John Michael “Mike” Bailey (born 1951) is an American psychologist, considered one of the most unethical sexologists in history. Bailey’s checkered career is a series of ethics scandals and controversies.
Since 2003 this site has documented Bailey’s central role in the academic exploitation of sex and gender minorities. One history book says my work coordinating the community response to anti-trans academics “represented one of the most organized and unified examples of transgender activism seen to date.” In 2021 the United States Library of Congress selected this site for archiving because it is “an important part of this collection and the historical record.”
Bailey’s notable ethical scandals
Children and sex
- supporting “many offending pedophiles who are usually punished far more harshly than research suggests is warranted by the harm they cause.”
- supporting leniency for a rapist whose victims are infants and young children: “if he didn’t physically hurt them, and if they didn’t remember traumatically, his actions should be penalized less than had he physically hurt them and they did remember.”
- promulgating the concept of “pre-homosexual” children: “pre-homosexual children tend to be relatively gender nonconforming.”
- claiming to know the sexual orientation of children
- supporting fired sexologist Kenneth Zucker, whose “therapy” of gender diverse children has been widely outlawed and described as “child abuse”
- supporting penile plethysmography, a controversial device for measuring genital arousal; some sexologists have attached plethysmographs to the penises of children to measure their erections for “research”
- Supporting convicted serial child rapist Jerry Sandusky: “In an exchange with Wright County Circuit Court Judge Craig Carter, Bailey affirmed his belief that Sandusky’s accusers had lied. ‘You believe the people testifying against Jerry Sandusky are lying?’ Carter asked. Bailey responded, ‘I can see that if you are not familiar with the evidence that I am familiar with, you would be shocked.'”
Eugenics
- dissertation advisor and mentor Lee Willerman was a member of the American Eugenics Society
- stating it is “morally acceptable” to screen for and abort gay fetuses: “selection for heterosexuality may benefit parents and children and is unlikely to cause significant harm.”
- arguing that “offering sex offenders the opportunity to be castrated in return for a reduced sentence is not ethically problematic coercion.”
- member of the Human Biodiversity Institute
Gay and lesbian
- claiming that “evolutionarily, homosexuality is a big mistake.”
- claiming homosexuality may represent a “developmental error.”
Bisexuality
- stating that “in men there’s no hint that true bisexual arousal exists,” claiming all men are either “gay, straight, or lying.”
- suddenly “discovering” male bisexuality after getting money from John Sylla at the American Institute of Bisexuality
Northwestern students
- arranging a live “fucksaw” demonstration that led to Bailey’s signature sexology class being permanently cancelled by the university
- having sex with recent Northwestern grad the age of Bailey’s daughter
- mentoring a new generation of ethically questionable sexologists:
Transgender
- fabricating the case report that led to getting tenure: the “Danny Ryan” transgender cure narrative
- misusing images and video of gender diverse children without their knowledge or consent as part of a lurid sexualized presentation that drew laughter from future clinicians
- writing The Man Who Would Be Queen, widely considered one of the most transphobic books in history
- featuring case reports in the book without consent
- offering clinical assessments to satisfy gatekeeping models without being licensed by the state
- attempting to have sex with at least one of the transgender book subjects / clients
- working closely with historian Alice Dreger to cover up these ethical scandals
- making deliberately low population estimates of LGBT people
- writing for and publicizing “gender critical” activists
- supporting the ex-trans movement:
- supporting nearly every disease model of gender identity and expression ever created
- “gender identity disorder”
- “gender dysphoria”
- “early onset”
- “adolescent onset”
- “rapid onset”
- “adult onset”
- “caused by psychotic delusions”
- “rapid onset gender dysphoria”
- “autohomoerotic gender dysphoria”
- paraphilic models, especially those of Ray Blanchard and Anne Lawrence
- “autogynephilia” and “homosexual transsexual”
- “autopedophilia”
- “gynandromorphophilia“
- “apotemnophilia”
- Signing a 2018 letter from hate group American College of Pediatricians to the Trump Administration. Bailey demanded “upholding the scientific definition of sex in law and policy,” adding “an individual who identifies as transgender remains either a biological male or female.”
- 2023 retraction of a questionable paper on “rapid onset gender dysphoria” published in Archives of Sexual Behavior
- 2025 “autogynephilia” meeting
- In 2025, Bailey participated in a meeting with other key “autogynephilia” activists:
- J. Michael Bailey
- Ray Blanchard
- Alex Byrne
- Kevin Hsu
- James Morandini
- Paul Vasey
- Scott Semenyna
- Ken Zucker
In this section
- Bailey’s vulgar misuse of gender diverse children
- “Controversial ideas” (2003) by J. Michael Bailey
- 2003 KOOP-FM interview
- 2004 clinical psychology license inquiry
- Transgender Tapestry coverage
- 2024 “sissy” survey
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
