Please let WBUR know where you stand on the “trans” delusion. Here’s the report they did today, with the usual pro-trans bias typical of public radio. Washington Post “Athletic” columnist Candace Buckner claimed that the opposition to men in women’s sports is calculated “far-right conservative,” blah blah blah. She basically sneered at Sophie Cunningham. And of course the host, Scott Tong, nodded along. Here and Now is produced by WBUR in Boston and nationally distributed by NPR. Here’s WBUR’s contact info. And here’s the email I just sent:

Dear Scott Tong and Here & Now staff:

Lifelong liberal feminists like me are sick and tired of being tarred with the ‘reactionary, rightwing, anti-rights’ bs that Candace Buckner spouted today on Here and Now.

Buckner’s thinly veiled contempt for Sophie Cunningham was obnoxious. Cunningham is trying to protect the safety, dignity, and rights of women against the predations of men, especially men who are cheating in sports by pretending to be women. The fact that this stance is controversial, or even has to be stated at all, is evidence of how insane the “trans” cult is and how completely most media, especially public radio, have been captured.

No, Candace, I am not a Trump supporter. No, I am not trying to oppress anybody. I’ll stack my leftwing political bona fides up against yours any day. I sacrificed my career for civil liberties and human rights. What have you done??

I’m a proud TERF, and I’m not alone. Millions of women and girls — and men, too — are fed up with the false and, frankly, batshit-insane idea that anybody can morph into the opposite sex. And that when men want to invade our single-sex spaces, we’re just supposed to shut up and take it. Well, we won’t.

I can only wonder what it will take for Buckner and all of you “trans allies” to wake up. Maybe you or your female loved ones will have to be accosted and threatened by a cockfrocker in a women’s restroom or locker room. Will that do it? If so, you asked for it.

Disgustedly yours,

Lisa Simeone

________________________________________________________________________

By the way, New York Magazine is also, no surprise, full of shit on this topic, also sneering at Sophie Cunningham. The reader comments are enough to make one weep.

Because I live in an artsy neighborhood in a blue city in a blue state, you can probably imagine that I run across more than the occasional opposite-sex imposter with a bad wig and worse taste (yes, I am an insufferable fashion snob). And on my way to the gym, I walk through an even more artsy neighborhood with even more flouncing freaks who think that wearing tube tops, miniskirts, and — God help us — cornrows with colored beads constitutes womanhood.

So I’m used to it. But I usually don’t have to interact with them.

The other day as I heard a ruckus from half a block away, I looked up and quickly realized that the bellowing angry voice emanated from Michael, a longtime homeless guy who hangs out around these parts and can be either friendly when he’s on his meds or belligerent when he’s off. That day he was off.

He was yelling and gesticulating at a young man standing about six feet from him. As I came up the block, the young man immediately walked over to me and asked, with evident alarm, “Would you walk with me?”

“Sure,” I said, and proceeded to explain Michael to him.

The guy told me that Michael had asked him for a cigarette and that he had complied. Michael apparently said, “Thank you, sir,” to which the young guy said, “Actually, I prefer ‘Miss’.”

(Pause for copious exclamation points or whatever emojis may exist for incredulity.)

I said nothing but rolled my eyes inwardly and thought to myself a version of, “Of all the gin joints in all the towns in the world . . . .”

The guy continued: “I don’t know why he got so angry. All I said was that I prefer ‘Miss’, and he started yelling at me about special privileges and how he’s not going to give me them. I mean, I was trying to be nice by giving him a cigarette and he starts yelling at me.”

Well, I thought to myself, Michael is making way more sense than you are, dude!

I continued to explain that Michael has schizophrenia and it’s best not to mess with him when he’s in an angry mood. What I didn’t say was, “He thanked you. Why wasn’t that enough for you? Why did you have to yap about your supposed female persona and ‘correct’ him? You could tell he’s not right in the head. WTF is wrong with you?”

But we know what’s wrong. This guy is a narcissist, like all opposite-sex imposters who call themselves “trans.” Nothing is ever enough. He’s special. He’s unique. He’s a magical being. And we all must bow down to his infinite qualities of enchantment. Michael didn’t. Because Michael, for all his mental illness, still saw the reality that was right in front of his eyes — to wit, that guy was a man. Not a woman. Not a ‘Miss’.

Young dude went on to offer: “Somedays I present more fem, so he would’ve known, but I was just asking for respect.”

I had had enough, so I told him I had to go, crossed the street, and went on my way.

(By the way, yes, that image at the top is AI-generated. It’s pretty close to the first “trans” loon I described in this essay, the tall, overweight manslab in a tube top, miniskirt, and cornrows. Young dude just looked like an ordinary, slightly effeminate Everyman.)

Although I already know that NPR and most if not all of its member stations are fully aboard the “trans” train, two recent interviews sent me over the edge. So I wrote to both of the hosts, pointless as I knew those emails were.

As I’ve written several times before here on Substack, most of the so-called liberal media doesn’t give a shit about gender-critical views like mine. I write these things merely to provide a historical record.

Here are those two emails. (And to be clear, I was — and am — writing as a private citizen, not as a representative of DIAG, even though I support DIAG’s misson and do some volunteer work with the organization.)

The first was to Mary-Louise Kelly, host of NPR’s All Things Considered:

From: Lisa Simeone

Subject: Norah O’Donnell’s Book

Date: February 26, 2026 at 8:34:27 AM EST

Dear Mary Louise:

Re Norah O’Donnell’s interview on ATC — oh, the irony!

Here we have a book about women’s accomplishments throughout U.S. history and the claim that young women today don’t have the same “self-limiting doubts” that their ancestors had.

Maybe so.

But it’s hard to see how they’re not being limited when any cross-dresser can usurp women’s places, honors, and opportunities, not to mention safety, just by saying the magic words, “I am a woman!” Never mind that he’s delusional, that nobody can morph into the opposite sex, that donning fishnets and lipstick does not a woman make. We’re expected not only to “affirm” his delusion, but to celebrate it. We’re also expected to believe that mutilating children’s bodies and psyches constitutes healthcare.

All of society has upended itself to kowtow to a loud, sinister, predatory cult that calls itself “transgender.” And the media are gleefully going along with it.

Someday, when this madness ends, and all the people, especially women and children, who’ve been harmed by it are no longer ignored, there will be a reckoning. Ostensibly responsible news sources, educators, and politicians will crawl quietly back into the woodwork, pretending they did nothing wrong, and hoping the rest of us will forget.

But we won’t. We won’t forget, and we won’t stop calling them out and reminding the world of what they did.

Lisa

Of course, I got no response. (Incidentally, Mary-Louise and I worked at NPR at the same time in the early-mid 2000s and shared some Happy Hours at the Foreign Desk.)

The second email was to Brooke Gladstone, host of “On the Media” at WNYC:

From: Lisa Simeone

Subject: Trans People Are Facing a ‘Dual State’ in Trump’s America

Sun, Apr 5, 2026 12:36 PM

Dear Brooke and ‘On the Media’ staff:

Thank you for your recent show called “Trans People Are Facing a Dual State in Trump’s America.”

As a lifelong loud, proud, liberal feminist, it’s always worthwhile and instructive for me to find out just how many people are happily sh*tting all over women and girls. And sad to say, you’re in that group.

I won’t waste time by relating all the ways the “trans” cult is destroying the rights of women and girls, harming children’s bodies and psyches, and in general screwing up society. I know you already know them. I know that DIAG has tried to open your eyes, but you don’t care. (This lack of understanding is especially rich coming from someone who reported on post-Soviet Russia and who should be able to recognize propaganda and dogma when she sees it.) C’est la vie.

So I’ll say only this: just as I hope that every MAGAmoron out there can’t afford to fill up his car or heat/ac his home because of the Trumpanyahu War, because of the criminal sociopath in the White House -- whom you helped put in office -- I also hope that someday you are accosted and threatened by a cockfrocker in a women’s restroom or locker room. My schadenfreude is boundless.

Disgustedly yours,

Lisa Simeone

Again, predictably, no response.

I called this post “More Receipts” because another feminist writer here on Substack, Lisa Selin Davis, has started an on-going series called “Receipts” chronicling the attempts that we sex-realists have been making to get our voices heard in the mainstream media, to no avail. In other words, regardless of the irresponsible reporting by these media outlets, we have the receipts.

Duplicating this post from April 1, 2025 to today in 2026. Still applies.😊

A beloved journalistic tradition has always been to offer a prank report on this date, so I’m showing you what I sent to my email list on April 1, 2022. Keep in mind that these are people who know me and my politics and my sense of humor. (For authenticity, I even copied, verbatim, some language from certain “trans activist” sites, which Substack regulars will surely recognize.) Some of them got it; some of them didn’t. I was actually gobsmacked by the number of people who took it seriously. A few days later I had to send out another message, telling them it was a joke. Oy.

Dear Friends:

Since you all have known me for a long time, I wanted to share with you this important announcement today.

As you know, my heritage is Italian. But I have never actually felt Italian. I feel that this identity has been imposed upon me as an accident of birth.

On the contrary, I have always had an affinity for Celtic (Keltic) culture. The music, the language, the literature of the ancient Celtic countries — Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany, Galicia, the Isle of Man. I feel in my heart that I am really a Celt. And as we know, what one feels determines what one is.

Therefore, because I identify as Celtic, I renounce the name of Lisa and wish to be called Maeve (pronounced “mayv’).

I hope you will all support me in this transition as I endeavor to live as my authentic self and fully embrace who I truly am. (Please don’t deadname me, as that, of course, would be a grave offense.)

Thank you for your understanding. I hope we will all walk on the path of peace, love, and acceptance beginning today, April 1st.

Sincerely,

Maeve

P. S. My pronouns remain the same: zod/zock/zor

Not just because we need a break from the incessant churn of politics, from the horrors of the world, which I believe we all need, at any time, but also because Beauty is essential to life, I here offer the performance of the ice dance duo Madison Chock and Evan Bates at the 2026 Olympics Exhibition Gala. No competition at this event, just all the skaters performing for the pure joy of it, beauty for beauty’s sake.

Yes, they won the Silver, and yes, there’s controversy about it, ok, I get it, but I still thought that Fournier Beaudry and Cizeron deserved the Gold Medal. They skated a performance that was one of the most transcendent things I’ve ever seen in my life. And yes, I know about Gabriella Papadakis’s book detailing what she says was abusive behavior by Guillaume Cizeron when she partnered with him. I can’t speak to that. I thought that their partnership in the last two Olympics was staggeringly beautiful. So I’m not here to argue or adjudicate those battles.

Along with this Chock & Bates performance is the equally beautiful and heartbreaking song by Melody Gardot. Listen to the lyrics. Hard to believe she wrote this when she was barely 30 (she’s now 41). It sounds like an elegy written by someone far, farther along in life. Heartfelt, simple, profound, and worth our remembering. Frankly, the sentiments remind me of “Im Abendrot” from the “Four Last Songs” of Richard Strauss, one of the most ineffably beautiful creations of mankind.

But on to Chock and Bates. So sit back for 4-1/2 minutes, and watch, and listen, and dream:

OK, here’s a tonic, to cleanse your palate, if you will, to take a break from the incessant churn of politics. Lawyer and former political Rep. Cynthia Dill of Maine, with whom I’ve done several podcasts about the bullshit of “transgender” in the past, asked me this week to talk about fashion — specifically, my recent experience on the glorious, glamorous Queen Mary 2 during its Transatlantic Fashion Week.

As you’ll hear, I’ve crossed the ocean on the QM2 many times before, but this time was special — including, among others, designers Christian Siriano and Bob Mackie and supermodel Coco Rocha. And I capped it with time in both London and Morocco. The whole thing was a fashion extravaganza!

Edited to add: After our conversation, I looked up the etymology of caftan/kaftan:

caftan(n.)

also kaftan, 1590s, “long tunic worn by men in Turkey, Egypt, etc.,” from Turkish qaftan (also in Arabic), from Persian khaftan. A kind of long vest tied about the waist, with long sleeves. As a similar shirt or dress style worn fashionably in the West, it is attested from c. 1955.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/caftan

By the way, here’s the silver pleated dress Cynthia asked me about:

And here are the other two gentlemen we talked about, both wearing beautiful jeweled brooches on the lapels of their tuxedos — the man on the right (on my left in the pic) is James Aguiar, one of the curators of the whole fashion crossing:

Amidst the path of harm and destruction that “transgender” ideology leaves in its wake are the so-called trans widows — women whose husbands suddenly decide that they’re “really” women.

(Hate to break it to you guys, but prancing around in fishnets and skirts with a schmear of lipstick doesn’t a woman make. But I digress.)

Director Vaishnavi Sundar has produced a riveting documentary on these forgotten women and the turmoil they and their children have endured as a result of these men’s narcissism and sexual fetishes. They’ve been abandoned by their husbands, their friends, the press, the courts. They are all over the world. All ages. And Vaishnavi Sundar is giving them a voice.

Here’s the YouTube link to her film, called BEHIND THE LOOKING GLASS. I highly recommend it:

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! I love this!!

I had never joined Reddit until a few weeks ago. I can’t even remember now why — I think it was for makeup or fashion or some glam thing like that. Or maybe travel to Morocco. Whatever.

Yesterday I clicked a link to a “gender” thread via someone or something on Substack. I left the most tame, anodyne comment: There are two sexes, male and female. [So-and-so, I forget who] is a man.

That’s it.

And of course, that now constitutes “hate”.

We still have so, so far to go. Because biology is “hate”.

I can’t reproduce my comment because it’s been removed. It’s “hate.”

(P. S. I didn’t choose the name “Silent_Hornet_4727” — Reddit did. Reddit assigned me that name. I have no idea how they came up with it. I thought I was writing under my real name just as I do here on Substack. I don’t understand any of this tech shit.)

“Eventus stultorum magister est.”

Literally, “Experience is the teacher of fools.” Colloquially, and more famously, “Fools must be taught by experience.”

The Roman historian Livy (Titus Livius, 59 BC - 17 AD) wrote that 2,000 years ago. Sadly, it is ever true.

Following are screenshots of a text conversation I had several weeks ago with a friend. This person has known for some time now my position on “transgender” ideology. I have presented her with information and evidence about it many times, including the scrupulously sourced first post I ever wrote here on Substack.

This woman is highly intelligent, educated, experienced, well-read, well-traveled, thoughtful, politically liberal, compassionate (or so I thought). She is a retired physician and hospital administrator. She managed a huge hospital system in a major East Coast city. She has children and grandchildren. Here’s how the text convo went (the blue text is me, the gray her, as should be apparent):

That was the end of it.

As you can see, the first thing she came up with was, “Are you sure these are not Russian bots?”

???!!!!!!

Seriously?? You’ve seen plenty of other articles and sources I’ve sent you over the months about what’s going on, and this is what you come up with?? That you think “Russian bots” are planting false evidence and that I’m obviously too dim-witted to get it?? And then she deflects by turning it around on women — paraphrasing, there are bad women just as there are bad men. Yeah, duh, no kidding. And that proves what exactly in this context? Women are big bad meanies? Women are at fault?

The whole thing speaks for itself. Yet another self-styled liberal who refuses to acknowledge what’s happening. You see that I sent her the “Myth vs. Fact” link three times. And still, it didn’t make a dent. All she could do was say, essentially, that because there’s already so much violence in the prison system, therefore it’s no big deal that men are being housed with women in women’s prisons.

What has to happen to people like this to get it through their heads what’s at stake? They, or someone they love — a daughter, granddaughter, sister, mother, friend — faces a man in a skirt in a public restroom and is threatened? Or assaulted? Is that what it’ll take??

Maybe so.

After all, as Livy warned us, Eventus stultorum magister est.

At YouTube.

And by the way, some of us are trying to turn this Titanic around before it’s too late:

DIAG — DEMOCRATS FOR AN INFORMED APPROACH TO GENDER

"I would love sending you the documentary, No Way Back, if you've not seen it. I'm the Executive Producer and the point person for promoting the film. We released it in February 2023 with the original title, Affirmation Generation, and it was picked up in April that year and re-branded. The distributor got AMC Theatres to screen it across the U.S. in June 2023 in 60 theatres nationwide, but transactivists launched an aggressive campaign to stop it. They succeeded, and hardly anyone knows about it. It is still the only doc that is laser focused on the medical harms, and every claim we make is verified."

I hadn’t seen it, hadn’t even heard of it, which, of course, given the censorious antics of TEAs (Trans Entitlement Activists), is no surprise. So Joey sent me a link and I watched it. It is a comprehensive look at the damage the transgender lobby has wrought — on children, on adults, on medicine, on education, on politics, on news media, on society at large.

If you’re interested in watching this documentary and, just as important, believe it should be made available instead of suppressed, then get in touch with Joey either here on Substack or at info@deplorablefilms.com .

Following are some screenshots from the film pointing out the lies the trans lobby has promulgated, lies that have been proven false time and time again, but which the trans lobby continues to promote.

On social contagion:

On the suicide myth the trans lobby relentlessly pushes, claiming that distressed children who “identify” as “trans” are likely to commit suicide if they aren’t “affirmed,” a claim that is not only emotional blackmail but that has been proven to be false. In fact, the opposite is true:

On the ways that the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has deliberately misrepresented data on distressed children:

On the actions of Planned Parenthood in “affirming” children’s ideations after only a brief interview, handing out hormone pills like candy:

On the truth about surgery rendered by the trans lobby as the grotesque euphemism “gender-affirming care” — for example, phalloplasty:

There’s more, much more — including how detransitioners have been shamefully sidelined and neglected — in this film about what Joey Brite accurately calls “sex falsification.” Those of you reading this already know the many valiant writers here on Substack who have been trying to wake the country up and shake it out of its trans psychosis. This documentary is one more arrow in our quiver.

Joey tells me that the filmmakers “changed the ending almost last minute when Jamie Reed came out to whistleblow about what she experienced first-hand at her job at the St. Louis Hospital. And here we are: 2.5 years after its release and the damage is still raging on.”

Though the Trans Entitlement Activists succeeded in getting this film shut out of theaters, a streaming platform could still pick it up. But you can pay to see it here. (*Edited to add: Apparently it’s now available on Amazon Prime.)

Please spread the word about this important documentary and use the evidence-based info in it to continue the fight against this regressive, misogynistic, and homophobic ideology.

Some audio tech blips here and there but they resolve pretty quickly. And as with all video, if it goes out of sync, just hit pause and play again and it’ll fix itself.

Cynthia Dill is an attorney and a former Maine state legislator. She does a regular podcast and asked me to join her yesterday. Here’s Cynthia’s intro from the YouTube post:

Tiny cracks in the hard shell of gender dogma within the Democratic Party are emerging. Rahm Emanuel admitted to Megyn Kelly that men can't become women and boys should not play in girls' sports. Pete Buttigieg told NPR's Steve Inskeep the approach to the transgender issue "starts with compassion" and Democrats should take everyone seriously.

So will the Democratic Party take the majority of the American public seriously when it comes to gender ideology come the next election? Lisa Simeone, radio host, writer, and political activist isn't so sure. The mainstream media — including NPR where her radio shows were aired for years — is captured. Instead of honest reporting from both sides, so-called journalists believe they are on the "right side" of a civil rights issue. Voices across the airwaves drip with contempt for anyone wo questions an ideology that runs roughshod on the rights of women and harms children with voodoo medicine euphemistically called "gender-affirming care."

What about the science? What about the facts? What about Donald Trump?

After a rough start due to internet interference, this show gets to the bottom of gender woo.

And by the way:

DIAG — DEMOCRATS FOR AN INFORMED APPROACH TO GENDER

https://www.di-ag.org

@jvn_official@JVN Hair x @Ulta Beauty is here!! Shop the collection now at Ulta stores. 😍 I couldn’t be more excited!! #hairtok #ulta

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Apparently Ulta didn’t learn from the Anheuser-Busch beer debacle, when the company hired “trans influencer” (i.e., man-faux-woman) Dylan Mulvaney to promote Bud Light and promptly faced a backlash from people who know the difference between men and women and don’t like being told they don’t. A-B still hasn’t recovered market share since then.

Here’s hoping we can send the same message to Ulta. I both texted and emailed Ulta corporate headquarters yesterday complaining about this obnoxious ad and telling them I will never never buy another product from them again. Screenshots:

My email basically said the same thing, and I got a confirmation indicating that my comment was received.

So if you feel like it, text, email, call, or contact Ulta in whatever fashion you like and tell them why you find this ad campaign offensive. And boycott!

(Wonder what would happen if Ulta hired Rachel Dolezal to promote black hair products? Ha! We all know the answer.)

This is an op-ed I wrote for the Baltimore Sun in 2019 (op-ed title not mine, written by a copy editor). I include the link below, though it’s now paywalled. David Smith, rightwing owner of Sinclair Broadcasting, now owns the Sun; he didn’t then. Though we subscribe to the other paper in town, the non-profit Baltimore Banner, said Banner would never publish an op-ed like this. It’s the mirror opposite of the Sun: woke to the max. Never mind that I’m a lifelong liberal. Criticism of woke is verboten. So, apparently, is a sense of humor. (Oh, and some of the links are broken, apparently because the pages to which they linked are so embarrassing that even their creators obliterated them).

The ‘wokerati’ have schooled me on taking personal offense

by Lisa Simeone

The Baltimore Sun

June 28, 2019

Oh, dear. I have just discovered that I’m supposed to be offended. Furthermore, apparently I should have been taking offense for most of my life. Who knew?

You see, I’m a first-generation Italian-American. I have dark hair, dark eyes, and skin that tans after 10 minutes in the sun. All my life, people have asked me what nationality I am — how quaint, such an old-fashioned word — or where I’m from.

Apparently, these are offensive questions. They are “micro-aggressions.” They are “othering” me, treating me as if I’m not a born-and-bred American. As if I don’t belong here.

I confess I never knew I was supposed to be insulted. I was always pleased. I thought it was cool that I could pass (am I allowed to use that verb anymore?) for a variety of ethnicities. I looked at it as kind of a parlor trick.

Throughout my life, people have told me I look Persian, Brazilian, Cypriot, Venezuelan, Spanish, Greek, Moroccan, Puerto Rican, African-American, even French (surely from the Midi, hardly Parisian). Pianist Misha Dichter and violinist Pinchas Zukerman thought I was Yemeni when I interviewed them at the Aspen Music Festival in 2000.

I’ve lost track of how many people have told me I look like Sonia Braga. She’s a beautiful and talented Brazilian actress, so I took it as a compliment, but what do I know.

Once, on the Caribbean island of Grenada, a woman asked me, “What island are you from?”

I laughed and said, “The big one, up north.”

Even in Italy, where you’d think my heritage would be evident, I have overheard people who thought I couldn’t understand Italian asking each other, “But what is she? ‘Straniera.'”

Stranger. Foreigner.

All this time, I thought these questions were intriguing. Fun. Harmless. I just figured that people like the exotic (oops — there’s another word I’m not allowed to use anymore), that imagining someone they met might be “different” was interesting to them, a little anthropological fillip in the routine of their day.

Ah, but not according to the wokerati. They have schooled me. Here I thought I was leading a nice, comfortable, fulfilling life when in reality I have been lumbering through a “Slough of Despond.”

If I’m reading the terrain correctly, I think I can anticipate the objections to my indifference: “You’re not a member of a minority. That’s why it’s not the same for you.”

But is that logical? If a statement is, de facto, a micro-aggression, then wouldn’t its use apply to everyone, not just a certain select group? And if not, then who gets to decide under what circumstances it is or isn’t a micro-aggression? If I’m not offended by it, who’s to tell me I should be?

The list of purported micro-aggressions and examples of othering is something of a minefield. Luckily, we have a handy chart to help us out, one that has been reprinted in a variety of places, from journals of psychology and education to government publications. As an example, the statement, “America is a melting pot” is, according to the chart, a micro-aggression. The University of California system actually tried to ban its use, until widespread ridicule tempered the school system’s zeal. The pages documenting this attempt have been removed from UC’s website.

Another micro-aggression is the statement, “There is only one race, the human race.” I find this example confusing. Increasingly, science tells us that the concept of race as anything other than human makes no sense. When advocates for social justice and racial equality make this statement, it’s looked upon as a noble manifesto. Yet they are often the very ones demanding that we take racial differences into account when examining society and how it is constructed. I would argue that racial differences should be taken into account, that racism is real and pervasive and should be exposed and fought. So is that statement offensive or not?

Maybe I should try a new tack. The next time someone asks me where I’m from, I must rise up in high dudgeon and give him or her (am I allowed to use those pronouns anymore?) a tongue-lashing about — actually, I don’t know what exactly. Racism? Sexism? Ethnicism? (Is that even a word?) Surely there is an -ism du jour that will do. Who says an old dog can’t learn new tricks?

The wokerati have spoken. I would so hate to disappoint them.

Lisa Simeone is a freelance writer and radio host.

Originally Published: June 28, 2019 at 6:00 a.m.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/2019/06/28/the-wokerati-have-schooled-me-on-taking-personal-offense/

I debated writing a post on this because the incident is so long in the past, and what’s the point? I finally decided to do it to prove to naysayers that some of us — longtime liberals, longtime feminists — have been trying to ring alarm bells about this ideology for years, to no avail.

This is an email I sent to an NPR producer back in 2007, when I was still working there. I got no response. This producer is now retired. Name removed, of course, for the purposes of this post:

From: Lisa Simeone
Sent: Tue 10/30/2007 3:14 PM
To: ____[name removed]____
Subject: Thoughts

Too long to discuss right now, just something that's been percolating in the back of my brain for years now: sex change surgery. I really have to go with Paul McHugh on this one. He's no scientific slouch or unregenerate conservative, either. He's one of the foremost psychiatrists and neuroscience researchers in the world (he's at Hopkins), and he hasn't come by his opinion lightly. But he believes that all this sex change surgery that's going on nowadays is, simply, mutilation. That the people who do it -- and it's far more often men turning into women than vice versa -- have deep, tormenting psychological problems and distortions and, frankly, fetishes.

I've always been uncomfortable with the whole sex change thing. And it's on my mind lately because Oprah has devoted two entire shows to it recently. I'm not in favor of punishing these people, obviously, or ostracizing them. I mean, it's their bodies. But I have 1) never believed it's as simple as "oh, I just know I was 'meant' to be a girl" and 2) always questioned their assumptions of what exactly it feels like to be a woman -- I mean, how the hell do they know?? How can they presume to know what a woman feels like anyway?? Seems to me their idea of what a woman "really" is and feels has to be based on some kind of stereotype to begin with, some caricature of what women really are and feel.

As I say, just some thoughts. Would be a fruitful longer discussion. I guess this is yet another example of where I part ways with the left-leaning p.c. line, where one feels one has to come out in support of these people. As I say, I'm not in favor of discriminating against them in any way, I just question why they're getting done what they get done in the first place.

(P. S. Sidebar but related: and why, then, do we, as a society, excoriate those who try to "pass," who deny, say, their racial or ethnic heritage, yet laud those who deny their anatomical heritage, which is at least as, and I would say even more, profound?)

I was recently asked to speak at a women’s club. They approached me. After discussing possible topics on the phone with the coordinator, and after she had mentioned that one of the club’s previous speakers, a college professor, had talked about “trans rights,” I offered to present a differing point of view. We discussed how this might make some members feel “uncomfortable,” so I promised I wouldn’t talk about any political advocacy and instead proposed presenting a historical perspective.

Here’s the email chain that ensued, identifying names of the club and coordinator removed:

On May 9, 2025, at 4:27 PM, ______ wrote:

Hi Lisa,

It was great to meet you on the phone this afternoon--after all these years! I have much respect for your knowledge, enthusiasm, and ability to articulate ideas clearly and interestingly. Thank you very much for your time and ideas this afternoon and for your willingness to talk with us at the ____.

Please send a brief title and description for your presentation idea when you have a chance and I'll forward that to the program chair.

Thank you!

______

On May 10, 2025, at 7:50 AM, Lisa Simeone wrote:

Hi, ______. Great to talk to you yesterday. I’ll write up a brief, affable, non-threatening blurb and send it this weekend.

____________________________________________

On Sun, May 11, 2025 at 8:47 AM Lisa Simeone wrote:

______, here’s my précis:

Throughout history, women have come together to talk about their lives. Over kitchen tables, in parlors, in back yards, in huts, in tents. They have traded ideas, consoled each other, and strategized over how to solve problems. Problems that are unique to women.

We need our own spaces, where we can talk and feel safe just as we have for centuries.

So why are women today being told that men can assume our identities?

Let’s talk here, women among women, to try to figure out what’s going on.

On May 14, 2025, at 10:19 PM, ______wrote:

Hi Lisa,

Thank you very much for agreeing to speak to us and for offering to forego an honorarium.

Since our programs consist of a speaker series and dramatic or musical performances, I think, unfortunately for a couple reasons, audience involvement is not consistent with this forum. Basically other than for the 10 minute Q/A, our forum consists of a lecture not a discussion.

The other reason I think we cannot offer this program on a _____day is that we might risk offending members or hurting their feelings with a hot button issue. While we try to be a safe place for members, perhaps even one may have a family member or friend who has chosen an identity different from her or his biological one.

That said, we have piloted an informal group called "Let's Talk About It" in which members meet to discuss "issues of the day." I have not been to one of these sessions yet, but I understand that some of the topics have included social justice, universal income, perspectives from historic times. They are very open to topics. The group is small, I think 5-12. I haven't run your topic by the coordinator of "Let's Talk About It" but I'd be happy to do that if you're interested in coming to that smaller group. I think we could promote it as a special event and when people know that you'll be there, the group might attract a larger than normal crowd.

I'm pretty sure that what I write here isn't the answer you were hoping for Lisa, and I'm sorry.

Please let me know if you'd like me to check with the small discussion group coordinator.

Thank you,

______

On Thursday, May 15, 2025, Lisa Simeone wrote:

I had a feeling this would be the answer.

Frankly, though, it doesn’t make sense, since the club did have a speaker talking about “trans rights.” That was apparently ok, but a differing view isn’t.

?

As for audience participation, I could easily fill 45 minutes on this topic, but I thought that would be considered too heavy-handed — there are a lot of stats and info to absorb — which is why I proposed a 30-minute talk with a question period afterwards. I’m curious how “Let’s Talk About It” would be different. If this subject isn’t “safe” for members on a _____day, how would it be “safe” on any other day?

On May 19, 2025, at 9:32 AM, ______ wrote:

Hi Lisa,

Sorry for the delay in responding to you.

As to your what you write, of course it makes perfect sense. I understand and am sorry.

As I try to remember about the gender lecture, I likely misspoke because she generally approached from a scientific angle and did not advocate rights. I am sorry for not conveying that.

______

On May 20, 2025, at 6:51 AM, Lisa Simeone wrote:

Hi, ______.

Your email made me smile.

I can only imagine the “science” the pro-trans prof presented. I’ve seen it so many times for the past many years. It’s pseudo-science, but whatever.

Here’s an interesting thought experiment: I wonder what the club would do if a man in a skirt and wig showed up saying he wanted to join? I guess they would have to let him. Otherwise they’d all be guilty of “transphobia.” Of course then it wouldn’t be a women’s club anymore. Quite the conundrum.

Since I won't be presenting any of this evidence at the ____, I’ll just leave it here for you to read at your leisure if you’re interested. Needless to say, I back up everything I say with reputable sources, all linked:

https://lisasimeone.substack.com/p/cowardice-on-parade-npr-nyt-wapo

Cheers!

And that, my friends, was that!

For the record, ICE and CBP officers are some of the worst of the worst. Many of the most sadistic, power-mad, abusive types of people go into these jobs. Often they’re ex-military. (Heading off the “How dare you say all military personnel are abusive?!” straw man argument at the pass. I’m not saying that. Read again.)

No surprise that “this individual has no criminal history and has been here forever.” Because none of this macho arresting-and-detaining-and-imprisoning-and-deporting bullshit has anything to do with crime. It has to do with appeasing the most boneheaded, vicious, regressive forces in the country and pumping up Trump’s supposed tough-guy image.

Of course if he were an actual tough guy he wouldn’t need stupid bullshit like this to boost his ego. But since he’s a pathetic, bone-spurred, fascist wimp, he has sent his ICE goons all over the country to do his dirty work, even when he knows that his victims are innocent and when many of them have entered the country legally.

But oh my, oh my, what am I saying?! Can’t upset Dear Leader! Especially when he has a big beautiful birthday parade on the horizon! More of your tax dollars at work!

MAGA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sigh. Another day, another rah-rah-let’s-go-trans! report on NPR.

When I say I rarely listen to NPR anymore, I mean it. So what are the odds that on those occasions when I do turn on the radio, I’ll hear a trans story? Given the law of averages, should be pretty low, no?

Yet this morning on Weekend Edition Saturday, here was yet another such report — I happened to turn the radio on just as it was getting started:

Trump's attacks on DEI are complicating corporate sponsorship of Pride events

The guest of honor was one Andi Otto (Andi with an “i” yet he/him, of course), Executive Director of Twin Cities Pride, lamenting the loss of corporate sponsorship for the annual Pride Parade, apparently a $1.5 million undertaking.

Though his organization easily made up the $50,000 shortfall — “within 48 hours,” no less — he worried over the effect that said corporate loss would have on the “Rainbow Wardrobe.” It is, in his words, a “gender-affirming closet that provides free clothing and underwear garments and personal care items to the community.”

As I’ve written before, such reports are par for the course these days on NPR, which has given up its duty to cover stories in a journalistically responsible fashion in order to push a political agenda.

Oh, and P. S. “Andi is a proud member of the trans community and lives with his spouse Dana (they/them), and their young daughters.”

DIAG — Democrats for An Informed Approach to Gender!

Dear Center Stage:

My husband and I have been attending your productions for decades.

No longer.

As a loud, proud, lifelong feminist and leftist, I refuse to stand by while the fiction of “trans” identity takes over.

There are two sexes: male and female. Men do not belong in women’s single-sex spaces: locker rooms, toilets, prisons, rape crisis centers, domestic violence shelters. They are a danger there. That’s why single-sex spaces exist in the first place.

Men who think they are women are mentally confused and should get psychological help, not affirmation in their delusion. Would you tell an anorexic that because she “feels” fat, therefore she is?

No. Of course you wouldn’t. Yet you are promoting this notion that men can become women (and vice versa) simply by declaring themselves so. It’s also profoundly homophobic — encouraging young people to “trans away the gay” instead of accepting themselves as they are.

You yourselves wrote in this email that “gender non-conforming people have existed since the beginning of time.” Exactly! So why, then, are you promoting an ideology that distorts gender non-conformity by trying to force it into the most rigid of sex stereotypes?? A girl who is a “tomboy” is still a girl. A boy who is “effeminate” is still a boy.

I don’t care how people want to present themselves; that’s their business. I believe we should accept people in all their wild and wonderful wackiness. That doesn’t mean I believe they can change biological reality. Biology isn’t bigotry!

I haven’t spent my life fighting for civil liberties — even to the point of tanking my career for it — only to now be told to shut up and take a back seat to men who are so psychologically disturbed they think they can magically morph into the opposite sex. Or while adolescents are encouraged to lop off body parts so they can “trans” their way to happiness.

Though I realize our contribution is a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things, we won’t be attending any more of your productions or giving you another dime while you continue to support this ideology.

Sincerely,

Lisa Simeone
#AdultHumanFemale
Pronouns: zod / zock / zor
If Eddie Izzard is a woman, then Rachel Dolezal is black.
DIAG - Democrats for An Informed Approach to Gender

(So now that I’ve outed myself in my hometown, can I expect to be doxxed and receive threatening calls and emails, as has happened to so many other women?)