January 7, 2004:
 
Open Letter from Anjelica Kieltyka, Lynn Conway, Andrea James and Calpernia Addams
to faculty of the Department of Psychology at Northwestern University, regarding the
 
Southern Poverty Law Center Intelligence Report on Transgender Hate Crimes,
and How Pseudo-Science Fuels The Hate
 
 
 
 
 
Date: January 7, 2004
 
To: Faculty members of the Department of Psychology, Northwestern University
 
From: Anjelica Kieltyka, Lynn Conway, Andrea James and Calpernia Addams

Subject: Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) Intelligence Report on Transgender Hate Crimes, and How Pseudo-Science Fuels The Hate
 
 
Dear faculty members:
 
The widely respected Southern Poverty Law Center has now come forward on the realities and causes of the terrible wave of hate crimes against transgender and transsexual women now rampant in many U.S. cities.

The Winter 2003 SPLC Intelligence Report (Issue 112) directly links these acts to the parallel historical legacy of discrimination against people of color, alternative religion, and lifestyle. The Intelligence Report also exposes the role played by academic bigots and right-wing pundits in their attempt to legitimize and promote their pseudo-science and thereby justify and intensify the prejudice and hatred of transgender people.

With this letter we wish to inform you that the Intelligence Report identifies J. Michael Bailey, the Chairman of the Department of Psychology at Northwestern, as a central figure in an elite reactionary group of academics, pundits and journalists now especially active in an insidiously noxious "scientific" and "scholarly" pursuit of institutionalized bigotry and defamation of transsexual women:
 
 
QUEER SCIENCE
An 'elite' cadre of scientists and journalists tries to turn back the clock on sex, gender and race
By Heidi Beirich and Bob Moser
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?sid=96

'DISPOSABLE PEOPLE'
A wave of violence engulfs the transgendered, whose murder rate may outpace that of all other hate killings
By Bob Moser
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?pid=276

RAGE ON THE RIGHT
A rage is growing on the right. Before it is done, untold numbers of men and women may have to die, casualties in America's ongoing culture wars.
By Mark Potok, Editor,
SPLC Intelligence Report
http://www.splcenter.org/intel/intelreport/article.jsp?aid=141


Why we bring this news to you:

We are socially assimilated trans women who are mentors to many young transsexuals in transition. Unable to bear children of our own, the girls we mentor become like children to us.

These young women depend on us for guidance during the difficult period of transition and then on during their adventures afterwards - dating, careers, marriages and sometimes adoption of their own children. As a result, we have large extended families and are blessed by these relationships.

Through our extended families we know first-hand how Bailey's junk science is hurting young trans women. Struggling to transition in a society already dangerously hateful towards them, they must now face officially sanctioned stereotypes and defamations heaped onto them by this "sex scientist" - and watch in shock as his pseudo-science fuels the social hatred of them.

We see the reality of the pain being inflicted by this pseudo-science on these innocent young women. We know firsthand of cases where it is destroying their relationships with families and friends, limiting or even ruining their chances for employment, and causing deep emotional angst. One woman wrote to us describing how her mother came running into her bedroom after reading Bailey's book, and threw the book at her shouting "Now I know what you are!"...

You may have wondered why hundreds of successful, assimilated trans women like us, women from all across the country, are being so persistent in investigating Mr. Bailey and in uncovering and reporting his misdeeds. Now you have your answer: We are hundreds of loving moms whose children he is tormenting!
 
 
In conclusion:

Only by stepping back and grasping the tragic realities of the social context into which Mr. Bailey ingratiated himself, surreptitiously conducted research studies, and then published his "results" - only then can one see the exploitive and predatory nature of his work, the true dimensions of his misconduct, and the horrific impact of his corrupted pseudo-science on vulnerable young lives.
 
Future generations of children, diverse and variant, yours and ours, must be made safe from prejudice and hate, both on the streets and alleys of the cities and in the classrooms of our schools and colleges. Our children must no longer be exploited, victimized, and made to look pathetic and ridiculous by fraudulent and dubious researchers, academics and yes, even some who are your colleagues and "friends". It has to stop here and now.

We urge you to suspend disbelief. Read those SPLC Intelligence Report articles for yourselves. Then contemplate the role that some psychologists, including your Department Chairman, are playing in fostering hate and violence against young transsexual women.

Respectfully,
 
 
Anjelica Kieltyka
Transsexual Advocate and Mentor
Berwyn, Illinois
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/Anjelica.html
 
Lynn Conway
Transsexual Advocate and Mentor
Ann Arbor, Michigan
http://www.lynnconway.com
 
Andrea James
Transsexual Advocate and Mentor
Hollywood, California
http://www.tsroadmap.com/
 
Calpernia Addams
Transsexual Advocate and Mentor
Hollywood, California
http://www.calpernia.com
 
 
 
 
For more about us, please see our webpages (above) and also the attached photos (below):
 
Among other things, you'll learn of our advocacy and mentoring of young trans women. Many of the women we've worked with have experienced hate and violence of the kinds reported in the SPLC Investigative Report. All of us have been touched by violence against those we know and love, most especially Calpernia:
 
Calpernia's boyfriend Pfc. Barry Winchell was the Army Airborne soldier who was murdered in 1999 by his Army buddies simply for loving her. Barry's buddies murdered him in a rage over their perception that he himself was "homosexual", when all he'd done was fall in love with a beautiful transgender woman. That tragic story is told in the recent Showtime movie "Soldier's Girl", now available on DVD:
 
http://www.calpernia.com/index.html?soldiersgirl/index.html~mainFrame
 
We ask you as psychologists to watch that DVD, and then reflect on the role that a handful of psychologists are now playing in fueling the widespread hatred of gender variant people. Only then will you gain an appreciation of the national implications of "queered sex-research" such as that done by Mr. Bailey at Northwestern University.

 

Anjelica Kietlyka:
 
 
 
 
Andrea James, Lynn Conway and Calpernia Addams (l-r),
while in Chicago, Illinois on July 19, 2003:
 
 
 
 
 
 
For more information about our investigation into these matters, see the following websites:
 
http://www.tsroadmap.com/info/bailey-blanchard-lawrence.html
http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/LynnsReviewOfBaileysBook.html