Megan Beth McCormick is an American attorney who chose to get involved in the controversy over the anti-transgender book The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey.
Background
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
“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.”
Other “autogynephilia” activists praised it, although many use fake names like the author. These include J. Michael Bailey, Kevin J. Hsu, Zack M. Davis, Aaron Terrell, “Kristina C,” ex-trans activist Laura Reynolds, “James L.,” and “Tracing Woodgrains.”
“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.
O’Malley (2023)
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.
Nejam (2023)
References
Nejam, Abderrahemane (September 1, 2023). Race change to another, explained. Daily Dot https://www.dailydot.com/news/race-change-to-another/
O’Malley, Stella (November 11, 2023). The Split. Genspect https://genspect.org/the-split/
Media
Leslie Elliott and Shannon Thrace (November 12, 2023). A Civil Dialogue about Autogynephilia, with Phil Illy & Shannon Thrace -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eM6lWJ6cJsk
Nathan Ferguson (August 19, 2023). The Two Types of Trans w/ Phil Illy | Street Epistemology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khBR6rMksxY
Oren Amitay and Malini Ondrovcik (Jun 21, 2023). Autoheterosexual Pt 1: Redefining Autogynephilia | Awake at the Wheel | Phil Illy | Ep 16https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmU3a-PcYS0
Benjamin Boyce (June 16, 2023). Autogynephilia’s Impact on Intimacy | with Phil Illy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPBFfINW4A0
Benjamin Boyce (Feb 16, 2023). Autogynephilia: The Sexual Orientation Fueling Transition | with Phil Illy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyy5bpIUwEE
Aaron Kimberly and Aaron Terrell (Feb 5, 2023). EP55 – Autohetero – with Phil Illy Gender Dysphoria Alliance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eU69WNSOjo
Resources
Funhouse Lounge (funhouselounge.com)
Shift Festival (shiftfestival.com)
- Phil Illy
- https://www.shiftfestival.com/portfolio_item/phil-illy
Twitter (twitter.com)
Substack (substack.com)
Reddit (reddit.com)
Facebook (facebook.com)
Disqus (disqus.com)
PayPal (paypal.com)
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:
- novels for Reluctant Press
- Roberta Dee: TS Girlfriend
- Roberta & Ren
- Sasha
- Roberta, a Lesbian Transsexual
- The Business of Being a Woman
- erotica for The Gay Café Library
- columns for print periodical The Transvestian
- columns for Roberta Angela Dee’s Haven on The Transgender Guide
Lawrence exposé (2002)
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
Full Lawrence file (2003)
Following Dee’s exposĂ©, I requested the full file from the state to confirm her transcription independently. Dee’s version was not redacted and included some material that was removed in the version I received upon request in 2003. Among the notable changes:
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]
Dee, Roberta Angela. The Myth of Autogynephilia. The Transgender Guide. http://www.tgguide.com/question/rad/autogynephilia.html
Roberts, Monica (February 8, 2007). Roberta Angela Dee. Transgriot. https://transgriot.blogspot.com/2007/02/roberta-angela-dee.html
Roberts, Monica (March 13, 2013). Happy Birthday, Roberta Angela Dee. Transgriot. https://transgriot.blogspot.com/2013/03/happy-birthday-roberta-angela-dee.html
Resources
The Transgender Guide (tgguide.com)
WON: Women on the Net (members.aol.com/aawon1)
Jim Marks and J. Michael Bailey
Jim Marks oversaw Lambda Literary Foundation‘s nomination and eventual revocation of The Man Who Would Be Queen for consideration of their book award in 2004. His direct involvement is detailed below.
For an overview of the controversy in a larger context, please see the main Lambda Literary Foundation page.
Contents
Overview
Jim Marks was the Executive Director of the Lambda Literary Foundation (LLF) when they announced on 2 February 2004 that The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Baileyhad been chosen by their finalist committee as a nominee for an award in the transgender/genderqueer category (LLF 2004a).
After voting to uphold the nomination on 24 February, LLF announced on 12 March 2004 that they were rescinding the nomination, an unprecedented step in the history of the awards. Marks said of the decision:
“The specific issue was whether the book was transphobic. The judges looked at the book more closely and decided it was.” (Letellier 2004)
In 2005, LLF accepted Marks’ resignation in June (Smith 2005) and closed their website in September, removing all materials about the controversy in the process (LLF 2005a). LLF eventually opened a new site at a new web address that makes no mention of the debacle (LLF 2005b).
Jim Marks GenderTalk interview, 9 February 2004
Below are excerpts from Marksâ comments during his interview with Gordene MacKenzie and Nancy Nangeroni on GenderTalk. (Nangeroni 2004a)
âThis is the first time an issue like this has come up because people generally donât nominate or suggest titles that are not sympathetic to our point of view.â
âWe are definitely an activist organization that believes in equal rights for gay people, lesbians, transgender people, so we donât get nominations from Focus on the Family kind of books.”
âWe have a nominating period in which books are nominated, mostly by publishers. We submit a whole list of titles to a finalist committee⊠They donât caucus with each other. They vote individually, and we compile the results, and thatâs how a book is selected as a finalist.â
âMost of them are bookstore owners or people who have a very broad awareness of the GLBT publishing world⊠so they do have a big overview. Theyâre almost all in the book business, which means that theyâre all overworked with much too much work and much too little time.â
âIt was pretty dramatic. We got an outpouring of emails when I came into the office on Tuesday February 3.â
Marks identified two issues that needed to be paramount: the âintegrity of the [selection] process and our mission.â
âWeâre trying to get a cross-section of the community and make sure the awards are representative of what the community in a larger sense than one person sitting at a desk here in Washington thinks⊠If the awards are going to be representative of that then what the community tells us, we have to say thatâs OK⊠We donât want to do something that going to interfere with the process and violate the process. But our mission is important to us as well.â
âWeâre going back to the whole finalist committee. I have been distributing emails as they come in, and weâre going to ask if we should keep this book on the finalist list or not⊠Iâve been distributing them to the finalist committee, asking if they should keep the book on the list or not.â
They want to take no more than two weeks from Friday, February 6 to reach a decision.
âIf the committee says âYouâre rushing us,â weâll take a little more time and let everybody talk about the issues⊠It needs to be something weâre happy with, that the process is fair and considered⊠The new members of our board of trustees are getting a close look at this⊠We are planning to give the whole process a step back and look at it and see what other ways we can do this.â
âThere is a pretty wide range [on the committee]. There are former winners and authors involved⊠One possibility is to set up some committees [for different categories] and start working much sooner.â
âThe other step in the process is that once the finalists are selected, they go to a separate set of panels. So the trans committee, there would be four people who are voting on the finalists in that category. We never say who was on one committee, but we do release the judges at the end of that process.â
Marks ended the interview by pointing out:
âItâs not just the trans community that Iâve heard from. I mean, there are more than transactivists who have said things to us and written.â
Jim Marks response of 13 February 2004
Below is the text of an “open letter” that I am publishing in the issue of Lambda Book Report that went to press today. I plan on posting this letter on our website on Monday.
Thanks to everyone for their input.
Jim
One thing about living in the Internet Age: When you hit a raw nerve, you learn about it quickly.
Late Monday, February 2, we posted the 16th annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists on our web site and sent out a press release announcing the finalists. Tuesday, February 3, when I opened my e-mail, I found my inbox stuffed with messages about one finalist. It was The Man Who Would Be Queen by Michael J. Bailey, chair of the department of psychology at Northwestern University, and published by Joseph Henry Press, an imprint of the National Academy of Sciences. The correspondents were alternately anguished and outraged by the bookâs selection as a finalist.
Caitlyn Antrim, for instance, wrote: “I believe this must have been a mishap because the content of [The Man Who Would Be Queen] represents the worst of stereotyping, outdated scientific opinion and misrepresentation. Even its appearance on your list of nominees contributes to harm of modern studies of transsexualism and femininity in boys.
“This is a book of anecdotes, not science. Its stories were obtained by stealth and misrepresentation. It engages in the worst of stereotyping of both transgender and gay and lesbian people. Prof. Bailey has admitted to falsifying, to the point of reversal of the truth, a key story of a young boy who he claimed to have been turned away from his transgender feelings by parental guidance. He has now admitted that he created that ending because it illustrated the point he wanted to make and that it Never Happened.”
Lynn Conway wrote, “I suspect that this must have been either an incredible oversight, or else by intrigue on the inside by transphobic members of Lambda.
“Whatever the case, I hereby alert you to the fact that Bailey’s book has generated perhaps the greatest crisis transsexual women have ever faced, for the book proclaims as âscienceâ that transsexual women are either (i) gay men who have sex changes so as to have many sex partners, and who are âespecially suited to prostitution,â or they are (ii) sexual paraphilics who change sex for autosexual reasons, in a severe paraphilia related to pedophilia…”
Conway added, “⊠the prestigious Southern Poverty Law Center has just published an exposĂ© of Bailey’s âQueer Scienceâ in which they link him directly with an elite clique of right-wing racist, white-superiorist and homophobic academics, journalists and âpunditsâ â making a link with work like his with the escalating wave of violence against trans women.”
Perhaps most succinctly, Professor Deirdre McCloskey, whose book Crossing: A Memoir was a 1999 Finalist in this category, wrote: “Whoever made this decision needs to do a better job. A much better job. It would be like nominating Mein Kampf for a literary prize in Jewish studies.”
Many of these letters came with extensive documentation. McCloskey, a well-known economics professor at the University of Illinois in Chicago, sent in a lengthy critical review of The Man ⊠and two letters to the editor of another publication concerning the inaccuracies of another review of the book.
On the other hand, as we go to press we are receiving comments such as this from Bradley University Associate Professor of Psychology David P. Schmitt, Ph.D.: ” I would like to express my opinion, as a sex researcher and scientist, that Mike Bailey’s book is based on sound scholarly evidence and reasoning, and certainly deserves recognition as a solid contribution to sexual science.”
This outpouring of concern raised the question, Should the book be taken off the list of finalists? As I examined that question, I came up with four different considerations:
1) The integrity of the process. The selection of The Man⊠was made not by Lambda Literary Foundation staff but by a finalists committee made up of a bakerâs dozen of the most knowledgeable GLBT book industry professionals. It would fly in the face of that process to summarily replace their decision with the judgment of a single administrator.
2) Censorship. The Lambda Literary Foundation believes in the free expression of ideas. It is not uncommon for us to publish reviews in Book Report that the editors might disagree with, but we respect the authorâs viewpoint and the honesty of their discussion. Similarly, it seems inappropriate for us to remove a book from consideration for a Lambda Literary Award because it doesnât meet some arbitrary standard of political correctness.
3) Mission. Hereâs where it gets complicated. Our mission is furthering GLBT literacy and understanding. A book that was frankly opposed to the rights of GLBT people would be in conflict with our mission, and we would be under no obligation to highlight with a Lambda Literary Awards finalist selection a book that is contrary to our reason for existence.
4) Ethics. As many of our correspondents noted, charges have been filed against Professor Bailey with his institution, Northwestern University. One person who has a leading role in Baileyâs book, Anjelica Kieltyka, called our office and spoke with us about how the book used her as a subject without her consent. It is at the least troubling to think that an ethically challenged work could be a Lammy finalist.
Whatever the ethical concerns, the LLF is not the appropriate forum for making a judgment: This must be done by a body of Professor Baileyâs peers. Similarly, censorship is not a key consideration: Weâre not preventing a book from appearing in the marketplace of ideas if we choose not to highlight it. Therefore, out of the concerns about the process and the LLFâs mission, we will further extend the process. In choosing the finalists to begin with, the procedures we have set up call for the finalist committee members to vote for their preferred titles in each category independently of each other. In any one category, there may be many books nominated, and our procedures are designed to highlight consensus, not have the equivalent of a runoff vote from the top contenders.
As far as I know, this is the first time a Lammy finalist book has been challenged as completely inconsistent with our mission. Therefore, in this new situation we will follow the suggestion of one finalists committee member and submit the question to the whole committee for reevaluation. They will consider all the issues and evidence presented, and then vote to keep or remove the book from the list. Weâll announce the results in the March issue of Lambda Book Report, and online as soon as they arrive at their decision.
âJim Marks
Jim Marks announces LLF’s decision to uphold nomination
Below is a letter sent on 24 February 2004.
Dear all,
Below is the text that has been posted on the Lambda Literary web site concerning The Man Who Would Be Queen. I know that you may be disappointed with the results of the finalists committee deliberations. The committee was aware of the depth of feeling about this book, and wrestled seriously with the issues that have been raised. We welcome comment and dialogue on this and other issues of importance to the glbt community.
Jim
Man Who Would Be Queen to Remain on Lambda Literary Awards Finalists List
After two weeks of discussion, the Finalists Committee for the Lambda Literary Awards voted to retain The Man Who Would Be Queen as a finalist for the 2003 Transgender Award.”This was a very difficult decision, and I appreciate the seriousness and integrity with which the committee considered the issues raised by the opponents and supporters of The Man Who Would Be Queen,” said Jim Marks, Executive Director of the Lambda Literary Foundation, which organizes the annual Lambda Literary Awards (Lammys). “They have been very sensitive about the depth of feeling on this matter.”
When the 2003 Lambda Literary Award finalists were announced, the selection of The Man Who Would Be Queen touched off a firestorm of protest that the book was transphobic, poor science and that the author, J. Michael Bailey, was the subject of ethics charges at Northwestern University, where he chairs the Department of Psychology.
The book also drew equally strong expressions of support from other transgender activists and from colleagues in the field of study.
Given the range of opinions heard by the Finalists Committee, it agreed to focus on whether the content of the book was at odds with the Lambda Literary Foundationâs mission of supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people through cultural literacy. The viewpoint that received the majority vote was that “Bailey has not set out to intentionally do harm to gay men and transsexuals. He doesn’t get it on some fundamental levels but he genuinely thinks he does.”
With the Finalists Committee decision made, now a panel of judges will consider which of the five books in this category will be selected for the 2003 Lambda Literary Award. The five finalists in the transgender category are: She’s Not There, by Jennifer Finney Boylan (Broadway Books); The Drag King Anthology, Donna Troka, Kathleen Lebesco, Jean Noble, eds. (Harrington Park Press); The Man Who Would Be Queen, by J. Michael Bailey (Joseph Henry Press); Trans-gendered, by Justin Tanis (The Pilgrim Press); and Transgender Journeys, by Virginia Ramey Mollenkott and Vanessa Sheridan (The Pilgrim Press). The same judging process will be followed for the books in the other 19 categories.The results of the judgesâ decisions will be announced at a gala banquet to be held June 3, 2004 at the Chicago Mart Plaza Hotel.
Tickets are $125 for the dinner, $175 for the dinner and gala reception, with discounts for tickets purchased before March 31, 2004.
For more information or to order online, go to www.lambdalit.org or call 202-682-0952.
Additional information:
How was the book selected in the first place?
The finalists for the Lambda Literary Awards were nominated by their publishers and other authorized agents in the fall of 2003; the nomination period closed December 15, 2003. The finalists in each category were chosen by an ad hoc committee of LGBT book professionals. Committee members voted independently of each other and their votes were not shared with other committee members. Choices were ranked on a scale of 5 to 1 (five being the highest score) and the five books with the highest totals were selected as finalists.
Did every member of the finalist committee vote for the books selected as finalists?
No. Because of the ranking system, the fact that categories could have many entrants and that there is no runoff, it is quite possible for a book to become a Lammy finalist without all the Finalists Committee members voting for it.
What about the questions raised on the bookâs scientific merit?
In an Open Letter published in the February 2004 Lambda Book Report, Lambda Literary Foundation executive director Jim Marks discussed the ethical and censorship issues raised by the call to remove the book from the list. As the committee discussed the points being raised, and we continued receiving comments from the public, it became clear that opinion on the scientific merit of the book was divided. For instance, we received comments from two members of the editorial board of the Journal of Sex Research, one speaking on behalf of the book, the other questioning it. Given such a division of expert opinion, it was beyond the competence of a literary review panel to make a judgment on scientific merit.
Finalists Committee:
Larry Bailey, The Open Book, Sacramento, CA
Victoria A. Brownworth, author and critic, Philadelphia, PA
Michelle DiMeo and Pam Harcourt, Women and Children First, Chicago, IL
Richard Labonte, Books to Watch Out For
Kris Kleindienst, Owner, Left Bank Books, St. Louis, MO
Sara Look, Charis Books, Atlanta, GA
Retha Powers, Bookspan
Philip Rafshoon, owner, OutWrite Books, Atlanta, GA
David Rosen, Insight Out Books
Richard Schneider, Editor, The Gay & Lesbian Review
Martha Stone, Literary Editor, The Gay & Lesbian Review
Jane Troxell & Robert Starner, Lambda Rising Bookstore, Washington, DC
Kurt Weber, A Different Light Books, Los Angeles, CA
—
Jim Marks, Executive Director, Lambda Literary Foundation
LLF Programs: Lambda Book Report, The James White Review, Lambda
Literary Awards and Lambda Literary Festival
Online at www.lambdalit.org
202-682-0952; 202-682-0955 fax; PO Box 73910, Washington, DC 20056-3910
shipping address: 1217 Eleventh St. NW, Suite 1, Washington, DC 20001
Lambda Literary Foundation revokes nomination
Below is an announcement that we are posting on our web site today. I would like to thank everyone for their comments and e-mails. We welcome additional comments or discussion, although our limited staff and resources preclude answering everyone personally.
Jim
March 12, 2004.
The Lambda Literary Foundation announced that “The Man Who Would Be Queen” has been removed as a 16th Annual Lambda Literary Award finalist.
The change was prompted by a request from the panel of judges that is reading all the finalists in the transgender category, which said the book was not appropriate for the category. The Foundation does not identify the judges to the public or each other until the Awards banquet, which this year will be held June 3, in Chicago, IL. Upon receiving the request, executive director Jim Marks went back to the Finalist Committee, which had selected the book originally. A majority of the committee agreed to honor the request.
Because the action was unprecedented, it provoked heated discussion within the Finalist Committee. Finalist Committee member Kris Kleindienst said, “Removing the book from the list is not censorship. The book is widely available, has been widely reviewed and is not about to be denied to the public. What we are doing is behaving in a responsible manner to make sure the list of finalists is compatible with the Foundationâs mission. Having looked at the book closely, I am sure it is not.” Several committee members echoed Kleindienstâs views.
Finalist Committee member Victoria Brownworth, along with several others, disagreed on the censorship issue. “Banning a book and censoring a book are two different things. While I hate to be the titular voice of the ACLU here, especially since I personally disagree with many aspects of Bailey’s book, if we take the book off the list we are indeed censoring it. It doesn’t matter what our reasons are.”
“This has been a difficult and humbling experience for the Foundation,” said Executive Director Jim Marks. “Weâve never before had a case in which a book, whose author and publisher both affirm their support for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual rights, has at the same time been opposed by those who say its content in fact is antithetical to those rights.”
“Throughout the controversy that has raged over the bookâs selection as a finalist, we have struggled to maintain the integrity of the process.” Marks said. “Since the impetus for the change came from the within the categoryâs judges, and was reviewed and voted on by the Finalist Committee, we feel that the decision is consistent with our process.”
The recipients of the 16th Lambda Literary Awards will be announced at a gala banquet to be held June 3, 2004 at the Chicago Mart Plaza Hotel.
Tickets are $125 for the dinner, $175 for the dinner and gala reception, with discounts for tickets purchased before March 31, 2004.
For more information or to order online, go to www.lambdalit.org or call 202-682-0952.
Jim Marks GenderTalk interview 15 March 2004
Excerpts from an interview immediately after the announcement (Nangeroni 2004b).
Jim Marks:
We have a three-tiered process: books are nominated by the publisher, then the finalists are selected from a list of books that are nominated by a Finalists Committee. Then the five finalists are sent to a panel of judges in each category
We heard from one of the judges in the transgender category asking that the book be removed. So I went back to the Finalists Committee and asked them if they would honor that request. And they agreed to do that.
We list the judges in the program– know who the other judges are. Itâs done independently, itâs not done in consultation with other judges. Itâs all individuals reading the books and making decisions based on their reading.
My understanding is that the judge objected to the content, that it just was not supportive of transgender and gay issues.
Nancy Nangeroni:
Would we be inaccurate in saying that itâs Transphobic… Did the judge agree with those of us who are saying that?
Jim Marks:
Certainly the judge did, and the finalist committee agreed to remove the book. The vote, because it was a majority vote, agreed with that.
People read the book a little more closely, I think, once it became brought to their attention. Some people who had read the book four or five months earlier, so I think it was given a closer reading. Because mostly the finalist committee is made up of booksellers and people who have a very broad knowledge of the gay and lesbian book community so that theyâre able to say, âOh these are the books that have really popped up over the course of the year, books that people are talking about, books that we know have really been significant one way or another,â but then the judges are the ones who are entrusted to read the books very closely.
This is the first time we have ever done this.
My whole focus from the beginning was to make sure that opinions were heard, but that the decision-making was not in response to anything that would be like pressure, but simply out of the basic processes that we have set up already. The response that people got from the community certainly alerted people to the issues that were at hand, and I think some people went back and looked at the book more closely because of that. We would not have re-examined this issue if the judge hadnât come back to us and said, âI just donât think this is right for a Lambda Literary Award finalist.â
There are two things: it was not a clear-cut one way or another in terms of how the finalist committee voted. It was a majority of the votes, so only a couple of people changing their opinion, their views, made a difference there.
It was only a couple of people⊠the people who voted to keep it on the list were not necessarily supportive of the book in that they agreed with the content, but they thought that this was obviously a controversial book. They thought it raised scientific and⊠They thought it raised important questions. They also thought that having gone through the process that we ought to respect the process and not change it.
There were a lot of reasons for the original decisions that were not based on âWe believe in this bookâ but because of people believing that the book had raised significant issues or that the process was one that we ought to be respecting and maintaining.
One good part of this is that we have been in touch with a number of people, and I really hope to get a⊠And I know our board, Katherine Forrest is on our board, and she is definitely talking about expanding our board and including a trans person on that.
Aftermath
In June 2005, Marks was ousted as Executive Director, a position he’d held almost continuously since 1996. On 7 June, a majority of Lambda Literary Foundation Board of Trustees voted to accept the resignation.
Trustees accepting:
- Jim Duggins, retired academic who lives in Palm Springs, Calif.
- Katherine V. Forrest, an author based in San Francisco
- Karla Jay, an author who lives in New York
- Don Wiese, a New York editor at Carroll & Graf
Trustees not accepting
- Jim Marks, ousted director
- Nick Apostol, Jim Marks’ domestic partner (Smith 2005)
LLF also sold their building on 16 June and suspended publication of the James White Review and the Lambda Book Report.
Founder Deacon Maccubbin noted “issues were skipped or late getting on newsstands,” which “hurt its credibility.” Trustee Katherine Forrest said “Both of the publications have been operating chronically in the red, really, since they left the umbrella of the Lambda Rising bookstore. Weâre talking about nine or 10 years that itâs just been sputtering along.â Forrest said there has been an âongoing, chronic problemâ with the Lambda Book Reportâs ability to publish in a timely manner. It was supposed to be available monthly, but often was late coming out. (Smith 2005) Marks has since claimed his resignation had nothing to do with the financial difficulties cited by LLF’s founder and trustees, nor anything to do with the mishandling of the Bailey fiasco. (Marks 2006)
Their lambdalit.org website went offline after the announcement, eventually reappearing in 2006 as a text-only site consisting of three pages. A new site at lambdaliterary.org went live at the end of 1995, announcing “Welcome to the New Lambda Literary Foundation.” Any mention of the Bailey debacle was gone from the new site.
References
Lambda Literary Foundation (2004a). 16th Annual Lambda Literary Award Finalists. 2 February.
http://www.lambdalit.org/Lammy/lammy_2003_finalists.html
Lambda Literary Foundation (2005a). Resources for the debate over The Man Who Would Be Queen [offline as of September 2005]
http://www.lambdalit.org/lambda_home.html
Lambda Literary Foundation (2005b) Welcome to the New Lambda Literary Foundation.
http://www.lambdaliterary.org/
Note: former website http://www.lambdalit.org stripped down to three pages in 2006.
Letellier P (2004). Group rescinds honor for disputed book. Gay.com / PlanetOut.com Network, 16 March.
http://www.planetout.com/news/article.html?2004/03/16/3
Marks J (2006). Letter to Alice Dreger. July 22.
Nangeroni N, MacKenzie G (2004a). Jim Marks discusses the LLF nomination. GenderTalk, 9 February.
http://www.gendertalk.com/real/400/gt447.shtml
Nangeroni N, MacKenzie G (2004b). Jim Marks discusses the LLF nomination withdrawal. GenderTalk, 15 March.
http://www.gendertalk.com/radio/programs/450/gt452.shtml
Smith R (2005). Lambda Literary loses leader, closes publication. New York Blade, 17 June.
http://www.newyorkblade.com/2005/6-17/news/localnews/lambda.cfm