Veiled in Secrecy, Anti-Trans Extremist Group Deceives Public
A new group reliant on hate and falsehood claims to represent “liberals” and “Democrats.” Its own words put the lie to its claims.
by Billie Jean Sweeney
The most extreme and opaque anti-trans group to have emerged in years has promoted the denial of history, hurled vicious vulgarities, invoked hateful stereotyping, advanced conspiracy theories and pushed medical falsehoods – all in the name of Democrats.
Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender invokes the party’s name, but the group’s scarce public filings and website disclose no evidence of support from the party itself, any recognized faction or any prominent members. The state of Illinois has legally challenged its use of the term in soliciting tax-deductible donations. Democrats in Colorado have publicly disavowed the group.
Yet in just two years of existence, this group, Democrats for an Informed Approach to Gender, has gained powerful allies in the right wing, and in mainstream media. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, or FIRE, which has prioritized the defense of right wing speech, has rushed to its side in court, and the conservative National Review has amplified its positions.
More pernicious was the New York Times’s linked reference to this group as “on the left” in a story last year, a deceptive description, though one the group lavishly showers upon itself. “Liberal” is draped across the top of its web site — just above a series of anti-trans smears that are set off by quotation marks but unattributed, their source unknown.
Among the milder conspiracy theories promoted under this veil of anonymity are that trans people constitute a “social contagion,” that we represent a “profit-driven quasi religious movement,” that we promote “misogyny and homophobia,” and that states are “threatening to take people’s kids.”
Anonymity is a main tool of this group. The closest the public gets to seeing who is behind this organization is the “Our Team” page on its website, which includes extensive descriptions of 18 individuals, 12 of whom are identified by pseudonym only. The descriptives “progressive” or “liberal are applied 11 times on this page, including in a blurb about an individual who describes trans people as a “cult.”
It’s not clear what role these “team” members play in the organization’s day-to-day functioning, and in most cases their supposed professional credentials and party affiliations defy verification. The group did not respond to an email query from Assigned Media seeking details about its funding and substantiation of its claim to having Democratic ties. Its website says it uses pseudonyms for its “team” because “many of us are balancing family situations and jobs that require us to remain anonymous.”
Though the Oakland, Calif.,-based group, also known as DIAG, was granted tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in May 2024, little can be gleaned from its limited public filings since. In its most recent financial disclosure in California, for a 12-month period ending Feb 28, 2025, the group cites revenue of $21,357 and expenditures of $11,784. Organizations with limited assets are allowed to file a simple notice of tax compliance with the IRS known as Form 990-N, which the group did for the period ending June 30, 2025.
Nonprofits with assets that are normally more than $50,000 are required by law to file a Form 990 annually, which discloses financial and leadership information in greater detail. Groups are not required to identify donors even in these filings, though, and many choose not to.
In its filings with the California attorney general, DIAG identifies four individuals as past and present officers. Among them is Jennifer Poyer, who has a close affiliation with Genspect, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group.
The IRS places some restrictions on the activities of 501(c)(3) groups. “In general, no organization may qualify for section 501(c)(3) status if a substantial part of its activities is attempting to influence legislation (commonly known as lobbying).”
The intervention of FIRE on behalf of this anti-trans group is notable because of the legal group’s prominent position in a constellation of organizations funded by Charles Koch and other right-wing mega donors.
“Donors are in contact with each other. If there are things they see and want to jump in on, they will work together to support these efforts,” said investigative journalist David Armiak, the research director of the Center for Media and Democracy, who has closely examined these networks.
“The infrastructure that they support they are constantly evaluating. FIRE would be considered a litigation arm of the infrastructure. Think tanks would be part of that, media would be part of that, advocacy groups — these all work in lockstep to move agendas. It’s a wide, well-funded infrastructure.”
DIAG did not respond to Assigned Media’s email query seeking information on any new large donors such as those in the Koch or other right-wing networks. Its limited filings thus far have disclosed no donors at all.
On its website, DIAG describes itself as “all volunteer.” The website prominently features a merchandise shop that sells dozens of hoodies, tote bags, caps, coffee mugs, placards and bumper stickers with anti-trans slogans, including the inflammatory “prosecute the doctors” T-shirt, which goes for $21.
Merchandising has proven to be an important source of revenue for anti-trans campaigners. Groups like Jennifer Sey’s XX-XY Athletics have blended campaigns promoting bias in sports with commercial-style merchandising. Sey has publicly claimed that her merchandising is lucrative enough for her group to financially reward college athletes who have taken “anti-woke” positions.
The only prominent public figure associated with DIAG is the former NPR journalist Martha Wexler, who spoke at the group's small rally outside the Supreme Court last month after arguments in two cases seeking the exclusion of trans athletes.
Wexler’s blurb on DIAG’s “team” page said she was drawn to its cause by “changes in the language used by the media” such as pronouns that she perceived as not reflecting “reality.” At the rally, Wexler made her own language clear. Trans girls, she said, “are troubled males.”
Yet the comment, biased as it was, is mild compared to the rhetoric used by Poyer, who is identified as DIAG’s secretary in California documents and is the group member cited most frequently in public by her real name. Poyer, who also uses the surname Poyer Ackerman, gave a 30-minute speech at Genspect’s conference in Albuquerque, N.M., last fall.
She invoked crude slurs such as “activist autogynophiles,” labeled trans people as “noxious” and “predatory” “threats” to society and menacingly suggested that transphobes had been “too nice” thus far. By her telling, trans people had suddenly emerged only recently – with the advent of “plus-size lingerie and selfie sticks” – a casual denial of our history and past persecution.
She also chose to convey in excruciating detail her version of her adopted child’s questioning of their gender. The individual, now an adult, did not socially or medically transition by Poyer’s self-absorbed account, but Poyer nonetheless described herself as having endured a “dystopian story arc” that ended only with her adopted child being placed in a “therapeutic boarding school.”
Poyer claimed to speak with this young person’s permission. It’s not clear if the individual has ever spoken for themselves publicly about their experience.
Describing herself as an expert and a “liberal,” Poyer declared Trump “got it right” with policies promoting bigotry and animus. Her audience at the Genspect conference was highly receptive to the message, having come to hear a lineup of extremists that also included Graham Linehan, Lisa Littman, Abigail Shrier and Sey, among others.
Republican mega donors are gearing up for the midterm elections with some familiar themes, said Armiak, whose recent investigation into the network funded by the Uline CEO Richard Uihlein found that $1.9 million would be funneled to the American Principles Project, which has attacked candidates supporting trans rights, racial equity and abortion access.
“A lot of this stuff is coming from the outside. People aren’t asking for these things,” said Armiak, referring to the big donor-funded, deceptive practice of “astroturfing,” or manufacturing fake grassroots movements.
The collapse of public support for Immigration and Customs Enforcement following its shocking excesses has scrambled the equation on every electoral level, he said. “These things suggest there might be some good competition and that usually means more money.”
Armiak suggested the right will deploy the same messaging as it did in 2024, focusing on trans athletes and abortion access among other pet projects of the conservative donor class. Whether that will work without Trump on the ballot to drive turnout, he said, is another story.
That may help explain why groups like DIAG have worked so hard to co-opt the terms “liberal” and “Democrat."
The organization’s website, however, belies its claim to either. It devotes an entire section in support of the policies of the Health and Human Services Department run by the anti-science zealot Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and another to promote the biased contortions of the UK’s Hillary Cass.
It denies the risk of increased suicide despite a long stream of contrary evidence that continues to this day, denies the very existence of intersex people, and engages in the petty contempt that characterizes anti-trans extremists by misgendering the former surgeon general, Rachel Levine.
Appropriating the word “liberal” has become a favorite tactic of both right-wing extremists and pundits who cling to the label even as they have shifted to regressive positions. Here is Merriam-Webster’s definition of liberal: “Inclined to be open to ideas and ways of behaving that are not conventional or traditional: Broad-minded, tolerant.”
Regular people — those who are not engaged in right-wing extremism or commentary — do not consider prejudice or the use of smears to be liberal, or Democratic for that matter. But whether that clear-eyed view can survive the onslaught of right-wing propaganda and dark money will be one of the great fights of our lifetime.
Billie Jean Sweeney (she/her) is a freelance editor, reporter and advocate. She helped direct international news coverage for The New York Times and coverage of New York City for The Associated Press. She also served as editorial director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, where she defended international press freedom. At The Hartford Courant she led an award-winning investigation into the deadly use of restraints in mental health institutions. For Assigned Media, she’s written about the right wing’s attacks on young trans athletes and how mainstream media adopted and spread anti-trans disinformation.
Andrea James of Transgender Map contributed research to this piece.