This clearinghouse explores varying viewpoints about The Man Who Would Be Queen and the ideology that informs the work of J. Michael Bailey, Ray Blanchard, and Anne Lawrence.
This clearinghouse was created in April 2003 to document materials in this controversy as they became available. Though much of it remains in an unsynthesized format, pages about key people and concepts have been updated in some cases. Due to renewed interest in the topic following attacks on Bailey’s critics by his coworker Alice Dreger, links and descriptions are being updated throughout.
For a chronological overview of this matter, please see the timeline of events compiled by Professor Lynn Conway.
The earlier version of this page is available on Internet Archive at this URL:
Bailey’s book is based on an obscure and outdated model of gender variance created by Ray Blanchard of Toronto’s notorious Clarke Institute. Bailey’s and Blanchard’s models contradict cutting-edge research by renowned experts on causes and motivations of those who express gender variance.
Initial positive spin created by Joseph Henry Press publicist Robin Pinnel and a handful of Bailey supporters (primarily sexologist Anne Lawrence and members of a conservative-run eugenics thinktank) quickly gave way to a deluge of negative responses by a wide range of concerned communities, starting with academics, notably those responding to Bailey’s lectures exploiting gender-variant children. For a sense of the size and global scope of the protest, a petition against the book garnered over 1,300 signatures from 35 countries in just its first few days. Given our percentage of the population, this would be equivalent to obtaining millions of signatures in a few days from the general population.
Also speaking out were those of us working to stop defamation of trans people in the media, and even the research subjects portrayed in Baileyâs book. These voices were later joined by those from the gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex communities. In early 2004, hate group monitor Southern Poverty Law Center featured Bailey’s and Blanchard’s ties to neo-eugenicists and right-wing journalists.
In the wake of this, book sales tanked, Bailey has vacated his position as an officer of the International Academy of Sex Research and was subject of a full investigation by Northwestern University for failure to get informed consent. In November 2003, Bailey’s mentor Ray Blanchard finally resigned from HBIGDA after their officers wrote to Northwestern expressing concerns, suggesting that Blanchard will go down in history as what George Rekers is to homosexuality: the old-school holdout who outlived his time.
Executive Editor Stephen Mautner claimed in a 24 June 2003 letter that the book was subjected to âscientific reviewâ and âwas reviewed as a well-crafted and responsible work.â Mautner refers to Bailey as a âscientistâ who follows âa legitimate avenue of scholarship and research.â In the wake of a full investigation into the systemic failures at the National Academies, they continue to remain silent about their culpability.
Bailey’s lurid and unscientific portrayal is easily disproven by successful trans women and men around the world leading joyous and productive lives after transition.
Introduction
Discrediting Bailey was the easy part. Framing the theoretical issues involved is the profoundly difficult part of this controversy. The Bailey-Blanchard-Lawrence model of gender variance raises several issues regarding reproduction, assimilation, biological determinism, and what it means for trans people and society at large.
Please note that many of the concepts and terms discussed in the following articles are controversial and/or inconclusive. They give a sense of the issues at hand, and are not definitive statements on any particular subject.
Dr. Mildred Brown has observed in her clinical practice that some people seeking feminization do so for reasons other than the traditional motivation, and questions whether these reasons are “transsexual” in the clinical definition.
Homosexuality and gender variance represent an “evolutionary mistake” and “developmental error,” according to Bailey’s ideology. This disease model of these traits has led him to “gay gene” and “gay germ” hypotheses about causation. This section explores Bailey’s links to the eugenics movement. It includes extensive quotations from his work and includes a chart of “usual suspects” who are part of this movement.
The investigation
This site is designed to complement the concurrent Investigative Report by Lynn Conway. Our research into how this book got published and promoted focuses on the following six entities.
J. Michael Bailey’s employer. Northwestern faculty, administration, and students have had a range of responses to Bailey’s work and the charges leveled against him. This section documents these reactions.
This Toronto mental institution is home base for most of Bailey’s collaborators and is heavily involved in the North American eugenics movement. It is widely considered by gender-variant people and experts who work with them as out of touch and regressive.
This conservative-run eugenics think tank hopes to usher in “The Age of Galton.” Francis Galton coined the term “eugenics,” and this group represents a revival of the eugenics movement.
In March 2004, Amazon removed 35 customer reviews of Bailey’s book, all but one of which gave it the worst review possible. This had a net effect of raising his average rating a full point and giving the wrong impression that opposition to the book was evenly divided. Since that time, one or two anonymous trolls continue to add shill reviews, which are pretty easy to spot.
This group nominated Bailey for an award in February 2004, which led to immediate protests. The nomination was revoked in March 2004, the Director was ousted in 2005, and the site is currently offline.
Anne Lawrence is the chief apologist and collaborator with Bailey and Blanchard. Lawrence very strongly identifies as having a sex-fueled mental illness invented by Ray Blanchard. Lawrence’s career and life are now spent promoting this diagnosis.
In 2006, Bailey’s coworker Alice Dreger at Northwestern University began an ongoing backlash against the populist response to Bailey’s book, culminating in a one-sided hatchet job on key critics of Bailey.
Gender identity and expression take on different meanings within different systems of thought. Because medical technologies are available to assist in the somatic expression of these identities, several medicalized disease models of the phenomena have developed. This article examines three disease models as typically applied to those who seek feminization:
The GID model is currently considered legitimate within psychological literature and is a required diagnosis to receive access to trans health services in many places. The author reviews several problems with mental illness models, including âchildhood gender nonconformityâ and âtransvestic fetishism,â two other âmental disordersâ currently considered legitimate diagnoses. The author makes several analogies, asking readers to consider whether âracial nonconformityâ or âreligious identity disorderâ seem legitimate as well.
Pathology (âbirth defectâ model)
This third metaphor of impairment describes a physical disorder rather than a mental one. The âorderâ implied by positioning these traits and behaviors as diseases reinforces heteronormative hierarchies. These models use scientific-sounding terminology to reinforce the social belief that the âpurposeâ or âfunctionâ of sex and sexuality is procreation. This leads to an examination of historic problems with anatomical thresholds for determining sex, and parallels with other bioethical debates about technologies that disrupt the ânaturalâ order of procreative sexuality. The author suggests this is a phenomenon that is stigmatized in many cultures, and makes some suggestions for ways to consider it independently from models of sin or disease.
Some funny parodies, cartoons, and essays about this matter. I’m sure you need it by now.
Be Scofield is a transgender American activist critical of new religious movements. Scofield has characterized the progressive wing of the transgender rights movement as a âcult.â
Background
Scofield was born on October 29, 1980 and grew up in Naples, Florida. As a young adult, Scofield produced three albums of dance music under the name MC2000: Spiritual Awakening (1999), Musical Evolutions (2000), and Pyscho [sic, also sometimes styled correctly] (2000).
Scofield graduated from Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina with a bachelor’s degree in psychology/philosophy in 2006, then briefly attended the California Institute of Integral Studies before dropping out.
Scofield then worked at a yoga studio and ran a weekly âecstatic danceâ event called Metta Dance. After founding the education project Mettaversity and marketing project mettawebdesign, Scofield did marketing for sites GreenMedInfo.com and GreenMedTV.com while running a number of sites, including decolonizingyoga.com.
In 2011, Scofield came out as “trapped in the wrong body” and raised $1,640 in a crowdfunding campaign to cover gender transition costs. In 2013 Scofield earned a master’s degree in divinity at Starr King School.
Around 2018, Scofield began writing articles about alleged manipulative or abusive practices in new religious movements.
Scofield was banned from the platform Medium in July 2018 for violations including âmultiple instances of unverified and uncorroborated claims against individuals.â
Criticism of trans activism
In 2021, Scofield got involved in criticizing the transgender rights movement. Scofield specifically decries the âtactics used to silence Jesse Singal,â a writer known for laundering anti-transgender extremism into mainstream media outlets. Singal has parlayed attacks on transgender people into a lucrative career netting hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Singal has been âsilencedâ into dozens of subsequent media appearances as an expert on transgender people, usually in the place of actual medical and legal experts.
In a comparison using the ACLUâs 1978 defense of a march by Nazis in Skokie, Illinois, Scofield frames criticism of Jesse Singal as a First Amendment issue: âWhen the totalist left decrees something ideologically wrong or hateful, that should be the impetus for the speech to be protected, not censored.â If a privately-owned platform or publication decides not to publish someoneâs writing, that is not a First Amendment issue. If activists warn the public about biased people negatively influencing trans rights, that is not censorship.
In a remarkable analogy, Scofield likens Jesse Singal to Martin Luther King, and media watchdogs like GLAAD to the FBI. Scofield condemns Singal’s critics as working âto silence, ruin and derail people and ideas deemed dangerous, or ideologically wrong.â This is exactly why Singal is a once-in-a-generation problem. Singal’s masterful use of the Dregerian narrative has brainwashed followers like Scofield into believing progressive leaders of the transgender rights movement are akin to J. Edgar Hooverâs FBI, and Jesse Singal is akin to the persecuted thought leader of a civil rights movement.
Staff report (March 6, 2003). Students protest Iraq War. Fort Myers News-Press
Scofield, Be (October 28, 2011). Living Out Loud: Iâm Transgender.Tikkun http://www.tikkun.org/tikkundaily/2011/10/28/living-out-loud-im-transgender
Briedis et al. v. Scofield, Washington State 19-2-05077-28 https://dockets.justia.com/docket/washington/wawdce/2:2019cv01494/277812
Baxter, J (May 30, 2019). The Misdeeds of Be Scofield and the Mysterious Orcas Island Death of Carla Shaffer. https://baxtersjournal.com/index.php/2019/05/30/the-misdeeds-of-be-scofield-and-the-mysterious-orcas-island-death-of-carla-shaffer/ [archive]
Cheryl Chase is the pseudonym of Bo Laurent an American activist associated with internet troll Denise Magner and historian Alice Dreger. All three were involved with Intersex Society of North America prior to its 2008 dissolution.
Cheryl Chase, the intersex activist, told me that transsexuals frequently join intersex groups because they are convinced that they are also intersexual. In most cases, they are not.
Background
Chase’s self-reported personal and medical history is murky and often contradictory. She claims she had multiple names starting at birth:
McCormick was born on March 23, 1982. According to information McCormick published online, she grew up in Wales, Wisconsin, and has the following education:
Kettle Moraine High School (2000)
University of Wisconsin-Madison (B.A. 2004)
Chicago-Kent School of Law (J.D. 2007)
Illinois Bar (2007)
Wisconsin Bar (2008)
Northern District of Illinois (2008)
Milwaukee Bar Association (2017)
Work experience includes:
Waukesha County Chief Judge Kathryn W. Foster
Michael D. Robbins & Associates
Schoen, Mangan & Smith
Patton & Ryan LLC
O’Connell, Tivin, Miller & Burns, LLC
Weiss Law Office, S.C. in Mequon, Wisconsin
Wilson Elser
Griffin Purnell
Involvement
On J. Michael Baileyâs 51st birthday in 2008, Megan McCormick sent me the following unsolicited letter:
Ms. James,
I have a strange request: My friend idolizes you. Although I am not terribly familiar with your work, I know that he has frequently mentioned that your activism helped him while he was transitioning.
I am wondering if you ever distribute autographed photographs to fans. I know it seems kind of campy, but I think he would be really thrilled by the gesture (I would give it to him as a birthday gift).
Thanks for any response you are able to provide, and thank you for your activism.
Megan McCormick
Up until that point, I had always sent along an autographed headshot or other item to any fan who asked, at no charge. A number of things in the letter made me 99% sure McCormick was engaging in fraud, but on the 1% chance it was a legitimate request, I waited a few days, then offered to send something that did not have my photo but would still be appreciated by a fan:
Thanks for the sweet note! I don’t have any autograph-worthy pictures right now, but if you wish, I could send an autographed DVD of Casting Pearls. Just tell me the name and address to send it to.
Take care, Andrea
Rather than feeling guilty about her deception and reconsidering, McCormick got back to me within 20 minutes:
Andrea, Thank you so much for your consideration. I think he will love this. If you could please send the DVD to me (as I will be wrapping it as part of his birthday gift).
I gave her one last chance to reconsider her behavior:
Great! To whom should I autograph it?
But being not too sharp, she pressed forward with her
fraudulent request:
He goes by Mike.
At that point, I was almost certain that Megan McCormick was
planning to give this to Mike Bailey. I signed it something like âTo Mike, best
of luck with your transition! Andrea.â In the past, Bailey has threatened to
appear in drag in public, but he has yet to make any announcements about his
very personal relationship to transgender women. In fact, heâs announced,
âEverything that Iâm willing to say about my personal life Iâve already saidâŠâ
I sent this note to McCormick:
Mailed today. Please tell him I am really pleased that my work has been a source of hope and help! Take care, Andrea
Ms. McCormick disingenuously replied:
Thank you again–for everything.
While I wondered if McCormick might be in a sexual relationship with Bailey’s son or even Bailey himself (who has a taste for mannish younger women like McCormick who looked like he did in high school), I didnât look into the matter.
About a year later, an undeniable connection between McCormick and Bailey emerged, at which point I spoke with her boss by phone. After I explained that she had represented herself fraudulently to me, her boss suggested I send a note requesting no further contact. I did just that on May 27, 2009, writing, “I do plan to post our correspondence below so there’s a record of your behavior.”
McCormick became a mother in 2016 and got married in 2019,
so letâs hope she no longer engages in this sort of troubling behavior.
References
McCormick, Megan B (July 2, 2008). Autograph request [unsolicited email to Andrea James].
Staff report (2017). Welcome New MBA Members! Milwaukee Bar Association Messenger, Winter, page 4 (lists Megan B. McCormick, Weiss Law Office) https://milwbar.org/images/downloads/mba_msgr_dec2017_9_hr.pdf
Staff report (November 2008). State Bar welcomes 122 new lawyers. Wisconsin Lawyer, Vol. 81, No. 11. https://www.wisbar.org/NewsPublications/WisconsinLawyer/Pages/Article.aspx?Volume=81&Issue=11&ArticleID=1608
Chicago Volunteer Legal Services (2015). https://issuu.com/cvlsf/docs/cvls_ar_2015
Megan Beth McCormick via Lawyers.com. https://www.lawyers.com/mequon/wisconsin/megan-beth-mccormick-157132304-a/
Megan Beth McCormick via Martindale. https://www.martindale.com/milwaukee/wisconsin/megan-beth-mccormick-300185516-a/
http://archive.is/wZ0uT
https://archive.ph/DY1kK
JoAnn Roberts (March 18, 1948âJune 7, 2013) was an American publisher and activist whose important work bridges the transition from print to digital transgender resources.
Background
Roberts founded Creative Design Services (CDS) in 1985. Print magazines included:
Ladylike
International TransScript
Books included:
Art & Illusion: A Guide to Crossdressing
Vol. 1: Face & Hair
Vol. 2: Fashion & Style
The Transsexual’s Survival Guide to Transition & Beyond
Volume 2: for Family, Friends, & Employers
Coping with Crossdressing: Tools & Strategies for Partners
Roberts also produced instructional videos as well as social events like Paradise in the Poconos and Beauty And The Beach.
Roberts co-founded the Renaissance Education Association, the National Transgender Advocacy Coalition, the Congress of Transgender Organizations, the Transgender Alliance for Community, and GenderPac, and served an important role in the second International Congress on Crossdressing, Sex, and Gender.
In 1991, Roberts authored the Gender Bill of Rights.
In 1995 Roberts began developing several websites, first via CDS. then via 3-D Communications, Inc. with Jamie Faye Fenton and Angela Gardner from 1996 to 2006. Roberts absorbed all of the assets back into CDS in 2006.
cdspub.com
3dcom.com
transgender.org
tgforum.com
Roberts died of lung cancer in 2013 and was posthumously honored with a Virginia Prince Award that year.
References
Roberts, JoAnn (1990). A Bill of Gender Rights. [archive]
“Phil S. Illy” is the stage name of Phil Hutchinson, an American circus performer and âautogynephiliaâ activist.
Hutchinson proposes “autoheterosexuality” as a more value-neutral term that includes two controversial concepts: “autogynephiliaâ (AGP) and “autoandrophiliaâ (AAP).
Background
Philip M. “Phil” Hutchinson was born on September 5, 1987 to Christopher Hutchinson and Sandra L. (Ille) âSandyâ Hutchinson. Hutchinson grew up in Schenectady, New York and has a sibling Steven N. âSteveâ Hutchinson.
Hutchinson’s stage name is a pun on a family name, Ille, as well as a pun of “Phil Is Silly” or “Phil’s Silly.”
Activism
Hutchinson is active on reddit under the username gockstar. The term “gock” is slang among a subset of trans and gender diverse gamers for “girlcock.”
Hutchinson is author of of the 2023 book Autoheterosexual: Attracted to Being the Other Sex. “Autogynephilia” activist and disgraced anesthesiologist Anne Lawrence said Hutchinson’s “amateurish book disrespects my research.”
“Autogynephilia” as a taxonomy appeals to a very specific type of person: neurodiverse, fixated on collecting and categorizing, socially isolated/eccentric, rigid thinking.
Hutchinson was invited to the 2023 anti-transgender conference “The Puzzle of Sexual Orientation” founded by Lee Ellis.
In 2023 Hutchinson attended the anti-transgender Genspect conference, leading to significant controversy:
We had a photographer who was diligently taking photos at the event and one of the photos taken was of two attendees, Laura Becker, a detransitioned woman, and Phil Illy, a man in a dress. Phil is unusual â he is a self-confessed autogynephile who has written a book that puts forward his conceptualisation of autogynephilia (a paraphilia that refers to a maleâs propensity to be sexually aroused by the thought of himself as a female) and redefines it as âautoheterosexualityâ. Phil did not speak at the conference nor did he sell his book there.
Critics pointed out that the disease “autogynephilia” is considered by its creators to be a sexual disorder that involves nonconsenting adults or the suffering and humiliation of others. Hutchinson’s “public display of fetish” is akin to someone who exposes themselves to others for sexual gratification, according to the anti-trans extremists with whom Hutchinson associates.
Others pointed out that Hutchinson’s book advocates for awareness and recognition of autoerotic expressions of race, age, species, and ability. O’Malley removed Hutchinson’s book from Genspect’s recommended reading list after learning that Hutchinson supported youth transition.
According to the Daily Dot, Hutchinson is also involved in activism around race change to another, or RCTA:
Author Phil Illy has studied race dysphoria and transracialism, including by surveying people who identify as transracial.
Based on this work and academic research on the subject, Illy believes that RCTA is very similar to race dysphoria despite members of transracial communities rejecting the comparison.
âRCTA refers to imagining oneself as another race or having an enduring wish to be another race,â he told the Daily Dot. âIt happens when a personâs race-based attraction includes the desire to be the race they love.â
Illy said that many people he interviewed who identify as transracial describe racial dysphoria in starkly negative terms.
Roberta Angela Dee (October 31, 1950âMarch 13, 2003) was an American author and transgender rights activist. A longtime critic of sexologists Ray Blanchard and Anne Lawrence for their promotion of the disease “autogynephilia,” Dee was the journalist who broke the story of Lawrence’s unconsented genital examination of an unconscious Ethiopian patient during a surgical procedure. The incident led to Lawrence’s resignation as an anesthesiologist.
Background
Dee was born in Brooklyn, New York, grew up in Long Island, and lived in Atlanta before becoming a resident of Augusta, Georgia. She had a journalism degree. Her writing was published widely, and she was founder of the Women on the Net (WON) website, an early online resource for women of color. Her work includes:
On October 10, 2002, Dee published the following post to soc.support.transgendered. It included the November 20, 1997 letter concluding the Washington State investigation and the 2-page Activity Report summarizing the case. While Dee says the patient was a minor, the documentation does not support that assumption. The patient was anesthetized by Lawrence prior to a hysterectomy, and the surgeon told Lawrence that the patient’s genitals appeared that way due to aging.
File on Anne A. Lawrence, M.D.
Dear Members:
I am in receipt of the document from the State of Washington, Department of Health, concerning the allegations that Anne A. Lawrence, MD, had, inappropriately examined a female minor. Of the 10 page document provided to me, I have reproduced the most pertinent three pages as text.
Appendix G indicates that Anne Lawrence plea bargained in order to avoid a complete investigation. This, in my humble opinion, is not indicative of someone who is innocent.
If a charge of sexual impropriety had been directed at me, I would seek a thorough investigation to clear my name and remove any suspicion. Why would an innocent person do any less?
Lawrence, at one point, had two attorneys defending her. I doubt that the little girl’s parents could afford the ensuing legal battle. Consequently, Lawrence is cleared by default.
Each of us, I’m sure, will reach his or her own conclusions. However, I must say that the activities do not sit well with me. I’ve seen this kind of thing before. A dirty doctor walks away unscathed but an innocent child, though not physically harmed, is emotionally scarred for life.
With Kind Regards,
Roberta Angela Dee
PS If anyone suspects that I might have doctored the document or that I omitted any pertinent information, the address is provided and you may request a copy of the original document.
STATE OF WASHINGTON DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH 1300 SE Quince Street · P.O. Box 47866 · Olympia, WA 98504-7866
05-22-97 Call from Lee Norman. Lawrence resigned. Reason threat of adverse action. She plea bargained to stave off investigation. Unauthorized exam of pateint. [… redacted* …] The patient was not harmed. Question of moral turpitude.
* Dee’s version said the edited line about Lawrence said: “Respondent has been having bizarre behavior for a while.”
References
Dee, Roberta Angela (October 10, 2002). File on Anne A. Lawrence, M.D. soc.support.transgendered [via Google Groups archive]
Monica Katrice Roberts (May 4, 1962 â October 5, 2020) was an American journalist and transgender rights activist. Roberts was founding editor of the award-winning blog TransGriot.
Background
Roberts grew up in Houston, Texas, graduating from Jones High School in 1980 and University of Houston in 1984. Roberts was a United Airlines Customer Service Representative from 1987 to 2001.
Roberts’ writing appeared at the Bilerico Project, Ebony.com, The Huffington Post and the Advocate. Roberts began writing TransGriot as a column in 2004, then as a standalone blog in 2006.
Roberts was honored many times for this work:
IFGE Trinity Award (2006)
Virginia Prince Transgender Pioneer Award (2015)
Phillips Brooks House Association’s Robert Coles Call of Service Award (2016)
HRC John Walzel Equality Award (2017)
GLAAD Media Awards (2016 and 2018)
Out 100 (2019)
Roberts was critical of medical and religious leaders who are critical of the transgender rights movement, including Paul McHugh. Roberts also raised the voices of trans women of color who were important historical figures in online activism, including Roberta Angela Dee.
Shey, Brittanie (January 30, 2018). 8 Houston Women to Watch on Social Media.Houstonia Magazine https://www.houstoniamag.com/articles/2018/1/30/houston-women-social-media
Sam Hope is a British counsellor and trauma specialist who works with our community.
Background
Hope graduated from North Warwickshire and Hinckley College in 2004 with Certificates in Counselling Skills, Therapeutic Counselling, and an Advanced Diploma in Humanistic Counselling. In 2007 Hope earned a PTLLS (Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector) from South Notts College, followed by a master’s degree in trauma studies at University of Nottingham in 2013. Hope also holds a Diploma in Supervision Studies from Open College.
Hope is an Accredited Member of the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP).
Joanne Herman is a retired American executive and philanthropist. She has been a key figure in developing transgender philanthropic leadership through her work with and support of The Point Foundation, Fenway Health, Outgiving, and Outfest. Joanne was the major funder for the restoration of the 1960s documentary Queens at Heart, a rare color film of trans people living and working in pre-Stonewall Manhattan.
In 2007, Herman published about historian Alice Dreger‘s attempt to exonerate psychologist J. Michael Bailey for his 2003 anti-transgender book The Man Who Would Be Queen. She wrote for The Advocate, “To focus on the overzealous response of some trans activists is to miss the bigger picture — that transsexuals are fed up with non-trans “experts” claiming to know us better than we do.” Herman added:
“Focusing on the personal attacks against Bailey is like discussing the clashes between protesters and police in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic National Convention without emphasizing the incredible wave of social change sweeping the nation at the time. Trans people have reached the point where they are fed up with any nontrans âexpertâ — not just Bailey — who’s dismissing our opinions. Our view is that, much like a nongay person can’t possibly imagine loving someone of the same sex, a nontransgender person can’t possibly imagine the feeling of living in the wrong gender.”
Later life
In retirement with her wife Terry, Joanne has become a serious bowler, even creating the website Bowling Seriously.
