Part 1 of this interview is above, part 2 is here:
“I was on the wrong side of history.”
—Romy Mancini (2025)
Romy Mancini was at the top of the Gen X queer world. She studied under Kenji Yoshino at Yale Law School, litigated gay rights cases at the ACLU in New York, and even dated the future trans activist-professor Paisley Currah. But marriage equality didn’t excite Romy and she felt skeptical of the trans agenda. So in 2003, she walked away from “LGBT” advocacy.
Today Romy — who moved to San Francisco in 2010 — volunteers with Women Are Real and Our Duty to combat trans ideology. She votes Republican.
I recently interviewed Romy about her work and how it feels to see so many of her old friends forget what a woman is. You can listen to our conversation above.
Note: there are two audio files above. That’s because when I originally posted the first, it was somehow missing 10 minutes in the middle. I added the missing piece to this post later as a separate clip. Luckily it’s a rational break so you won’t be confused when you’re listening to either section.
Score
Romy and I discuss her contributions to the ACLU’s amicus brief in Lawrence v. Texas (the Supreme Court decision that declared a right to consensual sex in private). Here’s a passage of the ruling that cites her research:
[F]ar from possessing "ancient roots," … American laws targeting same-sex couples did not develop until the last third of the 20th century. The reported decisions concerning the prosecution of consensual, homosexual sodomy between adults for the years 1880-1995 are not always clear in the details, but a significant number involved conduct in a public place. See Brief for American Civil Liberties Union et al. as Amici Curiae …
In summary, the historical grounds relied upon in Bowers [which this decision overturns] are more complex than the majority opinion and the concurring opinion by Chief Justice Burger indicate. Their historical premises are not without doubt and, at the very least, are overstated.
