Rebecca Allison (Dr. Becky) and transgender people

Rebecca Allison, aka “Dr. Becky,” was an American cardiologist who created one of the earliest and most important online resources for transgender medical information.

Allison was deeply involved in transgender activism and served in leadership roles at GLMA and AMA.

Background

Rebecca Anne “Becky” Allison was born in Greenwood, Mississippi on December 21, 1946. Allison’s parents were Errol Ward Atkinson and Mabel Blackwell Atkinson.

Allison earned a medical degree from the University of Mississippi Medical Center in 1971. After working as a general practitioner, Allison completed a specialty in cardiology in 1987, but lost her practice within a year of making a gender transition.

Allison served as chief of cardiology at CIGNA based in Arizona starting in 1998. Allison was named one of Phoenix Magazine’s Top Doctors in Phoenix for 2006, 2007, and 2008. In 2012 Allison went into private practice before retiring in 2018.

Allison died in August 2024 following a long illness.

Activism

Allison was a frequent contributor to the Grace and Lace Letter, an evangelical publication for trans and gender diverse people founded and edited by Lee Frances Heller in 1990.

In 1998, Allison created drbecky.com, a resource site focusing on the medical, legal, and spiritual aspects of gender transition. Among her innovations were a state-by-state listing on how to update a birth certificate, criticism of “autogynephilia,” criticism of The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey, a digital version of a brochure on facial feminization surgery by Douglas Ousterhout, and a section on spirituality that collected Allison’s writings for the Grace and Lace Letter.

Allison and partner Margaux Schaffer performed in our 2004 all-transgender performance of The Vagina Monologues and appear in the accompanying documentary Beautiful Daughters.

Allison was instrumental in the passage of the 2008 American Medical Association policy “Removing Financial Barriers to Care for Transgender Patients” H-185.950.

In 2009, Allison joined our protest at the American Psychiatric Association protest for including Kenneth Zucker and Ray Blanchard on the revision committee for the DSM-V. After speaking at the protest, Allison gave a speech at the meeting:

Inside the conference, Rebecca Allison, MD, a transsexual and cardiologist from Phoenix, who also chairs the American Medical Association’s committee on LGBT issues, said that the ideal solution would be to remove GID from the DSM, but retain it in the International Classification of Diseases as a “gender variance.”

The reason? So that insurance companies continue to pay for expensive medical procedures, such as hormones and surgeries. “In a perfect world,” Allison said, “psychiatrists would treat patients with gender variance, but not for gender variance.”

Allison was also active in Soulforce and organized Phoenix Transgender Day of Remembrance with spouse Margaux Schaffer for many years.

References

American Medical Association (2024). 2024 LGBTQ+ Interim Meeting – Rebecca Allison Memorial. https://www.ama-assn.org/system/files/i24-lgbtg-rebecca-allison-memorial.pdf

Jackson NC, Berlew GK (2024). “There is Not One Shred of Evidence That [Being Trans] is Not a Divine Gift”: Grace and Lace Letter and the Rhetorical Construction of an Evangelical Transfeminine Identity. Rhetoric Review, 43(3), 187–200. https://doi.org/10.1080/07350198.2024.2349840

American Heart Association (June 2022). Pride With Heart Ambassadors. https://www.heart.org/en/about-us/diversity-inclusion/pride-with-heart

Petros, George (November 2018). Dr. Becky Allison, Cardiologist. https://www.georgepetros.com/writings/tnt/Dr-Becky-Allison.htm

American College of Cardiology (July 1, 2016). Clinical Innovators: Advocating for Equal Treatment | An Interview with Rebecca Allison, MD. https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/articles/2016/07/19/10/14/clinical-innovators

Avicolli-Mecca, Tommi (May 21, 2009). Being Transgender is Not a Mental Disorder. BeyondChron https://beyondchron.org/being-transgender-is-not-a-mental-disorder/

Selected publications

Deutsch MB, Green J, Keatley J, Mayer G, Hastings J, Hall AM, Allison R, Blumer O, Brown S, Cody MK, Fennie K, Moscoe G, St Claire R, Stone MR, Wilson A, Wolf-Gould C (2013). Electronic medical records and the transgender patient: recommendations from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health EMR Working Group. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, Volume 20, Issue 4, July 2013, Pages 700–703, https://doi.org/10.1136/amiajnl-2012-001472

Allison RA (2012). Ten things transgender persons should discuss with their health care provider. Gay and Lesbian Medical Association https://glma.org/10_things_transgender_people_s.php

Allison RA (2010). Aligning Bodies with Minds: The Case for Medical and Surgical Treatment of Gender Dysphoria. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health, 14(2), 139–144. https://doi.org/10.1080/19359701003609872

Allison RA (2007). Transsexualism. In Fink G (ed.) Encyclopedia of Stress (2nd Edition). Elsevier, ISBN 978-0-12-088503-9

Allison RA (2007). Transsexualism. In Pfaff D, Arnold A, Etgen A, Fahrbach S, Rubin R (eds.) Hormones, Brain, and Behavior (2nd Edition). Elsevier, ISBN 978-0-12-532104-4

Allison RA (April 13, 2003). The National Academy Meets The National Enquirer. Dr. Becky http://www.drbecky.com/blog05.html [archive]

Allison RA (1999, Summer). Autogynephilia: Reply to Dr. Anne Lawrence. Transgender Tapestry, 1(86), 50-52. https://archive.org/details/transgendertapes9220unse

Allison RA (December 16, 1998). Janice Raymond and Autogynephilia. Dr. Becky http://www.drbecky.com/raymond.html [archive] Also published in Transgender Tapestry #94, Spring 2001 https://archive.org/details/transgendertapes9320unse