Jennifer Pritzker is an American investor and philanthropist who focuses on military causes. Pritzker is the first out transgender billionaire.
Background
Jennifer Natalya Pritzker was born on August 13, 1950 in Chicago, Illinois. Pritzker has two siblings and two half-siblings. Pritzker’s family founded the Hyatt hotel chain and controlled a diversified holding company that was sold to Berkshire Hathaway in 2013. In 2023 the family’s net worth was estimated at about $37 billion, with Jennifer Pritker’s share around $2 billion.
At age 23, Pritzker enlisted in the army, rising to the rank of sergeant. Pritzker earned a bachelor’s degree in 1979 from Loyola University of Chicago, then returned to the Army to serve as a commissioned officer until 1985. Pritzker then served in the Army Reserves and Illinois Army National Guard until 2001 rising to rank of lieutenant colonel.
In 1995, Pritzker founded the nonprofit Tawani Foundation. In 1996 Pritzker founded wealth management firm Tawani Enterprises. In 2003 Pritzker founded the Pritzker Military Library. Pritzker is involved in a number of private equity and national security ventures.
Pritzker has been married three times and has three children. Pritzker came out as transgender in 2013.
Transgender philanthropy
In 2003, the Tawani Foundation made a $1.35 million donation to the Palm Center at the University of California, Santa Barbara, to study the feasibility of transgender people serving in the military and in the ranks of police and fire departments.
In 2016, through Tawani Foundation, Pritzker gave a $2 million donation to create the world’s first endowed academic chair of transgender studies, at the University of Victoria in British Columbia; Aaron Devor was chosen as the inaugural chair.
Pritzker was a major Republican donor until the party began sustained legislative attacks on transgender people un Donald Trump.
Some anti-transgender activists, including Rick Wiles, Jennifer Bilek, and Helen Joyce, have concocted a conspiracy theory that a cabal of Jewish billionaires including Pritzker are behind the transgender movement.
Butler, Jack (June 28, 2022). The Money behind the Transgender Movement.National Review https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/the-money-behind-the-transgender-movement/
Leveille, Lee (July 5, 2021). The Mechanisms of TAnon: Where it Came From. Health Liberation Now! https://healthliberationnow.com/2021/07/05/the-mechanisms-of-tanon-where-it-came-from/
Leveille, Lee (April 12, 2021). The Mechanisms of TAnon: What is âTAnonâ?Health Liberation Now! https://healthliberationnow.com/2021/04/12/the-mechanisms-of-tanon-what-is-tanon/
Veale completed a doctorate at Massey University in 2012. Veale then worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, researching the health of Canadian transgender youth.
In 2015 Veale was appointed Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Waikato.
Veale has served on the Board of Directors of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and has served as an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Transgender Health. Veale also helped to establish the University of Waikato Rainbow Staff/Student Alliance. Projects include:
Veale has attempted to refute Ray Blanchard and the controversial diagnosis of “autogynephilia” by applying Blanchardâs Core Autogynephilia Scale to people who are not trans women. This in effect reified the diagnosis itself, allowing “autogynephilia” activistAnne Lawrence to retort that “Transsexual groups in Veale et al. (2008) are ‘autogynephilic’ and ‘even more autogynephilic.'”
In 2022, Veale and biologist Julia Serano published a paper refuting J. Michael Bailey and Kevin Hsu, who made the claim that “autogynephilia in women” does not exist. Veale and Serano argued that “autogynephilia” is a flawed framework and expanded on Serano’s model of “female embodiment fantasies,”
BA Clark, JF Veale, M Townsend, H Frohard-Dourlent, E Saewyc 4 Non-binary youth Today’s Transgender Youth: Health, Well-being, and Opportunities for âŠ
JF Veale, RJ Watson, T Peter, EM Saewyc (2017). Mental health disparities among Canadian transgender youth. Journal of Adolescent Health 60 (1), 44-49 265 2017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2016.09.014
BA Clark, JF Veale, M Townsend, H Frohard-Dourlent, E Saewyc (2018). Non-binary youth: Access to gender-affirming primary health care. International Journal of Transgenderism 19 (2), 158-169 125 2018 https://doi.org/10.1080/15532739.2017.1394954
RJ Watson, JF Veale, EM Saewyc (2017). Disordered eating behaviors among transgender youth: Probability profiles from risk and protective factors. International Journal of Eating Disorders 50 (5), 515-522 126 2017 https://doi.org/10.1002/eat.22627
JF Veale, T Peter, R Travers, EM Saewyc (2017). Enacted stigma, mental health, and protective factors among transgender youth in Canada. Transgender Health 2 (1), 207-216 116 2017 https://doi.org/10.1089/trgh.2017.0031
N Adams, R Pearce, J Veale, A Radix, D Castro, A Sarkar, KC Thom (2017). Guidance and ethical considerations for undertaking transgender health research and institutional review boards adjudicating this research. Transgender Health 2 (1), 165-175 114 2017 https://doi.org/10.1089/trgh.2017.0012
J Veale, EM Saewyc, H Frohard-Dourlent, S Dobson, B Clark (2015). Being safe, being me: Results of the Canadian trans youth health survey. Stigma and Resilience Among Vulnerable Youth Centre (SARAVYC) 146 2015 [PDF] https://cdn.dal.ca/content/dam/dalhousie/pdf/Diff/gahps/SARAVYC_Trans%20Youth%20Health%20Report_EN_Final_Web.pdf
F Pega, JF Veale (2015). The case for the World Health Organizationâs Commission on Social Determinants of Health to address gender identity. American Journal of Public Health 105 (3), e58-e62 https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302373
Veale J, Clark DE, Lomax TC (2012). Male-to-female transsexuals’ impressions of Blanchard’s autogynephilia theory. International Journal of Transgenderism. 13 (3): 131â139. https://doi.org/10.1080/15532739.2011.669659.
Veale JF, Lomax T, Clarke D (2010). “Identity-Defense Model of Gender-Variant Development”. International Journal of Transgenderism. 12 (3): 125â138. https://doi.org/10.1080/15532739.2010.514217
JF Veale, DE Clarke, TC Lomax (2010). Biological and psychosocial correlates of adult gender-variant identities: A review. Personality and Individual Differences 48 (4), 357-366 93 2010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2009.09.018
JF Veale (2008). Prevalence of transsexualism among New Zealand passport holders. Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry 42 (10), 887-889 93 2008 https://doi.org/10.1080/00048670802345490
Note: In 2025, this site phased out AI illustrations after artist feedback. The previous illustration is here.
Susan Evans is a British psychoanalytic psychotherapist. Evans was a key critic of trans healthcare for gender diverse youth at the Tavistock. The clinic was later closed.
Evans and spouse Marcus Evans co-authored the 2021 book Gender Dysphoria: A Therapeutic Model for Working with Children, Adolescents and Young Adults.
Evans worked for 12 years at the Tavistock in the Adult Department, Youth Gender Identity Service and for the Portman Clinic in Probation officer supervision and as Programme Organiser and senior clinical lecturer. Evans was also a Senior Fellow of the University of East London.
Evans has been a member of the British Psychotherapy Foundation, London Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Service, and the British Psychoanalytic Council (BPC).
2021 book
The following people are mentioned in the acknowledgements:
We are grateful to the following people who have generously given their time and expertise to the development of this book: Annie Pesskin, Ian Williamson, Richard Stephens, Margot Waddell, Frances Grier, and Ema Syrulnik, as well as all our colleagues at the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine. We are grateful to Kate Pearce at Phoenix for offering to publish this book.
2022 Tavistock closure
Evans was involved in the attacks on gender affirming care for gender diverse you at the Tavistock clinic, a federally funded gatekeeping facility with unethically long wait times due to underfunding.
Evans’ version of things was reported via anti-trans activist Bari Weiss:
I was a nurse working on a team that recklessly prescribed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids. I blew the whistle in 2005. Now the government is finally listening.
References
Evans, Sue (August 4, 2022). How Tavistock Came Tumbling Down.The Free Press https://www.thefp.com/p/how-tavistock-came-tumbling-down
Jamie Faye Fenton is an American computer programmer and game developer best known for work on the 1981 game Gorf and what became Adobe Director (formerly Macromedia Director, MacroMind Director, and MacroMind VideoWorks), a precursor of the software Flash. Fenton was also an early innovator in creating the “video glitch” visual aesthetic.
After making a gender transition in the late 1990s, Fenton became an important figure in the transgender community for creating early online transgender resources in the 1990s. In 1995, with Cindy Martin and JoAnn Roberts, Fenton created and launched tgforum.com, an online forum for transgender people.
Background
Jamie Faye Fenton was born on April 25, 1954. Fenton attended University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the early 1970s. Fenton has created several notable early works of digital art and software:
Datsun 280 ZZZAP (1976)
Checkmate (1977)
Digital TV Dinner (1978)
Bally Astrocade BASIC (1980)
Gorf (1981)
Robby Roto (1981)
Fenton made a gender transition around 1998.
Comments on Bailey (2003)
In 2003, Fenton got involved in the controversy involving the book The Man Who Would Be Queen by anti-trans sexologist J. Michael Bailey. One issue was Baileyâs promotion of the concept of “autogynephilia,” a disputed “paraphilia” created by Ray Blanchard in 1989 as part of a sexualized way to divide transfeminine people into two groups:
“Homosexual transsexuals,” whom Blanchard considers gay males with a fetish for straight men
“Autogynephilic transsexuals,” whom Blanchard considers straight males with autoerotic interest in feminization
Bailey’s popularization of Blanchard’s ideas was a turning point in transgender history, where the community united in condemnation of this harmful book.
Fenton was one of the few trans people who did not condemn Bailey’s book outright, writing about “autogynephilia” as if it were settled science and reifying it as an acceptable term. Fenton was also a prominent member of an online “autogynephilia support” group. Fenton published an essay called “The Lemonade Stand of Desire” and promoted an idiosyncratic “dual motive theory,” part of writings about why people are transgender. In 2004, we corresponded at length after I put up a version of this page criticizing Fenton’s involvement and writings.
In 2012, Fenton requested that I remove this page. Fenton said the posts that I quoted âdo not represent my views on the subject.â
Comments on Dreger (2016)
In 2015, historian Alice Dreger published Galileo’s Middle Finger, which reprints Dregerâs defense of Bailey that was published in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, a journal edited by Bailey, Blanchard, and other “autogynephilia” activists. At the same time, the journal’s editor Kenneth Zucker was being investigated for performing reparative therapy on gender-expansive children at Toronto clinic CAMH. Zucker was fired that year and the clinic was shuttered.
Reading through Dreger’s writings, it is hard to find many differences between her positions and those of intensely transphobic sources like The Federalist or hate groups like the FRC. All of them oppose the idea that transgender women are women. They all take the position that gender identity isnât real, and they deny the lived experiences of transgender people. They all support autogynephilic theory, which is used primarily to label transgender people as sexual deviants. All of them oppose laws against reparative therapy. All of them oppose affirming models of care for transgender youth.
Dreger wrote an open letter denouncing Lambda Literary Foundation for their decision, and “Hobbie” and Fenton came out with new blogs simultaneously. Dreger is notorious for attempting to create the appearance of consensus for fringe ideas. It’s a shame that Fenton doubled down by siding with Dreger, further tarnishing a previously excellent legacy of service to the community.
Pow, Whit (2020). Stored in Memory: Recovering Queer and Transgender Life in Software History.Letters and Science https://uwm.edu/letters-science/event/stored-in-memory-recovering-queer-and-transgender-life-in-software-history/ [not archived] https://www.proquest.com/openview/1605775af4a8e04c2d2b90faad6b7fef/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=44156
Cates, Jon (2018). Chicago New Media, 1973-1992. University of Illinois Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-252-08407-2.
Betancourt, Michael (2017). The Invention of Glitch Video. https://www.michaelbetancourt.com/pdf/Betancourt_TheInventionofGlitchVideo.pdf [archive] https://www.academia.edu/66641089/The_Invention_of_Glitch_Video_Digital_TV_Dinner_1978_
The earlier version of this profile that includes our extensive correspondence was at this URL: https://www.tsroadmap.com/info/jamie-faye-fenton.html [archive]
Marta Meana is a Spanish-American psychologist and anti-transgender activist deeply involved in publishing and promoting disease models of gender identity and expression, with a focus on sexualized taxonomies of transgender people like “autogynephilia.”
Background
Meana was born in Madrid, Spain on December 1, 1957. Meana attended McGill University, earning a bachelor’s degree and master’s degree before earning a doctorate in 1996, writing a dissertation on dyspareunia. Meana had a post-doctoral research fellowship in womenâs health at the University of Toronto.
Meana joined the psychology department at University of Nevada, Las Vegas in 1997. From 2018 to 2020, Meana was interim President of UNLV. Meana retired in 2024.
After years of following the developments surrounding the publication of TMWWBQ in real time, it was interesting to step back and read Dregerâs comprehensive reconstruction of events. The story that emerges is reminiscent of classical drama. It comes complete with a protagonist (Bailey), antagonists (Conway, James, McCloskey), characters caught in the crossfire (Kyeltika), and a balanced and half-detached chorus (Dreger) explaining to the audience (the rest of us) the lessons to be learned from the melee. Mercifully, this drama did not end up a tragedy, but it shares significant qualities with the latter. It features a well-meaning, though necessarily flawed, protagonist with the requisite amount of hubris and a group of antagonists whose sordid means nullify any possible empathy the audience may have had with their perceived injury. The chorus seems open-minded and fair, although perhaps a little naĂŻve in her belief in the healing power of her narrative.
Meana, Marta (2013). Gender Identity Diagnoses: History and Controversies. In Gender Dysphoria and Disorders of Sex Development (pp.137-150). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-7441-8_7
Natalie Wynn is an American cultural critic whose YouTube channel Contrapoints won a 2022 Peabody Award in the Immersive & Interactive category.
Background
Wynn was born on October 21, 1988 in Arlington, Virginia and grew up in nearby Vienna. Wynn’s parent William is a psychology professor at Georgetown, and parent Marian is a doctor. Wynn has two siblings who also went to Georgetown.
Wynn studied piano at Berklee College of Music, earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University in 2012, and a master’s degree from Northwestern University, then decided not to pursue a doctorate. Wynn did gig work before becoming a video essayist in 2008. Wynn’s work is considered part of “BreadTube,” a loose affiliation of YouTubers who posted videos to challenge right-wing views on subjects.
In 2016, Wynn began the ContraPoints channel. In 2017, Wynn came out as trans and removed all pre-transition videos. In 2020 Wynn came out as lesbian.
Video essays
2024
Twilight
2023
The Witch Trials of J.K. Rowling
2022
The Hunger
2021
Envy
J.K. Rowling
2020
Voting
Justice
Cringe
Shame
Canceling
2019
Opulence
Men
“Transtrenders”
Beauty
Gender Critical
The Darkness
“Are Traps Gay?”
2018
The Apocalypse
Pronouns
The Aesthetic
Incels
The West
Tiffany Tumbles
Jordan Peterson
2017
What’s Wrong with Capitalism (Part 2)
America: Still Racist
Autogynephilia
What’s Wrong with Capitalism (Part 1)
Violence
Degeneracy
The Left
Decrypting the Alt-Right: How to Recognize a Fascist
References
Weiss, Max (June 2024). Who Exactly Is Natalie Wynn?Baltimore Magazine https://www.baltimoremagazine.com/section/artsentertainment/natalie-wynn-viral-baltimore-youtuber-profile/
“Emily Hobbie” is the pseudonym of an American transgender activist who created one of the important early transgender forums, GenderPeace. The support forum was active from 2002 until it was eventually ruined by transgender troll Denise Magner. The site went offline in 2008.
Background
“”Emily Hobbie” was born in 1969 and graduated from Brookland-Cayce High School in 1987. “Hobbie” earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Virginia in 1991. “Hobbie” worked at Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation in 1992, designing the space frame fuselage of the Perseus A, NASA’s Small High Altitude Science Aircraft (SHASA). From 1992 to 1993, “Hobbie” worked in the UVa Department of Applied Mechanics as a graduate research assistant. Hobbie then worked at Blue Cross/Blue Shield in several techincal roles from 1994 to 2015.
“Autogynephilia” activism
“Hobbie” began having significant personal life issues in 2009, and by 2015, Hobbie had turned to Alice Dreger for attention and validation, as Denise Magner and many other indigent trans people had done previously. At some point, “Hobbie” became an “autogynephilia” activist.
In 2016, “Hobbie” read Dreger’s book Galileo’s Middle Finger and began getting involved in the trans community response, almost all of which was negative. When the Lambda Literary Foundation rescinded their nomination of the book for a possible award in March, “Hobbie” sprung into action defending Dreger. “Hobbie” and fellow “autogynephilia” activist Jamie Faye Fenton launched blogs supporting Dreger on the same day in March 2016. This was the only entry by “Hobbie”:
I hate âAGPâ as itâs misrepresented. Here is my representation.
I think the way I experience what I think of as my gender is most intensely is during sex. I suspect this is true for the vast majority of people and part and parcel of being sexual beings. I donât believe in a “true” gender any more than a “true” sex â sex and gender are both way complicated â but I do think that the gender I feel most keenly during sexual arousal is the gender that makes the sense for me to live by, and happily tracks with the gender my sexual partners and society in general relate to me as much more naturally than that suggested by my XY chromosome or naughty bits with which I was born.
“Hobbie,” under the username TugWildGeese, created a single-purpose account on Wikipedia and used it between April 6 and 10, 2016 to puff up Dreger’s biography.
As with Magner, there’s a lot more to this sad tale. It’s a shame that someone whose legacy would have been fondly remembered tacked on this unfortunate epilogue during a time of personal crisis.
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]
Candace Owens is a conservative American writer and anti-transgender activist. Owens is part of a group of conspiracy theorists involved in “transvestigations,” where they make claims that public figures are secretly transgender.
Background
Candace Amber Owens was born on April 29, 1989. Owens grew up in Stamford, Connecticut, graduated from Stamford High School, and attended University of Rhode Island, dropping out before completing a degree. After an internship at Vogue, Owens worked at a private equity firm in administration.
Owens married George Farmer in 2019. They have two children.
In 2021, Owens joined The Daily Wire and hosted Candace, a political talk show. Owens left Daily Wire in March 2024, reportedly over remarks about Israel.
Anti-transgender activism
In 2017, Owens supported banning transgender people without bottom surgery from serving in the United States military.
In 2022, Owens falsely claimed the Robb Elementary School shooter could be transgender.
In 2022, Owens described Drag Queen Story Hour as “child abuse,” adding that parents who take their children “should have their children taken away from them.”
In 2022, Owens said that society would benefit by discriminating more against transgender and non-binary people.
In 2023, Owens said “It is worse than Jim Crow laws because we are mutilating the bodies of children. […] It is Frankenstein. These are human experiments that are being performed on children.”
In February 2025 Owens released Becoming Brigitte, a “transvestigation” into Brigitte Macron, First Lady of France and spouse of French president Emmanuel Macron. Owens concludes that Brigitte Macron is trans, and there’s a vast conspiracy to keep this information hidden.
Paul Garcia-Ryan is a conservative American social worker and ex-transgender activist. Garcia-Ryan believes people under age 26 should not get trans healthcare under an informed consent model.
Do not go to Garcia-Ryan for therapy. If you are a minor forced to see Garcia-Ryan, do everything in your power to end the sessions and find a supportive local therapist.
Background
Paul A. Garcia-Ryan was born on June 17, 1991. At age 15, Garcia-Ryan reportedly met with a therapist about gender identity and expression.
As an adult, Garcia-Ryan began using the name Charlotte Garcia-Ryan and took medical transition steps.
Garcia-Ryan earned a bachelor’s degree from Alfred University in 2014 and a master’s degree from Hunter College in 2018.
In 2021, at age 30, Garcia-Ryan made additional gender changes following reportedly poor surgical results.
Practice
Garcia-Ryan is president of Therapy First, a directory of therapists who believe they should be paid to determine if trans and gender diverse people should be allowed to undertake medical transition steps.
Garcia-Ryan has been affiliated with the Open Therapy Institute and was listed with these therapists:
Camilo Ortiz
Katherine Cullen
Neil Kressel
Paul Garcia-Ryan
That site stated: “Paul Garcia-Ryan is a New York City based psychotherapist providing care to a wide variety of patients, including gay and lesbian adults who don’t feel they have a place in LGBT culture and individuals/families facing gender related challenges.”
Garcia-Ryan feels that young adults should not be allowed to make a gender transition unless they pay for “gender exploratory therapy” from Garcia-Ryan or other conservative colleagues.
In 2024, Garcia-Ryan was featured in a New York Times article by anti-trans activist Pamela Paul. Garcia-Ryan stated:
âWhen a professional affirms a gender identity for a younger person, what they are doing is implementing a psychological intervention that narrows a personâs sense of self and closes off their options for considering whatâs possible for them.â
