Last month, I received an invitation to participate in a public debate about “gender and the definition of what it means to be a woman.” There was a time in the past when I would occasionally engage on this topic — for instance, see my 2017 essays Debunking “Trans Women…

And What You Can Do to Stop It — Over the last couple years, conservatives have become obsessed with “eradicating transgenderism.” This year alone, Republicans in red states have proposed 496 bills (84 of which have passed) targeting LGBTQ+ people. For instance, Florida has passed a so-called “Don’t Say Gay” law (which censors classroom discussions about gender identity and…

While most people who transition are happy with the outcome, a small percentage (likely in the 1 to 3 percent range; detailed below) may later choose to stop their transitions or take steps to retransition back to their birth-assigned gender. These individuals are often referred to as “detransitioners” or “detrans”…

I experienced a weird confluence of events over the last 48 hours. Over the weekend, I listened to the Know Your Enemy podcast episode What’s Wrong With Men? It dissects two conservative books about the so-called “crisis of masculinity” and asks why the left has problems addressing the issue. Then…

And Recognizing the “Concerned Parent” Trope — We are currently in the midst of an all-out moral panic against transgender people. If I were to ask “who is driving this panic?” most people in the United States would likely say the far right and social conservatives who have traditionally been opposed to LGBTQ+ people. In the United…

NOTE: this essay is a 15 minute read. If it’s listed as longer than that, it’s because it contains a list of over 100 references at the end. Trans and gender-diverse people are a pancultural and transhistorical phenomenon. It is widely understood that we, like LGBTQ+ people more generally, arise…

Since 2017, I have been one of the most vocal critics of the hypothesis that transgender identities are now spreading among children via “social contagion.” I have penned multiple essays critiquing “transgender social contagion” and its more scientific-sounding doppelgänger “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria” (ROGD). …

and why “eradicating transgenderism” = eradicating transgender people — Yesterday, right-wing talking head Michael Knowles gave a speech at CPAC where he claimed that “transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely.” He is by no means the first conservative to say such a thing — such eliminationist rhetoric has become increasingly commonplace in GOP circles these days. When…

And Why Trans Male/Masculine Youth Are Relentlessly Depicted as “Girls” — In a companion essay, All the Evidence Against Transgender Social Contagion, I make the case that the apparent increase in the number of children identifying as trans is not due to transness suddenly becoming “contagious,” but rather stems from a reduction in anti-trans stigma and the accompanying trans awareness and…