Agree to Disagree About Gender

Episode 20 - Jamie Paul - How The Trans Rights Movement Lost its Way

Jamie Paul is a writer based in Greater Philadelphia, founder of American Dreaming, managing editor at Queer Majority, and contributing editor at Bi.org [http://Bi.org]. His work has appeared in outlets including Quillette, Persuasion, Areo Magazine, and Gazeta do Povo. His recent focus has been on documenting what he perceives as the excesses of "wokism", and on how these excesses have undermined the status and well-being of the populations who they were ostensibly advocating for. These can be found on his series "The Memory Hole Archives"" In his thesis, trans advocacy was no exception; trans activists once in control of influence within academia, government, the civil service, and in left-leaning society promoted a set of policies without the broader consent of the public leading to a backlash that threatens the ability of trans people to access the accommodations and concessions that once allowed many of them to flourish. Jamie joins Yvette and Laura to discuss his thesis in more detail, not out of hatred or contempt for trans people, but to act as the blue print on how trans advocacy can move forward in a more measured and pragmatic fashion

Episode 19 - Dr Kinnon MacKinnon - The Many Faces of Detransition

Dr. Kinnon MacKinnon is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at York University in Toronto, and is one of the world's leading researchers on the phenomenon of decisional regret around gender transition, desistance from trans identification and detransition from medicalization . Dr MacKinnon''s research seeks to better characterize and understand the different factors that lead to regret and detransition, and how this is influences by the changing nature of identity and the stigma associated with being transgender. His work is especially crucial, given how concerns about the rising rates of regret and detransition have provided a compelling rationale for restricting access to medical transition, especially for adults and other vulnerable adults. In this episode, we discuss the history of detransition, the reasons why it might be increasing, and how we can be providing better care and support of people who have detransitioned, or who may be considering not following through with an ongoing transition. Dr. MacKinnon also discusses his concerns about the encroachment of politics into medial care, and on how this may not best serve the needs of people exploring their gender identity

Episode 18 - Zander Keig - A Meditation on Masculinity Among FTMs

Zander Keig has seen a lot and changed a lot since he began his transition about 20 years ago. On this episode, we have an interesting discussion on what it means to be embrace masculinity, on his relationship with transness and queerness, and what's changed in the FTM community between his time in transition and today. We contrast the drive the both he and Laura shared, which was transitioning in an attempt to be more "normal" and to fit in better into broader society, as opposed to wanting to be gender non-conforming. This ironically, places his as a heterodox non-conformist among trans care providers Zander is a licensed clinical social worker and host of "The Third Space Podcast" where he interviews guests who take their own approacj outside of ideological alignments. He also co-hosts "The Umbrella Hour", featuring insightful, provocative, and inspiring interviews examining the lives of LGBT people from diverse vantage points

Episode 17 - Ray Alex Williams - The Spectrum of Gender Expression

Ray Alex Williams is one of the more contraversial and fascinating characters in the online gender world. For 8 years, he lived as "Rachel", a radical progressive trans activist , going as far as writing a book about arguing for the legitimacy of trans-feminine identities as women. In 2023, he publicly announced his detransition and embrace of Christianity, quickly becoming a bête-noir to the trans activists he once identified with, which his regularly taking positions that sought to completely delegitimize the trans experience he had once embraced, while becoming a vocal proponent of autogynephilia being the primary driver of most male-to-female transitions Two weeks ago, Ray made a surprise announcement that he was no longer going to repress his desires, and posted a number of pictures of himself cross-dressed, stating he wished to re-embrace his desire for femininity while not re-transitioning and taking on a female identity. Along with this, he is promoting a more nuanced and balanced philosophy about trans identities and transition. Ray's circuitous life journey, his openness regarding gender expression, and his background in philosophy make for a very insightful and entertaining conversation. In this episode, Laura, Yvette, and I discuss autogynephilia and its role in motivating transitions versus autogynephilia being a consequence of innate feminine desire, the differences and commonalities between crossdressers and trans women, and his own continuing evolution of thought and his relationship to gender

Episode 16 - Julie Rei Goldstein - Detransitioners and The Law

Julie Rei Goldstein is a long-transitioned trans woman and voice actress who survived attempts at conversion therapy as an adolescent, which informs her advocacy to preserve access to gender affirming care for youth today. She is also notable for her detailed journaling of the numerous lawsuits filed by detransitioners against their care providers, and provides a trans positive perspective on the state of play of these cases On today's episode, we talk to Ms. Goldstein about her childhood and transition experience, focusing on why she believes there is no real difference between exploratory therapy and conversion practices, and on the limited evidence for their effectiveness. We also discuss our concerns about how the failure to make efforts to prevent young people whose interests are not best served through affirmation and medicalization may have created the conditions that led to an increase in regretful detransitioners We then discuss some of technicalities behind why many of these lawsuits are failing, and how the legal arena may not be the best avenue to seek remedies for perceived harms, and we offer suggestions for how the medical system and society can best meet the considerable needs of detransitioners and those who otherwise came to regret their transitions.