Foundations of the Contemporary Anti-LGBTQ+ Pseudoscience Network
“In March 2015, 4thWaveNow was launched by “Denise” (also known as Denise Caignon, Marie Verite and Janette Miller), a self-described mother whose child came out as trans “after a few weeks of total immersion in YouTube transition vlogs and other trans-oriented social media.” The site bills itself as “a community of people who question the medicalization of gender-atypical youth,” but it promotes narratives derived from pseudoscientific studies of LGBTQ+ people such as detransition[28], desistance anecdotes and conspiratorial claims about schools and health care providers indoctrinating and ‘mutilating’ children. The site’s authors also heavily rely on pseudonyms to share disinformation, including handles like ‘Marge Bouvier Simpson,’ ‘fightingunreality,’ ‘missingdaughter’ and ‘skepticaltherapist.’
[28] Detransitioners are people who started social or medical transition processes and later stopped. The most common reason cited by transgender people for stopping their transition is negative social pressure – not because they no longer identify as transgender. https://politicalresearch.org/2023/01/27/combating-anti-transgender-disinformation. Desistence refers to the false idea that most young people who identify as trans ”desist” or no longer identify as transgender in adulthood.”