Anti-Trans Groups Are “Transvestigating” Celebrities Online

A social media activist dived into “transvestigating” communities online as anti-transgender laws sweep the United States and worldwide. Human rights organizations are concerned for the safety and future of trans communities as the “gender critical” movement grows.

Matt Bernstein, best known for his educational Instagram posts and the “A Bit Fruity Podcast,” recently infiltrated anti-transgender communities online. They found that as transgender celebrities like Elliot Page and Laverne Cox became more comfortable openly sharing their identities, anti-trans activists began accusing dozens of cisgender celebrities of lying about their sex.

In the format of their typical Instagram posts, Bernstein shared this Reel about his findings:

this is your brain on transphobia

In multiple Facebook groups, users analyzed the physical traits of celebrities like Henry Cavill, Margot Robbie, Kristen Stewart, Anne Hathaway, Farrah Fawcett, Marilyn Monroe, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Ryan Gosling, accusing them of lying about their sex and gender identity. Group names include “Transvestigation Disclosure NOW,” “FAMOUS TRANSGENDER DISCLOSURE TRANSVESTIGATION TRANSHUMANISM TRANSFORMERS,” “TRANSvestigation: Hollyweird,” and more.

“It’s like a trans-pocalypse, and they are the only cis people left,” Bernstein said.

Some in the groups expressed strained marriages and family relationships because of their obsession with the transvestigating conspiracy theory.

Though the groups overwhelmingly lean conservative, Republicans like Donald Trump and Caitlyn Jenner weren’t safe from transvestigation. (Jenner is openly trans–but one social media post suggested she was born female, transitioned to male, and de-transitioning back to female.)

“This is the end result of thinking that you can just assume someone is trans by looking at them, right?” Bernstein concluded. “The underlying idea to all of this being that there is a singular biological standard for being a man or a woman, and anyone who doesn’t fall squarely into that must be lying about who they really are. This is what we mean when we say transphobia affects cis people, too.”

It’s best not to assume someone’s gender based on appearance. Asking someone’s pronouns is the easiest way to address a person correctly.