On Wednesday, Jake Crain, host of the Crain & Company podcast, posted a thread about the Instagram activity of an account allegedly belonging to transgender swimmer, Lia Thomas.

The thread included screenshots of the account "liking" several posts pertaining to autogynephilia. For those who may be unfamiliar with the term, autogynephilia (frequently abbreviated to "AGP") translates from Greek to "love of oneself as a woman." It refers to sexual arousal some men experience at the thought of having a woman’s body. For some, this can be motivation for transitioning.

Of course, we can’t assume, based on any of this, that Thomas experiences AGP. But AGP remains an important part of the discussion on transgender activism and why the activism has veered, more often than not, toward the extreme and vitriolic.

Once an esoteric concept contained within scientific publications and academic debates, AGP has gained newfound relevance when questioning the excesses of today’s transgender rights movement. Based on the work of my mentor and friend, Ray Blanchard, a world-renowned psychologist at the University of Toronto, AGP is a paraphilia (an unusual sexual interest). In addition to fantasizing about having female anatomy, AGP can involve cross-dressing, eroticizing female bodily functions, and partaking in activities that women usually do.

According to trans activists and their allies, AGP doesn’t exist; it is a hateful myth based on outdated medical research. Others will claim that women also experience AGP, so it is a typical part of womanhood. Women, however, do not get turned on by getting dressed in the morning or, say, menstruating, lactating, or speaking with a female voice.

There exists an overlap between AGP and narcissistic and antisocial personality disorders, but the most aggressive individuals with AGP, who demand that trans women be considered indistinguishable from women, and who are overriding social boundaries and requiring policy to facilitate this, don’t represent everybody. Many of those experiencing AGP do so quietly and don’t transition to female full-time.

As someone who studied paraphilias and wrote about AGP in my book, I hear frequently from individuals who experience AGP themselves — guilt, shame, and confusion understandably tend to coincide.

Hiding the truth about AGP doesn’t help those who are suffering. I’m willing to bet that the majority of those denying AGP exists, not only know that it exists but experience it themselves. I sincerely hope they will one day heal this inner turmoil instead of channeling it at the rest of the world.