anne (2019). Transgressive: A Trans Woman On Gender, Feminism, and Politics. Jessica Kingsley Publishers, ISBN 9781785926471

Williams, Rachel Anne (Nov 22, 2018). My Schizophrenic Journey to the Psych Ward (Again). Medium https://medium.com/@transphilosophr/my-schizophrenic-journey-to-the-psych-ward-again-e96ef1d0e7eb

Williams, Rachel Anne (February 28, 2017). Autogynephilia, the Gift that Keeps on Giving. https://transphilosopher.wordpress.com/2017/02/28/autogynephilia-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving/

Media

Benjamin A. Boyce (February 16, 2024). Trans Narcissism: A Detrans Story | with Ray Williams. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IgT7-U97bHE

Heterodorx (January 18, 2024). Episode 121: Unblinded by the Light with Ray Alex Williams. https://www.heterodorx.com/podcast/episode-121-unblinded-by-the-light-with-ray-alex-williams/

Another Way Hypnosis (May 31, 2018). Ep:27 Modern Day Philosophy with Rachel Anne Williams and Uncomfortable Topics. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWN__XCp0EU

Selected media by Williams

Ray Alex Williams (September 16, 2024). Detransition and the Psychological Noise of Trans Identity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhOg_ywSyX4

Ray Alex Williams (October 29, 2023). I Have Autogynephilia. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oy_VZTtA8L4

Ray Alex Williams (October 3, 2023). The Honest Truth of Why I Transitioned. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcSbYVpcb1M

Ray Alex Williams (August 13, 2023). Why I am Detransitioning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maCfcnE04aM

The R.A.W. Truth (July 2018 – March 2019). “Usually I’m thinking about philosophy, feminism, the occult, Tarot, religion, paganism, being trans, business, writing, books, technology, futurism, history, science, etc., etc.”