Avi Ring
This content was last updated Nov. 15, 2023, 10:24 p.m. UTC
Avi Ring is a former Norwegian academic with ties to various medical misinformation and anti-trans political organizations, including the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) and GenSpect. On September 25, 2023, GenSpect publicly announced Ring's death on Twitter.
Ring was a key figure in anti-trans activism, and a proponent of the fringe theory of Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD), the suggestion that people identify themselves as transgender because of pressure from their peers and social media websites like Tumblr. He was also the founder of anti-transgender group Gender Identity Challenge Skandinavia (GENID).
Education and Work
Ring received a Doctor of Philosophy in Physiology and Biophysics from the University Uppsala in Sweden.
He worked as an Associate Professor of Cellular Electrophysiology at University Uppsala and as a Chief Scientist for the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment. He was also a part of the Norwegian Directory of Health’s reference panel for developing guidelines for the treatment of gender dysphoria.
Connection to SEGM/Genspect and founding of GENID
Ring was a key member of SEGM, alongside anti-trans figures such as Sasha Ayad, Lisa Marchiano, and Stella O’Malley. Like many of his colleagues at SEGM, Ring was a vocal proponent of ROGD, which the World Professional Association for Transgender Health has disavowed as baseless fear mongering.
In addition to SEGM, Ring was also listed as a team member of anti-transgender medical misinformation group Genspect, which shares many members with SEGM and supports projects like anti-transgender podcast Gender: A Wider Lens.
Ring was the founder of medical disinformation organization Gender Identity Challenge Skandinavia (GENID), whose primary work is hosting a web page that provides anti-transgender talking points and strategies for parents and clinicians, as well as promoting the fringe theory of ROGD and its proponents.