Gerulf Rieger is a psychologist best known for publishing “science” that claimed bisexual men don’t exist. After getting money from bisexual activist John Sylla at the American Institute of Bisexuality, Rieger suddenly “discovered” male bisexuality. Sylla was also an author on Rieger’s published “discovery,” an unethical conflict of interest.
Rieger is also infamous for “science” claiming no woman is “totally straight.”
Rieger has also published anti-trans “science” claiming that trans women exhibit “male arousal patterns.” Rieger is on the editorial board of anti-trans journal Archives of Sexual Behavior.
Background
Rieger was born in July 1972. Rieger earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Vienna in 1995, followed by a master’s degree from University of Zurich in 1999. Rieger then attended Northwestern University, earning a master’s degree in 2004 and a doctorate in 2006.
Rieger’s dissertation advisor was anti-trans psychologist J. Michael Bailey. Bailey is notorious for engaging in “science by press conference,” a way of getting money and attention for questionable research through carefully timed media manipulation. Bailey is also known for work in the field of eugenics. Bailey has made a career of controversial “findings” about minorities which are reported uncritically by inept journalists. Bailey’s “finding” is later called into question and/or retracted after the damage is done. By then Bailey is on to some new “finding,” and the pattern of using gullible journalists begins again.
Rieger did postdoctoral work at Cornell University before taking a Lecturer position at University of Essex in 2014. As of 2024, Rieger was no longer listed as a Reader on the University of Essex psychology staff. Rieger was then affiliated with Webster Vienna Private University in Vienna, Austria.
Rieger on bisexuality (2002âpresent)
Rieger became famous for parroting Bailey’s claims that “true bisexuality” does not exist in men, who are “gay, straight, or lying.” These claims were supported by plethysmograph quackery initially published by Rieger in 2002:
Recently, we finished our study on male sexual arousal and sexual orientation. We were most interested in figuring out whether putative bisexual men do really get aroused to both men and women. There has been a long-lasting skepticism as to whether bisexual men are really what they say they are. Some people suggested that they are closet gay men. Others said that they are confused heterosexual men. So what are they? We invited all heterosexual, gay, and bisexual men into our lab, and measured their sexual arousal with help of a penile strain gauge while showing them movies of naked men or of naked women. We found no obvious bisexual arousal trends for the bisexual men. Most of them showed arousal like gay men, and a few got aroused like heterosexual men. Here you will find a link to the poster, which was presented at the IASR conference in Hamburg in the Summer of 2002. (Rieger 2004, poster published via morov.com)
Rieger’s greatest media triumph was a 2005 puff piece by Benedict Carey in the New York Times. Titled “Straight, Gay, or Lying? Bisexuality Revisited,” it was one of the most widely shared stories from the Times website in the week following publication. Carey called Rieger’s claims “a new study” in an article timed to coincide with the opening of the International Academy of Sex Research conference, where the study had been presented three years earlier. The only apparent difference is the sample size. Carey’s report drew widespread criticism from media watchdog groups and civil rights groups including FAIR and GLAAD.
Rieger is also infamous for claiming no woman is “totally straight.” In a “science by press conference” piece for The Telegraph, Rieger said of women, “Our research shows that, when it comes to what turns them on they are usually bisexual or gay, but never totally straight”.
The Man Who Would Be Queen (2003)
In 2003, Rieger’s dissertation advisor J. Michael Bailey published the transphobic book The Man Who Would Be Queen. After several academics expressed concerns about Bailey’s unscientific and exploitative lectures in support of the book at Emory on 8 April 2003 (reported by Dr. Saralyn Chesnut) and at Stanford on 23 April 2003 (reported by noted biologist Joan Roughgarden), Bailey complained about “irate transsexuals” in a terse response to Rieger [all links added for reference]:
From: Gerulf Rieger gerulf[at]northwestern.edu Date: Mon Apr 28, 2003 10:36:08 AM US/Central To: gluu[at]listserv.it.northwestern.edu Cc: rainbow[at]listserv.it.northwestern.edu Subject: Dr. Bailey’s reply: Prof. Michael Bailey’s lecture lacks sensitivityâŠ
Here is a message from Professor Bailey, my advisor. Gerulf
Background: Roughgarden is a transsexual woman (who used to be a man), who is part of a group (I think a small one) who is extremely angry with me about my recent book, The Man Who Would Be Queen. For examples of vitriol (to the extent that one put dirty captions under pictures of my children) see:
The main complaint is that I do not believe that all transsexuals are “women trapped in men’s bodies” but instead, believe the scientific evidence that one type of male-to-female transsexual is, prior to transition, a man with a sexual obsession for being a woman. The other type can be conceived of as an extremely feminine type of gay man. I explain in the book why the first type of transsexual tends to be very threatened by this explanation of their behavior. I posted on this before here, so instead of doing so again, I refer interested people to a website where they can read the book: (available to read for free at)
The second section, on homosexuality, is what I lectured about at Stanford. The third section is the one that has Roughgarden mad. The transsexuals have been writing everyone possibly affiliated with the book, from the publisher (and someone in the upper echelon has a wife who is good friends with one Lynn Conway–see negative review #1 above–and this resulted in the book being taken off the publisher’s website for nearly 24 hours) to people who wrote positive blurbs on the cover (Steven Pinker and David Buss, for example) to my colleagues. I don’t have time for individual responses to irate transsexuals, so I’m writing something for my webpage.
In 2003, Rieger appeared in a short film by fellow Northwestern grad Jason Bolicki, titled “Twenty Gay Stereotypes Confirmed.” It was described as “a tongue-in-cheek look at gay stereotypes using the director’s childhood home movies.”
Rieger then solicited home movies that demonstrated stereotypes based on sexual orientation.
http:// www.gptforum.com/forum/Topic14319.htm
Men and Women Wanted in Paid Northwestern Study Reply to: gerulf[at]northwestern.edu Date: 2005-05-21, 5:55PM CDT
Men and Women wanted who have home movies from their childhood and are willing to be interviewed for a study on child development. Participation takes about two hours. Participants will be paid $50. Please call Gerulf Rieger at Northwestern University, The Human Sexuality Lab at 847 / 491-3820. You may also email gerulf[at]northwestern.edu . IRB#: 0108-016
Please note: in order to be eligible for this study, you must have a childhood home movie of yourself (approximately ages 0-10), and bring it with you during your interview.
* Job location is Evanston * Compensation: $50
Rieger’s mentor J. Michael Bailey previously misused clips of gender diverse children for the amusement of “academic” audiences.
In 2007 Bailey and Rieger appeared on CNN to support their claims about stereotypically “gay” walking style, with Bailey as the “straight” one (Cohen 2007). Never have two people been filmed walking more self-consciously.
Bond, Alison (September 22, 2005). Grad studentâs study sparks criticism from bisexuals.Daily Northwestern https://dailynorthwestern.com/2005/09/22/archive-manual/grad-students-study-sparks-criticism-from-bisexuals/ original URL http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2005/09/23/43339007ed9b2 [archive]
Creager, Cyndi (July 7, 2005). New York Times Promotes Bisexual Stereotypes in “Straight, Gay or Lying?” GLAAD http://www.glaad.org/action/write_now_detail.php?id=3827&PHPSESSID=0b9e8b63af283601f7dc071e1a4c4568 [archive]
DeNoon, Daniel J. (August 30, 2005). Do Bisexual Men Really Exist?WebMD via CBS News, Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD https://www.cbsnews.com/news/do-bisexual-men-really-exist/
Drier, Sarah; Anderson, Kevin (April 21, 2003). Profâs book challenges opinions of human sexuality. Bailey tackles sensitive transsexuality issues; some find his views offensive. Daily Northwesternhttp://www.dailynorthwestern.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2003/04/21/3ea39785e6cef?in_archive=1 [archive]
Selected publications
Holmes L, Rieger G, Paulmann S (2024). The effect of sexual orientation on voice acoustic properties. Frontiers in Psychology (Vol. 15). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1412372
Rieger G (2023). Genetically identical twins discordant for sexual orientation: potential reasons for their differences. Genetics and evolution of sexual orientation meeting at The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2023/03/sexual-orientation/ [archive]
About 75% of genetically identical twins who are homosexual have heterosexual co-twins, and it is largely unknown what causes their difference. However, the majority of past work with such twin pairs was based on self-reports, which can be biased, and how these twins truly differ remained uncertain. The author will summarise research from his lab showing that these twins differ in behavioural, physiological, and anatomical traits linked to sexual orientation: gender-nonconformity, genital arousal, and finger length ratios, respectively. Dr Rieger will then propose a mechanism that explains their different development. About 30% of identical twins develop with separate placentas. Maternal androgens or antibodies could diffuse differently through these placentas, affecting the differentiated development of the twins. The author will also propose a study design to indirectly test this hypothesis.
Milani S, Zhang JY, Zdaniuk B, Bogaert A, Rieger G, Brotto LA (2022). Examining Visual Attention Patterns among Asexual and Heterosexual Individuals. Journal of Sex Research (Vol. 60, Issue 2, pp. 271â281). https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2022.2078768
Gruia DC, Holmes L, Raines J, Slettevold E, Watts-Overall TM, Rieger G (2022). Stability and Change in Sexual Orientation and Genital Arousal over Time. Journal of Sex Research (Vol. 60, Issue 2, pp. 294â304). https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2022.2060927
Holmes L, Watts-Overall TM, Slettevold E, Gruia DC, Rieger G (2022). The relationship between finger length ratio, masculinity, and sexual orientation in women: A correlational study. In L. Bartos (Ed.), PLOS ONE (Vol. 17, Issue 3, p. e0259637). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0259637
Holmes L, Watts-Overall TM, Slettevold E, Gruia DC, Rieger G (2021). Sex Differences in Sexual Arousal and Finger Length Ratio. Journal of Sex Research (Vol. 59, Issue 4, pp. 515â523). https://doi.org/10.1080/00224499.2021.1874262
Sanders AR, Beecham GW, Guo S, Dawood K, Rieger G, Krishnappa RS, Kolundzija AB, Bailey JM, Martin ER (2021). Genome-Wide Linkage and Association Study of Childhood Gender Nonconformity in Males. Archives of Sexual Behavior50, 3377â3383 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02146-x
Holmes, L., Watts-Overall, T.M., Slettevold, E. et al. Sexual Orientation, Sexual Arousal, and Finger Length Ratios in Women. Archives of Sexual Behavior 50, 3419â3432 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-021-02095-5
Raines J, Holmes L, Watts-Overall TM, Slettevold E, Gruia DC, Orbell S, Rieger G (2021). Patterns of Genital Sexual Arousal in Transgender Men. Psychological Science (Vol. 32, Issue 4, pp. 485â495). https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620971654
Rieger G, Holmes L, Watts-Overall TM, Gruia DC, Bailey JM, Savin-Williams RC (2020). Gender Nonconformity of Bisexual Men and Women. Archives of Sexual Behavior 49, 2481â2495 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01766-z
Rieger G, Watts-Overall TM, Holmes L, Gruia DC (2020). Gender Nonconformity of Identical Twins with Discordant Sexual Orientations: Evidence from Video Recordings. Archives of Sexual Behavior49, 2469â2479 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01709-8
Bailey, J.M., Rieger, G., Krishnappa, R.S. et al. Familiality of Gender Nonconformity Among Homosexual Men. Archives of Sexual Behavior49, 2461â2468 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-020-01626-w
Jabbour, J., Holmes, L., Sylva, D., Hsu, K. J., Semon, T. L., Rosenthal, A. M., Safron, A., Slettevold, E., Watts-Overall, T. M., Savin-Williams, R. C., Sylla, J., Rieger, G., & Bailey, J. M. (2020). Robust evidence for bisexual orientation among men. In Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Vol. 117, Issue 31, pp. 18369â18377). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2003631117
Slettevold, E., Holmes, L., Gruia, D., Nyssen, C. P., Watts-Overall, T. M., & Rieger, G. (2019). Bisexual men with bisexual and monosexual genital arousal patterns. In Biological Psychology (Vol. 148, p. 107763). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2019.107763
An Erratum for this article was reported in Vol 48(3) of Archives of Sexual Behavior (see record 2018-64336-001).
Sanders, A., Beecham, G., Guo, S., Dawood, K., Rieger, G., Krishnappa, R., Kolundzija, A., Bailey, J. M., & Martin, E. (2019). S67GENOME-WIDE LINKAGE STUDY OF CHILDHOOD GENDER NONCONFORMITY IN MALES. In European Neuropsychopharmacology (Vol. 29, p. S148). Elsevier BV. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroneuro.2019.08.068
Booker CL, Rieger G, Unger JB (2017). Sexual orientation health inequality: evidence from understanding society, the UK longitudinal household study. Preventive Medicine 101, 126-132 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2017.06.010
Rieger G, Bailey JM (2005). The misfit of sex atypicality (IASR conference paper) iasr.org/meeting/2005/abstracts2005.doc [archive]
Homosexual people tend to reject sex-atypical partners: Homosexual men tend to find feminine men less attractive, and conversely, lesbians tend to find masculine women less attractive. We investigated what traits could trigger this disadvantage. Ten-second video clips of 95 targets, ages 18 to 30, were judged on sex atypicality of their movements, voice patters and appearances by 58 raters of both sexes and sexual orientations without explicit information on the targets’ sexual orientation. Another sex of 121 raters of both sexes/sexual orientations would rate targets on attractiveness, rating their preferred sex, again without explicit information on the targets’ sexual orientation. Homosexual targets of both sexes were, on average, rated as having more sex-atypical movements, voices, and appearance (ds = .6 to 1.5, ps < .01). The expressions of these traits were significantly related to each other (rs = .4 to .7, ps < .05) and we thus computed one factor of sex atypicality. Using a multi-factorial design, including raters as random factor, we would then assess the relation between sex atypicality and attractiveness. In men, only the most sex-atypical targets were judged to be less attractive (b = -.11, p < .0001). In women, however, both moderate and strong expressions of sex atypicality seemed to affect attractiveness negatively (b = -.12, p < .0001). Independent of their sex atypicality, homosexual men were less attractive than same sex heterosexuals (b = -.12, p < .0001), and lesbians were rated to be less attractive than heterosexual women (b = -.09, p < .0001). Thus a yet unknown parameter related to homosexuality seemed relevant to raters. Attraction patterns were mostly unaffected by the raters’ sex or sexual orientation, and self reported gender identity and homophobia.
Siler-Knogl AK, Rieger G, Bailey JM. Sex Atypicality and Attractiveness in Gay and Heterosexual People. Psychological Science 2004. Later ASB paper https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-009-9512-8
Gay people are more sex-atypical (e.g. feminine men, masculine women), yet they don’t seem to seek sex-atypical partners. However, this study suggests that while sex atypicality enhances attractiveness, independently, homosexuality has a negative effect, especially for men. Thus, a yet undefined factor seems to detriment the attractiveness of gay people.
Chivers ML, Rieger G, Latty E, Bailey JM (2004). A Sex Difference in the Specificity of Sexual Arousal. Psychological Science, 15(11), 736-744. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00750.x
Chivers ML, Rieger G, Latty EM, Bailey JM (2003). A Sex Difference in the Specificity of Sexual Arousal. Psychological Science conference 2003.
Sexual arousal is category-specific in men; heterosexual men are more aroused by female than by male sexual stimuli, while homosexual men show the opposite pattern. There is reason to believe that female sexual arousal is altogether differently organized. We assessed genital and subjective sexual arousal to male and female sexual stimuli in women, men, and postoperative male-to-female transsexuals. In contrast to men, women showed little category-specificity on either genital or subjective measures. Both heterosexual and homosexual women experienced strong genital arousal to both male and female sexual stimuli. 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 a second study, we showed that our female results are unlikely to be explained by ascertainment biases. These findings suggest that sexual arousal patterns play a fundamentally different role in male and female sexuality.
Rieger G (2003). Research interests. J. Michael Bailey faculty website http://www.psych.nwu.edu/psych/people/faculty/bailey/rieger.html [archive]
Rieger G, Chivers ML, Bailey JM (2002), Who are bisexual men? Sexual orientation and sexual arousal in men. International Academy of Sex Research conference http://www.iasr.org/meeting/2002/abstracts_2002.pdf [archive]
Media
Cara Delevingne (2022). Planet Sex with Cara Delevingne. BBC 3 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/p0df24z1/planet-sex-with-cara-delevingne
Brittany Blockman and Josephine Decker (2008). Bi the Way. [featuring Ritch Savin-Williams, Dan Savage, Gerulf Rieger, Pepper Schwartz, Meredith Chivers, J. Michael Bailey]
Lesley Stahl (August 27, 2006). “Gay or Straight?” [featuring J. Michael Bailey, Gerulf Rieger, and Marc Breedlove] 60 Minutes S38E25 CBS
“Recently, we finished our study on male sexual arousal and sexual orientation. We were most interested in figuring out whether putative bisexual men do really get aroused to both men and women. There has been a long-lasting skepticism as to whether bisexual men are really what they say they are. Some people suggested that they are closet gay men. Others said that they are confused heterosexual men. So what are they? We invited all heterosexual, gay, and bisexual men into our lab, and measured their sexual arousal with help of a penile strain gauge while showing them movies of naked men or of naked women. We found no obvious bisexual arousal trends for the bisexual men. Most of them showed arousal like gay men, and a few got aroused like heterosexual men. Here you will find a link to the poster, which was presented at the IASR conference in Hamburg in the Summer of 2002.” [published 2003]
I am interested in human behavior, especially non-verbal behavior that does not depend on self-reports. Right now I am of course interested in human sexuality. What are the causes and the effects of a person’s sexual orientation? Could there be any adaptive qualities to being gay? Is sexual orientation correlated with any other personality traits, and if so, what can they tell us about the development of sexual orientation?
Right now, we are working on a study on the butch and femme behavior of gay people and at its effects on the mate value of the individual. We do know that gay men tend to prefer masculine men as partners and claim that they want “no femmes”. Lesbians on the other hand seek feminine partners and want “no butches” (link to Mike’s butch, femme study). Despite this tendency towards attraction for gender conforming traits, we also know that gay men are on average more feminine than heterosexual men and that lesbians are, on average, more masculine than heterosexual women (link to Mike’s unpublished study). However, we do not yet know what specific characteristics gay men mean when they say “no femmes” and what do lesbians mean when they want “no butches.
Recently, we finished our study on male sexual arousal and sexual orientation. We were most interested in figuring out whether putative bisexual men do really get aroused to both men and women. There has been a long-lasting skepticism as to whether bisexual men are really what they say they are. Some people suggested that they are closet gay men. Others said that they are confused heterosexual men. So what are they? We invited all heterosexual, gay, and bisexual men into our lab, and measured their sexual arousal with help of a penile strain gauge while showing them movies of naked men or of naked women. We found no obvious bisexual arousal trends for the bisexual men. Most of them showed arousal like gay men, and a few got aroused like heterosexual men. Here you will find a link to the poster, which was presented at the IASR conference in Hamburg in the Summer of 2002.
My next project will have a closer look at the possible genetic contribution to sexual orientation. We plan to work with discordant twins. These are identical twins, who differ on a specific trait. In our case, this will be their sexual orientation. For example, one twin is a gay man, but his brother is heterosexual. This could support the idea that sexual orientation is not solely genetically determined. However, no one has to our knowledge ever systematically tried to explore the twins’ sexual orientation by other means than pure self-report. There are several traits that we know gay and heterosexual people differ. We can use these traits to study our twins. How different or similar are these discordant twins in their psychology, their voices, their movements, or less subtle, their sexual arousal, and their brain activity while sexual aroused?
Personal Information
On a personal note, I seem to be a person who likes to move. I started in Biology in Vienna then moved to Biological Anthropology in Zurich and now I am here at Northwestern in the Psychology Department.
Here’s a picture of me & Marcel, [http://www.psych.northwestern.edu/psych/people/faculty/bailey/pictures/gerulf&marcel.jpg archive] and one of me and some people from the lab [http://www.psych.northwestern.edu/psych/people/faculty/bailey/pictures/gerulfparty.jpg archive] at a party.
Cornell University Sex and Gender Lab (sexgenderlab.human.cornell.edu) [archive]
“Research interests: My work focuses on sexual orientation: how it is organized, how it develops, and how it affects a persons life. I use a diversity of methodologies, including self-report, behavioural observations, physiological activity and neurological correlates, and employ an array of quantitative skills in order to pursue my research. I use videos and photos from childhood to examine whether masculine and feminine behaviours during early development predict adult sexual orientation. I also investigate the social impact of these signals. I have used large data sets of family members to investigate potential evolutionary reasons for sexual orientation. In another line of research, I study the association of sexual orientation with physiological sexual arousal in order to illuminate sex differences in sexual response. With a different methodology, pupil dilation, I am currently conducting research that will aid in explaining how early sex and sexual orientation differences in sexual attraction emerge. These studies have broad relevance for understanding how people perceive themselves and others, for the consequences of these perceptions, and for the development of differences between and within the sexes.”
Note: The original 2003 URL for this article was http://www.tsroadmap.com/info/gerulf-rieger.html [archive]
Devendra Singh was an Indian-American evolutionary psychologist who held harmful and biased views about sex and gender minorities.
Background
Singh was born January 12, 1938 in Urai, India. Singh earned a master’s degree in philosophy at Agra University before earning a doctorate in psychology at Ohio State University in 1966. Following positions at Wright State University and North Dakota State University, Singh began teaching at University of Texas at Austin in 1969.
Singh is best known for research about waist-to-hip ratio in women, which Singh claimed has evolutionary significance.
Singh was married to Barbara Singh (1943â2022) and had three children. Singh died on May 18, 2010.
Views on sex and gender minorities
In 2000 Scott M. Strong, Singh, and Patrick K. Randall published an article that claimed “a ‘high feminine’ subtype of gay males had greater body dissatisfaction than ‘less feminine’ subtypes had.”
Singh appeared with a number of anti-trans activists on the series The Sex Files in an episode titled “Homosexuality.”
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. Michael Bailey, professor of psychology at Northwestern University in Illinois and specialist in the genetics and environment of sexual orientation
Dr. Marc Breedlove, professor of psychology* specialising in the sexual differentiation of the brain.
Singh was also a mentor to J. Michael Bailey’s son Drew Bailey.
Exploration Production (November 20, 2000). S02 E08: Homosexuality. The Sex Files
Strong SM, Singh D, Randall PK (2000). Childhood Gender Nonconformity and Body Dissatisfaction in Gay and Heterosexual Men. Sex Roles https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1007126814910
* 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.
David Sylva is an American psychologist whose graduate work involved questionable studies about sex and gender minorities.
Background
David M. “Dave” Sylva was born in July 1980. Sylva did graduate work with controversial Northwestern University psychologist J. Michael Bailey. Bailey is well known for work in the field of anti-LGBT eugenics, which Bailey euphemistically calls “parental selection of children’s sexual orientation.” Bailey’s other students at the time included Gerulf Rieger, Chris Skidmore, and Elizabeth Latty.
One of Sylva’s early projects was to claim that gay men can be identified by their stereotypical gait.
Bailey claimed for years that male bisexuality did not exist, stating that men are “gay, straight, or lying.” After taking money from the American Institute of Bisexuality, Sylva and Bailey grad students Jeremy Jabbour and Luke Holmes magically “discovered” bisexual orientation among men.
After the bisexuality organization paid Sylva to “discover” male bisexuality, Sylva’s 2012 dissertation was titled âNeural Correlates of Sexual Arousal in Bisexual, Homosexual, and Heterosexual Men.â Since that payoff, Sylva’s work has been used to shore up one of Bailey’s other claims: that women may not have a sexual orientation.
Impact on transgender clients at Kaiser
Following this amazing “discovery” with Bailey, Sylva then began working for insurance company Kaiser Permanente in California.
Licensure:
NPI Number: #1790106961
Medical license: PSY26122 (CA)
Though Sylva is a member of WPATH, sex and gender minorities should avoid getting healthcare from Sylva due to this professional affiliation with J. Michael Bailey and associated anti-trans psychologists.
Safron A, Sylva D, Klimaj V, Rosenthal AM, Li M, Walter M, Bailey JM (2018). Neural Correlates of Sexual Orientation in Heterosexual, Bisexual, and Homosexual Women. Scientific Reports. 8: 673 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep41314
Safron A, Sylva D, Klimaj V, Rosenthal AM, Li M, Walter M, Bailey JM (2017). Neural Correlates of Sexual Orientation in Heterosexual, Bisexual, and Homosexual Men. Scientific Reports. 7: 41314 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-18372-0
Jabbour J, Holmes L, Sylva D, Bailey JM (2020). Robust evidence for bisexual orientation among men. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 117 (31) 18369-18377 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2003631117
Klimaj V, Safron A, Sylva D, Rosenthal AM, Li M, Walter M, Bailey JM (2021). Sexual Orientation and Neuroanatomy: An MRI Study of Gray Matter Differences in Homosexual, Bisexual, and Heterosexual Women and Men. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/zuyhp
Klimaj V, Safron A, Sylva D, Rosenthal AM, Li M, Walter M, and Bailey JM (2021). Comparing the Structure and Function of Social-cognition-related Brain Areas in Bisexual, Heterosexual, and Homosexual Women and Men. PsyArXiv, August 16 https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/62wvd
Sylva D, Safron A, Rosenthal AM, et al. (2013) Neural correlates of sexual arousal in heterosexual and homosexual women and men. Hormones and Behavior. 64: 673-84 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yhbeh.2013.08.003
Sylva D, Rieger G, Linsenmeier JAW, Bailey JM (2010). Concealment of sexual orientation. Archives of Sexual Behavior. 39: 141-52 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-008-9466-2
Can you tell whether someone’s gay just by the way he or she walks?
David Sylva wants to know. He straps bright red lights to people’s bodies and videotapes them walking in the dark. He then shows the videotape to observers (who won’t be biased by clothing or hairstyles since the walker is in the dark) and asks them to guess the walker’s sexual orientation.
Sylva’s observations focus on the physical characteristics of the individual’s stride, such as the closeness of the knees.
Why does Sylva, a graduate student at Northwestern University, care so much about how gay people walk? Because he’s one of a growing number of researchers who think sexual orientation may be as basic as how you walk, something inborn that you don’t choose.
David Sylva, a graduate student at Northwestern University, has been studying individual walking styles to see if homosexuals’ strides are different from those of their straight counterparts. He hopes the data will give support to the nature side of the sexual orientation argument.
Connie Lee (July 6, 2007). Research points to inherit [sic] trait for homosexuality; some dispute. The Purdue Exponent. http://www.purdueexponent.org/index.php?module=article&story_id=6347 [archive]
Below: Skidmore as he appears on Bailey’s website.
Gender Nonconformity and Psychological Distress in Lesbians and Gay Men. Archives of Sexual Behavior. Volume 35, Number 6 / December, 2006
W. Christopher Skidmore, Joan A. W. Linsenmeier and J. Michael Bailey
Abstract
Some lesbians and gay men tend to be more gender nonconforming, on average and for certain traits, than their heterosexual counterparts. Gender nonconformity in childhood has also been linked to adult homosexuality. Studies of both lesbians and gay men also find elevated rates of psychological distress. We hypothesized that these facts may be related. Individuals who violate social norms for gender-appropriate behavior may suffer from stigmatization by both heterosexual and homosexual people, leading to higher levels of psychological distress. We examined whether several measures of gender nonconformity were related to psychological distress in a community-based sample of gay men and lesbians. These included self-reports of childhood and adulthood gender nonconformity, as well as observer ratings of current behavior. Several measures of gender nonconformity were related to each other for both lesbians and gay men. In addition, gender nonconformity was related to psychological distress, but only for gay men. Finally, both lesbian and gay male participants reported more positive attitudes towards gender conformity than nonconformity, although the pattern was somewhat different for each group. We discuss the implications of these results for future studies of gender nonconformity and for the promotion of psychological health in lesbians and gay men.
29. 03. 2007 :: :: Sexuality Experiment for Heterosexual, Homosexual, Bisexual, and Queer Men Chris Skidmore Northwestern University Your answers are completely confidential, and you won ‘t have to provide identifying information about yourself. People say the study is fun, and it doesn’t take long. You will have a chance to enter to win a gift certificate, too. Men, over the age of 18, wanted for a study about relationships and health (IRB #0108-017). Participation takes approximately 30 to 45 minutes. You will have a chance to win one of three $50 gift certificates if you choose to participate.
Bailey is well known for his work in the field of eugenics.
Anthony Francis “Tony” Bogaert (born 1963) is a Canadian psychologist who has written on asexuality and paraphilia.
Background
Bogaert earned a PhD in Psychology from the Western University in 1993, with a dissertation titled “The Sexual Media: The Role Of Individual Differences.”
He then did postdoctorate work at the University of Toronto and Queenâs University. In 1996, he was appointed to a position at Brock University.
Asexuality and transgender people
Bogaert argues that some asexual people have a lack of subjective sexual attraction, meaning that they experience objective attraction or arousal, but their subjective identity as a person is not connected to that attraction. Via his book Understanding Asexuality:
Theyâas individualsâ are disconnected from their sexual responses to others of to sexual stimulation on some level. The missing piece for them is the I or me, or an identity as an individual, in subjective sexual attraction. In other words, the I is missing in the statement “I am attracted to . . .”
A similar phenomenon may occur in some forms of transgenderism. A transgendered person who was born as a biological male, for example, may not “own” his masculine responses. This individual may behave in a traditional masculine way, he may appear masculine, and his body my respond to stimulation in a traditionally masculine way, even sexually. But if this person does not “own” her responses, and in fact is completely disconnected from them because of an internal sense of self as female, these masculine responses are not part of her identity, or her I or me.
Similar forms of disconnected sexuality have been discussed in the clinical literature on paraphilias. Indeed, this phenomenon may be construed as a rather exotic paraphilia, which literally means “beyond love,” or “love beyond the usual.” Thus, a paraphilia can mean that an individual has a sexual attraction to something unusual. It could also imply something broader: any kind of unusual sexual phenomenon associated with a person, and not merely a sexual attraction to something unusual. As a consequence, if you are keeping score, the label of “asexuality” could still apply to masterbating asexuals with “disconnected” fantasies, because their paraphilia is an unusual sexual phenomenon: there is no subjective sexual attraction to anything. Complicated indeed!
Bogaert, p. 118-119
Automonosexualism and transgender people
Automonosexualism was proposed by Rohleder in 1907 as a term for people who are attracted to themselves sexually. Bogaert subscribes to Blanchard’s “erotic target location error” hypothesis, where someone directs their sexual interests inward instead of outward:
Automonosexualism is rare and has sometimes been associated with transgendered individuals. For example, the phenomenon of autogynephilia (in which a man is sexually attracted to himself, but as a woman) is a type of auyomonosexualism.
Bogaert, p. 120
Publications
Understanding Asexuality
Bogaert, A.F., Ashton, M.C., & Lee, K. (in press). Sexual orientation and personality: Extension to asexuality and the HEXACO model. Journal of Sex Research.
Ellis, L., Skorska, M. N., & Bogaert, A.F. (in press). Handedness, sexual orientation, and biomarkers for prenatal androgens: Are southpaws really that gay? Laterality.
Hafer, C. L., Mantonakis, A., Fitzgerald, A., & Bogaert, A. F. (in press). The effectiveness of deservingness-based advertising messages: The role of product knowledge and belief in a just world. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences.
Hoffarth, M., & Bogaert, A. F. (in press). Opening the closet door: Openness to experience, masculinity, religiosity, and coming out among same-sex attracted men. Personality and Individual Differences.
Bogaert, A. F. (2017). What asexuality tells us about sexuality: Commentary on Brotto and Yule (2016). Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46, 629.
Skorska, M. N., & Bogaert, A. F. (2017). Pubertal Stress and nutrition, and the association of sexual orientation and height in the Add Health data. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46, 217-236.
Skorska, M., Blanchard, R., Zucker, K., VanderLaan, D. & Bogaert, A. F. (2017). Gay Male Only-Children: Evidence for Low Birth Weight and High Maternal Miscarriages. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 46, 205-215.
Skorska, M. N., & Bogaert, A. F. (2017). Sexual orientation, objective height, and self-reported height. Journal of Sex Research, 54, 19-32.
Bogaert, A. F. (2016). Asexuality as an orientation. In S. B. Levine (Ed.) Handbook of Clinical Sexuality for Mental Health Professionals, 3rd Ed. (pp. 385-388).New York: Routledge.
Bogaert, A. F., Visser, B. A., & Pozzebon, J. A. (2015). Gender differences in object of desire self-consciousness sexual fantasies. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 44, 2299-2310.
Skorska, M. N., Geniole, S. N., Vrysen, T., McCormick, C.M., & Bogaert, A. F. (2015). Face structure predicts sexual orientation in men and women. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 44, 1377-1394.
Bogaert, A. F. (2015). Asexuality: What is it, and why it matters. Annual Review of Sex Research, 52, 362-379.
Pozzebon, J.A., Visser, B. A., & Bogaert, A. F. (2015). Vocational interests, personality, and sexual fantasies as indicators of a general masculinity/femininity factor. Personality and Individual Differences, 86, 291â296.
Visser, B. A., DeBow, V., Pozzebon, J. A., Bogaert, A. F., & Book, A. (2015). Psychopathic sexuality: The thin line between fantasy and reality. Journal of Personality, 83, 376â388.
*Bogaert, A. F., & Brotto, L. (2014). Object of desire self-consciousness theory. Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy, 40, 323-338. *Awarded the best theory paper for 2014, Ira and Harriet Reiss Theory Award, by the Society for Scientific Study of Sex (SSSS) and the Foundation for the Scientific Study of Sex (FSSS) in September, 2015.
Rubel, A.N., & Bogaert, A.F. (2014). Consensual non-monogamy: Psychological well-being and relationship quality correlates. Journal of Sex Research, 4, 1-22.
Bogaert, A. F. (2013). The demography of asexuality. In A. Baumle (Ed.), International handbook on the demography of sexuality. (pp. 275-288). New York: Springer Press.
Bogaert, A. F., & Liu, J. (2013). Physical size and sexual orientation: Analysis of the Chinese Health and Family Life Survey. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 42, 1555â1559
.Bogaert, A. F. (2012). Understanding Asexuality. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Inc.
Bogaert, A.F. (2012). Asexuality and autochorissexualism (identity-less sexuality). Archives of Sexual Behavior, 41, 1513-1514.
Pozzebon, J. A., Visser, B. A., & Bogaert, A. F. (2012). What makes you think youâre so sexy, tall, and thin? The prediction of self-rated attractiveness, height, and weight. Journal of Applied Social Psychology,42, 2671â2700.
Anthony Bogaert on transsexualismAnthony Bogaert is and associate professor at Brock University in Ontario. He has published work with Ray Blanchard and J. Michael Bailey.
Johnson is Managing editor of The Archives of Sexual Behavior journal controlled by Clarke Institute personnel via the International Academy of Sex Research.
Co-authors include race scientist Julian-Phillippe Rushton (at Western Ontario University) John Cairney (also at Brock) and Ray Blanchard of the Clarke Institute.
Blanchard R, Bogaert AF. Proportion of homosexual men who owe their sexual orientation to fraternal birth order: An estimate based on two national probability samples. Am J Human Biol. 2004 Mar-Apr;16(2):151-7. Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Bogaert AF, Cairney J. The interaction of birth order and parental age on sexual orientation: an examination in two samples. J Biosoc Sci. 2004 Jan;36(1):19-37. Department of Community Health Sciences, Brock University, St Catharines, Canalda L2S 3A1.
Bogaert AF. Interaction of older brothers and sex-typing in the prediction of sexual orientation in men. Arch Sex Behav. 2003 Apr;32(2):129-34. Department of Community Health Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada L2S 3A1. tbogaertATspartan.ac.brocku.ca
Bogaert AF. The interaction of fraternal birth order and body size in male sexual orientation. Behav Neurosci. 2003 Apr;117(2):381-4. Department of Community Health Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. [email protected]
Bogaert AF. Number of older brothers and sexual orientation: new tests and the attraction/behavior distinction in two national probability samples. J Pers Soc Psychol. 2003 Mar;84(3):644-52. Department of Community Health Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. [email protected]
Bogaert AF, Friesen C. Sexual orientation and height, weight, and age of puberty: new tests from a British national probability sample. Biol Psychol. 2002 Mar;59(2):135-45. Department of Community Health Sciences, Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada L2S 3A1. [email protected]
Bogaert AF, Friesen C, Klentrou P. Age of puberty and sexual orientation in a national probability sample. Arch Sex Behav. 2002 Feb;31(1):73-81. Department of Community Health Sciences, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada L2S 3A1. [email protected]
Cantor JM, Blanchard R, Paterson AD, Bogaert AF. How many gay men owe their sexual orientation to fraternal birth order? Arch Sex Behav. 2002 Feb;31(1):63-71. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Bogaert AF. Personality, individual differences, and preferences for the sexual media. Arch Sex Behav. 2001 Feb;30(1):29-53. Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada L2S 3A1. [email protected]
Bogaert AF. Handedness, criminality, and sexual offending. Neuropsychologia. 2001;39(5):465-9. Community Health Sciences, Brock University, L2S 3A1, St. Catharines, Canada. [email protected]
Blanchard R, Barbaree HE, Bogaert AF, Dickey R, Klassen P, Kuban ME, Zucker KJ. Fraternal birth order and sexual orientation in pedophiles. Arch Sex Behav. 2000 Oct;29(5):463-78. Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. [email protected]
Bogaert AF, Hershberger S. The relation between sexual orientation and penile size. Arch Sex Behav. 1999 Jun;28(3):213-21. Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada. [email protected] Comment in: Arch Sex Behav. 2000 Jun;29(3):303-5.
Blanchard R, Bogaert AF. Birth order in homosexual versus heterosexual sex offenders against children, pubescents, and adults. Arch Sex Behav. 1998 Dec;27(6):595-603. Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Ontario, Canada.
Blanchard R, Bogaert AF. The relation of closed birth intervals to the sex of the preceding child and the sexual orientation of the succeeding child. J Biosoc Sci. 1997 Jan;29(1):111-8. Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Bogaert AF. Birth order and sibling sex ratio in homosexual and heterosexual non-white men. Arch Sex Behav. 1998 Oct;27(5):467-73. Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catharines, Canada. [email protected]
Bogaert AF. Birth order and sexual orientation in women. Behav Neurosci. 1997 Dec;111(6):1395-7. Brock University, St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada. [email protected]
Bogaert AF, Bezeau S, Kuban M, Blanchard R. Pedophilia, sexual orientation, and birth order. J Abnorm Psychol. 1997 May;106(2):331-5. Department of Behavioral Sexology, Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Blanchard R, Bogaert AF. Additive effects of older brothers and homosexual brothers in the prediction of marriage and cohabitation. Behav Genet. 1997 Jan;27(1):45-54. Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. [email protected]
Bogaert AF. Genital asymmetry in men. Hum Reprod. 1997 Jan;12(1):68-72. Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto, Canada.
Blanchard R, Bogaert AF. Biodemographic comparisons of homosexual and heterosexual men in the Kinsey Interview Data. Arch Sex Behav. 1996 Dec;25(6):551-79. Gender Identity Clinic, Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Bogaert AF, Blanchard R. Handedness in homosexual and heterosexual men in the Kinsey interview data. Arch Sex Behav. 1996 Aug;25(4):373-8. Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
Bogaert AF. Volunteer bias in human sexuality research: evidence for both sexuality and personality differences in males. Arch Sex Behav. 1996 Apr;25(2):125-40. Department of Psychology, Brock University, St. Catherines, Ontario, Canada.
Blanchard R, Bogaert AF. Homosexuality in men and number of older brothers. Am J Psychiatry. 1996 Jan;153(1):27-31. Clarke Institute of Psychiatry, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Comment in: Am J Psychiatry. 1997 Jan;154(1):136-7. Am J Psychiatry. 1997 Jan;154(1):136; author reply 137. Am J Psychiatry. 1997 Jan;154(1):136; author reply 137.
Rushton JP, Bogaert AF. Population differences in susceptibility to AIDS: an evolutionary analysis. Soc Sci Med. 1989;28(12):1211-20. Department of Psychology, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada.
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. Allenâs 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 brothersâ homosexual feelings, suggesting that discovery of brothersâ 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 âMolecular Genetic Study of Sexual Orientationâ. 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 childâs 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. Â 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.
Whatâs 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 âgay geneâ work, and Roberts presented on âneuroticism and self-esteem as indices of the vulnerability to major depression in women.â
“Autogynephilia”
Roberts gave Baileyâs 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 â 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 diseaseâ and âcardiomegaly.â 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 â74.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
