Avi Ring
This content was last updated Sept. 30, 2023, 12:39 a.m. UTC
Avi Ring is a Norwegian academic with ties to various medical misinformation and anti-trans political organizations, including the Society for Evidence Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) and GenSpect.
Ring is 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 is also the founder of anti-transgender medical misinformation group Gender Identity Challenge Skandinavia (GENID).
Education and Work
Ring holds a Doctor of Philosophy in Physiology and Biophysics from the University Uppsala in Sweden.
He has 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 is listed as a key member of anti-transgender medical misinformation organization Society for Evidence based Gender Medicine (SEGM), alongside anti-trans figures such as Sasha Ayad, Lisa Marchiano, and Stella O’Malley. Like many of his colleagues at SEGM, Ring has been a vocal proponent of ROGD, which the World Professional Association for Transgender Health has disavowed as baseless fear mongering.
In addition to SEGM, Ring is 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 is also the founder of medical disinformation organization Gender Identity Challenge Skandinavia (GENID), whose primary work has been 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.