Zucker subverts his scientific journal

in a vendetta against women who exposed

his reparatist treatment of gender-variant children

A report by Lynn Conway

August 14, 2007

[Update of 12-22-08]

Ken Zucker, the editor of the Archives of Sexual Behavior (ASB), recently subverted that scientific journal into a propaganda machine in support of his colleagues and ASB editorial board members J. Michael Bailey, Ray Blanchard and Anne Lawrence.

In a highly prejudicial and scientifically unethical action, Zucker and his editorial board widely pre-published Alice Dreger's bizarrely one-sided history of the Bailey book investigation one year prior to publication in the ASB, a journal which they themselves control. Zucker promoted that 'history' as if it were an independent scholarly work in e-mail alerts to members of WPATH, IASR and the APA, while Dreger made it available free of charge as a PDF.

When Dreger's 'history' of the J. Michael Bailey book-debacle* later appeared in the ASB, it was followed by twenty-six peer commentary papers. Most of the commentaries were harshly critical of Dreger for anti-trans bias and failures to get both sides of the story. Predictably, Zucker did NOT disseminate those negative commentaries to IASR, WPATH and APA members (they're only available for $32 apiece).

In doing all this, Zucker supported the efforts of ASB editorial board members Bailey, Blanchard and Lawrence to demonize the transitioned women who had exposed their transphobic teachings and research misconduct.

Zucker was particularly motivated by a personal vendetta of his own against Andrea James and Lynn Conway, because those women had exposed him as running a reparatist clinic in Toronto that preys upon gender variant children – a clinic that pressures children into conforming to gender norms so as to “avert homosexual development” and "avoid bad outcomes” such as transsexualism**.

[*To understand why thousands of trans women protested Bailey's book, see the page of  "Direct Quotes from Bailey's Book", noting that Bailey's unfounded pronouncements on transsexualism are delivered - without mercy - as if they were "scientific facts"]

[**Incredibly, even though he had been widely exposed as a trans-reparatist, Zucker was selected in May 2008 to lead the revision of the American Psychiatric Association's section on 'sexual and gender identity disorders' in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM).  With Zucker thus empowered to promote his ideology, the DSM is likely to enhance its current stigmatization of trans people as being mentally ill even after transition. See also this NGLTF press release and this petition against Zucker's selection - which gathered over 9,500 signatures.]

For background on Zucker's reparatist activities, see the following links:

In Lynn Conway's site:

http://ai.eecs.umich.edu/people/conway/TS/News/Drop%20the%20Barbie.htm
 

In Andrea James' site:

http://www.tsroadmap.com/info/kenneth-zucker.html

http://www.tsroadmap.com/info/clarke-institute.html

Media exposures of Zucker:

http://archives.xtra.ca/Story.aspx?s=1423736

http://www.brainchildmag.com/essays/fall2001_wilkinson.htm

http://www.xtra.ca/public/viewstory.aspx?AFF_TYPE=3&STORY_ID=2873&PUB_TEMPLATE_ID=1

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90247842

http://torontoist.com/2008/05/but_for_today_i_am_a_boy.php   

NARTH lauds Zucker, citing him as follows:

http://www.narth.com/docs/GIDReviewKenZucker.pdf

"Zucker’s priority is “helping these kids be happily male or female,” but he also acknowledges that the treatment process does, in some cases, apparently avert homosexual development . And in support of parents’ rights to avert a homosexual outcome for their children, Zucker cites a persuasive quote from Richard Green: “The right of parents to oversee the development of children is a long -established principle. Who is to dictate that parents may not try to raise their children in a manner that maximizes the possibility of a heterosexual outcome?"" - NARTH

Zucker’s view re transsexualism, as quoted in Bailey’s book:

http://web.archive.org/web/20040404191711/books.nap.edu/books/0309084180/html/31.html

"Failure to intervene increases the chances of transsexualism in adulthood, which Zucker considers a bad outcome. ... Why put boys at risk for this when they can become gay men happy to be men?" - J. Michael Bailey

More about Ken Zucker: 

Zucker is Editor of the Archives of Sexual Behavior (ASB), the journal of the IASR. A powerful member and past president of the IASR, Zucker runs the reparatist gender clinic at CAMH in Toronto – specializing in enforcing gender conformity in gender variant children and youth.

Recent reports and media articles describing Zucker’s reparatist activities:

3-20-07:  NARTH: "Gender Identity Disorders In Childhood And Adolescence: A Critical Inquiry And Review Of The Kenneth Zucker Research", by the NARTH Scientific Advisory Committee

NARTH lauds  Zucker's reversion therapy at CAMH (aka The Clarke Institute), in which he psychologically intervenes to "cure" childhood GID, seeing it as a way to "cure" homosexuality too. The article concludes:

"Zucker’s priority is “helping these kids be happily male or female,” but he also acknowledges that the treatment process does, in some cases, apparently avert homosexual development . And in support of parents’ rights to avert a homosexual outcome for their children, Zucker cites a persuasive quote from Richard Green: “The right of parents to oversee the development of children is a long -established principle. Who is to dictate that parents may not try to raise their children in a manner that maximizes the possibility of a heterosexual outcome?""

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4-05-07:  PFC News and LynnConway.com: "A 2001 Magazine Article Revisited in 2007: "Drop the Barbie! If You Bend Gender Far Enough, Does It Break?"" (documenting the failure of Zucker's reparative therapy methods at CAMH (extolled by NARTH) to be adopted by other clinics - in contrast with the current emergence of much more modern, humane care-centers for gender variant children and teens in many of our large cities)

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4-13-07:  XTRA (Canada): "Boys will be girls / Gender identity clinic event disrupted by trans activists", a 4-12-07 article by Audrey Gagnon. (see related story: "Drop the Barbie")

"On the morning of Mar 29 a group of trans activists crashed a celebration honouring Susan Bradley, the founder of the Child AndAdolescent Gender Identity Clinic at Toronto's Centre For Addiction And Mental Health (CAMH).
 
The featured speaker of the event was Kenneth Zucker, a psychologist and current head of the gender identity clinic. He's known for promoting reparative therapy for gender-variant children, which teaches kids to conform to society's expectations of female and male behaviour. His work is heavily promoted by notorious ex-gay group the National Association For Research And Therapy Of Homosexuals.
 
"Dr Zucker has never left himself in a position where the community could ask him questions," says trans activist Tina Strang. She and 519 Trans Programs coordinator Kyle Scanlon had issued a call to action via e-mail two days before the event, urging trans people and their allies to attend the lecture and voice their concerns." " (see full story...)

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5-07-08:  National Public Radio: All Things Considered: "Two Families Grapple with Sons' Gender Preferences - Psychologists Take Radically Different Approaches in Therapy"
 

This heartbreaking documentary contrasted Zucker's decades-old reparatist methods to modern treatment protocols (see next item).

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5-09-08:  The Torontoist: "But For Today I Am A Boy"

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5-08-08:  ThePetitionSite.com: "Objection to DSM-V Committee Members on Gender Identity Disorders"

The psychiatric establishment faced widespread international protest in response to Zucker's and Blanchard's appointments. The scale of the protest was made visible in a petition against their selection: it gained over 9,500 signatures.

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12-21-08: GIDReform.org: "Blinded Me With Science: The Burden of Proof", by Kelley Winters, Ph.D.:

Dr. Winters' essay provides insights into the ongoing pathologization of trans women by the psychiatric and psychological professions, including a discussion of the role of Zucker in this matter. (GIDReform is a community-based organization working to de-pathologize the characterization of trans people in the DSM).