Ann Merchant (born circa 1957) is an American marketing executive who was involved in creating promotional material for the transphobic 2003 book The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey. Merchant has never commented publicly on her involvement.
Ann Merchant in 2012. Source: YouTube
At that time, Merchant was Marketing Director at Joseph Henry Press and National Academies Press. Merchant’s computer signature was found in the code for the promotional material entitled “Praise” included in the press kit prepared by Joseph Henry Press publicist Robin Pinnel.
Biography
Ann G. Merchant earned her Bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University. She worked in fulfillment at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce before joining the National Academies Press in 1990. In 2004 she was named Director of Outreach & Marketing for The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). In 2009, she was named Deputy Executive Director of NASEM’s Office of Communications.
Allen Rosenthal is an American psychologist and anti-transgender activist who published pathologizing research on transgender people and trans-attracted people with advisor J. Michael Bailey at Northwestern University.
Rosenthal is based in Vallejo California. Do not go to Rosenthal for therapy of any kind, especially if you are trans or gender diverse.
Background
Allen Michael Rosenthal was born December 10, 1979. Rosenthal graduated in 1997 from Robinson Secondary in Fairfax, Virginia, then attended Brigham Young University from 2004 to 2006. Around that time, Rosenthal earned the first of two Bachelor’s degrees.
Rosenthal earned a second Bachelor’s Degree in psychology from University Of Utah in 2006, where he was a member of Psi Chi, Phi Kappa Phi, and Golden Key Honor Society. He then came to Northwestern University for his PhD.
Rosenthal wrote in 2008:
I moved to Chicago in July of 2007 after having spent ten bittersweet years in Utah. While there, I started college at Brigham Young University, came out of the closet at the ripe ol’ age of 18, left BYU, moved to Salt Lake City, and met my partner (now of nine years). Together, we became ‘New Agers’ for several years, were heavily involved with life enhancement trainings, and then became anti-‘New Agers’ (read: realists). Finally, beginning in 2004, I discovered psychology–the ‘science of the mind’–and completed a BS (my second) in Psychology at the University of Utah.
The Northwestern University psychology department profiled him in 2011:
Originally from the suburbs of Washington, DC, Allen Rosenthal completed his undergraduate work at the University of Utah, where he graduated with a major in psychology in 2006. Before he began attending graduate school, he worked in three psychology labs and gained clinical experience doing psychological assessments of sex offenders. Allen’s primary research area is sexual orientation and the paraphilias (i.e., uncommon / unusual sexual interests). Although his interests within this field are many, he is especially interested in the relationships between sexual arousal, behavior, and orientation. His lab has recently published two papers on a study of the sexual arousal of bisexual men. Contrary to earlier controversial findings which suggested that bisexual men are only aroused by men, they found that a subpopulation of bisexual men are aroused by both men and women (in the lab). Currently, Allen is conducting two studies of men who are sexually attracted to partially transitioned male-to-female transsexuals. This phenomenon is referred to as gynandromorphophilia (GAM), which roughly translates to woman-man-form-lover. Very little is known about men with GAM. Perhaps of greatest interest is whether they are otherwise primarily sexually attracted to men or women; one could easily tell the story either way. In another ongoing study, they are assessing the genital arousal of some of these men in the lab. When Allen is not doing research or clinical work, he enjoys being with his partner of twelve years and their two cats. He and his partner enjoy good food, movies, and gardening. His idea of heaven is making dinner with him using their own produce while Frank Sinatra plays in the background. He is also an avid cyclist and is oft to be found on the lakeshore trail bordering Lake Michigan. He gets some of his best thinking done while biking to and from Northwestern everyday. After graduate school, he plans on finding an academic job that will allow him to continue to wear his three favorite hats: researcher, clinician, and teacher.
Rosenthal interned from 2015-2016 at the West Virginia University School of Medicine in Charleston. That school says he then worked in the Department of Psychiatry at a Kaiser Permanente facility in Vallejo, California.
Rosenthal was reportedly subjected to sexual orientation change efforts by NARTH.
Anti-transgender activism
Rosenthal diagnoses the common attraction to trans women as “gynandromorphophilia” (GAMP), which he and his colleagues describe as “sexual interest in gynandromorphs (GAMs; colloquially, shemales).”
Rosenthal and Bailey also magically “discovered” that bisexual men exist after receiving money from the American Institute of Bisexuality. Before the payment, Bailey had proclaimed in the press that bisexual men do not exist, saying males are “gay, straight, or lying.”
Hsu KJ, Rosenthal AM, Miller DI, Bailey JM (2015). Who are gynandromorphophilic men? Characterizing men with sexual interest in transgender women. Psychological Medicine. 2016 Mar;46(4):819-27. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291715002317 Epub 2015 Oct 26.
Rosenthal AM, Hsu KJ, Bailey JM (2017). Who are gynandromorphophilic men? An internet survey of men with sexual interest in transgender women. Archives of Sexual Behavior [17 Nov 2016, 46(1):255-264] https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-016-0872-6
Khytam Dawood was a J. Michael Bailey student at Northwestern University and is now a geneticist at University of Chicago trying to replicate the “gay gene” work reported by Dean Hamer.
Dawood wrote one of the first glowing Amazon reviews for Bailey’s 2003 book The Man Who Would Be Queen. This book is widely considered the most defamatory book on gender variance since Janice Raymond published The Transsexual Empire in 1979. Dawood is a member of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church as well as the member of a n number of behavior genetics trade groups.
Dawood is also involved in the gay brothers study with Alan Sanders.
This study reports on genetic and environmental influences on the frequency of orgasm in women during sexual intercourse, during other sexual contact with a partner, and during masturbation. Participants were drawn from the Australian Twin Registry, and recruited from a large, partly longitudinal twin-family study. Three thousand and eighty women responded to the anonymous self-report questionnaire, including 667 complete monozygotic (MZ) pairs and 377 complete dizygotic (DZ) same-sex pairs, 366 women from complete DZ opposite-sex pairs, and 626 women whose co-twins did not participate. Significant twin correlations were found for both MZ and DZ twin pairs for all three items of interest. Age effects were statistically significant for some items. Models incorporating additive genetic, shared and nonshared environmental influences provided the best fit for Items 1 and 3, while a model with additive and nonadditive genetic influences along with nonshared envir-onment fitted the data from Item 2. While an independent pathway model fits the data most par-simoniously, a common pathway model incorporating additive genetic (A), shared environment (C), and unique environment (E) effects cannot be ruled out. Overall, genetic influences account for approximately 31% of the variance of frequency of orgasm during sexual intercourse, 37% of the variance of frequency of orgasm during sexual contact other than during intercourse, and 51% of the variance of frequency of orgasm during masturbation. Following Baker (1996), we speculate that this additive genetic variance might arise from frequency-dependent selection for a variety of female sexual strategies.
Research has generally supported the existence of familial-genetic factors for male sexual orientation, but has not shed much light on the specific nature of those influences. Gay men with gay brothers provide the opportunity to examine several hypotheses. Sixty-six men, representing 37 gay male sibling pairs, completed questionnaires assessing behavior on various measures including childhood and adult gender nonconformity, timing of awareness of homosexual feelings, self-acceptance, and the quality of family relationships. Consistent with prior findings using twins, gay brothers were similar in their degree of childhood gender nonconformity, suggesting that this variable may distinguish etiologically (e.g., genetically) heterogeneous subtypes. The large majority of gay men with brothers knew about their own homosexual feelings before they learned about their brothers’ homosexual feelings, suggesting that discovery of brothers’ homosexuality is not an important cause of male homosexuality.
Available evidence suggests that male homosexuality is both familial and somewhat heritable and that some cases may be caused by an X-linked gene. However, most studies have recruited subjects in a relatively unsystematic manner, typically via advertisements, and hence suffer from the potential methodological flaw of ascertainment bias due to volunteer self-selection. In the present study we assessed the familiality of male homosexuality using two carefully ascertained samples and attempted to replicate findings consistent with X-linkage in three samples. The percentage of siblings of the probands rated as either homosexual or bisexual, with a high degree of certainty, ranged from 7 to 10% for brothers and 3 to 4% for sisters. These estimates are higher than recent comparable population-based estimates of homosexuality, supporting the importance of familial factors for male homosexuality. Estimates of lambda s for male homosexuality ranged from 3.0 to 4.0. None of the samples showed a significantly greater proportion of maternal than paternal homosexual uncles or homosexual male maternal first cousins. Although our results differed significantly with those of some prior studies, they do not exclude the possibility of moderate X-linkage for male sexual orientation.
University of Chicago researchers Khytam Dawood and Alan Sanders seek assistance in a research study entitled “Molecular Genetic Study of Sexual Orientation”. The study seeks to recruit approximately 500 pairs of homosexual brothers and available parents in order to perform a linkage study to better understand the genetic contributions to this trait. A sample size of 500 brother pairs will allow the study to clear up some of the statistical uncertainty in this field of inquiry in previous work (~50 or fewer pairs of brothers each, and only examining the X chromosome, i.e., Dean Hamer’s work and others). For further information, contact Alan Sanders, M.D., University of Chicago, phone: 773 834-3502, email: [email protected]; website: http://psychiatry.bsd.uchicago.edu/research/familyschizophrenia.html
Khytam Dawood, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in human behavior genetics research. Her work is primarily focused on investigating the genetics and development of human sexual orientation. A related area of clinical and research interest is in child and adolescent gender nonconformity, and gender identity disorder.
Child/Adolescent Gender Identity Service. This rotation includes clinical experience with both children and adolescent populations. Interns will also receive training in providing comprehensive psychological evaluation for gender identity problems in children and adolescents where there is concern about a child’s gender identity development, or an adolescent who is struggling with sexual orientation. A support group for parents will also be offered. The rotation requires participation in weekly group supervision and a weekly clinical/research seminar, and guided practice in cognitive-behavioral case formulation. (Director: Khytam Dawood)
Marc Breedlove is an American psychologist and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Stephen Marc Breedlove was born in 1954 in Missouri. After graduating from Springfield High School in 1952, Breedlove aerned a bachelor’sdegree from Yale University, then attended University of California, Los Angelesm earning a master’s degree and doctorate.
Breedlove was a professor of psychology at the notoriuosly transphobic psychology department at University of California, Berkeley, from 1982 to ~2002. Breedlove then moved to Michigan State University.
Breedlove was featured on a show about homosexuality with Bailey and his usual suspects:
The Sex Files HOMOSEXUALITY IN THIS EPISODE
Why are some people gay? That’s the $64,000 question – at least in the scientific community. Is it something genetically predetermined? Or does environment have an impact on whether an individual turns out to be gay or lesbian? These questions are beginning to be probed in ways that might finally be leading to an answer, and the Sex Files has interviewed the foremost authorities on the topic to uncover some of those scientific clues:
Dr. Devendra Singh, University of Texas psychologist specializing in the evolutionary significance of human physical attractiveness
Dr. Ken Zucker, head of the Child and Adolescent Gender Identity Clinic at the University of Toronto’s Clarke Institute of Psychiatry
Dr. Marc Breedlove, professor* specialising in the sexual differentiation of the brain.
* The original episode guide described Dr. Breedlove as a “professor of psychology at UCLA.” Dr. Breedlove noted in 2008 “I am not, and have never been, a professor of psychology or of anything else at UCLA.” Breedlove earned his Ph.D. at UCLA but taught at UC Berkeley before taking an appointment at Michigan State.
What’s the fuss about? Read the book, think for yourself
Why this vehement response to this terrific book? Because Bailey describes male-to-female transsexuals who report an experience that is quite different from the familiar “a woman trapped in a man’s body”. Bailey never casts doubt that there are such people, in fact he interviews and describes several. But he finds that not all M2F transsexuals fit that mold. So the fuss you’re reading in these reviews are from M2F transsexuals who refuse to acknowledge that other M2F transsexuals might have a different experience than their own. There’s no reason to think the women Bailey interviewed would have been lying to him, and why isn’t their experience as valid as yours, mine or that of other transsexuals?
So get past all the landmines the critics are trying to use to deflect you from reading a thought-provoking, honest and entirely sympathetic view of the fascinating phenomenon of transsexuality.
By the way, it’s a great read, not at all stodgy. I promise you the pages will fly by.
Whom You Love (2014)
In 2012 Breedlove launched a failed crowdfunding campaign for a film called Whom You Love: the biology of sexual orientation. The project was then relaunched and reached half its original funding goal.
In 2014, Breedlove released a series of YouTube videos on a channel with that name, featuring many key anti-trans activists in academia.
Seth Douglass Roberts was born on August 17, 1953. Roberts earned a bachelor’s degree from Reed College in 1974 and a doctorate from Brown University in 1979.
Roberts taught in the notably conservative psychology department at University of California, Berkeley from 1978 until retiring in 2008. Roberts joined the faculty of Tsinghua University in Beijing from 2008 until 2014.
In late March 1998, Bailey and Roberts both presented at the Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics. Bailey promoted “gay gene” work, and Roberts presented on “neuroticism and self-esteem as indices of the vulnerability to major depression in women.”
“Autogynephilia”
Roberts gave Bailey’s book one of many 5-star Amazon shill reviews after Bailey solicited them. This is the only book review Roberts ever made on Amazon.com under that account:
a masterpiece, May 6, 2003 Seth Roberts (Berkeley, California USA)
This is the best book about psychology for a general audience I have ever seen. And I’ve seen a lot of them. When I taught introductory psychology, I used to assign several books of this sort, so I was always keeping an eye out.
It is extremely well written; it is based on excellent research; and its subject is complex, powerful, and poignant. That’s why it is so good. If How The Mind Works deserves to be a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize then Bailey deserves a Nobel Prize in Literature.
Roberts also had a correspondence with Deirdre McCloskey after Alice Dreger and Benedict Carey teamed up to present Bailey as a “scientist under siege.” McCloskey had previously published the review “Queer Science” in Reason in 2003.
Death
Roberts was a kind of quack that appeals to techno-utopianists and self-styled “rationalists” by claiming to succeed at “lifehacking” via self-experimentation. Roberts was a regular contributor at Quantified Self and other lifehack platforms. Roberts claimed to have personally cured acne, insomnia, poor mood, and weight gain, among other things, through self-experimentation.
Roberts was a self-proclaimed diet guru who sold a popular 2006 book called The Shangri-La Diet. Despite having no good peer-reviewed evidence that it worked, Roberts recommended drinking oil and personally ate unhealthy amounts of butter, claiming it had health benefits. On January 4, 2014 Roberts boasted:
I eat a half stick (60 g) of butter daily. It improves my brain speed. After I gave a talk about this, a cardiologist in the audience said I was killing myself. I said I thought my experimental data was more persuasive than epidemiology, with its many questionable assumptions. The new data suggests I was right — butter does not increase heart attacks. It also supports my belief that by learning what makes my brain work best, I will improve my health in other ways (such as reduce heart attack risk).
Roberts collapsed and died a few months later, on April 26, 2014. The cause of death was ruled “occlusive coronary artery disease” and “cardiomegaly.” Roberts’s final column was published posthumously “with a heavy heart” and titled “Butter Makes Me Smarter.”
References
Staff report (September 2014) Seth Douglass Roberts ’74.Reed https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/in-memoriam/obituaries/september2014/seth-roberts-1974.html
Dubner, Stephen J. (May 12, 2014). Seth Roberts R.I.P.Freakonomics https://freakonomics.com/2014/05/seth-roberts-r-i-p/
Obituary (May 8, 2014). Seth Douglass Roberts.San Francisco Chronicle https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sfgate/name/seth-roberts-obituary?id=17645317
Slack, Gordy (March 2007). The self-experimenter.The Scientist vol. 21, issue 3, p. 24. https://www.the-scientist.com/the-self-experimenter-46756
Dubner, Stephen J. (September 16, 2005). Seth Roberts, Guest Blogger: Finale?Freakonomics https://freakonomics.com/2005/09/seth-roberts-guest-blogger-finale/
Dubner, Stephen J.; Levitt Steven D. (September 11, 2005). Freakonomics: Does the Truth Lie Within?New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/magazine/does-the-truth-lie-within.html
Roberts Seth (August 13, 2007). Can Professors Say the Truth? https://sethroberts.net/2007/08/13/can-professors-say-the-truth-part-1/ [archive] also on HuffPost: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/can-professors-say-the-tr_b_60781
Roberts S (2006). Dealing with scientific fraud: A proposal. Public Health Nutrition, vol. 9, pp. 664-665. https://doi.org/10.1079/PHN2006963
Roberts S, Gharib A (2006). Variation of bar-press duration: Where do new responses come from? Behavioural Processes, vol. 72, pp. 215-223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beproc.2006.03.003
Sternberg S, Roberts S (2006). Nutritional supplements and infection in the elderly: Why do the findings conflict? Nutrition Journal, vol. 5. https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2891-5-30
Roberts S (2005). Guest-blogs at www.freakonomics.com: Pleased to Meet You, Dietary Non-Advice, Freakonomics and Me, Acne, The Elephant Speaks, Thank You.
Roberts S (2004). Self-experimentation as a source of new ideas: Examples about sleep, mood, health, and weight. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 27, pp. 227-262. replications. Excerpt in Harper’s. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0140525x04000068
Gharib A, Gade C, Roberts S (2004). Control of variation by reward probability. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, vol. 30, pp. 271-282. https://doi.org/10.1037/0097-7403.30.4.271
Carpenter KJ, Roberts S, Sternberg S (2003). Nutrition and immune function: Problems with a 1992 report. The Lancet, vol. 361, p. 2247. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(03)13755-5
Gharib A, Derby S, Roberts S (2001). Timing and the control of variation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, vol. 27, pp. 165-178. https://doi.org/10.1037/0097-7403.27.2.165
Roberts S, Pashler H (2000). How persuasive is a good fit? A comment on theory testing. Psychological Review, vol. 107, pp. 358-367. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295X.107.2.358
Roberts S, Neuringer, A (1998). Self-experimentation. In K. A. Lattal and M. Perrone (Eds.), Handbook of research methods in human operant behavior (pp. 619-655). New York: Plenum. ISBN 9781489919472 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4899-1947-2
Roberts S, Sternberg S (1993). The meaning of additive reaction-time effects: Tests of three alternatives. In D. E. Meyer and S. Kornblum (Eds.) Attention and Performance XIV: Synergies in Experimental Psychology, Artificial Intelligence, and Cognitive Neuroscience. MIT Press. pp. 611-653. ISBN 9780262290906 https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/1477.001.0001
Roberts S (1987). Less-than-expected variability in evidence for three stages in memory formation. Behavioral Neuroscience, vol. 101, pp. 120-125. https://doi.org/10.1037/0735-7044.101.1.120
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
Robert Carson is a psychologist at Duke University who wrote a book on Abnormal Psychology which was influenced by bailey-Blanchard-Lawrence thinking on gender variance.
Robert VerBruggen is an American writer and conservative activist. VerBruggen was editor of Northwestern University‘s conservative student publication The Northwestern Chronicle when it published defamatory statements about me in 2005 that VerBruggen later retracted. VerBruggen’s unprofessional response was more troubling in many ways than the initial error.
Background
Robert Allen VerBruggen was born on March 28, 1984 and grew up in Wisconsin with a sibling.
Since 2003, I have been a vocal critic of Northwestern psychologist J. Michael Bailey, primarily because of the way Bailey exploits sex and gender minorities, especially children.
Unlike the real student newspaper The Daily Northwestern, contributors to the Chronicle posted articles that apparently received little or no journalistic oversight from VerBruggen or staff before publication. When VerBruggen allowed Bailey to post a rambling defense of questionable research and ethics, VerBruggen wrote, “To my knowledge, it is the first professor-written article we’ve ever run. There are of course conflicts with this setup, especially in that he is both a source and a writer” [emphasis added]. The Chronicle also listed Bailey as staff.
“Raw Data”
The Chronicle published many pieces under the title “Raw Data,” which apparently meant any unsubstantiated, unedited materials a staff member chose to put on the Chronicle website.
As an example, VerBruggen ran a 12 October 2005 story mentioning me. It contained libelous claims that I filed for bankruptcy and other defamation. The article was written by internet troll Willow Arune and put online by Bailey. VerBruggen’s predecessor, who was was still listed on the Chronicle site as editor, was smart enough to remove the article in question immediately upon receipt of my complaint. VerBruggen was clearly upset by this, writing:
I apologize that our former editor took it upon herself to resolve the situation. It was not her place to.
I also apologize for posting the article without reading it more closely; I received a handful of documents meant to complement the story as raw data, so I did not edit them. I presumed the person who gave them to me would have the evidence necessary to support the statements.
I have removed the section of the account pertaining to bankruptcy, and I apologize for its initial inclusion.
VerBruggen was apparently more upset about the previous editor usurping VerBruggen’s authority than about shirking all duty as an editor. When I asked for the name of the publication’s advisor at Medill and pointed out that contributor and “self-confessed eccentric” Willow Arune claims to be an international fugitive charged in a multimillion dollar forgery, VerBruggen started getting a little snippy:
Anything you want to resolve, you will discuss directly with me.
Retraction
On 15 October 2005, VerBruggen printed a tepid retraction:
EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous posting of this article contained an assessment of Andrea James’ financial situation. James has asserted this assessment was not accurate, and the Chronicle has no independent evidence that it was. (Willow Arune had previously made the same assessment in Transgender Tapestry).
Upon reading VerBruggen’s retraction, the Transgender Tapestry subscription manager confirmed these libelous claims by Arune do not appear anywhere in their publication. Once again, the Chronicle had no independent evidence, and this time the bogus reporting was written by VerBruggen.
VerBruggen dragged another publication’s name into this mess with irrelevant and unjournalistic justification for the earlier misstep. On 25 October, VerBruggen finally retracted the parenthetical excuse:
EDITOR’S NOTE: A previous posting of this article contained an assessment of Andrea James’ financial situation. James has asserted this assessment was not accurate, and the Chronicle has no independent evidence that it was. The Chronicle regrets the error, especially because the issue is irrelevant to the topics discussed in J. Michael Bailey’s article.
It appears VerBruggen saw this “Editor-In-Chief” title as more of a way to pad a résumé than an actual journalistic responsibility. Pseudoscientists like Bailey will continue to get uncritical carte blanche coverage and “balance” as long as editors like Robert VerBruggen exist.
Subsequent developments
VerBruggen graduated from Northwestern in 2006 and married Jaclyn Theresa Stewart.
VerBruggen went on to be a book editor at the conservative Washington Times, followed by positions as The American Conservative and the National Review.
Robin Ferrier Materese (born 1976) was a publicist at Joseph Henry Press, the publishing arm of the National Academies Press in 2003. At the time, she was known as Robin Pinnel and was listed as author of some of the defamatory materials about sex and gender minorities put out in support of their book The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey. In 2020, she reached out to clarify that she authored only one of the pieces attributed to her. She also asked that this page include her statement below. Per the name she used in her 2020 correspondence, she is referred to as Robin Ferreier below.
Biography
Ferrier is a University of Virginia graduate with a Bachelor’s degree in English, and the former Daily Cavalier student newspaper editor. She also has a Master’s degree in writing from Johns Hopkins. Ferrier used to work for literary agent/lawyer Gail Ross. After leaving Joseph Henry Press in 2005, she worked in communications positions at Choice Hotels International, Johns Hopkins University, the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Statement from Robin Ferrier (2020)
On June 24, 2020, Robin Ferrier issued the following statement:
In 2003, I worked as a publicist at the National Academies Press / Joseph Henry Press. I was not part of the editorial decision making or editorial process. My job was to promote the authors / books that we published and help the authors get book reviews, media appearances, event bookings, etc. J. Michael Bailey’s book, ‘The Man Who Would Be Queen,’ was one such book. Ultimately, the Press’ decision to publish that book, and stand by it when legitimate concerns were raised, was the impetus behind my decision to leave that job.
I joined the Academies because I believed in what it did as an organization. I believed in the power of reputable science. I still believe in the power of reputable science. However, thanks to a number of events in the last few years, and to my recent correspondence with Ms. James, my eyes have been opened to the dangers and damages that can come from bad science.
When Ms. James tells me stories like that of Leelah Alcorn, I feel truly sick to my stomach that I played any role in promoting that book and spreading the damaging ideology it espoused.
Press and promotional materials
She has stated she was author of the following piece:
She said in 2020, “I was listed as the media point of contact on the press release and my name was on the reviewer copy cover letter; however, the text used in all those materials was pulled from pre-approved text written by the senior leadership team at the Joseph Henry Press.”
Items in [brackets] are attributed to Ferrier but were “by the senior leadership team,” according to her.
[Pinnel R] (April 3, 2003). new book on homosexuality, transsexualism and science. http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/public/imc-atlanta-audio/2003-April/000188.html Attachments:
“controversial ideas” by J. Michael Bailey
“praise” compiled by Ann Merchant
“timeline” by Robin Pinnel
[Pinnel R] (March 21, 2003). Gay, Straight or Lying? Science has the answer (21 March 2003) http://glbchat.com/Home/news.asp?articleid=4126 http://www.outintoronto.com/home/news.asp?articleid=4126
National Academies Press (retrieved June 2003) http://www.nap.edu/catalog/10530.html
Joseph Henry Press (2003) [open letter] http://www.jhpress.org/press_release/10530openletter.pdf
Joseph Henry Press (April 28, 2003). [press release] http://www.jhpress.org/press_release/10530.pdf
Resources
LinkedIn: robin-materese-9458134
Twitter: rmaterese
Instagram: rlmaterese
Note: an earlier version of this page included inaccuracies that were corrected and clarified with the subject’s input in 2020.
Dr. Sharon Valente, PhD, coauthored a book with Simon LeVay which Bailey uses in his human sexuality course.
Valente is assistant professor and RN-BSN coordinator, is internationally known for publications and scholarship in mental health, particularly suicide. Her research on suicide, life threatening illness, and professionals’ attitudes toward suicide/assisted suicide, and media presentations have helped set suicide prevention postvention standards. Her appointments include the National Youth Suicide Council, Death with Dignity, American Academy of Nursing Expert Panel on Culture, and she was elected to membership of American Academy of Nursing, Phi Kappa Phi and Chi Eta Phi, Int. She conducts writing workshops and serves as consultant at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Her research has been funded by Oncology Nursing Society, Glaxo, Bristol Myers, Zumberge, and American Cancer Society.
She’s taught at USC, won some accolades, began in nursing, has some “obsessive / compulsive disorder” presentations to her credit. Interestingly she was, however, one of the additional editors to the book “Before Stonewall” by Vern Bullough, and apparently published a paper on suicide risk in the Gay & Lesbian community. Also involved with the Death with Dignity folks (assisted suicide on terminal illness).
There’s nothing else really tying her to the G&L community per se. Just with this cursory look, I’m going to go out on a limb and say she’s not really the prime culprit here. Rather, I think she was brought in more as the emotional pathology expert from a risks sensibility, rather than a LeVay who appears more inclined toward questioning the ulterior mental motivations. Valente probably is the input of anything dealing with “risks of depression / suicide among those who feel they made a mistake” and the prevalence data relating to that, if I had to venture a guess.
On this LaVey/Valente book, Dartmouth noted this as one of their new texts, as well as Michigan State’s Psych 492 Syllabus, Univ. of Nottingham (UK), Univ. of Texas Health Science Center-San Antonio, and presumably one would think USC as well.
