From Female Leather Culture to Trans Advocate

A Key to FTM Capture for Industry

The Reimers might have been the first family with a non-intersex child coerced by Johns Hopkins University (JHU) psychologist John Money to experiment raising a child as the opposite sex under the guise of gender identity theory. But this family would not be the last.

Bruce Reimer was born a healthy twin in 1965 alongside his brother Brian. After a circumcision gone wrong and physician suggested castration, Bruce became ‘Brenda,’ the experiment. Experiment ‘Brenda’ failed. Upon reverting to his birth sex as a teen, Bruce denounced ‘Brenda’ and rechristened himself David. He shared his story with the world hoping to prevent intersex children from enduring unnecessary medical intervention. But far greater industry aspirations were underway than he could have ever imagined. The construction of the gender affirmation pipeline for an ‘anybody can be trans’ agenda was off and running.

60 years on and the industry feeds like wild beasts on gullible youth and families. No accident is required, or biological anomaly (intersex) – only psychological programming. Gender identity is a myth, a lie, and an impossibility. But measures across culture, education, law, and medicine, have rendered myth ‘truth.’ ‘Brendas’ are now everywhere. Unlike the ‘Brenda’ of 1970, today’s ‘Brendas’ are believers of gender theory. They often do not wake from their psychological slumber until their bodies have been irreversibly harmed.

Another twin born in 1965 plays a key role in this ideological shift across society. Her name is Aidan Key. Aidan was born Bonnie Bowers alongside her identical twin sister Brenda in MI. Unlike David whose parents were coerced by the mastermind of gender theory to turn their infant boy into a simulacrum of a girl, Key was raised as a healthy girl by a single mother and did not come into contact with gender theory as a child. She came in contact with a powerful drug called testosterone as a young adult. Key was baptized into a new lifestyle among Seattle’s booming queer culture in the ‘80s. She embraced her new identity as a ‘transman.’ She has not led a quiet life but a public one indoctrinating future generations into believing in synthetic futures.

Only 2 years into her ‘transition’ Key began forging the spread of the gender industry on the west coast. Seattle was her home, Washington state her focus, females her initial target. She has risen through the ranks on the coattails of prior activists. Her early alliances formed among members of the first FTM nonprofit, FTM International (FTMI).

FTMI launched in the late 80s as a newsletter, but the grassroots organization was haunted by industry influence from the start. Without industry support it would be women in drag with adult entertainment interests. Industry perks like drugs and surgeries flowed. So did money and influence. Law, education, medicine, and more changed. 40 years later making it to adulthood intact becomes difficult, and sometimes impossible, under the circumstances.

Washington is among the worst offenders. Like California’s 2022 SB107, the 2023 SHIELD law turns Washington into a sanctuary state for children claiming to be ‘transgender’ under the guise of “reproductive health.” Trans world order means natural order, care, and acceptance are replaced by glitter families, harm, and rejection.

In Washington, Aidan Key has lots to do with this. She has long since moved beyond Washington and FTMs to embrace both sexes and all genders for global gender ventures. Her focus is schools and children.

Key’s appearance on an episode of Children’s Health Defense (CHD) The People’s Testament in 2022 rang untrue to the organization’s mission where RFK was then chairman. Now as the head of US HHS, attention to Key is paramount. Consider the rising influence of Callie Means and his sister Cassie who is in the running to become US surgeon general.

The Real Aidan Key

How did Bonnie Bowers became Aidan Key? She has no professional training in physical or mental health. A 2006 communications degree from Seattle’s Antioch University does not make a ‘gender expert.’ For that industry relies on her ‘gender journey,’ and her fervent gusto in selling a lie. Her influences hail from an exploding queer culture that relies on social factions, pornography, sex positivity, the leather scene, funding, and a medical arm quick to affirm false identities for global markets.

In 2016 Key attended the Creating Change Conference in Chicago where she was giving a workshop titled “Navigating the Human Barrier: Doing Education on Trans Inclusion in K-12 Schools.” While there she was interviewed by MTF Andrea Jenkins for a transgender oral history project.

First setting the stage is necessary because this is not a normal sort of venue and the activities that happen not normal sorts of things. Chicago has been a heavy target of social change campaigns. Key was there 3 years prior accepting her award for making the first ever TransList100, another transactivist wonder with the rainbow media arm GLAAD and Pierce Family Foundation as partners.

Creating Change is the annual conference of the National LGBT Task Force held since 1988. When the task force launched in 1973 the focus was lobbying the American Medical Association to remove homosexuality from its status as a mental disorder. Now attention is turned to trans. Queering the census, queering churches, and queering reproductive justice are campaigns. Queering children’s bodies is now the game.

The oral history project is part of the Tretter Collection at the University of Minnesota (UMN). The collection is the effort what is now called the Eli Coleman Institute for Sexual and Gender Health (ISGH), first launched as a program in 1970. It began as a partnership between the university and the Lutheran Church. The program gained institute status in 2021 and took on the new moniker in 2023 in honor of the sexologist / psychologist turned university professor emeritus. Professor Coleman was deposed as lead in WPATH’s Standards of Care (SOC) in 2024. No surprise to anyone paying attention, it turns out SOC is nothing more than consensus guidelines for transgender ‘care’ riddled with conflicts of interests and funded by a member of the “rich white men” club.

The 2024 financial report shows MTF Jennifer Pritzker sits on the ISGH’s leadership council. Top ISGH funding hails from Pritzker and Tawani each contributing 1M+ alongside a handful of like donations. Coleman and his partner have donated over one half million.

UMN’s ISGH is no small potatoes. There are hundreds of other financial supporters with revenue reaching 4M in 2023. Their staff nears 100 people including volunteers, and medical students and interns. Their endowments are over 16M. Their patient visits numbered over 16K in one year. A new name may be upcoming, the National Center for Gender Spectrum Health (edit: 4/2026 since writing this post, the name has changed to The Center for Gender Health).

For an idea of how far they take this ‘spectrum’ concept consider independent sex researcher Magaly Pirotte who visited ISGH in 2024. She launched her business, SEX-ED+, creating “diverse and true-to-function medical models from molds of real genitals.” Shop around and check out the stickers. The verbiage on one “diverse” kit is below:

The institute bought models for research, “comparing these life-like genital models to the traditional models in the medical simulation center (M Simulation) at UMN.” This passes for science today.

The Interview

Key was in good company when interviewed for this project that is just one thing nested in a vast well-funded organization. From 2016-2019 the goal was to interview between 200 to 300 people. Key made the cut.

Excuse the content but the truth behind someone working with children needs telling. Key rambles on for almost an hour discussing her upbringing by a single mother who moved frequently. She graduated from high school in Juneau, Alaska in ‘80s and moved to Seattle at 19 for college.

Generational gaps, sex stereotypes, pubertal stress, sexual confusion and more get mentions. None of this had to do with why she transitioned she claims. She declares, “…my body [was] changing in ways that I knew it [was] not supposed to. And it’s that simple.” She wanted her body, “more like she expected.” In reality it goes a bit deeper than this and Key elaborates.

Seattle is where, “like a moth to a flame,” she says she found comradery among an older dyke community who, “took her under their wings.” They became her circle as she shed her Christian one. She came out to the leather scene where she says she “learned about power.” “I liked the physicality of it,” she says adding, “I won’t elaborate too much.” More follows anyway. Experimentation and physical pain get mentions. “It hurts more when you are scared.” When asked her identification in this community, she answers, “Well, the primary identity that I had was as a butch bottom and definitely more . . .”

Key informs listeners that she never entertained transitioning until becoming aware of the possibility. They all say this. Once the possibility is seeded in susceptible minds, victims can become obsessed with transitioning themselves. Testosterone can clinch the deal. As Aidan says, “Testosterone builds muscle, it makes you stronger, you can have more energy.” Estrogen by comparison she describes as, “laden with gravity.” What is a woman to do?

Testosterone increases libido which might have fueled Key’s activities. Key admits after starting dosing, “this is how my body should respond in this situation and that could be in the bed, sexually.” When discussing the relief of her sexual issues, the interviewer finishes her thoughts at one point, “…when the testosterone started flowing.” A fist bump follows. These are activists who speak the language. They know what is going on.

Testosterone crossed the line for many of her comrades at the time, but it did not scare Key. The permanence of surgery was not as easy, but she succumbed to chest masculinization surgery. The ‘t’ perks were welcome. “It’s working, it’s working,” she says. FTM phalloplasty was not pursued.

Testosterone and transition introduced divisions in her community, ones that remain today. Key kept “showing up” as she describes it. She kept attending dyke bars and “women’s play parties.” She quotes one friend who questioned her choices, “I get it about the phantom penis and the this and the that . . .” To Key this meant her community understood because of similar experiences.

Key claims her community, “led her straight to the store.” It was a store she could not resist. Growing ‘experts’ in the rising field of ‘gender medicine’ allowed her to have what she desired. Only in the last 20 minutes of the 80-minute interview does Key get asked about her work. They discuss the launch of her first conference, FTM 2001: Gender Odyssey. The conference morphs into both sexes and all genders as ages wind downwards and the trans cult seeps through culture. Her interviewer, Andrea James, is the 14th keynote speaker in 2015.

Perhaps Key would have been best served by sex and testosterone addiction treatment. Instead Key has been forging a pipeline for children to be trafficked into an industry that did not exist until enough trans people were created to spread the lie to younger generations. Key is one of the leaders.

Her Influence

Key’s influence is massive. She is at the helm of 2 organizations, Gender Diversity and Trans Families. Her Gender Odyssey conferences ran annually from 2001 until 2018. She has worked on model policy for gender inclusivity in Washington State schools and sports. It is a model for others. The breadth of her efforts are significant. A 25+ year timeline is offered.

It was only a couple of years into her ‘transition’ that Key started her advocacy work. In 1999 she launched Gender Diversity providing educational tools for school, healthcare, and work environments. Key’s clients hail from across disciplines, a phenomena only explained by economics.

Some Gender Diversity clients

By 2006 WA state laws included gender identity protection. Gender Diversity worked on Washington model legislation for schools. Among Seattle public schools LGBTQ resources can be found “resources on the journey to acceptance .” Aidan’s organization Trans Families and Caitlyn Ryan’s Family Acceptance Project (discussed in Traumatizing Families) is the other. Both organizations traumatize families, harm children, and fuel industry for an inhumane kind of diversity.

By 2007 WA school sports included gender identity protections. Gender Diversity worked with WA Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA)’s on a gender inclusive toolkit. Aidan’s Gender Diversity and Trans Families are again provided among a short list of resources.

Since 2025 federal executive orders, WA has been in the DEI hot seat. States press on with well-funded rainbow NGOs.

Gender Spectrum and Gender Odyssey

In 2001 FTM Key and, who might best be described as a co-conspirator at the time, Stephanie Brill, began to conduct trainings (or rather indoctrinations) for families and children in the San Francisco Bay Area.

In 2001 Key’s first conference was also held, FTM 2001: Gender Odyssey (GO) in Seattle. This was hardly the first FTM conference. 1995 marked FTMI’s first All-FTM Conference of the Americas. In 1997 American Boyz held their first (True Spirit Conference) and FTMI held Forward Motion. Hundreds attended these conferences in the early years.

FTM Louis Sullivan started FTMI the late 80s. Archives of FTM newsletter show that the medical industrial complex and erotica scene was there from the start. As a married woman Sullivan considered herself a gay man. FTM Jamison Green, took charge of FTMI upon Sullivan’s death. By 2008 GO embraced both sexes.

Sources: FTMI Issue #47 August; 2000 FTMI Issue 50 in 2000

Brill launched Gender Spectrum (GS) in 2006 as a parent support group (some sources show Key as co-founder). They are held at Children’s Hospital Oakland (now UCSF Benioff). Family and professionals resources were added over the years and an annual conference. A San Francisco NGO, The Jewish Community Federation and Endowment Fund has been top GS funder providing 1.07 of a 1.3M budget in 2018.

GO opened to families in 2007. Teen programming launched. Brill helped. In this place that owes its existence to seedy sex culture, drugs, and surgeries, teen meet and greets and other activities were fostered. Seattle Children’s professionals and other ‘gender doctors’ flocked hoping to lure young victims in the coming decade. GO workshops have included titles like “Fierce Dyke doing Husband’s Laundry,” “Boys to Men,” “Seven Year Itch,” and “Ups and Downs of Phalloplasty.” (Author’s note: This and some the following GO information cannot be linked as the GO website is out of operation. The information was collected years prior.)

FTM Kyle Jones, author of trans erotica and host of a PizzaKlatch high school support group, held a GO workshop in 2013. The topic is unclear but her YouTube channel speak volumes.

Images like below grace GO’s Tumblr:

The first GO Professionals Conference was held in 2012. Green was the keynote speaker. Like Eli Coleman, in 2024 Green’s influence would come into question upon the release of WPATH Files.

GO was a popular destination for leaders in industry. Other notable speakers have included Joanna Olsen-Kennedy, Laura Edwards-Leeper, Chase Strangio, Marci Bowers, Janet Mock, and Stanford’s gender clinic founder Tandy Aye.

GO’s advisory board has included FTM CA Court Appointed Child Advocate, Jack Alcantara; the woman who developed the first graduate course for transgender clinical issues, Michele Angello; the executive director of Arcus Center for Social Justice at Kalamazoo College, Jamie Grant; and an attorney for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Asaf Orr. Arcus is spearheaded by yet another member of the “rich white men” club, John Stryker.

Seattle Children’s

Seattle Children’s was the first hospital in the Pacific Northwest to offer ‘gender care’ opening in 2016. From 2016 to 2021 Key claims, that not she, but her organization Gender Diversity “served as co-chair of the Seattle Children’s Adolescent Gender Clinic.” A financial arrangement cannot be found. Trans Families and Gender Diversity are among a list of resources offered to families at the clinic.

The Seattle Gender Clinic received the first payout of a more than 500K grant from the Pacific Hospital Preservation and Development Authority (PHPDA) to make it happen. It began as a one day a week clinic in the Children’s Adolescent Medicine Division under Dr. David Breland who remains a ‘gender expert’ at the clinic to this day. Do No Harm has exposed evidence of drugs and procedures being perpetuated on children at the clinic.

Fertility Preservation For Gender-Diverse Youth and Young Adults are offered. Hospitals are keen on Adventures in Baby Making. Gender ‘care’ fits the economic model of first do harm, then provide services.

An Economic Model

Aside from the boost in sex markets, medical and tech markets benefit. In 1991 Brill cofounded Maia Midwifery and Preconceptions for LGBT clients in Seattle, indicating that gender ideology may not be so much concerned with down and out trans kids but with the creation of trans kids for business potential.

Brill’s publishing adventures further inform. She authored the book The New Essential Guide to Lesbian Conception, Pregnancy, and Birth in 2006, The Transgender Child in 2008, followed up with The Transgender Teen in 2016, and then published an updated version of her 2006 conception book in 2023. As bearers of eggs for the human race, creating a class of FTMs is due to provide excellent return on investment.

Going Digital

As Gender Odyssey came to an end in 2018 and globalist Covid plans got underway, more effort was put into online social networking. Key’s social networking arm is under her NGO Trans Families. Everything is now online. The website reads, “We firmly understand that ‘it takes a village’ to raise a child, and TransFamilies is just that village.” For a fee families can join “Trans Families Mighty Network.” Youth groups and a private, moderated Discord server for youth to ‘chat’ are also offerings.

In 2023 Brill’s Gender Spectrum ceased operations claiming financial problems. A GS sister organization, Reimagine Gender (RI) was launched in 2020 that “advises families, corporations, and policymakers on transgender issues” according to Influence Watch. Reimagine Gender’s website has gone dark but RI remains on LinkedIn. The director hails from a biopharma company.

Gender Spectrum now provides the website for resources only. “Be sure to check out our new partnership with PFLAG,” reads a banner when support groups are clicked. Click “trans youth emergency project,” and users are led to Campaign for Southern Equality linked to dozens of other well-funded NGOs. Listed are 6 national family support organizations similar to Key’s Trans Families. No doubt these family org NGOs will be heavily funded, and media supported in the years ahead.

Gone are the days of brick and mortar. An integrated delivery system of care involves social networking. Disruptive technologies and ‘care’ services can be unleashed for algorithmic success in a digital world focusing on SOGI data. Online medicine provides easy access. Scripts can be mailed. State boundaries break down in a digitally connected world where platforms forge virtual spaces for the trans identified. With the technological elite amassing vast power in recent years, children cannot escape.

Other Activities

Alongside her organizational milestones Key has cofounded a transgender film festival, was appointed to Seattle’s LGBTQ Commission (2009), has appeared in parenting articles, and on Oprah, Larry King Live and featured as a character in a SNL skit while consulting, presenting, and spreading the lie of gender identity. In other words Aidan has been catapulted into the spotlight. This has been for a reason.

What evidence remains online of one of Oprah’s episodes with Aidan Key (edit 2/2026)

She has also participated in research for the TransYouth Project under Kristina Olsen, then head of UW Social and Cognitive Development Lab. Olsen has moved on to Princeton where she now leads the Human Diversity Lab.

In 2021 Aidan gave a Ted Talk titled The Heart of the Matter sponsored by these elitist higher ed labs. Aidan delivers quite a script. From ‘trans children are real’ to calling out stereotypes around sexually deviant behavior, to connecting gender with xenophobia and racism, all talking points get covered.

The bottom line is that human bodies are not naturally diverse enough for modern scientists. Markets have been diversified to accept human bodies that have been drugged and surgically altered. Key is the advertising campaign’s mouthpiece. “Rather than making the efforts to change the child, what if we were to change the environment surrounding that child.” She cannot say, “drugging and surgically altering children for diverse markets.” This is all she has.

Key’s book Trans Children in Today’s Schools was published in 2023. The real focus is not children as whole beings, but children’s bodies reduced to the sum of parts for growing markets in the rising medical / technological age. As someone who has morphed into a member of this growing class, she is charged with indoctrinating others to join the club.

Key was also involved in other important research and for that another post is needed. As a young woman lured by the flow of sex and drugs in Seattle’s early queer culture, every involvement regarding an industry that was nonexistent for children when she was sucked into the pipeline needs to be called to account. There has been an undercurrent of trans coursing through the US since the days of FTMI and American Boyz. The time to stop it was yesterday.