Stella O'Malley

This content was last updated Nov. 15, 2023, 10:47 p.m. UTC

Stella O’Malley is an Irish conversion therapist, anti-transgender activist, and founder or co-founder of multiple anti-transgender groups who has written against conversion therapy bans. She is a promoter of fringe theories such as Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria (ROGD) and autogynephilia, and is connected to most major anti-transgender organizations working to oppose transgender people worldwide.

O’Malley works frequently with Lisa Marchiano and Sasha Ayad. She and Ayad co-host a podcast, Gender: A Wider Lens, on which they have interviewed noteworthy anti-transgender figures such as Helen Joyce, Jesse Singal, and Ray Blanchard. These interviews feature anti-trans misinformation in an attempt to discourage and prevent medical transition.

I suppose where I’m coming from [with] this, more than anything, is to make sure that children are, if at all possible, stopped from medical transition. I think that’s the most important thing for me.

O'Malley, leaked audio,13 October, 2021

Education and Work

O’Malley has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Counseling and Psychotherapy, and a Master of Arts degree in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy according to her LinkedIn profile.

In addition to her anti-transgender work, O’Malley is a frequent contributor to Irish print media, such as the Irish Independent and the Sunday Independent, as well as Irish visual media outlets, like BBC Northern Ireland and RTE Television.

O’Malley is also an author, having published five nonfiction psychology books.

Work With Lisa Marchiano and Sasha Ayad

O’Malley has been working with Sasha Ayad and Lisa Marchiano since 2017, according to the website for their consulting firm, whose activities include retreats for anti-transgender parents. Together, O’Malley, Ayad and Marchiano share membership or a founding role in nine separate anti-transgender organizations.

WTH Ayad, O’Malley hosts an anti-transgender podcast, Gender: A Wider Lens. The podcast is sponsored by two anti-trans political groups that both Ayad and O’Malley have connections to Rethink Identity Medicine Ethics (ReIME) and Genspect. Guests of the podcast include many prominent anti-transgender figures such as Helen Joyce, Jesse Singal, and Ray Blanchard. Content includes medical misinformation that disputes or calls into question the evidence base for transgender health care.

Conversion Therapy

O’Malley has denied accusations of engaging in conversion therapy tactics on the website of Genspect, an anti-transgender organization where she serves as the director. However, in an October, 2021 leak she expressed a desire to stop transgender children from pursuing transition in any way.

In the leaks, O’Malley also directly compares autogynephilia, (the pseudoscientific theory that trans women are motivated to transition by sexual attraction to themselves) to pedophilia, likening transgender women and teens to sexual predators. She urged her listeners not to extend any empathy to young transgender girls, saying, “Are the numbers shockingly high in the teenage boy population? It seemed to be to me. But is this actually just something that was always under the covers? I don’t know. But I don’t think you should have any empathy, and I haven’t asked anybody to have any empathy and I don’t think you should have empathy or sympathy.”

Connections to Other Anti-Transgender Organizations

O’Malley is the founder, cofounder, or a member of numerous anti-transgender organizations and groups.

She is, alongside Sasha Ayad, the cofounder of the Gender Exploratory Therapy Association (GETA), an association devoted to promoting “gender-exploratory therapy,” a conversion therapy strategy in opposition to the standard gender-affirming model disguised as a real treatment; she is the director of Genspect, an anti-transgender advocacy group operating in legal and academic environments to promote medical misinformation about transgender people and transition, and one of two sponsors of O’Malley and Ayad’s podcast; she is a member of the Society for Evidence based Gender Medicine (SEGM), another anti-transgender medical misinformation group; and she is a member of the advisory board for Rethink Identity Medicine Ethics (ReIME), an anti-transgender medical misinformation group that promotes the fringe theory of ROGD.

Further resources:

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