By Ky Schevers and Lee Leveille, co-developers of Health Liberation Now!
This report serves as a follow-up to the previous report by Zinnia Jones, “Counterpoint: Ohio trans youth care ban veto was a victory for a gatekeeping surveillance state targeting trans adults”, which initially reported on the TERF entryism into legislative testimony and liberal press during the fight against Ohio bill HB 68. We strongly recommend reading Zinnia’s piece as it goes into the individual testimonies submitted in more detail as well as the original proposed regulations by Gov. DeWine to replace HB 68.
Over the past winter and early spring, Ohio bill HB 68 brought out a force of LGBTQ+ organizations, trans people, their families, and other allies to defend access to trans health care for trans youth. Joining them was Carey Callahan, a detransitioned woman who presents herself as being moderate and an ally to trans people compared to anti-trans detransitioned activists. Gathering testimony from nearly twenty detransitioned and desisted people, liberal press like the Washington Post celebrated the action as a brave, trans-supportive coalition against the Christian Right. Yet further investigation reveals that these supposedly pro-trans detransitioned people are not as supportive as they seem. Indeed, the majority of the testimonies were collected and submitted by Max and Kitty Robinson, two self-identified extremist TERFs. As will be shown, Callahan is still in contact with the same anti-trans detrans/desisted radical feminists she has organized with for nearly a decade, whom actually oppose trans health care, not support it. That contact led to the laundering of their testimony into legislature and press, making up the majority of the opposing testimony to HB 68 without acknowledgment of their opposition to trans health care. In contradiction to her public appearances, it’s evident that Callahan is still connected to anti-trans actors and willing to call upon them when organizing.
Below we lay out how we came to this conclusion and what Callahan needs to do if she truly wishes to make amends for her past anti-trans organizing. Until this is met, we caution activists or trans-led organizations against working with her to protect their spaces from entryism of anti-trans actors. Continue reading →
