Who was Billy Tipton?

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Why the Bailey controversy won't die soon

To focus on the overzealous response of some trans activists is to miss the bigger picture -- that transsexuals are fed up with non-trans "experts" claiming to know us better than we do

By Joanne Herman

An Advocate.com exclusive posted September 4, 2007

To refresh: Transsexuals are those who live or seek to live as the gender opposite the one assigned at birth, sometimes utilizing hormones and surgery to help do so, and as such they represent only part of the large and diverse transgender community. I am a male-to-female (MTF) transsexual. And J. Michael Bailey, the psychologist who authored the controversial 2003 book The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism, is not.

Bailey concluded, based largely on interviews of transsexuals in a gay bar, that MTF transsexuals transition solely to satisfy their sex drive. Bailey claimed that some of us are really gay men believing that being a woman will normalize our attraction to men; that some of us are men sexually aroused by the idea of having a female body; and the rest of us are lying when we say we don’t fit those two categories. Noticeably absent is a discussion of female-to-male (FTM) transsexuals.

But I and most other MTF transsexuals do feel strongly that we don’t fit Bailey’s two categories. And we are furious to be called liars by a nontransgender “expert.” While most trans people were deeply closeted in years past, that’s no longer the case, so the backlash by trans activists in 2003, when his book came out, was intense.

That backlash was recently rekindled on word that another nontransgender “expert” is about to publish an article in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, asserting that the personal attacks on Bailey by trans activists presented “problems not only for science but free expression itself.”

This defense sounds very much like the rhetoric of nongay psychiatrist Charles Socarides after he ended up on the wrong side of the vote to remove homosexuality from the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in the early 1970s. Socarides felt the APA's decision was not based on any empirical evidence but influenced by gays, both within and without the organization, who had their own agenda.

Focusing on the personal attacks against Bailey is like discussing the clashes between protesters and police in Chicago at the 1968 Democratic National Convention without emphasizing the incredible wave of social change sweeping the nation at the time. Trans people have reached the point where they are fed up with any nontrans “expert” -- not just Bailey -- who's dismissing our opinions. Our view is that, much like a nongay person can't possibly imagine loving someone of the same sex, a nontransgender person can't possibly imagine the feeling of living in the wrong gender.

Trans people are venting years of frustration. Julia Serano has written a crisp summary of the latest Bailey developments on the Feministing blog. But more important, this rising star's new book, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity, has shed much-needed light on the bigger picture.

It starts with the observation that MTF transsexuals pose a problem for the patriarchy. We actually prefer to be female and go through a huge number of hoops to get there. This very fact subverts the idea of male superiority: How can anyone possibly not think being male is better? On the other hand, FTM transsexuals transition in the “right” direction, so the patriarchy rarely manages to conduct research about them.

As treatment started becoming available in this country in the 1970s, the nontransgender men running the gender clinics set the femininity requirement very high to limit the number the number of "subversives" admitted. Some clinics even limited treatment, reserving it for MTFs who aroused the male doctor sexually, thereby objectifying them as sex objects.

When nontransgender second-wave feminists saw these über-feminine products of the clinics, they assumed that no thinking person could willingly choose to so actively embrace that level of femininity. They labeled us as dupes of the patriarchy who had been deployed to preserve feminine stereotypes. In reality, we knew full well what we were doing -- we were embracing excessive femininity because it was the only route open to us that would allow us to live in our perceived gender. . . .

Employers Should Be Mindful of Sex-Stereotyping Claims in Dealing With Gender Identity

Carla J. Rozycki and David K. Haase
Special to Law.com
September 5, 2007

Jenner & Block's Carla Rozycki

Jenner & Block's David Haase

Courts have long been in agreement that discrimination against a transgendered person is not sex discrimination actionable under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, because "sex" means biological male or female status, not sexuality or sexual orientation.

See, for example, Holloway v. Arthur Andersen & Co., 566 F.2d 659, 662-64 (9th Cir. 1977) (rejecting the idea that "sex" as defined in Title VII could be extended to gender identification, the 9th Circuit concluded that "Congress had only the traditional notions of 'sex' in mind" and held that "[a] transsexual individual's decision to undergo sex change surgery does not bring that individual, nor transsexuals as a class, within the scope of Title VII."); Sommers v. Budget Marketing, Inc., 667 F.2d 748, 749 (8th Cir. 1982) (rejecting a transgender sex discrimination claim, the 8th Circuit held that "the Court does not believe that Congress intended ... to require the courts to ignore anatomical classification and determine a person's sex according to the psychological makeup of that individual . ... Plaintiff, for the purposes of Title VII, is male because she is an anatomical male."); Ulane v. Eastern Airlines, Inc., 742 F.2d 1081, 1085 (7th Cir. 1984), cert. denied, 471 U.S. 1017 (1985) (finding that a post-operative transsexual was not protected by Title VII, the 7th Circuit held that "The phrase in Title VII prohibiting discrimination based on sex, in its plain meaning, implies that it is unlawful to discriminate against women because they are women and against men because they are men. The words of Title VII do not outlaw discrimination against a person who has a sexual identity disorder, i.e., a person born with a male body who believes himself to be female, or [vice versa]; a prohibition against discrimination based on an individual's sex is not synonymous with a prohibition against discrimination based on an individual's sexual identity disorder or discontent with the sex into which they were born.").

In a case that did not involve a transgendered employee, the U.S. Supreme Court stated in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228, 251 (1989), that in "forbidding employers to discriminate against individuals because of their sex, Congress intended to strike at the entire spectrum of disparate treatment of men and women resulting from sex stereotypes" (emphasis added).

But in several transgender cases that followed Price Waterhouse, courts distinguished that case and did not recognize sex discrimination claims brought by transgendered employees who claimed to be the victims of unlawful sexual stereotyping. . . .

Sunny's Rob McElhenney on Trannies and Danny DeVito

by Anthony Layser

Rob McElhenney, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia may sound like a pleasant enough show, but there's nothing saccharine about FX's cult-hit comedy. Following the deplorable behavior and self-absorbed shenanigans of a group of friends who operate a South Philly dive called Paddy's Pub, the series enters its third season on Thursday, Sept. 13 (10 pm/ET, FX), and the DVDs for Seasons 1 and 2 arrive in stores today. Creator, producer and star Rob McElhenney recently spoke with TVGuide.com about the new season and provided some insight on attractive transsexuals, the City of Brotherly Love and whether he plans to get loaded with costar Danny DeVito before their upcoming appearance on The View.

TVGuide.com: In the beginning you, Glenn Howerton and Charlie Day did all the writing. Was it at all difficult to let some new people into the creative circle for the third season?
Rob McElhenney: Well, it's still very much like the first two seasons. We did hire a small staff of writers to work with us this year, and they were very helpful, but we have 50% more episodes this year than we had last year. It's a lot of work.

TVGuide.com: Is there any chance a protagonist will arise this season, or is the plan to keep every character just as loathsome?
McElhenney: There's no changing. Our characters are going to stay just as loathsome as they were from Day 1. Now, I think you can root for all the characters from time to time, but I don't know if any will ever be sympathetic. Maybe Charlie, because he's so darn loveable. . . .

FTM International Leaders Honored

Three San Francisco FTM International community leaders have been honored with awards at the 8th annual Gender Odyssey national conference August 31-September 3, 2007 in Seattle, Washington, states FTM International President Levi Alter.

alterlevi.jpg

San Francisco, CA, September 4, 2007: Three San Francisco FTM International community leaders have been honored with awards at the 8th annual Gender Odyssey national conference August 31-September 3, 2007 in Seattle, Washington.

“FTM men across America, Canada and the world are proud of the accomplishments of our dedicated members Mr. Marcus de Maria Arana, Sergeant Stephan Thorne and Shannon Price Minter, Esq.,” stated Rabbi Levi Alter, President of FTM International, spanning 21 years and 18 countries.

Marcus de Maria Arana is a Discrimination Investigator for the SF Human Rights Commission. Marcus has been an activist for gender identity rights since 1995. Marcus designed and conducted transgender cultural competency trainings for the SFPD, UCSF, the Red Cross, etc. Marcus is a Board Member of the Native American AIDS Project (NAAP) and the Native American Cultural Center (NACC), and authored the Commission report Discrimination By Omission, which documents discrimination against Native Americans in SF.

Sergeant Stephan Thorne 45, came out thirty years ago in Lincoln, Nebraska and promptly was forced out of high school. Stephan joined the SF Police Department in 1984 and transitioned on the job in 1994. Stephan has provided ongoing transgender cultural competency trainings for the SFPD.

Shannon Price Minter, Esq. and other community members succeeded in a campaign to secure equal health-care benefits for transgender SF city employees. Minter founded NCLR’s Youth Project, the first legal-advocacy group to address the needs of LGBT youth and supervises the Safe Homes Project at NCLR, which helps LGBT youth who face discrimination in foster care, group homes, or the juvenile-justice system. Shannon writes publications such as Transgender Equality: A Handbook for Activists and Policymakers, and speaks in forums, hearings, and gatherings around the country. Shannon is the Legal Director of NCLR and was lead attorney on Sharon Smith's groundbreaking wrongful death suit and has litigated many other impact cases in California and across the country. He received the Ford Foundation's "Leadership for a Changing World" award, the Anderson Prize Foundation Creating Change Award by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the distinguished national service award from GAYLAW. . . .