Madeline Mann, a UCSF administrator caught on video threatening a trans critical activist, is married to a prominent progressive podcaster — and together they transitioned their daughter at age 15.
A University of California, San Francisco administrative director has been identified as the transgender activist who threatened to kill a woman at the California Democratic Party state convention.
“I’m gonna hunt you down and f*cking kill you!” Madeline Mann (née Cudworth Stiness), an administrative director of clinical and translational science training at UCSF, said to Beth Bourne before shoving her and fleeing the scene in a video that has since been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on social media.
The incident occurred Feb. 21 in the lobby of the Moscone Center in San Francisco, where the California Democratic Party was holding its state convention.
Ms. Mann, 57, had attended a Rainbow Families Action event that organized a trans rights march ending at the convention. She arrived about 10 minutes after Ms. Bourne, who was protesting in the lobby with a sign critical of double mastectomies on minor girls.
Madeline Mann is an administrative director of clinical and translational science training at UCSF
“How much money does a surgeon make off giving a girl top surgery?” Ms. Bourne said in the selfie-style video as the pro-trans activist stood beside her. “Kaiser Permanente charges only a $100 co-pay, and the surgeon makes $25,000.
“I was approved for a phalloplasty in two appointments over Zoom,” she continued. “You know, they make a phalloplasty out of the skin tissue on your thigh and forearm. It’s like a skin sausage. It’s a fake penis. $130,000.”
Ms. Mann stood silently at first. She then leaned into Ms. Bourne’s ear and uttered the death threat before shoving her away and storming off, video shows.
Madeline Mann works for UCSF
Ms. Bourne reported the incident to the San Francisco Police Department. The responding officer, Kathryn Winter, is a trans activist who identifies as female. Afterward, Democrat organizers asked Ms. Bourne to leave the center. She complied.
Ms. Bourne said she is not surprised that the woman who threatened her works in the University of California system.
“I believe our UC system has created an echo chamber, where no one is allowed to question DEI or gender ideology,” Ms. Bourne said.
Ms. Bourne, 55, regularly protests what she calls gender ideology and transgender radicalism in the Bay Area after being laid off from an administrative role at UC Davis in 2024. Her activism has made her the target of repeated threats and harassment from far-left extremists.
Ms. Mann manages and oversees administrative functions at a UCSF clinic that receives National Institutes of Health funding to research ways to improve patient and community health. She is married to woke tech writer and podcaster Merlin Mann.
Madeline Mann and husband Merlin Mann in 2005
Madeline Mann and her husband, Merlin Mann, with their then-newborn daughter, Eleanor, in 2007
The couple have an 18-year-old daughter, Eleanor Flannery Mann, whom they helped transition at approximately age 15. They previously referred to her as “Ellie.” Eleanor first used “they/them” pronouns before later adopting “he/him.” Her parents now refer to her as their “son.”
Madeline Mann and her daughter, Eleanor, when she was a child
Trans-identifying Eleanor Mann and her father Merlin Mann
Trans-identifying Eleanor Mann, 18, and her father, Merlin Mann
In addition to transgender activism, Ms. Mann has participated in an anti-government protest targeting immigration officials. In January, she joined a group at Ocean Beach calling for Immigration and Customs Enforcement to be abolished.
Madeline Mann participated in an anti-ICE stunt at Ocean Beach, San Francisco
“I don’t have much confidence that SFPD will investigate the death threat given my past experience with filing police reports,” Ms. Bourne said. “So many of my women friends are scared — terrified to speak out publicly because they are afraid transgender activists will either attack them while they are speaking or track them down at home.”
UCSF and Ms. Mann have been contacted for comment.