To:  Jim Marks, Exec Director, Lambda Literary Foundation

We, the undersigned, formally protest the decision by the Lambda Literary Foundation to continue listing J Michael Bailey's book, "The Man Who Would Be Queen", as a finalist in the Transgender/GenderQueer category of the 16th Annual Literary award.

As signatories to this petition we note :

(1) that the Finalists Committee has had ample opportunity to reconsider the original nomination of this book in the face of strong protests from both individual trans people and leaders of the world's major transgender support and advocacy organisations;

(2) that those protests included detailed explanation of the way in which the book in question misrepresents the lives of transsexual people and the nature of their convictions;

(3) that those letters of concern also provided LLF with details of the serious nature of investigations taking place into the author's conduct and

(4) that the Finalists committee themselves acknowledge that the author is (at the very least) misguided, stating that he "doesn't get it on some fundamental levels but he genuinely thinks he does"

As signatories WE DO NOT advocate that J Michael Bailey's book should be suppressed or withdrawn.

Nevertheless we feel that the nature of the distress and potential harm occasioned to transsexual people by the author's actions makes this work an inappropriate candidate to be honoured by a transgender-inclusive organisation and that the book should therefore be withdrawn forthwith from the list of nominees at our collective request.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

 

 

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We endorse the J Michael Bailey Book Petition to Jim Marks, Exec Director, Lambda Literary Foundation.