Anjelica Kieltyka Responds to Bailey's Book
 
As told to and reported by Lynn Conway
Copyright © 2003-2004, by Lynn Conway and Anjelica Kieltyka
All rights reserved
 
 
Anjelica and her honor society classmates at her high school class's 25th reunion
 
 
FOREWARD
by Lynn Conway
 
I first met Anjelica Kieltyka by e-mail, on May 4, 2003. Whilst in the midst of the Bailey book controversy, she wrote to me and introduced herself as the woman named "Cher" in Bailey's book. In her remarkable e-mail, she revealed her angst at being used as the "poster-child for autogynephilia" which she insists is an incorrect representation of her own true identity as a lesbian transsexual woman.
 
Anjelica and I began a series of e-mails and then telephone interviews, and she has agreed to help make her story, her views and her writings available openly to the community through this webpage. I will be helping her via interviews, interview reports, her photos and her own writings to present "her side to the story" via this page and my "Bailey Investigation Page". Since then we've followed up by my visiting her in Chicago, and I also met there with several of the other young trans women whom she has been mentoring and whom Bailey used as research subjects.
 
We'll open this page by simply displaying two of Angelica's early e-mails to me, along with some photos of her. (Note that the "...."'s in these e-mails are Anjelica's own style of streaming thoughts together, and do not represent selective quoting). These items in themselves should give the community deep pause for thought about Bailey's theories and about how they were generated.
 
For more about Anjelica's response to Bailey's book, see the links below and stay tuned for more information in the "breaking news" as time goes by.  Also see "Anjelica Kieltyka's art and writings" on Andrea James website, where Andrea explains among other things that:

"Anjelica contacted Bailey in the mid-1990s after seeing him on television talking about transsexualism. She hoped to explain how she viewed her own life trajectory and to share her theories about gender variance with someone she saw as a respected authority. This led to a long-standing relationship where Anjelica would get further validation and attention by performing in front of Bailey's classes on sexuality. Anjelica would in turn provide Bailey with access to young transwomen she was mentoring, as well as older transgenderists she knew through a local support group. Bailey would then see these women in a clinical or lab setting, and he would socialize with the young, attractive ones at nightclubs.

Anjelica has since filed a formal complaint with Northwestern University for the inaccurate and lurid misuse of her biographical information in that book. She has also reported that Bailey admitted to fabricating a key final scene in his book."

 
 


Date: Sun, 04 May 2003 11:06:15 -0500
From: Charlotte Anjelica Kieltyka <c-kieltyka@northwestern.edu>
Subject: Bailey, Cher and me
 
Dear Lynn, I am the Anjelica Kieltyka that Mike Bailey acknowledges in his book's preface as "[teaching] me a great deal by being honest and open"......I am also "Cher Mondovi" of whom he writes : " Finally, I would never have thought of this book without Leslie Ryan and Cher Mondovi, both courageous women, in their own, different ways." .....It is unfortunate that I could not teach him better or that he failed to see and understand what I showed him. I had introduced myself to him almost 10 years ago and have since then, continued to work with him, argue with him, learn from him, teach him, fail to teach him, respect him (still do-in spite of our disagreements) and lecture in his class room ( often in rebuttal to him, Blanchard and Lawrence and their misinterpretation of fetish behavior that they coined "autogynephilia"). It is most unfortunate that he used me and my case history as the "poster child for autogynephilia"...using all of my case study (under the pseudonym of "Cher") to support his chapters on "autogynephiliacs"... Unfortunate because here was an opportunity to break away from, rather then give further support to a dead "Freudian" mixture of onanism, narcissism and paraphilic transvestite fetishism. I refused to join this bandwagon of Bailey, Blanchard and Lawrence, to which I would also add Zucker and Bradley of the Clarke Institute.
 
Upon seeing an early draft on the chapters about transsexuals, (about 2 years ago !! ) I tried even then to show him that he was misinterpreting my sexual behavior/experiences/case history and as a last resort requested that if he was going to use it in this autogynephilic context, to change my name....What is unfortunate in one respect, is quite fortunate in another..... Just as John Money's "pet" case study grew up to bite him in the ass , my case study as "Cher" , as the linch-pin ("lynch"-pin..."give him enough rope and he'll hang himself") or cornerstone in this "autogynephilic" house of cards will have a similar result when it is pulled out from this flimsy construct of theirs....It would take the likes of Dr. Milton Diamond (ironically, the same psychologist who revealed the truth behind the classic Money case.) or someone of equal credentials to work with me .....I would be as open with them as I had been with Dr. Bailey.....I would be more then happy to be part of any panel discussion, lecture , etc. that would lead to a better understanding of transsexuals, especially those that are " Lesbians who were trapped in men's bodies" ....Please call me or e-mail me your phone number and I'll call you...I talk better then I type....I have included a few of my photograghs/self portraits....
 
Sincerely yours, Charlotte Anjelica Kieltyka, aka. Cher...........P.S. " I'm just a fool whose intentions are good ....O Lord, Please don't let me be misunderstood "......Eric Burden of " The Animals"
 
Charlotte Anjelica Kieltyka
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL. USA
c-kieltyka@northwestern.edu

 
 
 
 


Date: Fri, 09 May 2003 23:35:38 -0500
From: Charlotte Anjelica Kieltyka <c-kieltyka@northwestern.edu>
Subject: more Cher Stuff
 
Dear Lynn,.......Over the years, I have met and befriended (even fell in love with) a number of women, including transsexual women and a number of men, including some transsexual men....Many of the transsexuals have had leadership qualities and all of them, even the "Drag Queens" and "showgirls" who played dumb were ( to quote Yogi the Bear) far "smarter than the average bear , Boo Boo". That's another reason I'm more then suspicious of Zucker's clinical work as mentioned by Bailey on pages, 178-179 : " Zucker found several predictors of adolescent GID : lower IQ, (emphasis mine), lower social class, immigrant status, non-intact family, and childhood behavior problems unrelated to gender identity disorder. My experiences have led me to just the opposite conclusion...Most transsexual women and men are in fact far superior in intellect, so much so that they can go off on many an intellectual tangent and get lost there...Many transsexuals are downright brilliant...so this so-called lower IQ "predictor" of GID is perplexing and a misreading of the data....
 
If anything , it seems to me this resembles the early childhood struggles of highly creative individuals and geniuses, who were also considered slow or of lower IQ...Einstein and Edison come to mind...I took a course, recently, called "The Creative Mind" as part of a series of courses on neurology...even going off on a tangent to explore the new and interesting field of psycho-neuro endocrinology - the study of the interrelatedness of hormones, brain function and behavior, (which helps explain behavioral changes that we experience as transsexuals)...anyway, I got off on one of those tangents... "The Creative Mind" taught me that, contrary to what Maslow and other psychologists had thought, creativity does not develop very well in a stable, nurturing environment, but rather, in just the opposite type of environment....unstable, conflicting, often, non-intact families, filled with adversity and ambiguity...the perfect incubator for artists, creative scientists and transsexuals...(some of which turn out to be all three !!! )....I have always prided myself as being a tinkerer...taking things apart to see what makes them tick...a "trouble-shooter" rather then a "trouble-maker", but sometimes both....there's a risk-taking element in taking something apart and trying to put it back together...but if the thing is broken to begin with, a "don't give a shit/nothing to lose" attitude, accompanied by a strong dose of curiosity enables me to "rush in where angels do not tread"....
 
...When you know that the craziest thing you could ever do was also the most brilliantly correct, instinctive, intuitive and natural...you learn to appreciate craziness, paradoxes, ironies and complex puzzles, especially those that impact individuals like ourselves who have been led for years, sometimes as willing co-conspirators, to have our true selves move further and further away from what was intuitive, instinctive, and natural.......Transsexuals have more in common with each other then differences, a multi-faceted complexity similar to a "Rubric's Cube", where it isn't right until you get all the sides right.... and autogynephilia doesn't get that side or aspect of the transsexual experience right, nor does calling Heterosexual Transsexual Women (who have always been feminine and have always been attracted to men ), Homosexual Transsexuals because they once wrongly identified as gay males.....The two terms, "autogynephilia" and "homosexual" transsexual is an insult to the transsexuals represented by these terms and an insult to the men and women who love them.............bye, Cher
 
 

 

photo by Anjelica Kieltyka
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
Anjelica files formal complaint
with the VP of Research of Northwestern University:
regarding the research conduct of J. Michael Bailey
 
 
See Anjelica's essay and prophetic political cartoonery:

The Sinking of "The Queen"

 

 

IT'S FICTION!

Bailey Admits to Anjelica that he Fabricated

the Key Final Scene in His Book

 
 

In the Chicago Tribune, 30 July, 2003

Story about Anjelica in the WOMAN NEWS SECTION:

"Transsexuals file complaints over book"

 


Anjelica challenges Dr. James Cantor of the

Trans-Notorious Clarke Institute on August 5, 2003:
Regarding his Glowing Review of Bailey's Book

 

 

Anjelica Kieltyka files evidence with Northwestern

of Bailey defaming her by publicly showing a research
interview videotape without authorization; 10-07-03.
 
 
See also the investigative report into Bailey's
defamation of Anjelica by publicly showing an
old research interview videotape of her
 
 
See the Southern Poverty Law Center's
expose of Bailey's Queer Science!
Anjelica worked closely with SPLC on the investigation
leading to this special report; 1-1-04

 

 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

For more information about the Bailey investigation, see:

http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/LynnsReviewOfBaileysBook.html

 
 

Reset on 5-11-03