Fact Checking

Fact Checking

Debunking the Dialectic of Design and Dimorphism

January 23, 2024 ·

In this article, I will debunk the five arguments fascists currently use to target transgender people. All fascist movements are predicated upon the myth of categorical purity. Because the material reality of individual humans is not one defined by discrete category, fascism always seeks to conflate people with words and category. It is for this reason that fascism is incompatible with human flourishing. Read more.

Transition causes strokes! Or you know, not.

February 20, 2019 ·

The newest claim making the sex essentialist activist rounds is that transition will probably cause you to have a stroke or heart attack. TERFs and other sex essentialist activists, from the political right to the skeptic-bro left, point to a new trans study from the Netherlands: The forthcoming study to be published in March 2019 said that trans women and men may be at higher risk for cardiovascular events and that, "oth physicians and transgender individuals should be aware of… Read more.

ROGD researcher caught lying to the press

October 11, 2018 ·

Dr. Littman lies, possibly misleading parents into withholding care from trans kids. Recently the author of a Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) study lied to a credulous Canadian reporter who printed misleading medical and psychological information that can encourage parents to withhold evidence-based care from their children. The following is an excerpt from Canada’s The Globe and Mail newspaper: Dr. Littman describes the condition experienced by these girls as “rapid-onset gender dysphoria" (ROGD).… Read more.

Texas GOP’s Trans Panic: Beto & Sri

September 9, 2018 ·

While the GOP in Texas has recently made it clear that they intend to persist in promoting the various lies that support transphobic "bathroom bills," they've taken their anti-trans hysteria further by claiming that various cisgender Democrats running for office are perhaps transgender. Perhaps most well known is the specularly failed attempt to make a photo of Beto wearing a 90s-era grunge dress while in his punk band Foss a political issue. Self-described "deplorable" and "Tea Party Original" GOP candidate for Texas… Read more.

WPATH responds to Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD)

September 6, 2018 ·

The World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), the decades-old organization that issues the international standards for medical and psychological care for trans people, responded to the media hype over a "study" that purports to have discovered a new pathology it calls "Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria" (ROGD), saying ROGD, "is distinct from the gender dysphoria observed in individuals who have previously been described as transgender." The "study" (such as it is) asked largely anonymous commenters from 3 anti-trans sites"In recent years,… Read more.

TERF Academic Rewrites History

September 4, 2018 ·

TERF activist censors Radical Feminist voices to sneak hate into the classroom. Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) activist, Sheila Jeffreys has written a new academic book that claims to inform readers of the various ways TERF culture, "has all been disappeared from history." Chief among those Jeffreys' claims to have the power to disappear TERFs from history is an "influential men’s cross-dressing rights movement which enforces men’s access to lesbians wherever we seek to meet or network." To support this fact claim,… Read more.

Right-Wing & Anti-Trans Feminist YouTube Shooter Conspiracy

April 16, 2018 ·

Yes, they worked to make people believe the YouTube Shooter was a trans woman and the mainstream media didn't want you to know, but that's a symptom of a larger problem. On April 3rd, 2018, an armed shooter opened fire at the Youtube headquarters in California. Shortly afterward, as is becoming an epidemic in our current online culture, conspiracy theories and misinformation made the rounds faster then verifiable information could be gathered. There were claims that the shooter was Muslim,… Read more.

Slate wants you to be concerned that, “A Disproportionate Number of Autistic Youth Are Transgender.” Here’s why that concern is BS.

March 22, 2018 ·

Here’s how Slate begins its article on the concerning trend of autistic people being diagnosed as trans: Gender specialists first noticed decades ago that a large number of people who seek treatment for gender dysphoria also seemed to have autistic traits. Research on this phenomenon goes back to at least the 1990s, when the first case study of an autistic child with gender dysphoria (then called gender identity disorder) was published. As studies investigating the co-occurrence (or correlation) between gender dysphoria and… Read more.

Singal’s Florida: You’re very wrong about trans kids

February 25, 2018 ·

UPDATE (4/20/22): This article was updated to respond to spurious recommendations from the Florida Department of Health, which assert the same debunked claims this article fact-checks. Having learned that the mainstream publication The Atlantic has paid professional anti-trans concern troll Jesse Singal to write about trans issues, I want to address his well-worn arguments before he can make them. To do so, I will assert and then substantiate a few things: The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)… Read more.

Are Misogynist, Homophobe, & TERF slurs?

November 4, 2017 ·

Into the nexus of the 'gay alt-right feminist' movement I received notice that an opinion leader in the sex essentialist activist community had linked to one of my articles titled, You Might be a TERF if... The article lists explicit instances of ideological hate and real-life violence (up to and including attempted murder) carried out in the name of a form of sex essentialist 'feminism' that developed in the US during the mid-to-late 1970s. The Feminist Current, a site substantially dedicated… Read more.

An Australian Media Corporation Takes a Punch at Trans Youth, Using the ‘60 Minutes’ Brand

September 27, 2017 ·

On September 10, the Australian media giant, Nine Entertainment, aired a long-anticipated news report "about what can go wrong when doctors misdiagnose a child as transgender." The story headlined their Australian version of the American CBS program, "60 Minutes," describing a teen youth, Patrick Mitchell, who had socially and hormonally transitioned from male to female, and back to male again. The segment was promoted as a breaking scandal about "how experts can get it wrong" and bring "self-discovery marred by… Read more.

Women’s privacy is under attack

July 29, 2017 ·

You may have heard that a clothing-optional spa in Toronto turned away a trans woman and that has caused a stir. What you may not understand is why she was turned away. Articles explaining the situation often completely omit one very important detail: the trans woman who was booked at the spa was not planning to make her genitals anyone’s business. While the spa is clothing-optional, there is no compulsory nudity. According to The Torontoist, “King asked if her… Read more.

TERF legal team attempts to CENSOR the TransAdvocate

April 25, 2017 ·

The Trans Exclusionary (self-identified) “radical feminist” lawyer Cathy Brennan sent, via her attorney, a cease-and-desist letter, asserting that the following statement from a TransAdvocate story titled, Fake “Radical Feminist” group actually paid political front for anti-LGBT James Dobson organization is false and must be removed from the story: This is not the first time TERFs have worked with anti-feminist/LGBT groups in targeting transgender kids. In 2014, TERF attorney, Cathy Brennan and her “radical feminist” organization worked with the anti-abortion/LGBT group the Pacific Justice Institute… Read more.

#DiscoSexology Part II: The Timeline

January 22, 2017 ·

[su_column size="1/2"] [su_button url="http://www.transadvocate.com/part-i-the-rise-and-fall-of-discosexology-dr-zucker-camh-conversion-therapy_n_19556.htm" target="blank" style="flat" background="#333333" color="#ffffff" size="10" wide="yes" center="yes" radius="0" icon="icon: mail-reply" icon_color="#ffffff"]Disco Sexology, Part One: Introduction [su_column size="1/2"] [su_button url="http://www.transadvocate.com/part-iii-the-report-controversy-the-rise-and-fall-of-discosexology-dr-zucker-camh-conversion-therapy_n_19672.htm" target="blank" style="flat" background="#333333" color="#ffffff" size="10" wide="yes" center="yes" radius="0" icon="icon: mail-forward" icon_color="#ffffff"]Disco Sexology, Part Three: Controversy By Cristan Williams   Upon completion of this series, this work will be released, in its entirety, as both an audio and ebook. Installment Preface Welcome to the second installment in… Read more.

Johns Hopkins Resumes Trans Care

October 14, 2016 ·

Johns Hopkins was an early pioneer in American trans care until anti-LGBT activist Paul McHugh began working at the hospital. In 1979, McHugh was able to end trans care at Johns Hopkins and later wrote that it was his goal to force the closure of the hospital's gender program saying, "It was part of my intention, when I arrived in Baltimore in 1975, to help end it." McHugh went on to describe his professional assessment… Read more.

The New York Magazine lies to parents about trans children

July 28, 2016 ·

By Kelly Winters, PhD Jesse Singal, the Senior Editor at nymag.com, has enlisted his New York Magazine blog to promote the widely publicized presumption that painful distress with birth-assigned sex and gender are just a phase for the great majority of children who suffer it: While the actual percentages vary from study to study, overall, it appears that about 80 percent of kids with gender dysphoria end up feeling okay, in the long… Read more.

The media is lying about why NC is being sued

May 15, 2016 ·

By Cristan Williams @cristanwilliams Almost without exception, all news stories covering the US Attorney General's suit against North Carolina omits the rather significant fact that when North Carolina took federal money tied to the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) and Title IX, they signed a contract with the federal government explicitly agreeing to not discriminate on the basis of “gender identity”. Unlike what you may have heard, this breach of contract is… Read more.

What the US Attorney General actually said about trans people & fighting NC in court

May 10, 2016 ·

On Monday, May 9th, the United States Attorney General, Loretta Lynch came out swinging against North Carolina's commitment to discriminating against trans people. The speech that AG Lynch gave is incredibly striking and stands as a singular moment in the history of trans advocacy. While numerous sites will pair soundbites with their own commentary and others will inevitably misrepresent her words, we at the TransAdvocate wish to simply let the AG's words… Read more.

Debunked: JoeySalads’ Transgender Bathroom Hoax

May 2, 2016 ·

Once again, news media around the globe proves that they'll promote just about anything anti-trans, without verification. Zinnia Jones released an in-depth analysis and debunking of YouTuber Joey "Salads" Saladino's "transgender bathroom experiment" wherein Saladino dons a bad wig so that he can stage and film what he presents to be the actual fear of (cis) women when they encounter what's supposedly a trans woman in the women's bathroom. The UK's Daily Mail --the same news… Read more.

Fact check: study shows transition makes trans people suicidal

November 2, 2015 ·

A 2011 Swedish study proves that trans people are more suicidal due to transition, are likely rapists and that trans women exhibit male socialization. Or does it? Perhaps you've heard that a Swedish study found that trans people who access medical care are more likely to commit suicide. Writing for the Wall Street Journal, former Johns Hopkins chief psychiatrist and anti-LGBT activist Dr. Paul McHugh cited a Swedish study to make the following fact assertion: A 2011 study… Read more.

The NY Times goes concern trolling

August 26, 2015 ·

On August 22, 2015, the NY Times ran an article by Richard A. Friedman titled, "How Changeable Is Gender?" One might be excused for mistaking the piece as an earnest call to the medical community for better interventions for the trans community. Alarmingly, Friedman warns readers that science has found that post-operative transsexuals are at significant risk of suicide and moreover, maybe medical treatment isn't actually the right approach after all, especially for trans kids. Friedman gravely recounts a scientific study that… Read more.

InfoWars: California Green Party “Slaps” “Cisgendered” Men!

August 7, 2015 ·

Or not. Perhaps you've seen this image floating around the Internets today:   As InfoWars reports, "The California Green Party is attracting controversy after posting an image on its official Instagram page which promotes 'free slaps' to be metered out to ‘straight white men’." However, when this image came out, the California Green Party didn't have an Instagram account. In fact, the first time the image showed up on the internet was when it was posted to 4chan. If… Read more.

Media Supports Demonizing of Trans Children, Silent on Trans Reparative Therapy

April 9, 2015 ·

The United Kingdom's conservative weekly magazine, The Spectator, recently published a post written by Brendan O'Neill (Editor of Sp!ked).  The piece’s title gives you a hint to its tone:  Trans activists are effectively experimenting on children. Could there be anything crueler? Can you think of anything more cruel than telling a five-year-old boy who likes Lady Gaga that he might have gender dysphoria? Or telling a nine-year-old tomboy who hates Barbie and loves Beckham that she might really be… Read more.

As #LeelahAlcorn’s mom talks to CNN, Leelah’s Reddit posts come back to haunt her

January 2, 2015 ·

While her mom talks to CNN to profess her love and support, Leelah's Reddit posts paint a homelife defined by bullying and fear. Much has been written about Leelah Alcorn's suicide note* which identifies conversion therapy and unsupportive parents as contributing factors to what happened to Leelah. Under the weight of public condemnation, Leelah's mother, Carla Alcron told CNN that "e told him that we loved him unconditionally. We loved him no… Read more.

Fact Checking Janice Raymond: The NCHCT Report

September 18, 2014 ·

It has long been asserted that the iconic TERF opinion leader, Janice Raymond, played a part in bringing an end to the public and private coverage of transgender medical care, resulting in measurable death and suffering within the trans community. Unsurprisingly, Raymond rejects any assertion that she has blood on her hands. Over on TheTERFs.com, Raymond objects to the following assertion: “It was only after the NCHCT published Raymond’s bigotry in 1980 that… Read more.

Equivocation And Lies In Lisa Vogel’s August 18th Statement

August 25, 2014 ·

(Added emphasis to specific statements by Lisa Vogel and/or official MichFest press releases and documents is added throughout the piece with bolded orange text.) Lisa Vogel posted an official Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (MichFest) statement on her Facebook page on August 18th, 2014. The statement is in regards to MichFest and the long-running womyn-born-womyn policy/intention for the festival. It's been crossposted a number of times, including to the LGBT news site Between The Lines. Lisa… Read more.

BREAKING: due to Target’s trans policy, voyeur accessed women’s changing room?

July 14, 1016 ·

A case of voyeurism that has gripped the media was initially reported on a local Idaho news station: A man who identifies as a transgender woman has been arrested after they took photos of other women inside of the changing room at Target in Ammon. On Monday the Bonneville County Sheriff's Office responded to the Ammon Target store where an adult female says a person taking pictures of her while she was inside a changing room trying on clothes. The woman noticed… Read more.