Transgender disinformation is information intentionally produced to mislead public understanding of transgender populations, including strategic fabrication of facts, methodical data manipulation, selective statistical representation, intentionally decontextualised research conclusions, and the use of dubious or misappropriated sources, among other tactics. The intention of such disinformation is to manufacture uncertainty, cultivate fear and distrust, and—with increasing strategic precision—directe coordinated pressure campaigns against transgender people and the supportive ecosystems surrounding transgender communities: affirming parents and partners, evidence-based healthcare practitioners, responsive local governance structures, and the cultural institutions. This lecture looks at UK transgender disinformation narratives, tactics, and the illusions it uses to make such claims stick and spread to create disinformation afterlives that continue to shape public discourse long after their original contexts have dissolved.
Chloe Turner is a trans writer and researcher currently completing a PhD with the Centre for Feminist Research, Goldsmiths University of London on transgender disinformation. Turner's writing on trans studies can be found or forthcoming in the European Journal of Cultural Studies, Culture Health & Sexuality, The Geographical Journal,Media Theory, The Sociological Review and New Sociological Perspectives. Turner has previously been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy at Columbia University, New York City and at present teaches queer and transgender studies at Central Saint Martins, London. Turner is the Governance and Policy Lead of The Museum of Transology, the largest collection of material culture of transgender, non-binary and intersex lives in the world. Turner writes a regular substack on trans politics titled: WHIPLASH.