July 3, 2003
C. Bradley Moore, Vice President for Research
Office of the Vice President for Research
Northwestern University
Rebecca Crown Center, Room 2-223
633 Clark Street
Evanston, Illinois 60208-1108
Dear Dr. Moore:
I wish to file a formal complaint regarding the research conduct of Professor J. Michael Bailey. I find that I was a participant in a research study without being informed of that status.
Dr. Bailey has recently published a book, The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism (2003), in which he describes results of his research. The publisher, the Joseph Henry Press of the National Academies, describes the work as "based on his original research".
The book contains numerous observations and reports of interviews with me. I am the Anjelica Kieltyka he acknowledges "...introduced me to the Chicago transsexual community and taught me a great deal by being honest and open." (p.xii). More importantly, under the pseudonym of "Cher", I was his main contact with transexual women, and recruited five out of six of his (transexual) research subjects in his "recent research" (p. 177). "...most of the homosexual transsexuals I have met, I met through Cher", who is the other type of transsexual (p. 177). I was the only one labeled autogynephilic: "...Cher is autogynephilic" (p. 147).
At the time I was unaware that I or they were subjects of a research study, and I did not receive, nor was I asked to sign, an informed consent document. The fact is I had brought these five young Latina Transexual women to Dr. Bailey for the sole purpose of obtaining letters of approval for Sex Reassignment Surgery, (SRS), as required by the Standards of Care (SOC) of the Harry Benjamin International Gender Dysphoria Association (HBIGDA).
I initiated these interviews with Dr. Bailey over a period of years, approximately 1994 - 1998. I was acting within my role as a Transexual Women's Advocate, and as such had accompanied many of these and other transexual women to Cook County Hospital, Howard Brown Health Center and Horizon Community Services.
At no time were any of us aware of our status with Dr. Bailey as research subjects, nor were any of us asked to provide written informed consent. My role as Transexual Women's Advocate, (my major connection with these women other then friend and mentor) was never mentioned by Bailey in his book. He also failed to mention his major role as doctorate level (SRS)letter provider, as outlined by the HBIGDA Standards of Care.
He implies, throughout the book, that he is well versed in all the aspects of transexual diagnosis and sex-reassignment procedures, yet fails to mention anywhere in the book the major part he played in those procedures. His role in providing the (SRS) letters was the impetus for me to bring the transexual women in for interviews, not as a recruiter for research subjects.
Although I was a Northwestern student at that time, I am not an academic, and did not realize until recently that your office has an interest in the protection of human subjects. I was unaware at the time of my protections, and I am unhappy and most concerned with the presumptions and misinterpretations he has made of my life in his book. My "case history" was so intrinsic to the value of the book that a whole chapter was devoted to it (pp. 145-156). Many of my opinions, observations and insights concerning the other transsexual women research subjects appear throughout the remainder of the book.
Because of the grave import and consequences his misuse of my life might have on other transexual women, when first shown an early draft of the book he was writing, (that I thought was journalistic in nature), based on interviews with me and the other (SRS) candidates, I repeatedly requested he reconsider the conclusions he arrived at. I considered these to be profound misinterpretations and a major misunderstanding of what I had told him in our interviews. What little information I got from the draft about the other transexual women's interviews, I also deemed inaccurate and told him so. He refused to change anything except to provide me with a pseudonym. My only recourse, he implied, was "to agree to disagree" about everything else, and he then wrote about me as "Cher".
More recently in 2001, I participated in a laboratory study conducted by Dr. Bailey, and at that time I did sign a consent form. That was the first time I was informed that I was participating in a research study and was asked by Dr. Bailey to sign a consent form. Because I was still a transexual advocate, with my connections with the broader "trans-community", I only then knowingly recruited transexual research subjects and got paid for doing so.
I ask that there be a formal investigation into Dr. Bailey's conduct in the research reported in his book. If, as I expect, he is found to be in violation of University and federal policies, I expect the University to respond appropriately.
I also would like a prompt response to my complaint. If that is not forthcoming, I shall initiate a formal complaint with the Office of Human Research Protection and consider both civil and criminal actions.
Sincerely,
C. Anjelica Kieltyka
C. Anjelica Kieltyka
cc. Henry Bienen, President
Lawrence B. Dumas, Provost
_____________________
Sept.29, 2003
C. Bradley Moore, Vice President for Research
Office of the Vice President for Research
Northwestern University
Rebecca Crown Center, Room 2-223
633 Clark Street
Evanston, Illinois 60208-1108
Dear Dr. Moore:
I wish to file a further complaint regarding Professor J. Michael Bailey, not just in regards to his research misconduct as a research scientist, but also conduct unbecoming of a psychologist, author, teacher and lecturer.
This is not as much a formal IRB complaint against Prof. Bailey as it is a broader formal denouncement of Prof. Bailey as a thief, guilty of fraud, deception and plagiarism. I also accuse Prof. Bailey of defamation and of using my work without authorization.
Dr. Moore, this complaint is an indictment of both Prof. Bailey and his book, The Man Who Would Be Queen. It is also a plea to you; not just from me, but from the other transexual women who were also misused and abused by Prof. Bailey. Please allow me and the others the opportunity to give our testimony and present our evidence to the Inquiry Committee in person.
I ask you this on behalf of myself and the other women, so that we may regain our good names from the damage done by Prof. Bailey's many abuses and invalidation of each of our lives and our selfhood and identity. The other women want the chance to speak for themselves as to the personal damage he has done to their lives; as for me, I demand the chance to reclaim my life that he has usurped, defamed and pathologized - and continues to do in both his book and in his lectures, and in his Human Sexuality class. I want the opportunity to ultimately obtain a retraction of the falsehoods that he and his work continues to engender.
At no time were any of us aware of Prof. Bailey's deceptions in our various meetings with him, especially as unknowing research subjects, nor did any of us authorize Prof. Bailey to use our personal conversations with him in any way in his book, lectures or classroom, nor on the internet.
By exposing many details of our most intimate conversations
with him, conversations in which we earnestly tried to teach and
inform him about transsexualism, he has outed some of the most
private aspects of our lives out into the transgender community
and the larger world beyond. Even though he used pseudonyms, the
many details he includes about us in his writings and lectures
were enough to expose our true identities to the entire transgender
community - and beyond. This has forced us to come forward to
seek help from our community and from Northwestern, in an effort
to cleanse our names of the stain Bailey has publicly placed on
them.
Bailey's defamations and caricatures of us are not the doings
of a compassionate and responsible head of the Psychology Department
of a distinguished University, but rather a calculated, devious
and insidious fraud involving the exploitation of individuals
who are in an extremely difficult position to defend ourselves.
By being forced to come forward to defend ourselves, we've had
to face even further public outings of the connections between
our good names and the caricatures of us contained in Bailey's
book.
We most earnestly seek your help in clearing our names of the stain that Bailey has placed on them, and in righting the wrongs of his misuse of my name and works in particular.
One of the few "kernels of truth" contained within
his malicious book is his acknowledgment to me, at the very beginning
of the book. There Bailey says of me: "Anjelica Kieltyka...[
has ] taught me a great deal by being honest and open".........
And so I have been and so I will always be ...
Openly and honestly yours, Charlotte Anjelica Kieltyka
C. Anjelica Kieltyka
C. Anjelica Kieltyka
cc. Henry Bienen, President
Lawrence B. Dumas, Provost
_____________________
Dear Dr. Smith
I wish to submit to you important evidence in support of the two formal complaints I filed against J. Michael Bailey for serious misconduct as research scientist and psychology professor. Please pass on this letter and evidence to the OPRS Inquiry Committee now investigating the complaints of research misconduct that have been filed against Prof. Bailey.
As an addendum to all these complaints, I repeat my request to present and discuss this evidence with the Inquiry Committee in person, and be given the opportunity to speak on my behalf as to the harm Prof. Bailey has done to me with his deceitful and malicious conduct.
The evidence I now submit to you is crucial proof of certain violations addressed in the complaint letters submitted to the V.P. of Research, Dr. C. Bradley Moore, specifically the following three items:
1. I am submitting an audio recording on a CD of Prof. Bailey's UCLA Lecture on 06-02-03, in which he showed a grossly excerpted video of me, using it without my authorization and in a context and manner I would never ever have agreed to. That video was made many years ago, and was a research interview of me at a time when I didn't even know that I was being used by Prof. Bailey as a research subject. You need to get that full videotape from Prof. Bailey and you need to allow me to testify to the deception and defamation he committed by showing that old video in the way he did, without authorization, and to the public.
2. I am also submitting a later videotape that I created specifically for my use in the lectures that I gave in Prof. Bailey's Human Sexuality Classes over many years. I never authorized Prof. Bailey to use this tape either, or any part of this tape or any transcript of this tape without my expressed written permission. The manner and context he uses my work, (page 154 in his book), (usurping my image, my self-portrait, my narration and representation of my identity - changing it all to suit his purpose) further defames me . This subreption, this kidnapping of my identity, is tantamount to plagiarism and identity theft.
With his misuses of both these tapes, in these deceitful and self-serving ways, he flagrantly violated my rights to privacy and confidentiality. His self-aggrandizement, and that of his book is at my expense. My almost 10 years of work for and with him as colleague is egregiously misrepresented or left out of his book completely , especially my advocacy and valuable field work within the transexual and psychological community of Chicago. What, in his book, that wasn't a misrepresentation of me, was usurpted from my case study, used out of context to my life narrative and used without my authorization. I am left feeling humiliated, patronized and denigrated. I have been severely wronged by this man. It is unconscionable the extent of his fraud and deception. I implore you ; allow me to present my side of my story....all that he left out or stained. Let me present evidence on my behalf, (with additional supporting evidence) and fully explain it with my testimony, to the Inquiry Committee in person.
3. For your assistance in interpreting the above evidence, I am submitting an interim investigative report concerning Prof. Bailey's showing of his early research interview video of me at UCLA. That investigative report provides background on the events leading up to Prof. Bailey's showing of the tape, establishes the context in which he was motivated to show that old research interview tape, and also reveals evidence of the damages that have been done to me because of the showing of that tape and the defamations of me in his book. This investigative report was compiled by Prof. Lynn Conway of the University of Michigan, based on my testimony, numerous e-mail records and the first-hand reports of numerous witnesses to the events therein described.
As stated in my complaint, I seek your help on all this, so that I may regain my good name from the damage done by Prof. Bailey's many abuses, deceptions, misrepresentations and invalidations of my life, my selfhood and my identity. The other women who have filed complaints also want the chance to speak to the OPRS Inquiry Committee for themselves as to the personal damage he has done to their lives; as for me, I demand the chance to reclaim my life that he has usurped, defamed and pathologized - and continues to do in both his book and in his lectures, and in his Human Sexuality class. I want the opportunity to ultimately obtain a retraction of the falsehoods that he and his work continues to engender.
Bailey's defamations and caricatures of us transexual women are not the doings of a compassionate and responsible head of the Psychology Department of a distinguished University, but rather a calculated, devious and insidious fraud involving the exploitation of individuals who are in an extremely difficult position to defend ourselves. By being forced to come forward to defend ourselves, we've had to face even further public outings with the most serious consequences.
I most earnestly seek your help in clearing my name of the
stain that Bailey has placed on it, and in righting the wrongs
of his misuse of my name and works in particular.
Openly and honestly yours,
C. Anjelica Kieltyka
C. Anjelica Kieltyka
cc. Henry Bienen, President
Lawrence B. Dumas, Provost
C. Bradley Moore, Vice President for Research
_____________________