A.C. (1920 - ?) day laborer

A.C. (a name assigned by the psychologist) was the ninth of 12 children. The father, who was mean and beat all the children, ran a cotton gin and store in Arkansas. A.C. was assigned female, but even as a small child refused to wear dresses, even when starting school, where it was required for the girls. A.C. was so embarrassed and hid under a desk. The mother was able to arrange a transfer to another school where all the farm children, male and female, wore overalls. In 1932, when A.C. was 12, the father age 53 was shot to death by a drunken employee, which A.C. experienced as a relief. A.C. suffered earaches and headaches, and attributed them as nervous strain in not being accepted as male, and also suffered from malaria. A.C. was a loner, and would go to movies alone, read the Bible and attended church, although expressing the opinion that "preachers are merely money crazy”.

When A.C. was 17 there was an operation for appendicitis, and A.C. later reported that the attending physician had said that he found "internal male sex organs but they were in some way diseased or injured, and were removed". 

The mother died of cancer age 66 when A.C. was 23 years. A.C. said that the mother "was ignorant and did not understand my situation. She stated over and over again it was her fault for bringing me into the world". 

A.C. married a woman who had a daughter from a previous marriage. However their marriage was unhappy, and ended after A.C. found out that his wife was doing sex work on the quiet. At age 26, he attempted suicide by slashing his wrists, and was admitted to a mental hospital, and underwent shock treatments. He was discharged after a week with the diagnosis of “a psychopathic personality, with homosexual complications”.

He had a discontinuous relation with another woman six years younger than himself, who likewise had a child from an earlier marriage. They were ‘legally married’ in 1952, despite hostility and threats from the bride’s parents. The new wife had a few hundred dollars saved, and they invested that in a clothing business – but the business failed. A.C. sought work as a day laborer in farms, but was not always engaged. They sought a loan from the wife’s parents, although the daughter stayed away concerned that her parents would trap her in their home. A.C. went to visit them having sent a telegram to himself referring to the financial need to provide for the health of his wife’s child. The mother-in-law intercepted the telegram, and did give some money for the child’s benefit. However she then thought again, and accused A.C. of obtaining money under false pretenses in that he did not pass the money to his wife. Despite the wife’s statement that she had been given the money, A.C. was arrested, and by court order was committed to the Arkansas State Hospital in Little Rock where he was assessed by psychologist Robert S Redmount, who applied a battery of psychological tests.

The wife was by then with her parents in that she had nowhere else to go. Redmount’s final question to A.C. was: If you were granted three wishes in life, what would you want most?

(1) I want to see that professor in New York, to see if he can help me.

(2) I want them to leave me alone after I serve my time.

(3) I want my wife and I to live together and be happy, and everybody keep their mouths shut and leave us alone.

Redmount wrote up the case and published it in a psychology journal in 1933. His conclusion:

 “Underlying psychologic factors indicate that the patient's problems are of a more complicated nature. Her life-long adjustments seem to represent less an attempt to accept reality and more of a protest against it. … The process of maturation in the male role was additionally complicated by the patient's apparent underlying motivations for marital status as a husband. She needed the utilization of her marriage and her marriage partner predominantly in order to gain the support, acceptance, and protection that she originally sought in her mother. Her own immature and incomplete psychologic growth process seems to preclude the possibility of devoting herself to the role of a husband in terms of any value or goal beyond her own passive- receptive needs. That the marriage was able to maintain itself at all attests to the needs of both the patient and her wife to escape from shattering, unkind realities.

It is quite possible that, unless society provides the patient the opportunity for a social or a psychologic solution to her problems, she will culminate her protest in a fantasied retribution on society through her own self-destruction.”

-------

Redmount leaves the story hanging: was there a trial?; was A.C. convicted?; did he restart his marriage or did the mother-in-law keep them apart thereafter? What happened to A.C. later in life?

Of course a middle-class cishet person in 1933 Arkansas would not be subjected to a court-ordered psychological evaluation following such a dispute over money. Was the mother-in-law ever so evaluated?

Incidentally, was electro-shock treatment followed by being told that one is a 'psychopathic personality'  the standard reponse to suicide survivors in 1946?

Was the 1946 suicide attempt brought on by the break-up of the first marriage? Redmount’s account does not clarify this, but the dates fit. Lothstein attributes it to the mother’s death from cancer, although that was three years earlier.

“professor in New York”. Harry Benjamin? Was Benjamin sufficiently well-known in 1953?

-------

Redmount’s paper is included in Richard Green’s Bibliography addendum to Harry Benjamin’s The Transsexual Phenomenon, 1966, but is not mentioned in the text.

Joanne Meyerowitz’ How Sex Changed, 2002: 130, 136, 137, 159, 314n1, 315n15n19, 319n86 has disconnected quotes from Redmount’s account, but in such a way that the reader will not realize that they are from the same case.

Lothstein, 1983: 

“This case history is a pivotal one in that most of Redmount’s conclusions about the dynamics of the case have been accepted and supported by other investigators (oftentimes with little or no mention of Redmount’s contribution to our understanding of female transsexualism). … The importance of this case focused on two factors. The first factor was Redmount’s recognition of the psycho-dynamic triad in female transsexualism: an abusive father with whom the patient identified; a warm supportive mother who needed to be rescued (the patient reported that mother ‘was the only friend I had. When I lost her I had none.’); and a daughter who attempted to rescue her mother and protect her from the father’s onslaughts.” Lothstein’s position was that [intrafamily] “dynamics involved the transsexual-to-be identifying with a physically assaultive father who was unavailable to his weak, emotionally withdrawn wife, and having a need to rescue the mother from him (playing the role of a surrogate husband). In effect, the family dynamic, first reported by Redmount, has remained unchallenged up to the present time.”

!!!

Henry Rubin, 2003: 

“This choice, between viewing the patient’s claims as delusional or strategic, is found in many of the accounts, but nowhere as starkly as in the aforementioned report on an FTM criminally accused by his mother-in-law of fraudulent financial affairs. Dr. Robert Redmount concludes his remarks on this case with this pithy summary: ‘Her life-long adjustments seem to represent less an attempt to accept reality and more of a protest against it’ (110; emphasis added). Redmount hardly concurs that this protest is viable. His ultimate aim would be to help the patient avoid ‘her own self-destruction’ (111). The use of the female pronoun throughout these cases, plus the ubiquitous comments on the normal physiological condition of these patients, indicates the psychologists’ beliefs that these patients are delusional. Endocrinologists might defer to the patient’s desire for treatment based on the likelihood that a physiological etiology for their condition would eventually be uncovered. The psychologists could only view their patients as at worst deluded, and at best strategic.”

 

• Robert S. Redmount. “A Case of a Female Transvestite with Marital and Criminal Complications”. The Journal of Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology, 14, 2, 1953:95-111.

• Leslie Martin Lothstein. Female-to-Male Transsexualism: Historical, Clinical and Theoretical Issues. Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1983: 23-4, 37.

• Henry Rubin. Self-Made Men: Identity and Embodiment among Transsexual Men.Vanderbilt University Press, 2003: 56-7.

Amandus Balitzki (1890 - ?) postal clerk

Balitzki was born in the then German city of Stettin, the illegitimate, later legitimate, child of a railway man and a nurse. Although raised as a girl, Balitzki had no interest in dolls or cooking, and when playing family with other girls was usually given the role of ‘father’. Comments by others re a lack of femininity were defiantly taken as a complement. At the age of 17 Balitzki was supposed to learn bookkeeping, but not liking arithmetic, gave up this occupation after half a year, then learnt floristry at the age of 19, in the belief that there was more ‘manly work’ to be done. 

With the outbreak of war in August 1914, Balitzki obtained a Transvestitenschein and was able to work as a postal clerk. From 1917 Balitzki was a patient of Magnus Hirschfeld, who presented Balitzki in his Sexualpathologie, 1918 as an example of a ‘hermaphroditic preliminary stage’ and showed the patient in a series of specially produced photographs. 

In October 1919 the Berlin Chief of Police permitted a change of first name from Amanda to Amandus, and the birth certificate was amended accordingly. This was based on an expert opinion by Hirschfeld and Arthur Kronfeld, psychiatrist and co-founder of the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft, that although born female, the ambiguity of the adult's sexual characteristics now justified assigning him to the male sex. 

However Balitzki’s mother, not only a nurse, but a midwife whose profession required the sexing of babies, did not agree. She applied for a further medical examination of her ‘daughter’ in February 1921. Amandus was then examined by the district physician Dr Schreber, who alleged fraudulent intentions, as ‘the applicant was undoubtedly of the female sex and she had led the doctors to a false opinion by providing incorrect information’. The following April, Balitzki’s authorization to use the name ‘Amendus’ was withdrawn, and his Transvestitenshein was revoked. 

Walther Niemann, a lawyer with close ties to the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee (WhK), had campaigned for name changes for several trans persons. In November 1921 he applied again for Balitzki to be allowed to be Amandus: “correction of the birth certificate [...] to the effect that a child was not born of the female sex, but of the male sex”. Niemann enclosed with his application a copy of the cited decree of the Minister of Justice on the change of first name as well as a new expert opinion by Hirschfeld who attested - without mentioning Schreber's expert opinion - that Balitzki had ‘a certain discrepancy in the physical and mental sexual characteristics’, whereby Amandus ‘was to be attributed to the male sex for predominant reasons’. It was therefore ‘medically justified and better suited to the facts to correct his sex designation in the civil register to that of the male sex’. Niemann also referred to an analogous case, namely Berthold Buttgereit, in which ‘the correction order had been issued in the same situation’. 

Niemann followed this up in January 1922 enclosing a ‘certificate of recognition’ dated 1 December 1921, in which Amandus Balitzki declared that he was ‘the father of the illegitimate child born to the seamstress Erna Blumenthal on 24 May 1921’. As such Balitzki was obliged by law to provide the child with the support ‘corresponding to the mother's position in life’. However this was too much, and the authorities did not buy it. The manoeuvre was too transparent. Balitzki was threatened with being charged with Falschbeurkundung, (false certification). In May the Ministry of Justice stated that there was no reason to grant the ‘authorisation to use the first name Amandus’ and that the ‘applicant’ should continue to use the female first name. However the letter was returned with the note ‘moved on 29 April 1922 [...] unknown’. Amandus was not accepting the result.

• Magnus Hirschfeld. „Hermaphroditismus“. Sexualpathologie Volume 2: Sexuelle Zwischenstufen, A Marcus & E Webers Verlag, 1918: 21-3.
• Magnus Hirschfeld. Geschlechtskunde, Volume 4, Bilderteil. Julius Puttman, 1930: 471.
• Rainer Herrn. Der Liebe und dem Leid: Das Institut fur Sexualwissenschaft 1919-1933. Suhrkamp Verlag, 2022.

-------------- 

There seems to be no record of what happened to Amandus after1922. There is a short mention in Hirschfeld’s Geschlechtskunde, but no futher details. Herrn found the applications and replies in the official records, but again nothing after 1922. Did Amandus leave Berlin? Did he survive the Third Reich? Did he and Frau Blumenthal raise the child together?

Rod Fleming (1956 - ) writer, photographer, lover of trans women

Rod Fleming, raised in Scotland, cis, attended Edinburgh School of Art in the 1980s – where he first met some trans women – and became a journalist and photographer. He married a woman; they had four children. He also wrote fiction and non-fiction.

Fleming’s mother died in 2005 and he and his wife separated in 2009. He took a year off, did a masters degree at Dundee University, and lived in Paris.

In 2012, he went to the Philippines on a standard 3-week visa in response to Crissy, a trans woman whom he had met online. “She surprised me. She was tall, not lightly built, not really graceful, but quite beautiful in her face. She had been taking hormones for years and this had softened her skin and smoothed her features; but she did not really look like a girl. She was striking rather than pretty.” (see Palawan; Transsexualism: A position statement)

He encountered the Canadian K Burkowski, on the Facebook site for the World Pantheist Movement where they were both liking the same comments. They never met in person but collaborated in a book on religion which was published as Why Men Made God, 2015, in which among other aspects they consider trans priestesses and two-spirit cultures, drawing in particular on the writings of Amara Das Wilhelm, author of Tritiya-Prakriti: People of the Third Sex.

Also in 2015 Fleming published a novel The Warm Pink Jelly Express Train which is about a divorced journalist in Paris who becomes involved with a Brazilian trans prostitute, leading to a scandal that almost brings down the French government. Fleming noted: 

“My ideas about gender in particular were formed by the research and writing of The Warm Pink Jelly Express Train. Although it is a breathlessly-paced romantic adventure, it required me to dig deep into the natures of gender and sexuality, something I had never done before.” 

His major influence at this time was Kulick’s book, Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes. Also, using a Portuguese translator, he did telephone interviews with Brazilian trans women, both in France and in Brazil.

Becoming more and more conscious that some trans women were somewhat different from how he imagined them, that is as “small, lightly built, cute, pretty, incredibly feminine and extremely retiring”, Fleming discovered Michael Bailey’s The Man Who Would be Queen. 

“The first time I read it I was discouraged. I could respond to much of the book but there was something about it that pushed me away and at the time I could not really figure out what that might be”. (see “Transsexualism: A Position Statement”)

He blogged against Bailey. As Kay Brown put it: “Flemming started out his blogging career dissing Blanchard until I (yes me) convinced him of the reality of the Two Type Taxonomy. He later called me ‘friend’ when someone else mentioned me. He also invited me to write for his blog on the topic. I declined.”

He continued to meet Filipino trans women, and had a revelation. 

“The penny dropped. Western observers, and even Dr Winter, had failed to see it: there were two types of transsexualism in SE Asia. There was one type that was clearly defined and who, within their group, were all remarkably similar, and another type that was totally disparate in every way. They were tall, they were short, they were somewhat feminine, they were very masculine; many did not seem to date men at all whereas others did; some even had girlfriends. Most surprising was the latter’s attitude towards sex. Remember, none of the girls I met were active prostitutes. They were just being themselves. The small pretty ones were forward in their desire to get into bed with me; the others…well, they wanted to date me, but they were cool about sex. It just didn’t seem to be very important to them. … In SE Asia, non-homosexual transsexuals, or AGPs, tend to transition in their teens after puberty, whereas HSTS will have been displaying Gender Non-Conformity (GNC) before puberty. Thus the groups conform to the APA’s fudged and misleading classification of ‘early’ and ‘late’ onset. This is valid in the case of HSTS but many people, wrongly, assume that ‘late’ means middle age, as was typical of Blanchard’s AGP sample. But the APA is clear: ‘late’, here, means ‘at puberty or later’ while ‘early’ means ‘before puberty’.” (Most of the above taken from Fleming’s Transsexualism: A Position Statement).

In October 2015 Fleming responded on Quora to the question 'Is transgenderism natural?' by giving the usual citations of the worldwide occurrences of trans women. He then continued:

“The other type of MtF transgender, Blanchard's autogynephile, is much more problematic. It does not occur in many parts of the world at all. ('Zero percent' in Singapore, for example and similarly in a large study done in Thailand by Sam Winter; it is, as far as I can see, unknown in the Philippines to the point that transwomen there have difficulty grasping the concept.) AGP appears to be concentrated in the West, particularly the Anglo-Saxon West and especially the UK and the USA. Although there is evidence of AGP in persons of colour in these areas, it is predominantly experienced by white, middle-class individuals. Given these factors, it seems likely that AGP is not an innate part of human variation but instead a culturally-induced condition.”

This has since been removed from Quora.

As Fleming put it: 

“I looked at Bailey’s major source, Blanchard, and there found reasoned and well- constructed scientific papers that dealt with the matter in very detached terms, relying on statistics.” Aware of the controversial nature of this position, he endorsed it. He dismissed Andrea James and Lynn Conway as ‘histrionic agitators’. (Transsexualism: A Position Statement”)

In May 2016 he gave a positive review of Bailey’s book on his blog, and he and Kay Brown exchanged compliments.

Over the next two years Fleming posted several accounts of his position, and repeated that the second type trans women in the Philippines are different from Western Autogynephiles, but still referred to them using that term.

In October 2017, Key Brown commented – that is to say corrected – on “Transgender, transsexual and transvestite”. Fleming responded: 

“What you are actually doing is saying that you don’t like my findings because they challenge your own, and instead of going to Asia and finding out for yourself how things are, you’d rather I just shut up. I have no intention of so doing. You are patronising and demeaning towards me in an attempt to suggest that you — a person who has done precisely no field research in Asia– are more qualified than I am to discuss that which I have been studying. I don’t think so.”

Also that month Fleming published “Not Men: bekis in the Philippines” explaining Filipino gender roles using the concept “not-men” taken from Kulick’s studies in Brazil: 

“Traditional Filipino society is divided into two social groups: men, and everyone else. Borrowing from Kulick, I call the latter ‘not men’. This group is formed of women, children, female and gender non-conforming adolescents, and older ‘not men’ including gay males and transsexuals. Kulick goes as far as to define gender in Brazil as ‘men’ and ‘not men’ and, again, I agree with him. Gender conforming adolescent males form a ‘proto-men’ group, where they learn the social skills needed to join the ‘men’ group. Typically these include playing basketball, football and similar sports (but not volleyball); learning how to chase girls; learning how to talk about girls as sexual objects; often, learning to smoke and crucially, learning to drink. As they grow into adulthood, boys like this will be accepted into the ‘men’ group. So the ‘proto-men’ group is an extension of the ‘men’ group, not distinct from it. Any gender non-conforming (GNC) boy, teenage or adult male is automatically placed in the ‘not men’ group. The reasons for this are complex but devolve to showing ‘unmasculine’ character traits. These include things like being somewhat nervous; being a pretty boy; having crushes on men and boys, liking to dance; liking flowers; liking to wear feminine clothes; the desire to be a woman and feeling ‘like a woman inside’.”

Later that month when Fleming published “Autogynephilia: Sex as a woman”, Brown commented: 

“I have met a few Asian AGPs… and they are EXACTLY the same as Western AGPs… and while there are fewer of them as a percentage, as has been shown in study after study, it is NOT correlated with tolerance, as the data clearly shows that the cultural property that is key is that of individuality vs. collectivism (at the family level), as shown by two separate studies (and thus we have replication, the hallmark of good science. This essay is disturbing and wrong… in that it fails to note that at least 50% of HSTS make strong statements of experiencing extreme gender dysphoria at BEFORE puberty. And Yes, like gay men, they were extremely feminine BEFORE puberty, but remained so after age 10 or so, the age when gay men start to defemininize. Thus, their gender issues are not directly mediated by a desire to have sex with men… which is a secondary issue related to their core issue that gender and sexual orientation are indeed correlated.”

Fleming quoted some Asian AGPs that he had met, and replied: 

“Can you explain to these statements, both from Asian transwomen, in terms other than those I have outlined? In fact, the rewards discussed in Blanchard, leaving aside cross-dressed masturbation, are very much alike for both types of MtF TS/TG, as I detailed. The fact is that the Asian model is current throughout most of the world, with only certain parts of the West, notably the Anglo-Saxon and particularly USican ones, being different. Do I detect a sense of white cultural entitlement? That would be disappointing. … AS to ‘defeminisation’ of gay men, I am interested to see how you explain this in a social milieu where young TS/TG of both types are taking hormones from the age of 13 or 14. This is replicated in Latin America, where, as in Asia, contraceptive pills are available, over the counter, very cheaply, without prescription. The fact is that if an MtF trans person wishes to feminise, or not to masculinise, in any of these territories, they can, and do, achieve this very cheaply using birth control pills. … This supports the suggestion that AGPs in the West are remaining hidden for far longer. What do you think could cause that, other than social intolerance? And further, how do you account for the fact that, as social intolerance reduces, we are seeing a rapid increase in young TS/TG? Are you saying they are ALL HSTS? If you are, you just torpedoed your argument about gay men ‘defeminising’.”

Fleming then added an extra comment: 

“When I first responded to this comment by Kay Brown, I assumed that Brown was HSTS. This is an impression that Brown has spared no effort to cultivate. But it is not supported by observation. This is Brown’s self-penned bio page. It is quite clear from the pictures contained in it that Brown is most unlikely to be HSTS. It is common for AGPs to try to colonise HSTS identity, but this example shocks me, I must admit. This likely explains Brown’s clear rage response.”

In 2016 Fleming had met transpinay Samantha Villasencio, “one of the most beautiful girls I’d ever met” and they became lovers. He stayed with her after she was diagnosed as HIV+, and until her death in October 2023.

In February 2022, Fleming revived his speculation re his former mentor and posted “Kay Brown: an example of appropriation?”. He cited her activist record as a Blanchardian, and her self-identification as HSTS. The latter he rejects: 

“However even cursory examination of her body morphology and career indicates that this diagnosis would be unlikely”. 

Brown of course rejected this, but on the grounds

“but I really was 'early onset' as my mother confirmed to Dr. Norman Fisk at Stanford in early '75, when at 17”.

--------------------------------

My reading here is that Fleming is approaching an important question, but I suspect that many of you, as I am, are put off by the Blanchardian language. Let us rephrase it. If gender identity and sexual orientation are both biologically determined, then the proportion of trans women who are androphilic or gynephilic should be roughly equal in quite different cultures. However this is not the case. The majority of trans women in northern Euro-America are gynephilic and late transitioners, while in South East Asia 95%+ are assumed to be androphilic, and almost all have transitioned by the mid 20s. So why this difference? Fleming’s answer is that a second type of trans women is indeed there, but was not noticed by Winter et al. So the question becomes why did Winter not see them? It would be very useful if either Filipino or Western academics or both specifically addressed the question.

Brown was of course missing the point. Fleming had identified ‘early onset’ AGPs as common in the Philippines, but not recognised in North America/Europe. Brown says that she had transitioned by age 17, and therefore could not be compared to Fleming’s second type even though they generally transitioned as teenagers, that is at the same age or younger than she did.

In my article, “What is Autogynephilia?”, I criticized Blanchardism for conflating independent variables. An AGP is taken to be: 1) A late transitioner 2) Gynephilic, usually a husband and father 3) Well employed. The stereotype is to work with computers. This is opposed to HSTS which is a conflation of 1) An early transitioner 2) Androphilic 3) Living on the margins of society without a regular job. Many are assumed to be prostitutes, performers or working in gay bars. Kay Brown, tech entrepreneur, engineer and patent holder, would be by her own account HSTS 1 and 2, but AGP 3. Not that this is in any way a criticism of any person; it is a criticism of the Blanchard Binary. See also Andrea James’ profile of Candice Brown Elliot aka Kay Brown.

Fleming is adding body morphology to the three independent variables. He more than once uses the phrase “small, lightly built, cute, pretty, incredibly feminine and extremely retiring”. This is a set of criteria that only a few cis women attain. Why should trans women be measured by this any more than cis woman are? Likewise Fleming claims that Brown is obviously autoandrophilic in that she does not meet his specifications in appearance. Does he regard most cis woman as also failing to meet these criteria? There are plenty of cis woman, like Brown in their 60’s, who look kind of similar to her.

If body morphology is taken as a criterion, we open the door to the concepts of HSTS trapped in the body of an AGP, and AGP trapped in the body of an HSTS.

Actually, where is the ‘autogynephilia’? Blanchard’s definition is: “a man's paraphilic tendency to be sexually aroused by the thought or image of himself as a woman". Fleming does not even discuss such paraphilic arousal in his second type who generally transition after puberty, but as teenagers. The paraphilic tendency that is supposed to be a defining aspect of Autogynephilia is presumably a result of not having transitioned earlier. The gynephilic early transitioners who are becoming more common in North America and Europe as more loving parents are accepting seem not to be autogynephilic either. Anne Vitale, for her G3 type patient – the equivalent of autogynephilic – regards the pathology as Gender Deprivation Anxiety Disorder (GEDAD): that it is this deprivation, not a person’s gender identity, that she seeks to treat. And she regards G3 patients as mature, probably middle-aged or older. Like other trans persons, they did have female yearnings from childhood, but did not transition earlier. Fleming’s second type do transition earlier.

“The fact is that the Asian model is current throughout most of the world, with only certain parts of the West, notably the Anglo-Saxon and particularly USican ones, being different. Do I detect a sense of white cultural entitlement?” I am with Fleming on this point. It was inadvisable for Brown to pontificate on the situation in the Philippines to someone actually living there. It is a problem that gay and trans history is Euro/US centric. It would be good to have a world history that takes the east and south Asian (and the American two-spirit) tradition as the norm, and explain why Europe was different. Between the 4^th century and the appearance of the mollies in the early 18^th century you can almost count known trans persons in Europe on your fingers. Christian oppression was a major factor, although it is the case that Filipino transpinay and Brazilian travestis are living in strongly Catholic societies.

One of the objections to the term ‘autogynephilia” is that it has become a simple insult term, particularly as used by TERFs etc who are delighted to have a semi-academic term that implies that trans women have a mental illness. It is therefore ironic that when Fleming was irritated by Brown, ‘autogynephiliac’ was the term that he flung at her. This is further ironic in that Brown who shared an apartment with Joy Shaffer whom she described as “ best friend, point of stability, and sister”, later described her as ‘autogynephilic”.

Andrea James reads Fleming thus: “Some trans-attracted people who engage in “autogynephilia” activism wish to distance their own attractions from trans women they consider “autogynephiles.” In some cases, it is because they see “AGP” trans women as a threat to their “heterosexual” identity. They often brag about how “heterosexual” they are and how the “homosexual transsexual” people they desire are extremely feminine and only interested in masculine “heterosexual” partners like them. Trans-attracted people who use the terms “homosexual transsexual” or “HSTS” are among the most obsessed with “autogynephilia” and creator Ray Blanchard’s taxonomy of “HSTS” and “AGP,” because it’s so important to their own sexual identities.” This is of course armchair psycho-analysis, but it is a hypothesis that needs more work.

Comparing lovers of seropositive trans women: Rod Fleming did stay and comfort his Samantha to the end, unlike Lou Reed who broke off with his Rachel and left her to die in poverty and loneliness.

By Rod Fleming:

• “Palawan, Philippines, 2012”. Rod Fleming’s World, 2013-06-28. Online.

• The Warm Pink Jelly Express Train. Rare Rose Press, 2015.

• with K. Burkowski. Why Men Made God: Redefining the Sacred. Redefining the Sacred, PlashMill Press, 2015.

• “Explaining transsexualism”. Rod Fleming’s World, 2016-7-14. Online.

• “The Man Who Would be Queen”. Rod Fleming’s World, 2016-5-17. Online. (positive review)

• “Transgender, transsexual and transvestite”. Rod Fleming’s World, 2017-1-10. Online.

• “Autogynephilic and HomoSexual MtF in Asia”. Rod Fleming’s World, 2017-10-16. Online.

• “Not Men: bekis in the Philippines”. Rod Fleming’s World, 2017-10-22. Online.

• “Transsexualism: A Position Statement”. Rod Fleming’s World, 2017-10-29. Online.

• “Autogynephilia: Sex as a woman”. Rod Fleming’s World, 2018-9-19. Online.

• “The Warm Pink Jelly Express Train transsexual lives”. Rod Fleming’s World, 2018-9-26. Online.

• “Kay Brown: an example of appropriation?”. Rod Fleming’s World, 2022-2-14. Online.

• “Sam and Rod: How it all began”. Rod Fleming’s World, 2023-10-21. Online.

WordPress     Rod Fleming’s World      Amazon Author Page

By Others:

• Don Kulick. Travesti: Sex, Gender, and Culture among Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes. The University of Chicago Press, 1998.

• Don Kulick. The Gender of Brazilian Transgendered Prostitutes. American Anthropologist, 99, 3, Sep 1997.

• Sam Winter. “Thai transgenders in focus: demographics, transitions and identities”. International Journal of Transgenderism, 9, 1, 2006: 15-27.

• Sam Winter, Sass Rogando & Mark King. “Transgendered Women of the Philippines”. International Journal of Transgenderism, 10, 2, 2007: 79-90.

• Zagria. “What is Autogynephilia?”. GVWW, 22 March 2011. Online.

• Zagria. “Joy Shaffer (1955-) doctor”. GVWW, 19 January 2016. Online.

• Zagria. “Anne Vitale (1938 - ) gender therapist”. GVWW, 12 May 2016. Online.

• Siobhan O’leary. “A misogynist by any other name would smell just as putrid”. Medium, Nov 15, 2017. Online.

• Andrea James. “Rod Fleming vs. transgender people” Transgender Map, Online.

• Andrea James. “Candice Brown Elliott / ‘sillyolme’ and transgender people”. Transgender Map, Online.

Harry Benjamin Bibliography

There has never been a comprehensive bibliography of writings by Harry Benjamin. I did a partial in previous writings, and found partial bibliographies in Bullough, Legg et al., and Wikipedia, Richard Ekins and Alison Li. In addition I found more publications in Google Scholar, and elsewhere.

1911

• Anwendung des Antifirminverfahrens fur den Tuberkelbazillennachweis. MD dissertation, Eberhard-Karl-Universitat, Tubingen.

1923

• Introduction to Paul Kammerer. Rejuvenation and the Prolongation of Human Efficiency. Experiences with the Steinach-Operation on Man and Animals. Boni and Liveright.

• “The Steinach Method as Applied to Women: Preliminary Report”. New York Medical Journal and Medical Record, 18.

1925

• “New Clinical Aspects of the Steinach Operation”. Medical Journal and Record, 21, November.

1927

• “The Control of Old Age; with Special Reference to Gonadal Therapy”. American Medicine, 22, June.

1930

• “The Reactivation of Women”. Read by Peter Schmidt (in Benjamin’s absence) at the 1929 Sexual Reform Congress in London, and published 1930 in the Proceedings thereof.

1931

• “ Das männliche Sexualhomon”. Read in his absence at the 1930 Sexual Reform Congress in Vienna, and published 1931 in the Proceedings thereof.

• “For the Sake of Morality” Medical Journal and Record, 15, April.

1933

• “The Male Hormone: A Summary of Laboratory and Clinical Experiences”. Presented at the Sacramento County Medical Society, 21 November.

1941

• The Winter of our Discontent. A book - never published. An account of glandular reactivation, mixed with advice on how to age gracefully, and with autobiography.

1944

• The Sex Problem and the Armed Forces. Publisher not recorded,

1945

• "A contribution to the endocrine aspect of the impotence problem; a report of thirty-nine cases". Urologic and Cutaneous Review. 50: 139–43.

• “Eugene Steinach, 1861-1944: A Life of Research”. Scientific Monthly, 61, December.

1946

• "Endocrinology in the aged". Interne. 12, July: 465–9.

• “Endocrine gerontotherapy. The use of steroid hormone combinations in male patients”. Journal of Insurance Medicine, 6, 1.

• “A contribution to the endocrine aspect of the impotence problem; a report of thirty-nine cases”. Urologic and Cutaneous Review, 30, March: 139-43.

• “A case of of fatal air embolism through an unusual sexual act (medical and legal implications)”.Journal of Clinical and Experimental Psychopathology, 7: 815-20.

• review of Roy G Hoskins, The Biology of Schizophrenia. W W Norton, in American Journal of Psychotherapy, 1, 4.

1947

• "Biologic versus chronologic age". Journal of Gerontology. 2, 3, July: 217–27.

• “The Mental Hygiene of Aging”. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 1, 1: 122-123.

1948

• “Introduction to the Second Printing” in René Guyon. The Ethics of Sexual Acts. Alfred A Knopf.

• review of Lee Van Dovski. Genie und Eros. Delphi-Verlag, 1947, in American Journal of Psychotherapy, 2, 1.

• review of Edward J Stieglitz. The Second 40 Years. J B Lippincott, 1947, in American Journal of Psychotherapy, 2, 2.

• review of The Kinsey Report, in American Journal of Psychotherapy, 2, 3: 398.

1949

• "Endocrine gerontotherapy; the use of sex hormone combinations in female patients". Journal of Gerontology. 4, 3, July: 222–33.

• "Two years of sexology". American Journal of Psychotherapy. 3, 3, July: 419–27.

• "Outline of a method to estimate the biological age with special reference to the role of the sexual functions". International Journal of Sexology. 3, 1, August: 34–7.

• review of George W Henry. Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns. Paul B Hoeber, Inc., in American Journal of Psychotherapy. 3, 3, July: 477-8.

• "Endocrine Gerontotherapy The Use of Sex Hormone Combinations in Female Patients." Journal of Gerontology 4, 3, 1949: 222-233.

1950

• "Endocrine gerontotherapy. The use of steroid hormone combinations in male patients". Journal Insurance Medicine. 6, 1: 12–7.

• “A Humane Necessity” The Nation, 28 January.

• review of Arthur Wormhoudt. The Demon Lover. The Exposition Press, American Journal of Psychotherapy, 4, 2.

• review of E Elkan. “Sex Guidance in Sweden”. International Journal of Sexology, 3, 2, 1949, in American Journal of Psychotherapy, 4, 2.

• review of Gertrud Isolani. Der Doner. Helios Verlag, 1949, in American Journal of Psychotherapy, 4, 1: 546-8.

1951

• “Prostitution Re-assessed”. International Journal of Sexology, 4,3.

• “Meaning and Content of Sexual Perversions”, American Journal of Psychotherapy, 5, 1.

• “Sex and You”, American Journal of Psychotherapy, 5, 2

• “Problems of old age and their treatment”. Journal of Dental Medicine, 6, 3, July: 79-87.

• review of George Sylvester Viereck writing as Stuart Benton. All Things Human. Sheridan House, 1949, American Journal of Psychotherapy, 5, 3.

• review of Fred Brown & Rudolf T Kempton. Sex: Questions and Answers. A Guide to Happy Marriage. Whittlesey House, 1950, American Journal of Psychotherapy, 5, 4.

1952

• review of Albert Ellis. The Folklore of Sex. Charles Boni, 1951. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 6, 1.

• review of Donald Webster Cory. The Homosexual in America. Greenberg, 1951, American Journal of Psychotherapy, 6, 2.

1953

• Transvestism and Transsexualism”. International Journal of Sexology, 7, 1, August: 12-14. Reprinted in One Institute Quarterly, 1, 3, Fall 1958: 102-4.

• "Transsexualism and transvestism as psychosomatic and somatopsychic syndromes". A paper given at the Association for the Advancement of Psychotherapy December 1953, and published in American Journal of Psychotherapy April 1954, 8, 2:219-30. Reprinted in Transvestia #6, November 1960.

• review of Frank Caprio. The Sexually Adequate Male. The Citadel Press, 1952, American Journal of Psychotherapy, 7, 3.

1954

• with Albert Ellis. “An Objective Examination of Prostitution”. International Journal of Sexology. 8, 2.

• review of Albert Ellis. The American Sexual Tragedy. Twayne Publishers, in American Journal of Psychotherapy, 8, 3.

1955

• “Beiheft zur Schweizerischen Zeitschrift für Psychologie und ihre Anwendungen”. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 9, 1.

• “Sex Transformation”. Letter to Editor. Journal of the American Medical Association, 158, 3, May 21: 217.

1957

• preamble to C.V. Prince.“Homosexuality, Transvestism and Transsexuality: Reflections on Their Etiology and Differentiations”. The American Journal of Psychotherapy, 11, 1957: 80-5. Reprinted in Richard Ekins & Dave King (eds) Virginia Prince: Pioneer of Transgendering. The Haworth Medical Press, 2005: 17-20 and the International Journal of Transgenderism, 8,4, 2005: 17-20., and in Transvestia # 2, March 1960.

• “In Time--We Must Accept”. Mattachine Review, 1957.

1958

• "Transvestism and transsexualism," International Journal of Sexology, 7:1, 12-14, Aug 1953; reprinted in ONE Institute Quarterly 1:3, Fall,102-104.

1959

• "What is adjustment?," Mattachine Review 5, 7, July, 9-11, Jul 1959.

1961

• "Transsexualism and transvestism as psycho-somatic and somato-psychic syndromes," Mattachine Review 7:1, 12-23, Jan 1961.

• “Sex Censorship in Medicine”. Transvestia # 12, December 1961. An introduction to an autobiographical account by a patient. Previously published in Sex and Censorship.

• “7 Kinds of Sex”. Sexology, 27,7, February 1961. Reprinted in Transvestia #22, August 1963, and revised as “The Symphony of Sexes”, Chp 1 of The Transsexual Phenomenon, 1966.

1962

• Introduction to Robert E.L. Masters. Forbidden Sexual Behavior and Morality: An Objective Re-Examination of Perverse Sex Practices in Different Cultures. Julian Press.

1963

• “The Role of the Physician in the Sex Problems of the Aged”. Advances in Sex Research, 1,October: 143-150.

• "Advice to a male transsexual," Photocopy. April, 1963: 4.

• Reply to "I want to change my sex," Sexology 30:5, Dec: 292-295; reprinted in Transvestia, 24, Dec : 68-71, and in The Transsexual Phenomenon, (1977 paperback: 132-6/61-3).

1964

• "Nature and management of transsexualism, with a report on Thirty-One operated cases". Western Journal of Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology. 72, Mar/Apr: 105–11.

• "Clinical aspects of transsexualism in the male and female." American Journal of Psychothery 18, 3:458-467.

• “Sex and the Single Man”. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 18, 3.

• "Transsexualismus, Wesen und Behandlung". Nervenarzt. 35, November: 499–500.

• with Robert E.L. Masters. “A New Kind of Prostitute”. Sexology, 27, 7, February.

• with Robert E.L. Masters, Prostitution and Morality: a Definitive Report on the Prostitute in Contemporary Society and an Analysis of the Causes and Effects of the Suppression of Prostitution. Julian Press.

1965

• “The Pathology and Treatment of Sexual Deviation: A Methodological Approach”. American Journal of Psychotherapy, 19, 3.

1966

• "Sexual problems at the consultation hour of the general practitioner". Landarzt. 42, 20, July: 885–90.

• The Transsexual Phenomenon. Julian Press, 1966.

1967

• Introduction to Christine Jorgensen; A Personal Autobiography. Paul S Eriksson.

• “The Transsexual Phenomenon; a Scientific Report on Transsexualism and Sex Conversion in the Human Male and Female”. Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences. 29 February (4 Series II): 428–30.

• “Comment on Doe, J.C. Autobiography of a Transsexual (10 Years as a Woman)”, Diseases of the Nervous System (Suppl.) 28, April: 251-5.

• “Transvestism and Transsexualism in the Male and Female”. Journal of Sex Research 3: 107–27.

1968

• "Comments to E. Sagarin's Article". The Journal of Sex Research, 4,2, May 1968: 95.

1969

• "Newer aspects of the Transsexual Phenomenon," Journal of Sex Research, 5:2, May: 135-144.

• “Introduction” in Richard Green & Money (eds). Transsexualism and Sex-Reassignment. The Johns Hopkins Press:1-10.

• “Appendix to Chapter 20 – For the Practicing Physician: Suggestions and Guidelines for the Management of Transsexuals”, in Richard Green & Money (eds). Transsexualism and Sex-Reassignment. The Johns Hopkins Press: 305–7.

• “Reminiscences”. 12th Annual Conference of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex, November 1st, 1969. Printed in Journal of Sex Research, 6,1, February 1970.

• with Ira Pauly. “The Maturing Science of Sex Reassignment”, Saturday Review 52: 72–8.

1970

• "The nature and treatment of transsexualism," Medical Opinion and Review 6, Nov: 24-30, 31-35.

• "Should surgery be performed on transsexuals?" Presented at the 230th Scientific Meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Psychotherapy, 19 March 1970. Printed in American Journal of Psychotherapy. 25, 1, 1971: 74–82.

• with Charles L Ihlenfeld. ‘The Nature and Treatment of Transsexualism’, Medical Opinion and Review, 6, 11: 24–35.

1971

• “The Silent Majority of Transsexuals”. transaction, 8, 12. Letter in reply to article implying that most trans women are sex workers.

1973

• with Charles L Ihlenfeld. "Transsexualism," American Journal of Nursing, 73, March :457-461.

1974

• “In Re: Trans(s)exualism”. The Journal of Sex Research, 10, 2, May:173-5.

1977

• The Transsexual Phenomenon. Warner Books Edition (paperback with the previously missing photographs) 1977. Online. Online. A close rereading.

• Foreward to Mario Martino with harriett - Emergence: a Transsexual Autobiography. A Signet Book.

1978

• “Response”. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 7,4.

1979

• interview with Garrett Oppenheim. “Sex Change: Do the Benefits Last?” Transition, 10: 1, 12, 14–15.

1985

• interview with Erwin J. Haeberle. “The Transatlantic Commuter”. Sexualmedizin, 14,1, January. Online.

1999

• interviews with Ethel Spector Person. “Harry Benjamin and the Birth of a Shared Cultural Fantasy” in The Sexual Century. Yale University Press, 1999: 347-366.

2008

• Darryl B Hill. “Dear Doctor Benjamin: Letters from Transsexual Youth (1963–1976)”. International Journal of Transgenderism, 10, 4, 2008.

Compiled from:

• Vern L Bullough, W Dorr Legg, Barrett E Elcano & James Kepner. “Transvestism and Transsexualism” in An Annotated Bibliography of Homosexuality, Volume II. Garland Publishing, Ins., 1976.

• Richard Ekins. “Science, Politics and Clinical Intervention: Harry Benjamin, Transsexualism and the Problem of Heteronormativity”. Sexualities, 8,3, 2005: 306-28.

• “Harry Benjamin”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Benjamin#Bibliography.

• Zagria. bibliography in “Harry Benjamin. Part 4: transsexualism since 1966” GVWW, 11 October 2012. Online.

• Zagria. “Harry Benjamin in Transvestia Magazine”. GVWW, 01 December 2022. Online.

• Alison Li. “Bibliography” in Wondrous Transformations:A Maverick Physician, the Science of Hormones, and the Birth of the Transgender Revolution. University of North Carolina Press, 2023.

Others with similar names

These are different persons, but are sometimes confused with Harry Benjamin MD.

Harry Benjamin, ND (author of Better Sight Without Glasses, 1929, and Everybody's Guide to Nature Cure, Your Diet in Health and Disease, Commonsense Vegetarianism, How to become 100% Healthy)

Harold Benjamin

HRW Benjamin

HR Benjamin

HC Benjamin

HB Benjamin