What Transphobia Sounded Like in 2010

‘How Evil Works’ (2010) by the editor of WorldNetDaily

In 2010, Threshold Editions, a division of Simon & Schuster, published David Kupelian’s book How Evil Works: Understanding and Overcoming The Destructive Forces That Are Transforming America.

Kupelian was, and still is today, managing editor for WorldNetDaily, which, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, is dedicated to “manipulative fear-mongering and outright fabrications…from the fringes of the far-right and fundamentalist worlds.” While some of his topics in this book might suggest his interests lie in psychology or theology, he clarifies that he’s a journalist. But there’s no reporting in the book, either.

In the book’s discussions of racism, antisemitism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia, through which the author of course purports not to perpetuate these evils, I’d say, in my estimation, he very much does. The book, in attempting to call out the psychological and spiritual sources of these personal and social ills in others, is just a lot of projection.

I decided to read the book because I have been thinking about how transphobia has developed in recent years and I think it is important to trace the lines through history, recent as well as distant, to better understand where it comes from. I also…