An investigation into the publication of
J. Michael Bailey's book on transsexualism
by the National Academies:
THE LOG OF BREAKING NEWS
Copyright © 2003-2008 by Lynn Conway, All rights reserved
[Update of 6-22-08]
You can gain an overview of the unfolding events in the Bailey book saga by browsing the following "Log of Breaking News". The Log contains links in chronological order to key e-mails, field reports, essays, open letters to institutional leaders, press releases, the unfolding investigation findings and the ensuing outcomes (most recent entries first). By browsing the log of news from bottom to top you can visualize how events unfolded and how the trans community united to deal with the crisis of widespread defamation by rogue scientists.
For more background on the investigation of the Bailey-Blanchard-Lawrence clique, see the two trans community websites that coordinated the investigation activity: Lynn Conway's Bailey Investigation Site and Andrea James' BBL Clearinghouse. Historical researchers seeking convenient time-lined access to the historical details of the investigation and more in-depth information on detailed events can study the Timeline-Spreadsheet of unfolding events.
For those seeking information about Bailey's attack on yet another sexual minority group (bisexual men), see the log of news events beginning at July 5, 2005 .
For information on the renewed 2007 attack by the 'sex science' community on the lives and identities of transgender women by Alice Dreger, J. Michael Bailey and their mentor Ken Zucker, see the log of news beginning at July 30, 2007 and follow it on into 2008.
Links into the Log of Breaking News:
2008
('Sex Science' demonizes critics: Dreger and Bailey pronounce that "intellectual terrorists" have "ruined Bailey's life".
Meanwhile, the majority of the published peer commentary papers tear Dreger's hit-piece apart.)
2007
('Sex science' demonizes critics: Bailey apologist Alice Dreger attacks Andrea James, Lynn Conway,
Deirdre McCloskey, and journalist Robin Wilson in a one-sided hit-piece to be published in the journal
run by Zucker and the BBL clique,and then goes on to attack a grad student who criticizes her hit-piece)
2006
(Aftermath: Bailey's book quietly removed from the National Academy website;
gay media in Chicago begin refusing ads from NU projects in which Bailey is involved)
2005:
(Aftermath: Including Bailey's ongoing defense of his homosexual eugenics,
and his subsequent shift to attack bisexual identities)
(Formal Bailey investigation by Northwestern University, resulting in
Bailey's forced resignation as Chairman of the Psychology Department)
(Trans community investigation of Bailey's research misconduct
and filings of formal complaints at Northwestern University)
January-December 2008
NEW!
6-21-08:
National Women's Studies Association:
This is the panel discussion organized by graduate student Joelle Ruby Ryan that Bailey-defender
Alice Dreger brazenly attempted to prevent from happening. (Session handout)
NEW!
"Dreger's Defense of J. Michael Bailey: The Peer Commentary Papers Tear It Apart"
a Report by Lynn Conway - with many excerpts from the peer commentary papers.
NEW!
OII: "Zucker: Manipulation of Young Feminine Boys"
A paper by Curtis Hinkle of OII provides an important analysis of Zucker's statistics on 'childhood GID' vs homosexual and transsexual outcomes - and reflects on whether Zucker's therapy is "changing" anything at all. [PDF]
NEW!
"DSM ON THE BOOKSHELF: An open letter to WPATH Members",
by Tracie O'Keefe (Clinician in Australia) [PDF]
NEW!
Special issue containing Dreger's defense of J. Michael Bailey
and Peer Commentary Papers responding to Dreger's analysis
[see also 6-18-08 re PCPs]
NEW!
National Gay and Lesbian Task Force: "Task Force questions
critical appointments to APA's Committee on Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders"
NEW!
Organisation Intersex International (re Canada):
"Why is the Ontario government sponsoring an American sexologist (Zucker)
to run a trans-reparatist gender clinic in Toronto?" -
NEW!
ThePetitionSite.com: "Objection to DSM-V Committee Members on Gender Identity Disorders"
A petition seeking the removal of Ken Zucker and Ray Blanchard from the APA's DSM-V
work group on sexual and gender identity 'disorders'.
The Torontoist"(Canada): "But For Today I Am A Boy"
Important article exposes Ken Zucker's reparatist treatment
of gender-variant children at CAMH)
NPR.org: "Two Families Grapple with Sons' Gender Preferences"
"Psychologists Take Radically Different Approaches in Therapy"
This heartbreaking NPR documentary contrasts Zucker's reparatist methods
with more modern methods of caring for such kids.
American Psychiatric Association Press Release:
"APA Names DSM-V Work Group Members -
Experts to Revise Manual for Diagnosis of Mental Disorders".
"A “Bailey Controversy” Follow-Up" by Julia Serano
Organization Intersex Internationale (OII):
"Alice Dreger: The unethical ethicist?", by Curtis Hinkle
"After controlling intersex activism for over a decade and leaving it in shambles,
she decided to move on to transgender activism."
2-27-08:
The Daily Northwestern: "Debate resumes on methods of psych professor's
research"
Clinician Robin Mathy files ethics complaints against Dreger and Bailey with the APA:
"Dreger was wrong to submit her article to the ASB, which is edited by Kenneth Zucker . . ."
"This is a blatant conflict of interest," Mathy said. "(Dreger) exploited a key network friendship
with
Michael Bailey to get a truly horrible paper published.""
"Treestumps
and Broomsticks", By Sophia Siedlberg
"In the debate involving
Dreger who is now
defending
Tree from various accusations, it is Tree’s
medical
history that is open to question."
No matter how you slice it: parsing Alice Dreger’s self-defense:
Andrea James cuts through sloppy historian
Alice Dreger's unintentionally hilarious defense of
Kiira Triea.
"A note on Kiira Triea’s place in the history of intersex activism"
Alice Dreger
attempts to defend
notorious hoaxer Denise Tree, aka Kiira Triea.
Achives of Sexual Behavior: "The lineup for Volume 37, Number 3 (June 2008)"
Editor Ken Zucker lists articles to be published in the June 2008 issue of the ASB.
The entire issue of the journal is to be devoted to Alice Dreger's defense of J. Michael Bailey
January-December 2007
TS Roadmap.com: "Alice Dreger’s “slice it” joke riles intersex activists"
Intersex activists quickly pointed out that the title’s pun made light of “normalizing” surgery
many intersex people endure and suggests that intersex people are neither he nor she, but “it.”"
Organization Intersex International (OII): “Alice Dreger, have you no shame?”
In attempts to defend her “disordered” terminology for intersex people, Alice Dreger
has begun giving seminar talks entitled: "No Matter How You Slice It? Parsing Intersex".
The Lambda Literary Foundation openly reaffirmed that they
considered Bailey's book transphobic and inappropriate for a Lambda Literary award,
thus refuting Alice Dreger's claims and Ben Carey's New York Times article.
"Legal troubles for Denise Tree (aka Kiira Triea) expose more lies"
Court records reveal that Bailey's supporter and co-author Kiira Triea
(author of the fake "transkids.us" website), has lied about her past.
Daily Northwestern: "Report clearing prof leaves critics unsatisfied"
More Dreger media propaganda in the effort to resurrect Bailey "ruined" career.
San Francisco Bay Times: "A TransAmazon Takes on The Man"
Article about Alice Dreger's internet attacks on graduate student Joelle Ryan,
and how Joelle has stood her ground.
J. Michael Bailey's contributions to restaurant reviews:
A hilarious review of J. Michael Bailey's restaurant reviews:
"Terrified
By TOC: Dr. Strangelove Ruins Our Dinner" -
"The Pickup Artist, armed with a doctorate in douchology"
This independent article raises some very serious questions about Bailey's
personal character.
In the Bay Area Reporter: "Controversy dogs sexuality researcher":
J. Michael Bailey confirms that he wrote and promoted TMWWBQ for financial gain,
and that "at that time I was pretty broke, so it had a special appeal".
Susan Stryker says of Dreger's history: "it was "misguided and misframed" and in the end
"what Alice does is reproduce the very things that people are angry about.""
"With "Defenders" Like This...
Alice Dreger Destroys Academic Freedom in Order to Save It"
An exposé by Elise Hendrick of Dreger's intimidation attack on a graduate student
Dreger launches mass e-mail listserv defamation against graduate student
who simply proposed a women's studies conference panel
on transphobic publications by academics.
Bailey blogs back in "Transsexual Smokescreen:
Ignoring Science In “The Man Who Would Be Queen”
"Science and Ideology II: The J. Michael Bailey Affair in the New York Times -
Martyr for Academic Freedom or Thin-Skinned Quack?"
"The Bailey Affair, Again", by Joan Roughgarden, Ph.D.
"What I concluded in 2004 seems as pertinent today as it was then"
See Joan's 2004 essay, "Psychology Perverted"
Biologist Julia Serano, Ph.D., exposes the subversion of science
by Alice Dreger, J. Michael Bailey and Ken Zucker in their attempts
to resurrect Bailey's disgraced career
"The explosive rethinking of sex reassignment",
The Globe and Mail (Canada) portrays the Bailey-Blanchard-McHugh 'science'
as a recent development that now supports the stoppage of SRS
WPATH: E-mail Letter to WPATH Membership
re the Bailey affair from gender therapist Sandra Samons, Ph.D.
WPATH: E-mail Letter to WPATH membership
re the Bailey affair from gender therapist Wal Torres, Ph.D.
Alice Dreger 'defends' J. Michael Bailey in KQED Radio interview, with Bailey
deferring to Dreger to respond to questions he can't find answers to.
LynnConway.com: "Science Subverted: How a scientific journal became a propaganda tool
in the "science war" against the social emergence of transgender women"
August 21, 2007
New York Times: "Criticism of a Gender Theory, and a Scientist Under Siege"
An ardent Bailey supporter, science journalist Benedict Carey attempts to resurrect Bailey
by applauding Alice Dreger's one-sided 'history' of the Bailey book fiasco
"Alice Dreger: A timeline of her feud with Andrea James":
Dreger is exposed as orchestrating a bizarre smear-campaign against Andrea James,
in order to suck up to her colleagues Zucker, Bailey, Blanchard and Lawrence.
In return, Dreger became the front-person paid to write their
one-sided history of the Bailey book fiasco
Zucker subverts his scientific journal, The Archives of Sexual Behavior, into a propaganda machine
by pre-publishing Dreger's one-sided 'history', as part of his own personal vendetta
against the women who exposed him as running a reparatist clinic in Toronto.
Alice Dreger widely disseminates a pre-publication version of
her one-sided
revisionist story of the Bailey book fiasco,
referring to her work as a "scholarly history"
In LynnConway.com: "Reflections on J. Michael Bailey’s research:
Claims of ‘scientific results’ versus unanswered methodological questions".
This report opens an investigation into the splashy claims of scientific discovery
made by J. Michael Bailey in press releases and media interviews.
WPATH: "Call for Peer Commentaries"
Zucker announces that a "history" of the Bailey book fiasco will be published in Archives of Sexual Behavior.
Zucker is ASB editor, and also runs the trans-youth-reparatist clinic at CAMH. The announced history, an "inside job" by their colleague Alice Dreger and funded by the sex research consortium at Northwestern, includes the accusation that "a small number of trans women (particularly Lynn Conway, Andrea James, and Deirdre McCloskey) worked to try to ruin Bailey".
June 4, 2007
The PFC News discusses Julia Serano's new book:
Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity
This book is essential reading for anyone wishing to understand
the social context trans women live in - and especially these recent events.
The so-called 'transkids' website, so highly extolled by Bailey, Lawrence and LeVay
and long exploited by them to defend Blanchard's classification scheme,
has been exposed as an internet HOAX!
Groundbreaking new report on bisexual health rips into
J. Michael Bailey's infamous pronouncements on bisexuality in the New York Times,
recommending that "Researchers and journalists should avoid sensationalizing
stories and research and should include bisexual people’s perspectives"
(see pages 35-37 and 101 in this 143 page, 4.2MB PDF report)
January-December 2006
Simon LeVay's gay-gene promotional tour:
LeVay uses scare tactics to bias thinking
about Northwestern's gay-gene study.
Chicago Free Press editors cancel Northwestern Univ.
advertisement for sex research subjects:
"Since we cannot in good conscience steer our readers to
a study that Bailey is part of, we’re canceling the ad"
Lynn Conway reports on "Rogue Theories of Transsexualism":
By seeing a collection of such "theories" side-by-side,
we grasp the strangeness of them all.
Christine Burns of PFC (UK) publishes:
"Collected Essays in Trans Healthcare Politics:
Documenting the Scandal of How Medicine Lost The Trust Of Trans People"
(66 pages; 840 KB pdf document)
What was up with 60 Minutes' bizarrely unbalanced report on the origins of sexuality?
In part the answer is disgraced "scientist" J. Michael Bailey,
who thinks gay men tend to be girly and bisexuals don't exist"
"Five Questions With… J. Michael Bailey"
“Autogynephilia: A Narrative”, by Margaret McGhee. (PDF)
An insightful reflection on the beliefs of members of the now-defunct
Bailey-Blanchard-Lawrence-Arune “AG Support Group”
by one of its original participants.
Bailey's book is quietly removed from the National Academy Press website.
However, it is still accessible via the Internet Archive,
for those wanting to confirm
various direct quotes in the text.
July-December 2005
J. Michael Bailey's very personal crusade against bisexuality,”
a report by Andrea James in TSRoadmap.com
Bailey publishes "Academic McCarthyism",
proclaiming there's "nothing wrong" with having sex with a research subject
as a means of
defending himself against such charges
NARTH applauds Paul McHugh's and the Catholic Church's
horrific defamations of transsexual women, and promotes
Ken Zucker's forced reversionist interventions in young transgender lives.
American Sexuality Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 4:
"Sexual Prejudice: The erasure of bisexuals
in academia and the media" By Loraine Hutchins. (PDF)
Commentary by Christine Burns, a leading trans advocate in the UK,
on the significance of the
Bockting review:
Clinician and researcher Walter O. Bockting, Ph.D.,
reviews, rebuts and rebukes Bailey's book in The Journal of Sex Research:
"BIOLOGICAL REDUCTIONISM MEETS GENDER DIVERSITY IN HUMAN SEXUALITY"
"The Man Who Would Be Queen is the most controversial book on transsexuality
since Janice Raymond's The Transsexual Empire (1979)
and is the latest challenge to what already was a fragile relationship
between the scientific and the transgender communities"
"RISKS OF THE GAY GENE THEORY", by Paul Varnell:
"by now it seems likely that there is no such thing as a single "gay gene""
"BAILEY'S BISEXUALITY STUDY", by Paul Varnell.
"Bailey has repeatedly in the past employed problematic research procedures
and this study is no exception"
"Researcher on bisexuality study breaks with colleagues,"
San Francisco Bay Guardian - Techsploitation:
"Name Calling", by Annalee Newitz
"The folly of putting labels on sexuality: Straight, gay or bisexual attraction is
far too nuanced and subjective to withstand crude statistical analysis."
"Report on bisexuality study angers gay activists:
Critics say New York Times ignored methodology, author’s past",
"Times article on bisexuality sets off a storm;
activists and researchers dispute findings",
TOUTS CONTROVERSIAL BISEXUALITY STUDY,"
emerges as Bailey's new spokesman
The New York Times whitewashes criticisms
of flawed bisexuality article,
by selecting which 'Letters' to Publish
The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force(NGLTF)
denounces
New York Times story promoting bisexual stereotypes -
and distributes Fact Sheet documenting faults in Bailey's study (pdf)
FAIR (Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting) Action Alert
New York Times Suggests Bisexuals Are "Lying"
Paper fails to disclose study
author's controversial history
GLAAD "Write-Now!" alert re Bailey's new media smear-attack:
"New
York Times Promotes Bisexual Stereotypes in "Straight, Gay or
Lying?""
"Bisexuality Study: NYT Gives Prominence To Disgraced Researcher,"
"Straight, Gay or Lying? Bisexuality Revisted"
After having given up on trashing transsexual women,
J. Michael Bailey moves on to attack the identities of another sexual minority group:
He now claims the plyethysmograph proves that bi-sexual men are lying,
i.e, that they are simply gay men after all.
January-June 2005
In the aftermath of the J. Michael Bailey book fiasco,
Jim Marks, Executive Director of the Lambda Literary Foundation
IS FORCED TO RESIGN by the LLF Board of Trustees. (more details)
In a major plenary lecture on transgender health care and rights
at the 2005 IFGE Conference in Austin, Texas,
HBIGDA's past president Dr. Eli Coleman rebukes Bailey's book,
commenting on the “setback” the book had represented,
and thanking those who "exposed the
book"
for what it was.
"J. Michael Bailey attempts to defend
his writings on homosexual eugenics – to an almost empty auditorium,"
A Report by Lynn Conway, posted May 14, 2005
CONTROVERSIAL GAY, TRANS RESEARCH,"
An
article by Gary Barlow in the Chicago Free Press, May 4, 2005
A young trans woman reflects on
J. Michael Bailey's eugenics writings and connections.
In apparent reaction to Bailey's declining access to gay male research subjects
(which has put at risk his effort to restart his research in homosexuality),
Bailey and Greenberg announce a defense of their 2001 writings on homosexual eugenics,
in a seminar to be held at Northwestern University on April 28, 2005
While at a public symposium at UCLA,
Alice Eagly is reported as saying that Bailey's "sudden abdication"
led her to take the position as interim Chair of Psychology,
and that the NU administration may have seen that as a good "antidote" to Bailey...
Lynn Conway writes Professor Alice Eagly,
the interim Chair of the Psychology Department at Northwester University
regarding the dark cloud that now
hangs over that department.
In the aftermath of his resignation and without showing any signs of remorse,
Bailey attacks those who filed formal complaints against him
by now claiming outright that they are liars:
"I had these people's permission to write about them"
Continued:
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