The production of anti-transgender hate as communicative inversion to protect White male pedophiles and groomers
The 2025–2026 releases of the Jeffrey Epstein files—millions of pages of emails, flight logs, schedules, and investigative notes—have exposed not just a sex-trafficking network but a cultural ecosystem. Powerful men, many from elite academic and intellectual circles, maintained relationships with Epstein long after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor. These men often shared a worldview steeped in evolutionary psychology, biological determinism, and skepticism toward “social construct” explanations of gender and sexuality.
At the same time, several of these same figures—or the ideological currents they represent—have amplified rhetoric framing transgender people, particularly trans women, as threats to children, as “groomers,” or as deluded victims of ideology. This is communicative inversion in action: project your group’s documented proximity to documented child sexual exploitation onto a tiny, marginalized community that has zero presence in the Epstein materials as perpetrators.

Below are detailed profiles of several named individuals who appear in the files or were part of Epstein’s intellectual orbit. All are white, cisgender men. Most have written or spoken on sex differences, intelligence, gender, or evolutionary themes in ways that have been criticized as reductive or hostile to trans existence.Robert Trivers: The Biologist Who Took Epstein’s Money and Discussed “Transgender Biology”Robert Trivers, pioneering evolutionary biologist (reciprocal altruism, parental investment theory), accepted at least $40,000 from Epstein after the 2008 conviction. Emails show ongoing contact into the 2010s.In one exchange, Epstein explicitly encouraged Trivers to study “transgender in the bio world.”
Trivers thanked Epstein for “extra money and appointment as an advisor to your Foundation” and reported he was “getting to the end of ‘transsexuality.’” Later, Trivers co-authored a 2020 paper on “transgendered belief” using 2D:4D finger-length ratios as a supposed biomarker—research widely dismissed as pseudoscientific.
Trivers defended Epstein publicly in 2015: “By the time they’re 14 or 15, they’re like grown women were 60 years ago, so I don’t see these acts as so heinous.” In another email he described a lunch with Epstein and a “bevy of beauties.”
Trivers has also complained about the “uptick in sexual misconduct allegations against powerful men.” Here is a man who took post-conviction money from a convicted sex offender, collaborated with him on "transgender research," and minimized the crimes—while the broader culture he helped shape often treats trans existence itself as a form of deception or threat to children.Alan Dershowitz: Architect of the Sweetheart DealAlan Dershowitz was Epstein’s lead defense attorney in the 2006–2008 Florida case. He helped negotiate the notorious non-prosecution agreement that gave Epstein 18 months in a work-release facility and immunity to co-conspirators.
Dershowitz appears hundreds of times in the files. Virginia Giuffre accused him of sexual abuse (he denies it; they settled). Newer releases show Epstein privately ridiculing Dershowitz while continuing to rely on him.
Dershowitz has been a vocal critic of “cancel culture,” identity politics, and aspects of the #MeToo movement.
He has also repeatedly questioned aspects of trans rights in public commentary, framing them as threats to women’s spaces and free speech.Steven Pinker: The Linguist Who Helped with the Defense and Rode the Lolita ExpressSteven Pinker flew on Epstein’s plane at least once (a 2014 flight is documented in video released in the files). He provided a linguistic opinion to Dershowitz that was used in Epstein’s 2007 defense filing regarding the wording of federal enticement statutes.
Pinker has repeatedly distanced himself, saying he disliked Epstein and was unaware of the full context. Yet he remained part of the John Brockman/Edge Foundation circle that Epstein courted aggressively.
Pinker’s books (The Blank Slate, The Better Angels of Our Nature) argue strongly for biological influences on behavior and have been accused of downplaying systemic misogyny. He has criticized certain trans-inclusive policies (sports, prisons, youth medical care) as ideologically driven rather than evidence-based.David Gelernter: The Yale Professor Who Recommended a “V Small Goodlooking Blonde”David Gelernter exchanged emails with Epstein from 2009 to 2015—after the conviction. In one 2011 message he recommended a Yale undergraduate for a position: “Yale sr, worked at Vogue last summer, runs her own campus mag, art major, completely connected, v small goodlooking blonde.”
When the files surfaced in 2026, Gelernter doubled down in an email to his dean: “I’m very glad I wrote the note… This is how men behave.” He also praised Epstein as “more of a character… more all-around horsepower & faster acceleration.”
Gelernter has written critically about postmodernism, feminism, and “elite” cultural shifts—including aspects of gender ideology.Geoffrey Miller: Evolutionary Psychologist in the OrbitGeoffrey Miller (author of The Mating Mind) appears in discussions of Epstein’s fascination with evolutionary psychology. Epstein funded or courted several figures in this field; Miller’s work on sexual selection, mate choice, and intelligence differences has been cited in the same intellectual milieu that Epstein cultivated.
Miller has been publicly critical of “blank slate” views on gender and has engaged in controversies around fat-shaming, sex differences, and campus culture.Gregory Cochran: The Iconoclast Who Was Epstein’s HouseguestGregory Cochran (co-author with Henry Harpending of the controversial “Ashkenazi intelligence” paper) was invited to Epstein’s New Mexico ranch to discuss that exact theory. Epstein boasted of Cochran as a houseguest in emails.
Cochran’s work emphasizes genetic explanations for group differences in cognition and behavior—precisely the kind of biological-reductionist framework that often spills over into debates about sex and gender.Richard Dawkins: The Public Intellectual on the PlaneRichard Dawkins flew on Epstein’s plane at least once. He appears in Brockman/Edge circles that Epstein infiltrated. In one 2010 email Epstein planned a Cambridge visit mentioning “dawkins, rees.”
Dawkins has been one of the most prominent public critics of transgender ideology, tweeting that “sex is binary,” comparing gender-affirming care to “lobotomy,” and arguing that trans women are not “real” women. He has framed trans activism as anti-scientific and harmful to women and children.The Pattern: Misogyny, Biological Essentialism, and DeflectionThese men are not a monolith. Some (Pinker, Dawkins) have explicitly denied wrongdoing and condemned Epstein’s crimes. Others (Trivers, Gelernter) defended or minimized contact. But the common thread is striking:
- Many operated in fields that emphasize innate sex differences, sexual selection, and skepticism toward social explanations of gender.
- Several directly benefited from Epstein’s money or proximity after his conviction.
- Several have publicly opposed aspects of transgender rights, often framing them as ideological capture or threats to women/children.
- None of the files implicate transgender individuals as clients, associates, or perpetrators. The documented victims and enablers are overwhelmingly cisgender girls and powerful cisgender men.
Epstein himself showed interest in “transgender biology” (via Trivers) and in eugenics/transhumanism schemes involving selective breeding. The same men who tut-tut about “social contagion” of trans identity were happy to take his money or attend his salons.Why This MattersThe Epstein files do not contain a neat client list, but they contain receipts of complicity through continued association, minimization, and shared misogynistic language. They also contain the absence of any transgender perpetrators.
When public figures who were part of that world now lead moral panics about trans people in bathrooms, sports, or youth healthcare, the projection is glaring. It protects the actual power structures that enabled Epstein while attacking a scapegoat that cannot fight back with the same institutional force.True accountability would mean:
- Full, unredacted transparency.
- Serious investigation of everyone who continued contact post-2008.
- Rejection of biological essentialism when it is selectively deployed to justify harm.
- Recognition that misogyny and pedophilia thrive in environments that treat women and girls (cis or trans) as objects or ideological battlegrounds.
