How Trans Activism Became So Radical

[UtopiaPlanitia]

I’m reading this essay and thought it might be something others would find interesting. It’s focused on the USA but American culture exported itself here so it’s still applicable.

I’ve included some sections below to give a flavour of the piece.

https://www.persuasion.community/p/how-trans-activism-became-so-radical

How Trans Activism Became So Radical
The trans movement won the lottery. Then they lost it all.

As the backlash to transgender activism went mainstream in the United States, so havepostmortems of the movement. A sharp declinein public support now has large majorities of Americans rejecting policies such as trans women in female sports, which a 2025 New York Times/Ipsos survey found 79% of Americans and 67% of Democrats opposed. In 2025, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Skrmetti that states had the right to ban youth gender medicine. And in 2024, President Donald Trump soared to electoral victory on the wings of his “Kamala is for They/Them” ad campaign, which, according to an analysis by the super PAC Future Forward, shifted the race 2.7 points in his favor among voters who saw it. With progressives’ iron grip on the culture loosened, and trans politics definitively revealed as a losing political issue for Democrats, commentators have fallen over themselves to criticize the counterproductive aspects of trans activism, or to suggest alternative policy approaches. But when writers and talking heads assess “what went wrong,” they usually do so through the lens of “what did the trans movement do that caused such a fierce backlash?” The question that often goes unasked is: “How and why did the trans movement become so radical in the first place?”

The answer is layered and multifactorial, but it also boils down to human nature: trans activists tried to bully their way to progress because they believed they could—there was a moment of opportunity where the movement had the wind at its back and there was a tendency (which proved disastrous) to be as ambitious as possible. Any accurate analysis has to start and end there.

…As so often, politics lies downstream from culture. Once we understand the cultural trends of a particular moment in time, the ruinous decisions of a small number of activists—who could have followed the consensus-building, coalition-expanding playbook of the gay rights movement but instead embraced extremism—begin to make sense.

The first thing to recognize is that trans rights was poised to become a major issue almost no matter what happened within a more narrowly political sphere. Trans visibility in popular culture and in online discourse had been steadily increasing throughout the 2000s andearly 2010s.

…Facile theories that pin the blame for the movement’s radicalization on a shift in resource allocation following Obergefell don’t fully explain the illiberal turn—most of the groups in this space had been decidedly liberal up to that point. But at this moment in the 2010s, social media pushed a more radical turn in the discourse all across the society. And dynamics within the trans movement itself broadened the definition of trans in a way that became purely political—and that had a pronounced radicalizing tendency.

…It’s not difficult to see why many found the view of trans as an identity to be affirmed less demeaning and more uplifting than viewing it as a disorder to be treated or a condition to be managed. In practice, however, this rejection of “gatekeeping” opened a Pandora’s box that dramatically expanded the trans community with an influx of people who were, for lack of a better term, politically trans.

…A tragic irony here is that this eschewal of medicalization did not stop activists from making youth gender medicine integral to their policy agenda

Just adding this set of tweets too about a Daviana. Who started posting videos about how he knew he was a man etc. He was considered to be 'one of the reasonable ones' because of that.

Of course, as he has made more videos more has come out about what and how he really thinks. Including his behaviour towards his ex-wife...

https://x.com/KnownHeretic/status/2031523680136868150?s=20

https://x.com/KnownHeretic/status/2031873045682667588?s=20

https://x.com/KnownHeretic/status/2031975467725832460?s=20

These men are chilling once you see what they really think.

Hear, hear.

Thanks for the links, the connection AS made between the law to make marital rape a crime, because no means no, even to the man your married to, and 'trans' IDing men's insistence that they have the right to ignore no was spot on.

Speaking of ‘reasonable ones’, Mr Menno tweeted about meeting YouTuber Rose of Dawn recently and being shocked to discover that Rose (self-described rational trans) is continuing to use female spaces.

I’m fed up of the media/social media promoting so-called ‘reasonable’ Genderism - the idea that mammalian sex can be changed is just not reasonable in any way nor are the demands arising from it.

Those comments are so powerful. A reminder of how damaging the extreme levels of silencing have been. None of this could have been said until very recently - which is why we're in this mess.
Reclaiming the freedom to speak openly and honestly about transgenderism has been critical.

Im not shocked; rose started to show his true colours a while ago

Interesting article and it's interesting to see discussion shifting in the US.
I think it misses that one of the main reasons trans activism is so radical and authoritarian is that it has to be.
As the author points out, other movements such as abolition or gay or women's rights, persuaded the public slowly by explaining why it was needed and making their case for it.
Trans activism can never do this. There is no rational, compassionate argument for why male rapists should go to female prisons.
There is no rational, compassionate argument why children should have their bodies damaged for not complying with gender stereotypes.
It was never a debate that they could win through logic or compassionate because it has neither.
Their only option was to ride in on the coat tails of the goodwill towards gay rights, pretend it was the same thing and insist on #nodebate because the moment that anyone reasonable understood what was actually being asked, they'd be opposed.

So many have positioned themselves as rational or moderate but it always comes down to carving out an exception for themselves to be allowed to use female spaces and to be considered an honorary woman as a reward for being more reasonable than the others.

Once you’ve seen it play out, you can spot it a mile off, so I find it very puzzling to see some GC commentators and activists falling for each new iteration of this shtick 🤷‍♀️

The author of the essay doesn’t take into account men like this, policy makers don’t take them into account, legislators ignore their existence, police decline to arrest them, and judges fall for their sob stories. This is the real fundamental reason why Genderism and trans is extreme:

https://x.com/Jonnywsbell/status/2033320583849447797?s=20

For non-TwiX users:
https://nitter.net/Jonnywsbell/status/2033320583849447797?s=20

Eva Kurilova (Canadian GC writer) has written something relevant to this thread:

https://www.evakurilova.com/p/trans-is-nothing-new-and-neither

I love Eva. This is an absolute tour de force on the topic. A must read for anyone interested in the subject. 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I remember doing some internet searching to debunk stuff that a poster linked up last year about why the MoJ stats were not representative. I was horrified at how many male offenders with transgender identities got non custodial sentences based on their vulnerability and then offended again soon after.

What I found was that they were being treated with discrimination - in a positive discrimination situation. That their legal representation successfully argued that they were vulnerable so convinced judges to not give custodial sentences, where I would have thought custodial sentences would have been given to a person who was did not have a transgender identity. Which was quite the opposite to what the poster and their link was trying to convince us was happening.

The fact is that Trans Ideoligy is literally built on lies and warped logic. The myth of being born in the wrong body, that humans can change sex that it's not paraphaelia based (fit TIMs), all put forward to make it more palatable to the rest of the population.

From debates I've had with other people, it's clear that most (the women particularly) are either misinformed or really not the sharpest tools in the shed. Two women on FB yesterday, in regard to TW demanding work leave for period pains and menopausal symptoms suggested that they probably do have cycles just like us and to just let people get on with their lives. I suspect for a large proportion of the population, the combination of ignorance and the will to be kind drives their willful brainwashing.

The Trans movement is essentially no different to other civil and political rights movements. All minority groups that have an equal set of rights today started somewhere, ie the right to ride the bus (Rosa Parks) and the eradication of Jim Crow laws for black people as an example. The difference is of course that they came at it from a truthful and realistic standpoint. They just wanted to be accepted by society for who they actually are.

The Trans movement has come under such scrutiny because it's the opposite of this, its built on manipulation of truth and there's only so long before people wise up to it and it ends up back in the closet. People do not like to be hoodwinked.

Societally speaking we allowed this nonsense to take root as a means of being kind and later on for fear of backlash or being considered phobic. They should never have been pondered to in the first place because give them an inch and they'll take a mile. TRAs are the epitome of this expression.

Excellent analysis. They have played on our compassion.

Very interesting article, thank you. Nothing has really changed reading those letters and quotes, they could be FWR threads.

Excellent posts (with the obvious exception 🙄)

My only addition is that this deeply regressive, cult like movement came to power at a time when anything considered to be part of the majority profile or the norm has been devalued and openly disparaged. Inclusion, in this upside down world of postmodetnism, has become a secular religion - and transactivism rode that wave to its inevitable conclusion. Some of the best analysis on the topic, for me, arrived in the shape of an HR podcast (This Isn't Working) - because it contextualised this extreme movement very clearly.

It can't succeed long term as a strategy. The majority are still the majority and now they're fed up with the over reach by all the post-modern CSJ/EDI grifting activism. Social cohesion ultimately depends on shared values.

Absolutely fascinating reading, thank you for this

This bit resonated with me

The term Women’s Recording Company, women’s anything for that matter, has been a term that I’ve come to trust and respond to. You at Olivia have violated that trust; not only because you’ve hired a non-woman, but also because you chose to decide for me that that was alright, and continued to trade as a “women’s” recording company. I am stunned by the audacity of your making such a decision for your consumers.

I see 'women's' anything and I think, 'really, is it really?'. Sometimes they make it easy by tagging on 'and non-binary', then you know it includes men. It seems now it is rare to see 'anyone who identifies as a woman', perhaps because of the SC. However, I can't trust that 'women' means 'women only'. If I decide to waste my time again complaining about 'women only' that includes men the above quote will come in handy.

Robin Morgan's speech resonates:

'No, I will not call a male “she;” thirty-two years of suffering in the androcentric society, and of surviving, have earned me the name “woman”; one walk down the street by a male transvestite, five minutes of his being hassled (which he may enjoy), and then he dares, he dares to think he understands our pain? No, in our mothers’ names and in our own, we must not call him sister. We know what’s at work when whites wear blackface; the same is at work when men wear drag.'

I was horrified at how many male offenders with transgender identities got non custodial sentences based on their vulnerability and then offended again soon after.

What I found was that they were being treated with discrimination - in a positive discrimination situation. That their legal representation successfully argued that they were vulnerable so convinced judges to not give custodial sentences, where I would have thought custodial sentences would have been given to a person who was did not have a transgender identity.

Lenient sentencing for trans perps was one of the key missions of the main UK lobbying organisation in the UK in the 1990's, "Press for Change". They achieved this by cosying-up to the Judiciary, legislators and anyone else with influence.

Mission Statement
Statement of Aims and Objectives
The rights and liberties of transgendered people in the U.K.

May 1994 (updated Nov. 1994, June 1996)
Press for Change is a political lobbying and educational organisation, which campaigns to achieve equal civil rights and liberties for all transsexual and transgender people in the U.K. through legislation and social change.

Transsexual : A transsexual is a person having the physical characteristics of one sex and the psychological characteristics of the other. [New Oxford Dictionary 1992]

4.00 "Press For Change" campaigning

4.10 The right to have transsexual status taken into account when being sentenced, so that a non-custodial sentence is given whenever permissible, because of the additional difficulties faced by transsexual people in prisons.

4.11 The right (when applicable) to be sent to a prison appropriate to the individual's proper gender, whether pre- or post-treatment, if he or she has been previously living in this gender.

4.12 The right to continue to receive medical treatment for transsexualism whilst in prison.

7.00 The Methods of the "Press For Change" Campaign

7.01 Any legal method of attaining our goals is acceptable, and no particular strategy is laid down centrally, in order to encourage as much individual and grass roots activity as possible.

7.02 The following initiatives are currently being co-ordinated by the committee:

• A Parliamentary Forum of M.P.s from all political parties, committed to supporting a change to the law through Parliament.
• The establishment of a group of legal professionals committed to challenging discriminatory legislation through the British and/or European Courts.
• The establishment of a group of medical professionals familiar with current best practice in the treatment of transsexualism, who are willing to endorse the view that transsexual people are neither insane nor perverted, but are people with an inherent intersex condition, who are generally able, if appropriately treated, of leading full and constructive lives within society.
• The establishment of a group of Bishops and other religious leaders willing to support the rights of transsexual people.
• The establishment of a group of supportive Members of the European Parliament.
• Affiliation to the National Council of Civil Liberties.
• Liaison with the Trade Unions, asking that they affiliate to Press for Change and include "gender identity" in their equal opportunities policies.
• Liaison with the committee of Pride (in 1996 "Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered Pride" to ensure transgender people are properly represented and included in this important event.
• A petition to be signed by the public and presented to the government.
• Regular articles and television appearances attempting to put forward a positive image of transsexual people and highlight the injustices we suffer.
• The co-ordination and dissemination of up-to-date information about transsexualism and about related civil rights and legal issues, to transgender people themselves, to the public and to relevant professionals, including the publication of books and training materials as appropriate.
• The provision of leaflets, posters and a campaigning pack, free of charge to any person or organization prepared to campaign in any way on behalf of transsexual people.
• The publication of regular updates on the campaign, distributed to all transsexual organizations, and to any individual or group who is actively involved, on request.
• Fund-raising as necessary. Please note that all money donated goes directly to the campaign - there are no paid staff. See separate Financial Policy and Procedure.

AKW/PFC 10/06/94

Put this link into https://web.archive.org

www.pfc.org.uk/campaign/pfcaims.htm

Westminster Roll Call

The roll call of MPs in all parties who support or are aware of the Press for Change campaign grows week by week, as transsexuals, their families and friends tell us about meetings and correspondence they've had with their local politicians.

The list is far from complete, as we can only post those names we know about .. but if a name is missing, all it takes is an email ..

We also have a growing list of famous-name patrons. People who have kindly agreed to allow their names to be associated with the Press for Change campaign.
Last update : 10th April, 1996

Put this link into https://web.archive.org

http://www.pfc.org.uk/politics/pfcroll.htm

ps. The PFC Mission Statement was written by "AKW" - a trans identified woman.

Alex Whinnom
PFC Vice-President

Put this link into https://web.archive.org

http://www.pfc.org.uk/campaign/people/awhinnom.htm

The whole transgender thesis is by nature a radical proposal...one that flies against reality and common understandings - the world over. To try to get it to 'fly' in the face of reality one has to employ radical means in order to attempt to totally subvert that reality.

It is not a reasonable proposition and so reasonable means won't work.

This is a brilliant read. I read it earlier and it is a great archive with some brilliant work from women.

Thank you!! That is very interesting.

As I wrote on another thread some time ago, I actually watched this unfold on Mumsnet 5 years ago when my daughter was 15 at secondary school.

My daughter had numerous mental health issues and consequently ended up with a set of female friends with similar issues. A lad joined the school and inserted himself into her friendship group, showing loads of empathy and compassion for their problems.

I was in the bath one night when my daughter knocked and asked to come in and speak to me. It transpired that this lad had weaponised these girls issues, continuing to messaging them outside of school hours to ask how they were etc but this soon descended into him sending most of them dick pics.

During this time, be had changed his name to a female one, claimed he was a girl and my daughter had to share female changing rooms with him. She was understandably really upset by it all.

I came on MN that night explaining the situation and asking for advice and was shot down with a shit load of posts called me a bigot, Transphobic, how dare I refer to a young lad as predatory and my post was swiftly deleted. No support whatsoever, only accusations of bigotry. I genuinely couldn't believe that nobody could see this for what it was.

Thankfully now the vast majority of posters have their blinkers off but to be on the arse end of this and see my daughters concerns invalidated in favour of men appalled me.

Really? On this board? Or on AIBU?

I am horrified that your daughter and her friends were treated this way and that the school also allowed that boy into the female changing rooms.