Chivers runs the Sex and Gender Lab at Queens University, also styled SAGe Lab and Sagelab. Before he was banned from Wikipedia, anti-transgender troll James Cantor wrote her biography. Chivers is married to sexologist Michael Seto.
Research on trans people
In 2000, Chivers and Bailey published an anti-transgender article in Archives of Sexual Behavior titled “Sexual orientation of female-to-male transsexuals: a comparison of homosexual and nonhomosexual types.”
Homosexual and nonhomosexual (relative to genetic sex) female-to-male transsexuals (FTMs) were compared on a number of theoretically or empirically derived variables. Compared to nonhomosexual FTMs, homosexual FTMs reported greater childhood gender nonconformity, preferred more feminine partners, experienced greater sexual rather than emotional jealousy, were more sexually assertive, had more sexual partners, had a greater desire for phalloplasty, and had more interest in visual sexual stimuli. Homosexual and nonhomosexual FTMs did not differ in their overall desire for masculinizing body modifications, adult gender identity, or importance of partner social status, attractiveness, or youth. These findings indicate that FTMs are not a homogeneous group and vary in ways that may be useful in understanding the relation between sexual orientation and gender identity.
In 2004, Chivers, Bailey, Gerulf Rieger, and Elizabeth Latty published “A Sex Difference in the Specificity of Sexual Arousal” as evidence that trans women have “male” sexual arousal patterns.
We assessed genital and subjective sexual arousal to male and female sexual stimuli in women, men, and postoperative male-to-female transsexuals. […] Transsexuals showed a category-specific pattern, demonstrating that category specificity can be detected in the neovagina using a photoplethysmographic measure of female genital sexual arousal.
In 2005, Chivers, Bailey, and Anne Lawrence published “Measurement of sexual arousal in postoperative male-to-female transsexuals using vaginal photoplethysmography.” The cloncluded that trans women have “male-typical” sexual responses.
We used vaginal photoplethysmography to examine patterns of sexual arousal in 11 male-to-female (MtF) transsexuals following sex reassignment surgery (SRS) and in 72 natal women. […] All transsexual participants displayed category-specific sexual arousal. Five homosexual transsexual participants (attracted exclusively to males before sex reassignment) showed greater genital and subjective responses to male than to female stimuli, while six nonhomosexual transsexual participants showed the opposite pattern. […] We conclude that male-to-female transsexuals display male-typical category-specific sexual arousal following SRS.
Chivers was named President of IASR in 2023. She opened an investigation into the publication of J. Michael Bailey’s questionable 2023 paper on “rapid-onset gender dysphoria” (ROGD).
1/Dear IASR members,
In the interest of transparency, we want to communicate to the Membership about recent concerns regarding a publication in our official journal, the Archives of Sexual Behavior. On March 29th, the journal published an article authored by …
— International Academy of Sex Research (@TheIASR) April 19, 2023
1/Dear IASR members, In the interest of transparency, we want to communicate to the Membership about recent concerns regarding a publication in our official journal, the Archives of Sexual Behavior. On March 29th, the journal published an article authored by …
2/…Suzanna Diaz & J. Michael Bailey entitled, “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria: Parent Reports on 1655 Possible Cases.” Since its publication, significant concerns about the ethical conduct and integrity of the editorial process have been raised about this study, by both…
3/…members and nonmembers of the Academy, including Editorial Board members. The IASR recognizes the sensitivity and controversy of the study topic, and we deeply value ethical and scientific integrity. (…)
4/ While the Archives of Sexual Behavior has editorial independence and IASR is not involved in determining what is published in the journal, Archives is our flagship journal. The IASR Executive is currently learning more about this matter, consulting with both …
5/…the Archives of Sexual Behavior’s Editor and our publisher Springer Nature, and will update the membership appropriately. Kind regards, The IASR Executive Committee
Chivers ML, Bailey JM (2000). Sexual orientation of female-to-male transsexuals: A comparison of homosexual and non-homosexual types Archives of Sexual Behavior 29 (3): 259–278. doi:10.1023/A:1001915530479
Chivers ML, Rieger G, Latty E, Bailey JM (2004). A sex difference in the specificity of sexual arousal. Psychol Sci. 2004 Nov;15(11):736-44. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00750.x
Lawrence AA, Latty, EM, Chivers, ML, Bailey JM (2005). Measurement of Sexual Arousal in Postoperative Male-to-Female Transsexuals Using Vaginal Photoplethysmography. Archives of Sexual Behavior 34, 135–145 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-005-1792-z
Smith YLS, Van Goozen S, Kupier AJ, Cohen-Kettenis PT (2005). Transsexual subtypes: Clinical and theoretical significance. Psychiatry Research 137 (3): 151–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2005.01.008
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Psychologist James Cantor is an anti-transgender extremist based in Canada. Cantor has decades of history attacking transgender people while claiming to be a supporter.
The archival information below dates to the turn of the century. See the main James Cantor profile for more.
Archival information
“The stronger one is invested in the outcome of a scientific endeavor, the more vulnerable is one’s ability to see straight.”
— James M. Cantor
http://www.apa.org/divisions/div44/vol18nu3.htm
James Cantor is a frequent supporter of J. Michael Bailey, Ray Blanchard, and Anne Lawrence who is part of the clique of sexologists at Toronto’s notorious Clarke Institute.
James M. Cantor, PhD Clinical Sexology Services Centre for Addiction and Mental Health—Clarke Site 250 College Street Toronto, Ontario M5T 1R8 CANADA (416) 535-8501 ext. 4078 email: [email protected]
Cantor praises Bailey
Bailey and Cantor seem to be cut from the same cloth: smug, unprofessional, and downright nasty when they perceive their “authority” is challenged.
Cantor leapt to Bailey’s defense regarding Bailey’s lectures exploiting gender-variant children. Bailey writes:
A gay psychologist and sex researcher, James Cantor, wrote in response to Roughgarden’s screed:
“I have seen Bailey give this lecture before (at least, an earlier version of it). Again, this was the one with several openly lesbian women and gay men in the audience, including me. None of us felt at all offended. What Roughgarden describes as laughter was actually an affectionate recognition of the truth. Effeminate speech is much more common among gay men than straight men, and telling the two extremes apart is like night and day.”
The following review appeared on page 6 of the Summer 2003 American Psychology Association Division 44 Newsletter (PDF: http://www.apa.org/divisions/div44/vol19nu2.pdf) and is being used by Joseph Henry Press in PR for The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey.
Parts in blue are being used in Joseph Henry Press promotional material
BOOK REVIEW The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey The National Academies Press, 2003 Review by James M. Cantor
Division 44 Newsletter Summer, 2003 page 6
J. Michael Bailey’s The Man Who Would be Queen represents the first scientifically grounded book about male femininities written for a general audience. In three sections—devoted respectively to gender atypical boys, adult gay men and those MtF transsexuals who are attracted to men, and then fetishistic cross-dressers and those MtF transsexuals who are not attracted to men (autogynephilic transsexuals)—Bailey sympathetically portrays these peoples’ experiences and explores the roots of their development.
Readers seeing these topics for the first time will come to understand these mixes of traditionally masculine and feminine characteristics, free from the sensationalism they receive in the popular media. Readers more familiar with these areas will come to appreciate that none of these human conditions—hetero-/homosexuality, cross-dressing, gender non-conformity, and transsexuality—can be fully understood on its own. Human sexual behavior must be understood in its entirety, if it is to be understood at all.
In introducing us to vivid and engaging people, Bailey takes us on a tour that would leave few readers unchanged. Just as interesting, however, were the hints about how Bailey’s own ideas became changed by his experiences in working with these issues. He notes he “became less skeptical, if not yet convinced” of the idea that the correct intervention for gender atypical children is to change society (rather than the children), a philosophy he learned from thinkers including “Clinton Anderson, scientist Simon LeVay, and journalist Phyllis Burke” (p. 26). Likewise, he notes having become more openminded about the veracity of transsexuals’ memories of desiring to change sexes even in childhood, after discussing it with Ken Zucker (the head of the Child and Adolescent Gender Identity Clinic at C.A.M.H. in Toronto). Watching the evolution of a scientist’s thinking is particularly welcome in a field where so many other authors on these topics polarize and entrench.
Bailey’s engaging style and clear fondness for the people he describes invite all readers to appreciate these peoples’ experiences better, on both scientific and human levels. Although respectful, Bailey describes his subject matter warts and all. He unapologetically includes potentially controversial topics including the strong preference in the gay male community for masculine sexual partners and against effeminate men, the well-established finding that highly gender atypical boys nearly always become gay men in adulthood (and the shame many adult gay men experience in recalling their own childhood femininity), the frequency of sex trade work among androphilic transsexuals, the difficulties many MtF transsexuals experience in passing as women, and the challenges to the politically correct idea of MtF transsexuals literally being “women trapped in men’s bodies.” Yet, Bailey notes specifically that there is nothing objectively shameful in, for example, childhood femininity or sex trade work. It is the combination of Bailey’s willingness to challenge ideas based only on prejudice as well as ideas based only on political correctness that establishes the book as an even-handed introduction, rather than as a mouthpiece for either the socially conservative right or academic left. Writing as an openly heterosexual and non-transsexual man, Bailey’s respect for the people he describes serves as a role model for others who still struggle to accept and appreciate homosexuality and transsexuality in society. In the following passage, Bailey writes about Cher, an MtF transsexual:
Cher has been having a rough time lately. She has fallen out with Amy, a homosexual transsexual who used to be her closest friend. Cher thinks that once Amy got her surgery, she no longer needed her, and she feels used. When she goes out with Juanita, who has become her best friend, men are constantly approaching Juanita (who is 15 years younger and very sexy), but they approach Cher cautiously, if at all….She is also broke, and is being sued by her relatives for her father’s inheritance. Despite her troubles, she continues to visit her circle of (primarily transsexual) friends, helping them plan their transition, listening to their boyfriend problems….She is a good friend to them, although her advice is not always appreciated or heeded. I think about what an unusual life she has led, and what an unusual person she is. How difficult it must have been for her to figure out her sexuality and what she wanted to do with it. I think about all the barriers she broke, and all the meanness that she must still contend with. Despite this, she is still out there giving her friends advice and comfort, and trying to find love. And I think that in her own way, Cher is a star.” I think she is too, and I am grateful to Bailey for having introduced her.
POSTSCRIPT: As I write this postscript, it is has been four weeks since The Man Who Would Be Queen has been released. Of all the ideas Bailey presents, only the meaning of autogynephilia appears to have drawn any controversy. Although his book is unapologetic in its accuracy, Bailey notes quite distinctly which ideas are well-established scientifically and which are hunches and suspicions to help readers tie the data together. It is unfortunate that a vocal few (vocal over the Internet, anyway) do not actually address Bailey’s points, referring only to rumors about the content of the book and to assumptions regarding Bailey’s motives. I can recommend only that readers refer to the content of the book itself (available to read on-line, free of charge at http://books.nap.edu/books/0309084180/html/ ), explore Bailey’s own webpage (http://www.psych.nwu.edu/psych/people/faculty/bailey/controversy.htm#campaign ), and decide for themselves.
Cantor harasses trans speaker
Kyle Scanlon is Trans Programmes Coordinator at 519 Church Street Community Centre in Toronto. The 519 is where all trans youth are encouraged to go in order to avoid The Clarke Institute. Cantor was compelled to send a letter of apology to Scanlon following the event, and the letter was to remain in his file for 7 years.
Below is Scanlon’s original complaint letter about what happened at CAMH.
To Whom it Concerns:
Let me begin by saying that I was grateful and excited to be invited to present a workshop at the LGBT Staff Caucus event at CAMH. Not only was I thrilled that trans issues were considered important enough to be part of the agenda, I was extremely gratified that the Staff Caucus wanted them addressed not by a GIC expert, but by someone with lived experience as a transsexual who has also had invaluable community service experience with members of the lower income, street-involved trans community. I accepted the offer immediately.
But my elation quickly turned to frustration as I attempted to facilitate my workshop. I would like to register a complaint about what happened.
I was running a workshop that was clearly listed in the program as being “the perspective of a transsexual activist”. I did not set myself up as someone who was an expert in gender theory. I was attempting to address the “lived experience” of trans people that might lead them towards needing support from the Addictions Program, or that might affect their chances of receiving treatment.
Almost immediately -while I was still running through definitions of sex, gender, and intersexuality, one gentleman in the audience began aggressively interrupting to offer his “expertise”. He spent at least five minutes detailing “specific types of intersexuality” which was not germane to my workshop at all. This gentleman seemed to be trying to demonstrate his authority on this topic. I ultimately had to cut him off in a gentle yet firm manner in order to continue. He did continue to interrupt on a few more occasions, generally “defensively”, all in that same manner that he was more of an “authority” on the subject than I was, despite the fact that it’s my lived experience. It was extremely rude and honestly unnerving.
Next in the workshop I began addressing my concerns as an activist about “the real life test” and how the GIC is still using the year long life test rather than the Harry Benjamin Standards of Care approved 3 month life test, as well as to address HOW this real life test impacts on the lived experience of transsexuals. I discussed a variety of concrete issues faced by many trans people as they undergo the Real Life Test – high rates of suicide, low self-esteem, police harassment, street-involvement, inability to access shelters and hostels, being fired from jobs, the inability to find new work, losing key relationships, being kicked out of the family home, and losing access to their children. The audience was extremely empathetic, vocally so. At that point, this man interrupted again, very loudly and aggressively “Before you all JUDGE the GIC….”
At this point – thankfully – he was interrupted by a wonderful member of the audience calling him on his rude behaviour and asking him to identify himself. He replied “I’m Doctor James Cantor with the GIC.” A minor skirmish ensued, and I managed to utilize my facilitation skills to bring everyone back to the topic at hand. Again, his behaviour took valuable time away from my workshop. All in all, I think I lost about 15-20 minutes to James Cantor’s views, and having to “deal” with him. That’s close to one quarter of my total time to present. This was completely unacceptable. Keep in mind my workshop was only 90 minutes long, and since people strolled in late, I was already pressed for time.
I should mention that during the entire workshop, Peter Coleridge was sitting in the room. He was supposedly there to act as “moderator” of the workshop. He did nothing to control Cantor, nor to make any apologies to me. I felt hung out to dry, except for the great support of the members of the audience. It was all extremely confrontational, it took time away from my workshop, it distracted me as a presenter and it disrespected me as a community member who was INVITED to offer my particular experience and opinion. If Cantor was there to defend the GIC practices, then he shouldn’t have been there. The purpose of the forum was to air views that are not conventionally heard. He certainly didn’t seem to be there to learn or to listen.
His behaviour hindered my workshop, it put me on edge, and it made for an uncomfortable atmosphere for all those who were there to hear my presentation. I believe an invited guest deserves better treatment from CAMH staff. My workshop deserved ALL the time it was allotted and the men and women who attended the workshop deserved to hear the presentation that they specifically chose to attend.
CAMH says it’s opening itself up to community input and constructive feedback, but here’s an example of what happens to a workshop presenter who tries to offer it.
I was offended, angered, and frustrated by these events. This experience underscored my conviction that CAMH has only been paying lip-service to wanting to address the trans community’s concerns about the GIC if this is how they treat an INVITED GUEST.
The one “good” thing that came from all of this… almost everyone in the audience approached me personally later to say “thanks to today, we now have a better understanding of the kind of shit that trans people face trying to access service at the CAMH GIC.” So, for that, I do have to thank James Cantor and Peter Coleridge. They provided a look at what really happens inside the GIC doors in a way that my workshop on its own could never have done justice.
Scanlon described the response from CAMH:
I do think there is some gray area here of semantics. I was told that after my claims were investigated it was found that I had experienced harassment, but NOT that Cantor had harassed me. The woman seemed to be saying – in fact I think she did once say – that anytime a person feels it, it’s real. But I don’t know that anyone ever said “Cantor harassed you.” 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. I have no idea where else I would have gotten an idea like that unless it was specifically stated to me.
Cantor subsequently has tried to downplay the incident.
Other Cantor data
Cantor clearly has political aspirations in psychology, taking up several positions of influence, especially with people just starting their careers.
See also A Report to Lynn Conway by Kristin of a recent lecture at “The Clarke”
Science Committee The Science Committee encourages research on sexual orientation issues. The Committee has recently published a directory entitled: Directory of Researchers and Scholars of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and transgender Issues in Psychology. To obtain a copy of the Directory or to be listed in the Directory contact: Division 44 Science Committee Sean Massey [email protected] 4410 Burnet Road Austin, TX 78756 The Chairs of the Science committee is: James M. Cantor.
Cantor on a program in Toronto with the rest of Blanchard’s crew. Cantor’s topic at a Toronto program was:
July 9, 2003 – Is Transsexualism Really Independent of Sexual Orientation? Presenter: James M. Cantor, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow, Clinical Sexology Services, Law & Mental Health Program
Monitor on Psychology
http://www.apa.org/monitor/julaug02/thematic.html
* “Cultural evolution of gender identity–changing the construction of identity,” with Ronald F. Levant, EdD, James M. Cantor, PhD, Joanne E. Callan, PhD, and Pamela Trotman Reid, PhD.
Malyon-Smith Scholarship Award
http://www.apa.org/divisions/div44/malyon.html
The Division sponsors a scholarship fund to grant cash awards for graduate student research. The chair is James M. Cantor PhD. If you would like more information about this award, please click here. If you would like to apply for the application, please visit the Malyon-Smith Scholarship Award 2003 website. Here you will find information, guidelines, and procedures involved in the application of the scholarship.
Malyon-Smith Scholarship The Division sponsors a scholarship fund to grant cash awards for graduate student research. The Malyon-Smith Scholarship Fund is a living memorial to two former Presidents of the Division. The fund is our way of encouraging graduate research into sexual orientation issues. If you are a graduate student and conducting your graduate research on gay, lesbian, or bisexual issues, why not apply for an award? To apply for this award, or to see more detailed information, please click here – Malyon-Smith Scholarship Award. Donations in all amounts are encouraged and appreciated. They can be sent to James M. Cantor, PhD at the address below.
4213 Symposium: Training in Psychology – Students’ Needs, Current Opportunities, and Academic Alternatives
Chair: James M. Cantor, PhD, Law and Mental Health Program, Toronto, ON, Canada
Click here: McGill Reporter <http://ww2.mcgill.ca/uro/Rep/r2911/rats.html> – as a grad student – resetach on impotence associated with prozac – lists self as, of course – a sex therapy student Click here: Toronto shemales strut their stuff, part of national quest for rights <http://www.shemale-transexual.com/news/toronto-shemales.html> some Cantor quotes on “shemales” – doesn’t think they exist- everyone really wants srs evenually -lists % of people who come into the Clarke and go on to SRS Click here: http://www.cwru.edu/affil/div29/Bulletin/V1997324/WASH.htm <http://www.cwru.edu/affil/div29/Bulletin/V1997324/WASH.htm> THE PRESCRIPTION AGENDA – CONSTANTLY EVOLVING From the very beginning, those of us involved in shaping the prescription agenda have been clear that the key to the profession’s ultimate success would be the active support of our future generations of clinicians and academicians. James Cantor, the APAGS liaison to CAPP, recently authored a formal “resolution of support” for prescription privileges which has now been formally adopted by APAGS. Click here: Outside Online – News <http://web.outsideonline.com/news/headlines/20020815_1.html> Dr. James Cantor, a psychologist at the University of Toronto’s Gender Identity Clinic, told the Ottawa Citizen this week that if gender is based on hormonal status, then Dumaresq is, indeed, a woman. “If you took a blood sample to measure the levels of sex hormones in a post-operative transsexual, that person would resemble a woman, not a man,” Cantor explained. The doctor declined to give the Citizenan opinion, however, on whether an athlete who is genetically male but hormonally female should be allowed to compete in women’s sporting events. “Hormone therapy does reduce, if not practically eliminate, the amount of testosterone in the blood, but it’s unknown how this affects athletic performance,” he said. “It just hasn’t been studied. Until we really have the science to say one way or the other, it’s anybody’s guess. One can reasonably argue either position.”
Cantor as “expert”
The post below gives a good sense of where Cantor is coming from: discouraging and turning away clients who seek medical services, discounting the first-hand reports of trans women in favor of those who share Cantor’s ideology, and the typical supposition of gay male superiority, suggesting he’s OK, but this subset of gays is disordered. One can see the same kind of thinking in the writings of Jim Fouratt and Tammy Bruce: assimilated queers who got their rights and feel entitled to deny us ours.
From: James Cantor Date: Sun Oct 5, 2003 6:01 pm Subject: RE: [NewPsychList] tx for gender identity d/o
This is not the approach I would take or recommend. I have worked for several years in the Gender Identity Clinic here at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (formerly, the Clarke Institute of Psychiatry), and have now seen several hundred transsexuals in various stages of transition, including many who made the decision not to transition.
First, regarding diagnostic criteria, patient distress is not a criterion. If the person chooses to transition, s/he will require a lifetime of hormone therapy, a series of pretty major surgical interventions, and (depending on the assessment methods used) ongoing psychotherapy before, during, and after transition. For the psychologist (or other mental health professional) to make the appropriate referrals, the person will require a bone fide diagnosis. For people who live in areas with public health care systems (such as here in Canada), the diagnosis is required before the system will pay for the surgeries.
The desire not to diagnose GID comes from the understandable desire on the part of mental health professionals to avoid the stigma associated with having the diagnosis. I argue, however, that the problem is the stigma associated with “mental disorder.” If we cease to diagnose relevant conditions to avoid stigma, we are implicitly reinforcing the idea that such diagnoses are negative and to be avoided. The transsexual community is divided over this idea, and there appears to be a U.S. vs. rest-of-the-world split on this. I suspect that the split results from the U.S. not having insurance coverage for transition (and therefore having nothing to lose) while the rest of the world uses the diagnosis to argue that their health care systems should be covering surgery.
Second, no one has thus mentioned any of the relevant research with GID. I would caution anyone against treating someone without having the relevant training. Male-to-female transsexuals divide into two major types, usually called androphilic transsexuals and autogynephilic transsexuals. (The term autogynephilia has now been added to the DSM.) Androphilic MtF’s (also called homosexual transsexuals) transition very early in life, are remarkably feminine throughout childhood, are attracted to males, and have very high success rates after transition. Autogynephilic transsexuals tend to transition later in life (typically in their 30s or 40s), are externally unremarkable in childhood, are attracted to females, and having a more mixed adjustment after transition. Autogynephilia is extremely controversial within the transsexual community, because of the unfortunate myth that only androphilic transsexuals are “true” transsexuals, while the autogynephilic ones are just wannabes.
Because the person under discussion here is so young, s/he is mostly likely the androphilic type.
Next, what the patient here mostly likely needs the most is information. There are a great deal of mis-informative websites on transsexualism, and if the clinician does not provide the correct information, the patient will likely start running into the myths about transition on the web. Such information the patient will need is outcome data, diagnostic/surgical/hormonal outcomes, a >realistic< assessment of how well he would pass as a female, and a >realistic< assessment of the surgical and social risks. Only then will s/he ever be able to make an informed decision about how, whether, and when to transition (if at all).
As for the etiological aspects, the relationship between homosexuality and transsexuality is a little more complex. Androphilic transsexuality does appear to be related to male homosexuality. Some argue that androphilic transsexuality is an extreme form form of male homosexuality (or, depending on your point of view, that male homosexuality is an incomplete form of androphilic transsexuality). It is because of this relationship that some people call this type ‘homosexual transsexuality’. Autogynephilic transsexuality does not appear to be related to male homosexuality. Rather, it appears to be related to transvestic fetishism. That is, these people are erotically attracted to the idea of being female…like a cross-dresser who wants to appear female all the way down to the bone, rather than just by the clothes.
To wrap this up, is sounds like outside consultation might be best. An excellent compilation of experienced clinicians throughout the U.S. has been compiled by Anne Lawrence, MD, PhD, who is herself an openly transsexual MtF. Her website is annelawrence. com.
Best of luck. – James
From: James Cantor <James_Cantor@c…> Date: Wed Sep 10, 2003 7:17 pm Subject: Neuropsychological characteristics of transsexual persons
> If we assume that gender differences in cognitive and attentional > abilities and processing speed arise out of biological differences, the > relevant gender norms to use would seem to be those of the person’s > original physical gender, not the one they subjectively experiences > themselves to be, or the one they may have transformed their body into.
Not so simple.
1. There is more than one type of transsexuality (e.g., Blanchard, 1993), each of which has different correlates (e.g., Blanchard & Sheridan, 1992; Blanchard, Dickey, & Jones, 1995). One could reasonably expect these types to differ neuropsychologically with regard to which characteristics look male versus female.
2. People in sex transition are typically taking sex hormones, which has been shown to affect neurophysiological and neuropsychological measures (e.g., Kruijver et al., 2001). Although this has been tested in transsexuals directly (Van Goozen et al., 1995), relevant literatures also include neuropsychological differences associated with menopause, hormone replacement, anti-androgens (used to treat prostate cancer in men), and oral birth control.
3. It is unclear exactly what ‘transgender’ means. People with intersex conditions are a very different mix of characteristics than are transsexuals, and there are many different types of intersex conditions. Discussions (and research) are far more useful only after knowing exactly which condition is being considered.
4. Many transsexuals are also homosexual (Blanchard, Dickey, & Jones, 1995), and homosexual men and women neuropsychologically differ from heterosexual men and women (e.g., Gladue & Bailey, 1995; Wegesin, 1998). Much research on transsexuality unfortunately collapsed different types of transsexuals into a single group, obscuring any differences that could actually be sexual orientation differences. – James
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Steven Pinker is a Canadian-American evolutionary psychologist, linguist, and central figure in anti-transgender extremism.
Pinker is frequently involved in academic controversies, particularly around race, gender, and eugenics. Pinker is a key connector in the so-called intellectual dark web, a gateway to the far right.
Background
Steven Arthur Pinker was born in 1954.
Pinker moved to Harvard in 2003 after 20 years at MIT working in the Brain and Cognitive Sciences department. Pinker is the author of many books on mind and language, including:
The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language
Words and Rules: The Ingredients of Language
How the Mind Works
Pinker is a hereditarian, believing that genes are far more important than environment in shaping who we are. Pinker falsely claims that ideological opponents believe in a blank slate, where everyone begins the same until social forces change us.
“With a mixture science, humanity, and fine writing, J. Michael Bailey illuminates the mysteries of sexual orientation and identity in the best book yet written on the subject. The Man Who Would Be Queen may upset the guardians of political correctness on both the left and the right, but it will be welcomed by intellectually curious people of all sexes and sexual orientations. A truly fascinating book.” — Steven Pinker, Peter de Florez Professor, MIT, and author of How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature”
Joseph Henry Press marketing materials (unattributed):
J Michael Bailey’s The Man Who Would Be Queen is an engaging book on the science of sexual orientation. …highly sympathetic to gay and transsexual men…” — The Guardian (London), June 28, 2003
Below is the full review:
J Michael Bailey’s The Man Who Would Be Queen (Joseph Henry) is an engaging book on the science of sexual orientation. Though highly sympathetic to gay and transsexual men, it has ignited a firestorm by claiming that transsexuals are not women trapped in men’s bodies but have either homosexual or autoerotic motives.
Pinker’s writing was also used in Bailey’s since-canceled Human Sexuality class.
Anti-trans logrolling
Anti-trans activists and extremists frequently defend Pinker with the same zeal seen in defenses of other celebrity transphobes like J.K. Rowling.
Jesse Singal defended Pinker in the New York Times, writing: “The idea that Mr. Pinker, a liberal, Jewish psychology professor, is a fan of a racist, anti-Semitic online movement is absurd on its face, so it might be tempting to roll your eyes and dismiss this blowup as just another instance of social media doing what it does best: generating outrage.”
gender role and orientation as male or female, established while growing up
making biased claims about trans women:
Transsexualism and Sex Reassignment (1969)
“devious, demanding and manipulative” and incapable of love (1970)
John Money should have died in prison along with other “leading lights” of late 20th-century sexology. The astonishing lack of accountability or responsibility makes him easily the most unethical sexologist in history.
John Money vs. J. Michael Bailey
Takes one to know one, they say.
John Money was an ethically-challenged sexologist at Johns Hopkins whose work led to the woes of untold intersex people around the world until his “science” was debunked and his academic misconduct exposed.
Mike Bailey is an ethically-challenged sexologist at Northwestern whose work nearly led to the woes of untold transgender people around the world until his “science” was debunked and his academic misconduct exposed.
John Money put out a book in May 1990 with the title:
The similarities in titles certainly beg a comparison, as do the remarkable similarities in the lives of the two well-known sexologists.
Why would Bailey and friends replace “in-between” with “lying”? Below is a very interesting passage from pages 108-110 of John Money’s Gay, Straight, and In-Between: The Sexology of Exotic Orientation.
“Gender Crosscoding”
by John Money
Among adolescents who circumvent homosexual activity or who quit in panic, there are some who coerce themselves into heterosexuality, only to find as husbands and fathers (or wives and mothers, in the case of females) that the lid on Pandora’s box springs open. These are the people who, when young adulthood advances into midlife, begin the homosexual stage of sequential bisexuality. For some the transition is to homosexual relations exclusively, whereas for others heterosexual relations also may continue. The transition may take place autonomously, or it may be a sequel to the divorce or death of the spouse or to sexual apathy in the marriage. When the youngest child leaves home, there may be a degree of freedom hitherto unavailable. The bisexualism of a parent is not transmitted to the offspring, and is not contagious. However, to avoid offending a heterosexual child, a bisexual parent may be self-coerced into suppressing homosexual expression.
The late expression of homosexuality in sequential bisexuality may be associated with recovery from illness and debilitation (e.g., recovery from alcoholism) that had masked the homosexual potential. Hypothetically, it might, conversely, be associated with premature illness and deterioration from brain injury or disease, as in temporal lobe trauma and Alzheimer’s disease. However, although brain pathology may release the expression of sexuality formerly strictly self-prohibited as indecent or immoral, it is not especially associated with releasing bisexuality.
In sequential bisexuality, the transition from homosexual to heterosexual expression is also known to occur autonomously in adulthood. Since this transition is socially approved and not registered as pathological, it is not likely to be recorded. If the individual were at the time in some type of treatment, the transition might be wrongly construed as a therapeutic triumph.
More than sequential bisexuality, concurrent bisexuality may be jocularly considered as having the best of two possible worlds. But it has a dark and sinister potential also. Its most malignant expression is in those individuals in whom it takes the form of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The split applies not simply to heterosexuality and homosexuality, but to good and evil, licit and illicit, as well. The two names are not gender-coded as male and female as they are in the two names of the tranvsvestophile, nor are the two personalities and the two wardrobes. Instead, the two names, wardrobes, and personalities are both male (or in the less likely case of women, female), but one, the given name with its wardrobe and personality, is for the heterosexual, and the other, an alias or a nickname, for the homosexual. The heterosexual personality is the servant of righteousness and the acolyte of a vengeful God. The homosexual personality is the servant of transgression and a fallen angel in the legions of Lucifer. The heterosexual personality has the pontificating mission of a sadistic grand inquisitor, bent on the exorcism of those possessed of homosexuality, himself included. The homosexual personality has the absolving mission of officiating indulgences in the place of masochistic penances for homosexuality, but only for himself and nobody else.
The absolute antithesis of homophobia and homophilia in this malignant form of bisexuality takes its toll in self-sabotage and the sabotage of others. Self-sabotage is an ever-present threat that materializes if there is a leakage of information from those in one antithetical world to those in the other. The greater danger is, of course, that knowledge of the illicit homosexual existence will leak out to the society that knows only of the heterosexual existence. The ensuing societal abuse and deprivation, legal and social, may be extreme.
The sabotage of others is carried out professionally by some individuals with the syndrome of malignant bisexualism. Their internal homophobic war against their own homosexuality becomes externalized into a war against homosexuality in others. The malignant bisexual becomes a secret agent, living in his own private and secret homosexual world, while spying on its inhabitants, entrapping them, assaulting and killing them, or, with less overt violence, preaching against them, legislating against them, or judicially depriving them of the right to exist.
The malignant bisexual is the perfect recruit for the position of homosexual entrapment officer or decoy in the employ of the police vice squad. Supported by clandestine operations, blackmail, and threats of exposure, in espionage or in the secret police of government surveillance, he may achieve legendary power, such as that attributed to J. Edgar Hoover of mythical FBI fame.
People in high places may have the power to keep under cover for a lifetime, with the homosexual manifestations of their bisexuality never exposed. Others have their career blown, as did the bisexual former U.S. congressman from Maryland, Robert E. Bauman, a fanatical homophobic ultraconservative of the religious new right, who subsequently published a biography of his own downfall (Bauman 1986).
Bauman was exposed by a combination of surveillance and the testimony of a paid informant and blackmailer. Nowadays there is a hitherto nonexistent way of being suspected or exposed, namely by dying of AIDS. This is what happened to Roy Cohn (New York Times, August 3, 1986), the malignantly bisexual legal counsel for the homosexual witch hunter from Wisconsin, U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, himself suspected of malignant bisexuality. Together, they destroyed the lives of many American citizens, simply by publicly accusing them of being homosexual, falsely or otherwise.
…
Scratch the surface of the self-righteous and find the devil. This is a maxim of widespread acceptability, not only to the self-righteous in high places of homophobic power, influence, and authority, but also to the homophobic, gay-bashing hoodlums who, as in the case with which this section began, pick up or are picked up by a gay man, have sex with him, and then exorcise their own homosexual guilt by assaulting and maybe killing him. Both versions of homophobia are manifestations of malignant bisexuality that, in an interview with the journalist, Doug Ireland, for New York Magazine (July 24, 1978), I called the exorcist syndrome.
There must be a very widespread prevalence of lesser degrees of the exorcist syndrome in the population at large. If it were not so, otherwise-decent people would not persecute their homosexual fellow citizens nor tolerate their persecution. Instead they would live and let live those who are destined to have a different way of being human in love and sex. They would tolerate them as they do the left-handed. Tolerance would remove those very pressures that progressively coerce increasing numbers of our children and grandchildren to grow up blighted with the curse of malignant bisexuality.
Bullough, Vern L. “The contributions of John Money: a personal view.” The Journal of Sex Research, vol. 40, no. 3, 2003, pp. 230–236. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224490309552186
John Money and John G. Brennan, “Heterosexual vs. homosexual attitudes: male partners’ perception of the feminine image of male transsexuals,” The Journal of Sex Research, 6, 3 (1970): 193–209, 201, 202. https://doi.org/10.1080/00224497009550666
Downing, Lisa; Morland, Iain; Sullivan, Nikki (26 November 2014). Fuckology: Critical Essays on John Money’s Diagnostic Concepts. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.
Goldie, Terry (2014). The Man Who Invented Gender: Engaging the Ideas of John Money. Vancouver, British Columbia: University of British Columbia Press.
Money, John; Hampson, Joan G; Hampson, John (October 1955). “An Examination of Some Basic Sexual Concepts: The Evidence of Human Hermaphroditism”. Bull. Johns Hopkins Hosp. Johns Hopkins University. 97 (4): 301–19. PMID 13260820.
“David Reimer, 38, Subject of the John/Joan Case”. The New York Times. 12 May 2004. Retrieved 27 September 2014. https://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/12/us/david-reimer-38-subject-of-the-john-joan-case.html
R Green, J Money – Archives of General Psychiatry, 1966
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Susan Mineka is an American psychologist and anti-transgender activist. Mineka co-authored a college textbook on “abnormal psychology” that promotes many anti-transgender ideas, especially disease models like “autogynephilia.”
Mineka collaborated with other anti-trans activists while teaching at Northwestern University.
Background
Susan Mineka was born in June 1948 and grew up in Ithaca, New York. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, Mineka earned a doctorate from University of Pennsylvania in 1974. Mineka then did postdoctoral work at University of Wisconsin.
Mineka joined the faculty of Northwestern in 1987 and was named Professor Emerita in 2021.
Mineka was editor of The Journal of Abnormal Psychology from 1990 to 1994 and was editor for Emotion.
Hall, Julie (June 23, 2004). Psychology All-Stars: Susan Mineka.Association for Psychological Science https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/psychology-all-stars-susan-mineka
Ben Hamida S, Mineka S, Bailey JM (1998). Sex differences in perceived controllability of mate value: An evolutionary perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 75 (4), 953 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.75.4.953
Susan W. Coates is an American psychologist and a key figure in the pathologization of gender diversity. Coates and Kenneth Zucker developed non-affirming “interventions” for gender diverse children as part of their gender identity change efforts. Coates was involved in revising the 4th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) to reflect these views.
Background
Susan Winship Coates was born in 1940. Coates earned a bachelor’s degree from Sarah Lawrence in 1962 and a master’s degree from Vassar in 1968. Coates earned a doctorate from New York University in 1976.
Coates served as Director of the Childhood Gender Identity Service at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center from 1980 to 1997. Coates served on the American Psychiatric Association DSM-IV Subcommittee on Gender Identity Disorders. Coates has served on the teaching faculty of the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research. Coates has also served on the faculty of the Division of Sexuality and Gender in the Psychiatry Department of Columbia University.
In addition to work on childhood trauma, Coates has been an expert witness in a number of prominent trials, including the custody battle between Woody Allen and Mia Farrow. Coates had seen their child Satchel Ronan Farrow professionally.
Coates or someone closely associated has also heavily edited her Wikipedia biography to remove material Coates does not want reported.
Disease models of gender identity and expression
In 1989, a colleague summarized Coates’ presentation on the topic as follows:
Susan Coates spoke about “Conflict in Gender Identity of Boys.” She has studied boys with extreme boyhood femininity. All the boys in her study wished to be girls, preferred female activities, avoided rough-and-tumble play and liked cross-dressing. These boys all had other pervasive difficulties such as separation anxiety and depression. The mothers were often borderline narcissistic, depressed, dependent women who devalued men. Many of the mothers had been severely traumatized when their sons were two or three years of age. She postulated that maternal psychopathology impairs the child’s separation-individuation process. In order not to lose “Mommy” he merges with “Mommy.” Dr. Coates invoked a bio-psycho-social model but emphasized that the specific biological influences predisposing to childhood G.F.O. have yet been identified.
Leiter (1989)
In 1994, Coates spoke with the New York Times about therapy for “GIDC”:
With therapy, younger kids usually come to accept their own gender and feel good about their temperament. When we go back to evaluate them three years or so after therapy, they don’t have compulsive cross-gender fantasies anymore, or often don’t remember them. But if you don’t treat it until 9 or 10, it’s much harder to turn around. And beyond age 12 or so, there’s a good chance they’re on course to become a transsexual as adults.
(Goleman 1994)
Coates reiterated that maternal trauma when the child was two or three was often a factor (Goleman 1994). Coates reported with Kenneth Zucker that five to thirty times as many boys are treated for “GIDC” (Coates 1992).
In 2008, Coates published these “intervention” techniques for gender diverse children:
This paper reviews the origins of gender identity issues in preschool boys and presents an overview of treatment strategies for working with parents of boys and with the boy. The goals of treatment are to reestablish a secure attachment relationship with both of his parents, to develop a range of coping mechanisms for handling separation anxiety and aggression, to help the child to understand and enjoy his temperament, to help the child to be able to have same sex friendships, to develop gender flexibility and most importantly, restore his self esteem and his sense of authenticity. Specific treatment interventions are reviewed.
Coates (2008)
Selected publications by Coates
Listed by date of publication
Coates S, Lord M, Jakabovics E (1975). Field dependence-independence, social-non-social play and sex differences in pre-school children. Percept Mot Skills. Feb 1975 40:1, pp. 195-202 https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1975.40.1.195
Coates SW (1985). Extreme boyhood femininity: Overview and new research findings. In Ruth Corn, Zira DeFries, Richard C. Friedman, eds. Sexuality: New perspectives. Greenwood Press ISBN 9780313242076
Coates SW, Person ES (1986). Extreme boyhood femininity: isolated behavior or pervasive disorder? J Am Acad Child Psychiatry. 1985 Nov;24(6):702-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0002-7138(10)60113-6
Bradley SJ, Blanchard R, Coates SW, Green R, Levine SB, Meyer-Bahlburg HFL, Pauly IB, Zucker KJ (1991). Interim report of the DSM-IV Subcommittee on Gender Identity Disorders. Archives of Sexual Behavior Volume 20, Number 4 / August, 1991 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01542614
Coates SW, Friedman RC, Wolfe S (1991). The etiology of boyhood gender identity disorder: a model for integrating temperament, development, and psychodynamics. Psychoanal. Dial., 1:481-523. https://doi.org/10.1080/10481889109538916
Coates S, Zucker KJ (1992). Gender identity disorders in children. In Kestenbaum CJ, Williams DT (Eds.) Handbook of clinical assessment of children and adolescents NYU Press. ISBN 0814746284
Marantz S, Coates SW (1991). Mothers of boys with gender identity disorder: a comparison of matched controls. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (Vol. 30, Issue 2, pp. 310–315). https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-199103000-00022
Zucker KJ, Lozinski JA, Bradley SJ, Doering RW (1992). Sex-typed responses in the Rorschach protocols of children with gender identity disorder. Journal of Personality Assessment, Volume 58, Issue 2 April 1992 , pages 295 – 310. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327752jpa5802_9
Zucker KJ, Green R, Coates S, Zuger B, Cohen-Kettenis PT, Zecca GM, Lertora V, Money J, Hahn-Burke S, Bradley SJ, Blanchard R. Sibling sex ratio of boys with gender identity disorder. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 1997 Jul;38(5):543-51. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1997.tb01541.x
Coates SW, Wolfe S. Gender identity disorder in boys: the interface of constitution and early experience. Psychoanalytic Inquiry, 1995, 51:6-38. https://doi.org/10.1080/07351699509534015
Coates SW (2008). Intervention with preschool boys with gender identity issues. Neuropsychiatrie de l’Enfance et de l’Adolescence 56/6 (2008), 386-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurenf.2008.06.004
Bryant K (2006). Making gender identity disorder of childhood: historical lessons for contemporary debates. Sexuality Research & Social Policy, 3(3), 23-39. https://doi.org/10.1525/srsp.2006.3.3.23
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
Joe Burgo is an American author and anti-transgender extremist. Burgo runs the anti-trans website Beyond WPATH, which is critical of mainstream healthcare organization WPATH. Burgo promotes “gender exploratory therapy” (GET) as well as gender identity change efforts (GICE), practices that are outlawed in California. Burgo is an advisor for anti-trans groups like Genspect and others.
Joseph Mark “Joe” Burgo was born on May 6, 1955. Burgo is from Taft, California, graduated from Inglewood High School, and got a bachelor’s degree in English from UCLA.
Burgo holds graduate diplomas from California Graduate Institute (CGI) in West Los Angeles. California’s Board of Psychology stated that CGI was an unaccredited institution from 1976 to 2008. CGI was merely approved by the now-defunct California Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education, but not accredited. As journalist Jeff Walker noted:
CGI’s repeated pleas for accreditation have been rebuffed because it lacks a sufficient number of full-time staff, a decent library, and other features that students of the thousands of accredited albeit mediocre colleges throughout North America take for granted. In prestige this Ph.D. is, aside from the mail-order variety, rockbottom.
Walker (2012)
Burgo has written a number of books about narcissism and shame.
Burgo was in a “heterosexual marriage” for 17 years and has three children. Burgo then married Michael George Eha (born September 1953), a publicist associated with Me Rep Inc. and Michael Eha & Associates. They have been together since about 2003 and split their time between Palm Springs and London.
Anti-transgender activism
Burgo stated in 2023:
One of my children is trans-identified and alienated from me. And that was my introduction to this space back in 2014, and it’s part of the reason I started getting interested in things like autogynephilia, because I just took a deep dive into everything about trans, trying to find out everything. And then I found out that there was this thing called autogynephilia, which seemed stunning to me. I’d never heard of it before, and read The Man Who Would Be Queen and Blanchard, and more recently read Anne Lawrence’s work. And I look at these guys… I suppose it’s partly because my journey has been about making peace with myself as a man, feeling better about my own masculinity, which oddly I feel better about in my gay life than I did in my heterosexual life… my ostensibly heterosexual life.
Yang (2023)
Burgo is convinced that trans people are driven to transition by narcissism and/or shame, particularly shame about being gay. Burgo promotes the “ex-transgender” movement, similar to the ex-gay movement. Anti-trans therapists call a shift in gender identity or expression “desistance” for children and “detransition” for adults. Via Slate:
Genspect also supports an organization called Our Duty, which has stated that “it should be the objective of any advanced civilization presented with this problem to TARGET 100% DESISTANCE, and as early as possible.” Desistance means when someone stops identifying as transgender and pursuing medical transition.
When asked for an interview, GETA team member Joseph Burgo—who is also vice-director of Genspect—said that he and the rest of the GETA team declined to comment.
Burgo is very upset about being forbidden to practice “gender exploratory therapy” because California made it illegal:
In California, where I’m licensed to practise as a clinical psychologist, law prohibits me from engaging ‘in sexual orientation change efforts with a patient under 18,’ which includes alternative ‘gender expressions’. For this reason, I must turn away the many distraught parents who reach out for help with their gender nonconforming, autism spectrum, or gay and lesbian children who have recently become trans-identified. To do otherwise would expose me to potential malpractice lawsuits and challenges to my licensure, a vulnerability which trans-rights activists do not hesitate to exploit in order to intimidate those who question the affirmative-care model.
Burgo wrote in the conservative Daily Caller:
For the troubled young men in my psychotherapy practice who have de-transitioned — that is, lived for a number of years as if they were women and then reverted to their biological sex — their female identity represented such as idealized false self. By imagining themselves to be female, my clients had taken flight from a shame-ridden self which was felt to be defective, damaged, and beyond repair. When this defensive new identity finally broke down, they found themselves engulfed in pain, confusion and shame, and as a result sought professional help.
Meanwhile, the militant trans-identified male continues shoring up his idealized false self. He insists he’s no different from and deserves the same rights and privileges as biological females. When others insist upon the reality of biological sex and assert that trans women aren’t actually women, he feels persecuted; on some level, this challenge to his sense of self may even feel life-threatening. His envy of biological women — for embodying the idealized state he longs for but can never truly reach — may lead to vindictive and physical assaults upon their persons. He wants to destroy them and the truth they embody.
Walker, Jeff (2012). Ayn Rand Cult, p. 156. ISBN 9780812698190
Burgo, Joseph (April 14, 2023). Are Trans Rights Activists Victims — Or Bullies?Daily Caller https://dailycaller.com/2023/04/14/opinion-are-trans-rights-activists-victims-or-bullies-dr-joseph-burgo/
Jerry T. Lawler is an American psychologist who is involved in the “ex-transgender” movement. Similar to the ex-gay movement, it is a group of people who believe they have been cured of being trans, either through “desistance” or “detransition.” Lawler offers faith-based therapy to “cure” gender diverse people.
Background
Jerome Timothy Lawler was born in August 1942. Lawler earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Wisconsin Madison in 1964. Twenty-five years later Lawler returned to school, earning a master’s degree from San Jose State University in 1990 and a doctorate from California School of Professional Psychology in 1994.
Since 2017 Lawler has offered therapy as a Licensed Graduate Professional Counselor (LGPC) at Safe Harbor Christian Counseling in Glen Burnie, Maryland.
Kirsty Entwistle is a psychologist who supports the “ex-transgender” movement, an anti-trans project similar to the ex-gay movement. Entwistle also promotes a form of delayed transition for gender diverse youth called “gender exploratory therapy.”
Background
Entwhistle earned a bachelor’s degree from University College London (UCL) in 2003, then earned a post graduate diploma from University of Bolton in 2009. Entwistle earned a doctorate at UCL in 2013.
Entwistle worked in several NHS services in the UK: a paediatric psychology service in Cambridge, an adult secondary care psychology service in London and the gender identity development service for under 18s in Leeds.
IATDD supported the “ex-transgender” movement, people who describe themselves as “desisters” and “detransitioners.” They sell their services to parents who do not want their children to make a gender transition, known as the “parental rights” movement.
Entwistle K (2020). Debate: Reality check – Detransitioner’s testimonies require us to rethink gender dysphoria. Child and Adolescent Mental Healthhttps://doi.org/10.1111/camh.12380
Anastassis Spiliadis is a Greek anti-transgender psychologist who supports the “ex-transgender” movement and promotes a form of delayed transition for gender diverse youth called “gender exploratory therapy.”
Anastassis Spiliadis’ name is sometimes styled Anastasios Spiliadis and is Αναστάσης Σπηλιάδης in Greek.
Background
Spiliadis was born in July 1987. After earning a bachelor’s degree from National University of Athens (NKUA/Εθνικό και Καποδιστριακό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών), Spiliadis earned master’s degrees from Kings College London, Westminster University, and Imperial College London.
Spiliadis has held a number of roles within the UK’s National Health Service. Spiliadis has worked at the Maudsley Centre for Child & Adolescent Eating Disorders (MCCAED).
Spiliadis also worked for four years at the infamous Tavistock Centre Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS).
Anti-trans activism
Spiliadis supports the disputed diagnosis “rapid onset gender dysphoria” and urged for more research in the anti-trans publication Archives of Sexual Behavior. That journal’s stated goal since its founding has been “the prevention of transsexualism.”
Spiliadis is a member of the Institute of Mental Health for Children and Adults in Athens, Greece. Spiliadis is based in London and in Athens.
References
United Nations Independent Expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity – IESOGI. Report on Conversion Therapy. https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/Documents/Issues/SexualOrientation/ConversionTherapyReport.pdf
Hutchinson A, Migden M, Spiliadis A (2020). In Support of Research Into Rapid-Onset Gender Dysphoria. Archives of Sexual Behavior 2020 Jan;49(1):79-80. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-019-01517-9
