Michelle DiMeo works with Pam Harcourt, who is also on the committee.
Michelle DiMeo and Pam Harcourt
Women and Children First 5233 N. Clark St. Chicago, IL 60640 773.769.9299 Fax: 773.769.6729 [email protected] http://www.womenandchildrenfirst.com
On 24 February 2004, the selection committee including Sara Look voted to retain the nomination of this book over the objections of transexual people and other concerned parties around the world.
In March 2004, the committee reconsidered and withdrew this nomination.
I will publish any comments or responses from Sara Look regarding this matter as I receive them.
Joseph Henry Press (1992â2008) was a trade publishing arm for the National Academies Press. In 2003 the six people below were responsible for fact-checking, publishing, promoting, and defending J. Michael Bailey’s 2003 book The Man Who Would Be Queen, one of the most transphobic books ever written.
Reviews excerpted for publicity (click authors for more details)
Praise
After I started systematically tracking down the reviews listed in the original Praise (PDF) document, the marketing team started adding others to the book’s webpage as they became available. Most of the praise was written by Bailey’s colleagues. Some wrote more than one review. I tracked down all the authors where possible, listed here as:
This sheds some light on the academic culture that encouraged the JHP to publish Bailey’s book. Her thesis is basically that as the academic community adopts business values, it starts to judge scholarship by how well it sells rather than how well it answers questions. I think the following quote pretty much exactly describes how TMWWBQ got published:
“It used to be an important role of the academic presses to publish significant books too specialized to be economic. Increasingly, however, as subsidies from their universities have shrunk, university presses seek to publish books they believe will make money. This too is discouraging, to put it mildly, to the investment of effort in difficult problems. Better, from the point of view of making oneself heard, to write the kind of book that might interest a trade publisher, or at least the kind of book that will get reviewed in the non-academic press. And this too, inevitably, favors the simple, startling idea, even, or perhaps especially, the startlingly false or impressively obscure idea. . . .”
Publisher description
2002 pre-publication version
A frank and fascinating look at what science has to tell us about sex and gender identity written by a leading authority on this very complicated subject. Equally important, the book explores some deeply personal and often strikingly poignant stories of femininity, masculinity, and gender confusion.
2003 to present version
Gay. Straight. Or lying. It’s as simple and straightforward as black or white, right? Or is there a gray area, where the definitions of sex and gender become blurred or entirely refocused with the deft and practiced use of a surgeon’s knife? For some, the concept of gender – the very idea we have of ourselves as either male or female beings – is neither simple nor straightforward.
Written by cutting-edge researcher and sex expert J. Michael Bailey, The Man Who Would Be Queen is a frankly controversial, intensely poignant, and boldly forthright book about sex and gender. Based on his original research, Bailey’s book is grounded firmly in science. But as he demonstrates, science doesn’t always deliver predictable or even comfortable answers. Indeed, much of what he has to say will be sure to generate as many questions as it does answers.
Are gay men genuinely more feminine than other men? And do they really prefer to be hairdressers rather than lumberjacks? Are all male transsexuals women trapped in men’s bodies – or are some of them men who are just plain turned on by the idea of becoming a woman? And how much of a role do biology and genetics play in sexual orientation?
But while Bailey’s science is provocative, it is the portraits of the boys and men who struggle with these questions – and often with anger, fear, and hurt feelings – that will move you. You will meet Danny, an eight-year old boy whose favorite game is playing house and who yearns to dress up as a princess for Halloween. And Martin, an expert makeup artist who was plagued by inner turmoil as a youth but is now openly homosexual and has had many men as sex partners. And Kim, a strikingly sexy transsexual who still has a penis and works as a dancer and a call girl for men who like she-males while she awaits sex reassignment surgery.
These and other stories make it clear that there are men – and men who become women – who want only to understand themselves and the society that makes them feel like outsiders. That there are parents, friends, and families that seek answers to confusing and complicated questions. And that there are researchers who hope one day to grasp the very nature of human sexuality. As the striking cover image – a distinctly muscular and obviously male pair of legs posed in a pair of low-heeled pumps – makes clear, the concept of gender, the very idea we have of ourselves as either male or female beings, is neither simple nor straightforward for some.
Beginning in 2003, they published several articles as controversy unfolded over publication The Man Who Would Be Queen by psychology professor J. Michael Bailey. Bailey was Chair of the department until shortly before he was secretly disciplined following an internal investigation into his research activities in November 2004.
Hansen said DM [Dance Marathon] hopes to have more faculty performers at future talent shows. For example, if students raise $3,000, [Lane] Fenrich and psychology Prof. Michael Bailey will dress in drag and sing a duet together during DM.
“I think the book is intentionally controversial,” Bailey said. “I write about things that matter and that people are uncomfortable with. The cover (as well as the book) is meant to be provocative.”
But Bailey said he thinks people in the second group of transsexuals are upset with his findings because they do not like being classified as autogynepheliacs.
“A lot of people think there is something weird about (being an autogynepheliac) and it is a narcissistic blow,” Bailey said. “I am very sympathetic to transsexuals. I like these people, except for the people who hate me — they scare me.”
Although the book has offended some members of the gay and transsexual communities, others have been more receptive. At Outwrite Books, an Atlanta-based bookstore and cafĂ catering to gays and lesbians, Bailey said he was well received by an audience of mostly gay men.
A Northwestern Ph.D. candidate will present results of sexual arousal research she conducted with NU Prof. J. Michael Bailey — which has drawn criticism from the Republican wing of Congress — when she speaks at a federally-funded sexuality conference next week.
A $147,000 National Institutes of Health grant funded the research, which studied the effect of pornography on females to determine whether sexual arousal is as category specific for women as it is for men.
The arousal study showed that while watching pornography men had a one-sided arousal pattern — straight men were aroused by clips with women, gay men by those with men. But females in the study, straight or gay, were aroused by both male and female sex acts. The results could be published in “Psychological Science” by 2004, Chivers said.
Two transsexual woman featured in Northwestern psychology Prof. J. Michael Bailey’s latest book about sexuality have filed complaints with NU, alleging that Bailey did not ask for their consent before using their stories.
Anjelica Kieltyka, who is mentioned in Bailey’s “The Man Who Would Be Queen” under the pseudonym “Cher,” sent a complaint to NU’s Vice President for Research C. Bradley Moore on July 3 asking for a formal investigation of Bailey’s research methods. Another woman featured in the book filed a claim July 14 supporting Kieltyka’s letter, but an addendum to the claim keeps her name confidential.
Bailey refused to comment, calling the matter “very stressful and private.”
Another transsexual woman who met Northwestern Prof. J. Michael Bailey while receiving a clearance letter for sex change surgery has filed a formal complaint with NU, saying Bailey used information from an interview with her without telling her she was a research subject.
But Bailey said he stands by his book.
“I didn’t write the book so groups would like or dislike me,” he said. “I wrote it so people could learn about stuff.”
Bailey said he knew his work would be controversial and assumed some people might speak against his beliefs.
“I was not totally surprised at the reaction,” Bailey said. “I was surprised at the degree of hostility and how relentless they’ve been.”
Complaints filed with NU’s Office of Research now total five — one from a transsexual advocate who brought women to Bailey for letters recommending sex-reassignment surgery, three from anonymous women who received those letters and a joint claim from two transsexual professors in support of the complaints.
Bailey, however, said he has never claimed that transsexual women actually are men.
“I experience them as women as long as that’s how they’re living,” he said July 22.
Another argument of some claimants is that Bailey left out stories that did not match the book’s theory of two types of transsexuals. In the latest anonymous complaint, filed July 30, the woman says of herself and another claimant, “Our two ‘data points’ compromised his results, we did not fit into his scheme and were left out.”
Bailey said he stands by his book’s accuracy and will not be deterred by opposition.
“I’m concerned with science and truth and not the feelings of groups,” Bailey said.
In a letter to Kieltyka obtained Monday by The Daily, C. Bradley Moore, vice president of research at NU, wrote that the investigating committee and Daniel Linzer, dean of the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, “recommend proceeding with a full investigation of the allegation that Professor Bailey did not obtain the informed consent of research subjects.”
Bailey questioned the basis of the women’s allegations in an e-mail to The Daily on Monday.
“The entire issue in dispute is whether what I did was a ‘study’ and whether the transsexual women I talked to were ‘subjects,'” Bailey wrote.
A sexual misconduct complaint against psychology Prof. J. Michael Bailey alleges he had sex with one of the transsexual woman featured in his most recent book, according to confidential records received by The Daily on Monday from transsexual advocates.
University officials would not confirm the complaint, and Bailey declined to comment on the allegations.
Bailey — who has been accused of not obtaining permission from research subjects and engaging in sexual relations with one of his subjects — has been drawn into a battle over his work and reputation by transgender activists.
But regardless of the outcome, academic freedom is under fire here and precious few have noticed it. Most people are concerned with the allegations against Bailey, but they have ignored the threat these activists are posing to free speech.
Ironically Bailey, who says a “climate of fear and intimidation” has been created by his detractors, has done a lot to bring transgender people into the mainstream. His critics would be better served to offer constructive critiques of his book rather than to try to shut him up.
In Nadir Hassan’s Tuesday column, he writes of the threat to free speech. But freedom carries a responsibility, and psychology Prof. Michael Bailey — writing as a professor and claiming his book is about science — has a responsibility to do it properly.
Constructive critiques of his book have also appeared. Many point out that his biological essentialism only tells part of the story. Others point out that he has taken a small subset of the transsexual population and generalized it to the whole.
My problem is that, even within his self-admitted reductionist framework, his theory is fundamentally flawed.
In a shift of rhetoric from the university, a top official now has said psychology Prof. Michael Bailey is being investigated by a committee in connection with allegations of research misconduct.University Provost Lawrence Dumas told The Daily late last week that a committee is looking into whether or not Bailey “followed the procedures of this university” and whether those procedures applied to Bailey’s work.
Despite the accusations Bailey has continued teaching. “I have done nothing wrong,” he wrote in an e-mail to The Daily.
Researchers studying humans are required to obtain a statement of informed consent before submitting their project. Some projects might not require this statement, but researchers must file a request for exemption. Sherman said varying interpretations of the Federal Policy for the Protection of Human Subjects — the law regulating human subject research — add to questions surrounding approval.
The law defines research as “a systematic investigation, including research development, testing and evaluation, designed to develop or contribute to generalizable knowledge.” Some question whether Bailey’s book fits this definition.
But Mark Sheldon, assistant dean of Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences and a philosophy and medical ethics professor, said subject rights should be vital to the research process.
“Legislation is about protecting research subjects, not about protecting research,” he said.
Tim Fournier, Northwestern’s new associate vice president for research integrity, began his position this week on Northwestern’s Chicago Campus. Fournier heads a new office that will look into compliance issues following problems NU had with the federal government and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
In a different type of integrity issue, the university is also investigating psychology Prof. Michael Bailey’s research methods. Bailey is accused of research misconduct after transsexuals in his most recent book said he failed to receive their informed consent. Bailey said he did nothing wrong.
Fournier said he does not yet know the specific role he will play in these investigations.
Bailey, psychology department chairman, cited scientific findings to support his position that free will does not exist because human choices are constrained by the evolution of genes and by the environments humans experience.
However, Bailey said quantum mechanics could offer the only plausible explanation against his position.
Two formal complaints filed against Northwestern psychology Prof. J. Michael Bailey allege he practiced as a clinical psychologist without a license and published confidential information about transsexual women he interviewed without their permission, according to documents obtained by The Daily this week.
The book follows sex researcher Ray Blanchard’s theory that transsexuals are either homosexuals or autogynephilics — men who are aroused by the idea of themselves as women.
But the book’s content does not matter in this case, said Deirdre McCloskey, a University of Illinois at Chicago professor of economics, history, English and communication who also filed a complaint.
“There’s a lot of books I don’t like, but I wouldn’t be writing a letter to (NU’s) provost about that,” she said.
Many NU students cheated before they came here, and many will cheat after they leave. Academic and professional dishonesty is a part of life, especially in the 21st century. But that doesn’t mean it comes without consequences — just look to the New York Times’ Jayson Blair or even the accusations against our own psychology Prof. J. Michael Bailey.
The Culture War has come crashing onto campus — and psychology Prof. J. Michael Bailey’s research is fueling the fire.
A Northwestern committee recently finished an inquiry into claims that Bailey violated federal rules for human research subjects while interviewing transsexuals for his book, “The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism.” Officials are tightlipped about the investigation’s outcome. Did Bailey do anything wrong? Why do some transsexual activists hate his book?
“They hated the content of the book,” Bailey said. “That is the real reason all this happened.”
In agreeing to investigate these allegations about classroom bias or unethical research, university administrations have been either naive or eager to avoid bad press. As the kerfuffle over psychology Prof. J. Michael Bailey proves, most of these charges are red herrings for hatred of particular ideas.
The fracas over Bailey’s book, which examines transsexual life, has been raging for more than a year, yet it remains unresolved. At first, critics accused Bailey of violating federal research rules by revealing his subjects’ identities without their consent (Bailey contends he never was conducting hard-and-fast scientific research). Now, Bailey must contend with the appalling development that eugenicists have used his book and his other research to declare homosexuality a contagious disease and a source of social decay.
Many of these eugenicists have misused science — or simply invented it — to argue, for example, that Al Gore lost the 2000 election because of a “prim” lisp that alienated voters. Yet often what goes unmentioned is that Bailey has called eugenics completely false and even wrote in a 2001 article that homosexuality “is entirely acceptable morally.”
The study, published last month in the journal Psychological Science, included 101 men. Psychology doctoral student Gerulf Rieger, who led the study under the supervision of psychology Prof. J. Michael Bailey, said the results corroborate the theory that men are either gay or straight â not bisexual.
âThereâs a lot of skepticism about the existence of truly bisexual men, and our study, I think, supports that skepticism,â Bailey said. âI have no agenda to question bisexual people. Itâs just what our data said.â
Bailey said he wants to conduct follow-up experiments that focus on the psychological, rather than the physical, elements of attraction.
âIâm happy to have the study repeated, and we will probably try to do some modified method of the study,â Bailey said. âWeâre trying to now measure sexual arousal in the brain, so weâll probably do a similar study on the brains of bisexual men someday.â
Mother Jones is an American media organization. Their coverage is consistently supportive of trans and gender diverse people.
Background
Mother Jones was founded in 1976 by self-proclaimed activist journalist Paul Jacobs.
Mother Jones was published by the nonprofit Foundation for National Progress until 2024, when it merged with The Center for Investigative Reporting.
Center for Investigative Reporting (centerforinvestigativereporting.org) [archive]
reddit is a social network of communities focused on different topics (subreddits). It was a service of choice for anti-trans communities until the site implemented strict rules about posting anti-trans content. It is also an important supportive resource for trans and gender diverse people.
Supportive subreddits
A wide range of subreddits offer information and support for sex and gender minorities.
Before the platform took decisive action, reddit was the social media service of choice for the “gender critical” anti-transgender movement.
Many subreddits contained anti-trans content but were not dedicated solely to transphobic hate. In some cases, like r/moderatepolitics, the moderators have banned discussions of “Gender Identity and the Transgender Experience.”
The following subreddits have had significant amounts of anti-transgender content:
r/stupidpol (“we have implemented a moratorium on discussion of transgender issues”)
r/GenderCritical (banned) moved to Ovarit
r/TumblrInAction (banned)
r/ChapoTrapHouse (banned)
r/CringeAnarchy (banned)
r/The_Donald (banned)
Toxic trans subreddits
Some subreddits are popular among toxic trans and gender diverse people, including
r/transgendercirclejerk
r/4tran
r/ttttrans
r/GenderCynical
r/honesttransgender
r/transmedical
r/truscum
Other banned anti-trans subreddits
These were specifically targeting trans and gender diverse people. Many were recreated at voat, SaidIt, Ovarit, 4W, Spinster.xyz, Raddle, Throat, Lemmy, etc.
Joseph Ladapo is a Nigerian-American physician who was a key figure in banning trans youth healthcare in Florida.
Background
Joseph Abiodun Ladapo was born on December 16, 1978 in Nigeria. At age 5, Ladapo and family moved to the Uniter States.
Ladapo earned a bachelor’s degree from Wake Forest University in 2000, then attended Harvard, earning a medical degree and a doctorate. After working in New York City, Ladapo was appointed a tenured professor at UCLA.
During the COVID pandemic, Ladapo became known among convervatives for views on vaccines and other protocols. In 2021, Ladapo was appointed Surgeon General of Florida by Governor Ron DeSantis.
Anti-transgender activism
Ladapo has carried out anti-trans policies promoted by DeSantis, most notably SB 254, a law prohibiting gender-affirming medical treatment for minors and restricting access to care for trans adults.
Transgender Floridians brought Doe v. Ladapo to challenge this law.
Via Zinnia Jones:
We now know that the state was covertly assisted in this effort by the leadership of the anti-trans group Genspect, Child & Parental Rights Campaign lawyer Vernadette Broyles, and Riittakerttu Kaltiala of Finlandâs Tampere University youth gender clinic; Hilary Cass of NHS Englandâs Cass Review also privately expressed an interest in the sham report against gender-affirming care commissioned by Floridaâs AHCA. Several individuals worked behind the scenes with Patrick Hunter, a leading member of the anti-trans Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine (SEGM). After being appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis to the Board of Medicine, Hunter arranged for extensive anti-trans testimony from SEGM associates to be submitted to the Boards of Medicine and Osteopathy.Â
Ladapo has also appeared on a number of anti-trans platforms, including Tim Pool, Megyn Kelly, Glenn Beck, Epoch Times, Newsmax, Dennis Prager, Charlie Kirk, and Debra Soh.
References
Doe v. Ladapo (4:23-cv-00114) District Court, N.D. Florida https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/67082532/doe-v-ladapo/
Riley, John (December 27, 2023). DeSantis Spread Misinformation to Limit Trans Health Care, Judge Says. MetroWeekly https://www.metroweekly.com/2023/12/desantis-spread-misinformation-to-limit-trans-health-care-judge-says/
Alfonseca, Kiara (March 23, 2023). Florida parents file lawsuit against state transgender youth care ban. ABC News https://abcnews.go.com/US/florida-parents-file-lawsuit-state-transgender-youth-care/story?id=98086864
This is about the politics of media coverage of sex and gender minorities. For media resources to assist in a gender transition, please go to Resources.
The United States Department of Homeland Security’s Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention (TVTP) Grant Program commissioned a report from University of Dayton on how extremists use media to recruit new members.
While the report was focused on white nationalism and christofascism, many key anti-trans media outlets were included:
University of Dayton () PREVENTS-OH https://udayton.edu/artssciences/ctr/hrc/extremism/extremism-prevention.php
Duncan T. Osborne (born May 6, 1957) is an American journalist who writes extensively on LGBT issues, especially AIDS. In March 2003, he wrote a positive review of J. Michael Bailey‘s anti-transgender book The Man Who Would Be Queen for Out magazine, later cited in promotional materials from the publisher.
Background
Osborne grew up in the Boston area. His father taught physics at MIT, and his mother eventually was editor at MIT Press. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in theater from University of Colorado, then moved to New York in 1984. He began writing in 1987.
In his review, Mr. Osborne noted that Bailey “focuses exclusively on men, and he covers a broad spectrumâgay men, male-to-female transsexuals, and men who identify as neither gay nor transgender but engage in behaviors that are typically associated with those who do.”
Bailey’s publisher Joseph Henry Press used an excerpt of this review in its publicity and advertisements. Below is the Out magazine review as it appeared on the Joseph Henry Press site:
“…recommended reading for anyone interested in the study of gender identity and sexual orientation. … Bailey has produced a thoughtful book that cites recent scientific studies on homosexuality and transsexuality. It is written, however, in a style that makes it easily accessible to any reader.”
— Out Magazine, March 2003
I contacted Osborne at the time, and he sent the following reply on 20 August 2003:
I was hired by Out to write the review because I have written a number of stories, including one for Out, on gender identity disorder as well as reparative therapy. The quote you cited above is nearly the entire review. It was roughly one hundred words long and I was required to make a recommendation for or against the book with little opportunity to explore it in any depth. I chose to recommend it because I believed, and I still believe, that it is a good primer on the topics of sexuality, sexual orientation and gender identity.
My only contact with Michael Bailey, if it may be called that, was a failed effort to interview him in 1997 for a story on gender identity disorder that I wrote for a gay paper here in New York City. He never returned my phone call.
Hope this is helpful.
When I asked him if I could quote from the letter above, Osborne agreed under the following conditions:
I expect that you will use everything I wrote and it is particularly important that you note that I would still recommend the book. I would not want to read a quote that makes it seem as if I’m backing away from my original recommendation.
2008 update
In the wake of the 2008 announcement naming Ken Zucker and Ray Blanchard to the DSM-V group involved in “gender identity disorder,” Osborne wrote a piece about the early response:
Flap Flares Over Gender Diagnosis
In interviews with the gay press dating back to 1997, Zucker distanced himself from the practitioners of reparative therapy and he has won praise from some gay psychologists and psychiatrists.
He believes, but cannot prove that his therapy with young children can prevent their being transsexual as adults.
Osborne D (April 2003). Voices – Identity Crisis. Out magazine
Osborne D (May 15, 2008). Flap Flares Over Gender Diagnosis. Gay City News. http://www.gaycitynews.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19693908&BRD=2729&PAG=461&dept_id=568864&rfi=6
Ethan B. Boatner, also known as E.B. Boatner, is an American author and photographer.
Background
Boatner was born 1941 and made a gender transition around age 60.
Man Who Would Be Queen review (2003)
Boatner is a longtime book reviewer for Minnesota queer publication Lavender. In the “Page Boy” column for the publication, Boatner published a positive review of The Man Who Would Be Queen when it came out in 2003, writing in part:
…a highly readable and well-researched book… Most interesting: his differentiation of the autogynephilic and homosexual transsexual; and his examination of the latest theories of the roles biology and genetics may play in gender determination. Detailed, but never dry. A fascinating book.
Page Boy column, Lavender
Boatner’s review was cited in promotional materials by publisher Joseph Henry Press.
Boatner also self-published a murder mystery and wrote a dramatic trilogy on trans topics called Changes in Time that was performed in 2013. Boatner also teaches at University of Minnesota.
âThe feminine man maintains an outsider status that can be heartbreaking and confusing, or it can be liberating, depending on oneâs ever-shifting point of view. ⊠I applaud Bailey for attempting to disclose information on a subject that many people find discomfiting; that is, the place that resides between âmaleâ and âfemale.â Perhaps science can lead to understanding.â
