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

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.

Karleen Gribble is an Australian breastfeeding and infant-feeding researcher whose work sits at the intersection of public health, emergency preparedness, maternal-infant care, and policy. She is affiliated with Western Sydney University, where her research profile lists work on breastfeeding, infant and young child feeding in emergencies, child protection, adoption, and sex and gender identity

She joins us on the podcast to discuss the increasing use of desexed language like "chestfeeding" and "people with cervixes" in health care settings, and why she believes that this is confusing and alienating to women, and may lead to meaningful harm, even while attempting to be inclusive

We also discuss the importance of accurate recording of birth sex in the medical records, and if there are ways to centre the importance of birth sex in health care decision making while respecting trans people's desire for privacy and dignity.