Candice Hellen Brown Elliott is a retired American engineer and âautogynephiliaâ activist. Elliott is a self-proclaimed âhomosexual transsexualâ and maintains two websites that promote the controversial sexualized taxonomy of transgender women created by Ray Blanchard:
On the Science of Changing Sex (sillyolme.wordpress.com)
Elliott’s pen names and online handles include:
Kay Brown
Cloudy
Sillyolme
Seaby
Glowing SunBear
DisplayGeek
Biography
Elliott was born June 6, 1957, grew up in California, and transitioned in the late 1970s at the Stanford gender clinic after coming out to friends in school.
I came out to my friends at school slowly, first to my girlfriend. She was very supportive at first, but later tried to convert me to Christianity and to make me âstop sinning.â
Elliott became involved in music and activism after meeting Sandy Stone at a gender clinic event:
She was tall, with long black hair, turning gray. I was attracted to her as my idealized image of a quietly self-confident, friendly, humorous, gentle, strong woman. I wanted and still want to be like her.
In 1976 Elliott met Christine Jorgensen at an event. In 1978 Elliott decided to move to Los Angeles, where Stone was working as a recording engineer. During the summer of 1979, Elliott said, “I met a transsexual who would become my best friend, point of stability, and sister, Joy Diane Shaffer.”
Historian Zagria Cowan’s profile of Shaffer includes an image of Elliott and Shaffer together. Elliott now claims Shaffer has “autogynephilia.”
Elliott was involved in several activist initiatives, including co-founding ACLU of Southern Californiaâs first Transsexual Rights Committee, led by Sister Mary Elizabeth, in 1980. Elliott worked with former Los Angeles police officer Carol Katz in an organization called The Group.
By 1986, Elliott had completed a bachelor’s degree and was working as an engineer in Silicon Valley. Elliott attended women’s music events and gatherings of Pagan and Wiccan adherents.
By the mid-1990s, Elliott was living in Portland, Oregon with trans lover Kier Salmon. The two hoped to adopt a child together.
Elliott also maintained a website on trans history from 1999 to around 2006.
In the 1990s, Elliott became a well-known figure in the field of electronic display screens, holding dozens of patents and winning the Otto Schade Prize in 2014. Elliott worked at several firms before founding Clairvoyante in 2000. That start-up created and developed PenTile technology and was acquired by Samsung in 2008. After the sale, Elliott began getting involved in trans activism again.
In March 2008, Elliott sent me a submission for this site with advice for young transitioners. Elliott also shared some thoughts at the time on Blanchardâs taxonomy and its two main promoters, J. Michael Bailey and Anne Lawrence (abbreviated BBL below):
So⌠according to Bailey, since Iâm an androphilic early transitioner who at age 18 passed more easily as a girl than a boy, even before HRT, I would make a natural prostitute? Iâve had this recurring daydream that past few weeks of meeting him at some conference and posing two life histories, one of a 23 year old trannie just getting surgery, who hopes to be a wife and mother someday, and one a 50 year old trannie who is CEO of a high tech Silicon Valley company⌠and hear him make a fool of himself explaining that the one is a flamboyant promiscuous, âhomosexualâ, and the other is a âparaphilicâ and likely to be hopelessly mannish⌠and have him get egg on his face when he learns that they are both the same person⌠ME!
My take on the whole BBL hypothesis, is that it does not rise to the level of theory. It has been poorly measured. My Goddess! Have you read Blanchardâs instrumentâs questions? It seems *designed* to give false signals. His interpretation of the raw data is stretched, in fact, he ignores what looks like a progression from gynophilia to androphilia in the data, rather than a clear cut clustering of responses between those he labeled androphilic vs. bi, asexual, and gynophilic. Further, it has never been corroborated by any other researcher, though Anne did create her own weakly designed instrument, which I personally answered, with notations to improve it, back in 1998.
Sometime later that year, Elliott reconsidered, eventually becoming one of the most prominent âautogynephiliaâ activists.
Elliott later claimed this letter to me is a “total fabrication,” so I have taken the unusual step of publishing our full 2008 correspondence.
âThe Invisible Transsexualâ
In late 2008, Elliott posted an essay under the pseudonym âCloudyâ on transkids.us. It supports a controversial two-type taxonomy of trans women that reduces their motivations to sexuality:
âHomosexual transsexual,â gay males who transition to indulge their fetish for sex with straight men.
âHon-homosexual transsexual,â straight males who transition to indulge their fetish for their feminized selves (caused by the disease âautogynephilia,â created in 1989).
Elliott often abbreviates these two types as âHSTSâ and âAGP.â
This taxonomy appeals to two small subgroups of transgender people:
People who used to be called ânon-transsexualâ or âpseudotranssexualâ but self-identify as transsexual.
People who would be considered ânon-homosexualâ by proponents of this term but self-identify as âhomosexual transsexual.â
Elliott is part of the second subgroup. In fact, every person involved in the site transkids.us where this essay first appeared has also turned out to be from the second subgroup when their true identities were confirmed.
Trans supporters of this taxonomy believe it improves their social standing, because these terms create a false hierarchy, from best to worst:
intersex
âhomosexual transsexualâ (formerly called âprimaryâ or âtrueâ transsexual)
ânon-homosexual transsexualâ
âpseudotranssexualâ
In this essay, Elliott accuses a number of notable trans women of being autogynephiles trying to take âcontrol of HSTS narratives and visibilityâ:
Lili Elbe
Christine Jorgensen
Roberta Cowell
Jan Morris
Canary Conn
Jennifer Boylan
Deirdre McCloskey
Julia Serano
Proponents of the term âhomosexual transsexualâ claim its hallmarks include âeffortless femininityâ and occupations like hairstylist, beautician, âfemale impersonator,â lingerie model, or prostitute. They claim hallmarks of a ânon-homosexual transsexualâ include: computer programmer, businessman, scientist, and engineer.
Perhaps Candice Brown Elliott will come to realize how these writings damage Elliott’s own credibility in addition to damaging the community by lending credence to this oppressive nonsense. These pathologizers actively seek out these attention-craving eccentrics and exploit them as long as possible.
A few days after this page went live in 2010, Elliott kicked out roommate Susan Alexandria. The two had been pals since Alexandria was 15.
Alexandria then decided to steal one of Candice Brown Elliottâs airplanes and fly it until running out of fuel in the dark, ditching it in a field in extreme northeast California. Alexandria then walked to a hotel and was arrested there the next morning.
van Diggelen, Alison R.G. (October 9, 2005). Bright light at Cupertinoâs Clairvoyante.Silicon Valley Business Journal https://www.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2005/10/10/smallb1.html
Callahan, Mary (March 12, 2010). Santa Rosa woman arrested in airplane theft.Santa Rosa Press Democrat. https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/2241061-181/santa-rosa-woman-arrested-in
Brown, Candice Hellen (Spring 1995). Heras. TransSisters: The Journal of Transsexual Feminism, Issue 8, pp. 49 ff. https://archive.org/details/transsistersjou1995unse_0/page/49/mode/1up
McCormick was born on March 23, 1982. According to information McCormick published online, she grew up in Wales, Wisconsin, and has the following education:
Kettle Moraine High School (2000)
University of Wisconsin-Madison (B.A. 2004)
Chicago-Kent School of Law (J.D. 2007)
Illinois Bar (2007)
Wisconsin Bar (2008)
Northern District of Illinois (2008)
Milwaukee Bar Association (2017)
Work experience includes:
Waukesha County Chief Judge Kathryn W. Foster
Michael D. Robbins & Associates
Schoen, Mangan & Smith
Patton & Ryan LLC
O’Connell, Tivin, Miller & Burns, LLC
Weiss Law Office, S.C. in Mequon, Wisconsin
Wilson Elser
Griffin Purnell
Involvement
On J. Michael Baileyâs 51st birthday in 2008, Megan McCormick sent me the following unsolicited letter:
Ms. James,
I have a strange request: My friend idolizes you. Although I am not terribly familiar with your work, I know that he has frequently mentioned that your activism helped him while he was transitioning.
I am wondering if you ever distribute autographed photographs to fans. I know it seems kind of campy, but I think he would be really thrilled by the gesture (I would give it to him as a birthday gift).
Thanks for any response you are able to provide, and thank you for your activism.
Megan McCormick
Up until that point, I had always sent along an autographed headshot or other item to any fan who asked, at no charge. A number of things in the letter made me 99% sure McCormick was engaging in fraud, but on the 1% chance it was a legitimate request, I waited a few days, then offered to send something that did not have my photo but would still be appreciated by a fan:
Thanks for the sweet note! I don’t have any autograph-worthy pictures right now, but if you wish, I could send an autographed DVD of Casting Pearls. Just tell me the name and address to send it to.
Take care, Andrea
Rather than feeling guilty about her deception and reconsidering, McCormick got back to me within 20 minutes:
Andrea, Thank you so much for your consideration. I think he will love this. If you could please send the DVD to me (as I will be wrapping it as part of his birthday gift).
I gave her one last chance to reconsider her behavior:
Great! To whom should I autograph it?
But being not too sharp, she pressed forward with her
fraudulent request:
He goes by Mike.
At that point, I was almost certain that Megan McCormick was
planning to give this to Mike Bailey. I signed it something like âTo Mike, best
of luck with your transition! Andrea.â In the past, Bailey has threatened to
appear in drag in public, but he has yet to make any announcements about his
very personal relationship to transgender women. In fact, heâs announced,
âEverything that Iâm willing to say about my personal life Iâve already saidâŚâ
I sent this note to McCormick:
Mailed today. Please tell him I am really pleased that my work has been a source of hope and help! Take care, Andrea
Ms. McCormick disingenuously replied:
Thank you again–for everything.
While I wondered if McCormick might be in a sexual relationship with Bailey’s son or even Bailey himself (who has a taste for mannish younger women like McCormick who looked like he did in high school), I didnât look into the matter.
About a year later, an undeniable connection between McCormick and Bailey emerged, at which point I spoke with her boss by phone. After I explained that she had represented herself fraudulently to me, her boss suggested I send a note requesting no further contact. I did just that on May 27, 2009, writing, “I do plan to post our correspondence below so there’s a record of your behavior.”
McCormick became a mother in 2016 and got married in 2019,
so letâs hope she no longer engages in this sort of troubling behavior.
References
McCormick, Megan B (July 2, 2008). Autograph request [unsolicited email to Andrea James].
Staff report (2017). Welcome New MBA Members! Milwaukee Bar Association Messenger, Winter, page 4 (lists Megan B. McCormick, Weiss Law Office) https://milwbar.org/images/downloads/mba_msgr_dec2017_9_hr.pdf
Staff report (November 2008). State Bar welcomes 122 new lawyers. Wisconsin Lawyer, Vol. 81, No. 11. https://www.wisbar.org/NewsPublications/WisconsinLawyer/Pages/Article.aspx?Volume=81&Issue=11&ArticleID=1608
Chicago Volunteer Legal Services (2015). https://issuu.com/cvlsf/docs/cvls_ar_2015
Megan Beth McCormick via Lawyers.com. https://www.lawyers.com/mequon/wisconsin/megan-beth-mccormick-157132304-a/
Megan Beth McCormick via Martindale. https://www.martindale.com/milwaukee/wisconsin/megan-beth-mccormick-300185516-a/
http://archive.is/wZ0uT
https://archive.ph/DY1kK
Kyle Scanlon was a Canadian author and activist for the transgender and gender diverse communities.
Background
Scanlon was born September 5, 1971 and moved from hometown Hamilton to Toronto in 1997.
Scanlon was active in Toronto’s lesbian community. After transition Scanlon was hired by the Lesbian Gay Bi Youth Line. Scanlon became the first openly trans man to be the Executive Director of an agency in Canada.
Later Scanlon was hired by the City of Toronto as the 519 Meal Trans Program Coordinator. At that time, Meal Trans was one of the only services available for trans people. During ten years of work for the City, Scanlon expanded the work of the 519. Scanlon became the Coordinator of the now diverse Trans Programming at the 519. Scanlon’s work expanded to include finding emergency housing and engaging homeless shelters to implement trans-positive policies, and often simply providing a supportive ear and a safe space for distressed clients.
In 2001 Scanlon was recognized for extensive community involvement with the Grassroots Trans Community Activist of the Year award from the Serving Our Youth (SOY) program.
While presenting at CAMH trying to address the many problems with their models of care in 2003, Scanlon was interrupted during his presentation by CAMH employee and anti-trans activist James Cantor. In 2008, Scanlon described the incident:
Cantor was made to apologize to me in a letter, but there he was also clever to apologize for my feeling harassed and did not in any way acknowledge he harassed me. Like I said, semantics. I definitely was told this would stay on his file for 7 years.
Scanlon’s work at The 519 led to becoming the Education, Training and Research Coordinator. Thanks in part to Scanlon, the 519 now offers a wide range of internationally renowned Trans Programs and Services.
Scanlon died on July 3, 2012. Scanlon did not live to see the day that a career serving the community would help lead to the closure of the worst parts of CAMH’s gender clinic.
The Canada section of this site is dedicated to Scanlon. Rest in power, Kyle.
Scanlon, Kyle (2008). James Cantor harasses trans speaker. [Complaint to CAMH]. https://www.transgendermap.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/7/2023/02/kyle-scanlon-james-cantor-incident.pdf
Chandler Ellis Burr (born 1963) is an American journalist and perfume curator. Burr is known for his hereditarian views on sexual orientation and sex differences, and he claims that his critics “hate science.”
Burr was born in Chicago and graduated from Christian Science school Principia College. He then worked in the Southeast Asia bureau of The Christian Science Monitor. Burr later wrote for The Atlantic and US News & World Report. He identifies as gay and atheist and has written extensively about the perfume industry.
Views on sexual orientation
Following a 1993 Atlantic cover story on “homosexuality and biology,” Burr expanded that work into the 1996 book A Separate Creation: The Search for the Biological Origins of Sexual Orientation. That book also briefly covers the search of causes of gender identity and expression.
Views on bisexuality
As with many other HBI members, Burr has defended controversial psychologist J. Michael Bailey, in particular Bailey’s claims that men are “straight, gay, or lying,” a pernicious belief among some biased gay men and sexologists that male bisexuality doesn’t exist.
Burr wrote the following after New York Times journalist Benedict Carey presented an uncritical look at Bailey’s claims the bisexual men are “lying.”
The passage in bold perfectly summarizes why people like Burr can’t see their bias. Burr believes that because both “the right” and “the left” take issue with his spurious views, that Burr must be correct. This is a classic “argument to moderation” fallacy.
July 12, 2005
To the Editor:
Some gay and bisexual advocates are condemning “Straight, Gay or Lying?” regarding a study suggesting that bisexuality may not exist among human males – something those of us familiar with the scientific literature have known since, basically, forever.
Compare this hysterical – and anti-science – reaction to the conservative Christians’ anti-science reaction to studies showing that homosexuality is an inborn orientation like left-handedness. They’re identical.
The right hates science because the data contradict (in the case of homosexuality) Leviticus; the left because the data contradict the liberal lie that we’re environment-created, not hard-wired in any way.
These particular scientific facts are making these advocates scream like members of the extreme right, though it’s they who always tells the right to let go of concepts that are contradicted by science.
Chandler Burr New York The writer is the author of “A Separate Creation: The Search for the Biological Origins of Sexual Orientation.”
