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Meredith Chivers vs. transgender people

Meredith Chivers is a Canadian psychologist whose research on women’s sexuality includes harmful beliefs about transgender people.

Over the years, Chivers has distanced herself from her dissertation advisor J. Michael Bailey and some of his anti-transgender views.

Background

Meredith L. Chivers was born December 1, 1972. She was a Northwestern University graduate student of J. Michael Bailey. Bailey is a eugenicist who wrote The Man Who Would Be Queen. Many consider this one of the most transphobic books ever written.

Chivers then took a position at Toronto’s notorious anti-transgender CAMH clinic in 2002. She joined the International Academy of Sex Research and the editorial board at the journal they control, the Archives of Sexual Behavior.

Chivers runs the Sex and Gender Lab at Queens University, also styled SAGe Lab and Sagelab. Before he was banned from Wikipedia, anti-transgender troll James Cantor wrote her biography. Chivers is married to sexologist Michael Seto.

Research on trans people

In 2000, Chivers and Bailey published an anti-transgender article in Archives of Sexual Behavior titled “Sexual orientation of female-to-male transsexuals: a comparison of homosexual and nonhomosexual types.”

Homosexual and nonhomosexual (relative to genetic sex) female-to-male transsexuals (FTMs) were compared on a number of theoretically or empirically derived variables. Compared to nonhomosexual FTMs, homosexual FTMs reported greater childhood gender nonconformity, preferred more feminine partners, experienced greater sexual rather than emotional jealousy, were more sexually assertive, had more sexual partners, had a greater desire for phalloplasty, and had more interest in visual sexual stimuli. Homosexual and nonhomosexual FTMs did not differ in their overall desire for masculinizing body modifications, adult gender identity, or importance of partner social status, attractiveness, or youth. These findings indicate that FTMs are not a homogeneous group and vary in ways that may be useful in understanding the relation between sexual orientation and gender identity.

In 2004, Chivers, Bailey, Gerulf Rieger, and Elizabeth Latty published “A Sex Difference in the Specificity of Sexual Arousal” as evidence that trans women have “male” sexual arousal patterns.

We assessed genital and subjective sexual arousal to male and female sexual stimuli in women, men, and postoperative male-to-female transsexuals. […] 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 2005, Chivers, Bailey, and Anne Lawrence published “Measurement of sexual arousal in postoperative male-to-female transsexuals using vaginal photoplethysmography.” The cloncluded that trans women have “male-typical” sexual responses.

We used vaginal photoplethysmography to examine patterns of sexual arousal in 11 male-to-female (MtF) transsexuals following sex reassignment surgery (SRS) and in 72 natal women. […] All transsexual participants displayed category-specific sexual arousal. Five homosexual transsexual participants (attracted exclusively to males before sex reassignment) showed greater genital and subjective responses to male than to female stimuli, while six nonhomosexual transsexual participants showed the opposite pattern. […] We conclude that male-to-female transsexuals display male-typical category-specific sexual arousal following SRS.

International Academy of Sex Research

Chivers joined the International Academy of Sex Research (IASR) and was present at their 2003 conference when her dissertation advisor Bailey was criticize by Kinsey Institute Director John Bancroft. 

Chivers was named President of IASR in 2023. She opened an investigation into the publication of J. Michael Bailey’s questionable 2023 paper on “rapid-onset gender dysphoria” (ROGD).

  • 1/Dear IASR members, In the interest of transparency, we want to communicate to the Membership about recent concerns regarding a publication in our official journal, the Archives of Sexual Behavior. On March 29th, the journal published an article authored by …
  • 2/…Suzanna Diaz & J. Michael Bailey entitled, “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria: Parent Reports on 1655 Possible Cases.” Since its publication, significant concerns about the ethical conduct and integrity of the editorial process have been raised about this study, by both…
  • 3/…members and nonmembers of the Academy, including Editorial Board members. The IASR recognizes the sensitivity and controversy of the study topic, and we deeply value ethical and scientific integrity.  (…)
  • 4/ While the Archives of Sexual Behavior has editorial independence and IASR is not involved in determining what is published in the journal, Archives is our flagship journal. The IASR Executive is currently learning more about this matter, consulting with both …
  • 5/…the Archives of Sexual Behavior’s Editor and our publisher Springer Nature, and will update the membership appropriately. Kind regards, The IASR Executive Committee

Selected references

See Chivers’ notes and references page for complete list.

Chivers ML, Bailey JM (2000). Sexual orientation of female-to-male transsexuals: A comparison of homosexual and non-homosexual types Archives of Sexual Behavior 29 (3): 259–278. doi:10.1023/A:1001915530479

Chivers ML, Rieger G, Latty E, Bailey JM (2004). A sex difference in the specificity of sexual arousal. Psychol Sci. 2004 Nov;15(11):736-44. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00750.x

Lawrence AA, Latty, EM, Chivers, ML, Bailey JM (2005). Measurement of Sexual Arousal in Postoperative Male-to-Female Transsexuals Using Vaginal Photoplethysmography. Archives of Sexual Behavior 34, 135–145 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10508-005-1792-z

Smith YLS, Van Goozen S, Kupier AJ, Cohen-Kettenis PT (2005). Transsexual subtypes: Clinical and theoretical significance. Psychiatry Research 137 (3): 151–160. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2005.01.008

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Queen’s University (queensu.ca)

Twitter (twitter.com)