Selected quotations from The Man Who Would Be Queen

Compiled by Professor Lynn Conway

J. Michael Bailey asserts that transsexual women are actually "men," and the underlying theme of the book is that children suffering from transsexualism should be counseled to give up the dream of becoming women (painted as a worst case scenario) and instead grow up to be happy as gay men, as does "Danny" (the main character in the book).

The original compilation and commentary appear within a larger page on Professor Conway's site. Emphasis in quotations are to show the pattern in Bailey's language and are not in the original.

"The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending And Transsexualism" The title of the book
 
The book's cover contains a deliberately gross photo of a man's gnarly, muscular, hairy legs in high heels, as if these are a typical "transsexual man's" legs. front cover
 
"Are all male transsexuals women trapped in men's bodies ... ?" inside front cover sheet
 
"Supposedly, male-to-female transsexuals are motivated by the deep-seated feeling that they have women's souls. However, - - - men who want to be women are not naturally feminine. There is no sense in which they have women's souls" p. xii
 
" - - - he recalls the parents of a boy with GID telling him: "Every night before going to bed, he prays to God to turn him into a girl." ... Zucker thinks that an important goal of treatment is to help the children accept their birth sex and to avoid becoming transsexual." p. 30
 
"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?" p. 31
 
"Imagine that we could create a world in which very feminine boys were not persecuted by other children and their parents allowed them to play however they wanted ... As much as I would like to arrange such a world, I think that it might well come at the cost of more transsexual adults." p. 33
 
Bailey claims there are "two types" of transsexual men:
"The two types of transsexuals who begin life as males are called homosexual and autogynephilic ... homosexual transsexuals are extremely feminine gay men, and autogynephilic transsexuals are men erotically obsessed with the image of themselves as women." p. 146
 
"The most important reason that most people do not realize that there are two types of transsexuals is that members of one type sometime misrepresent themselves as members of the other. ... they are often silent about their true motivation and instead tell stories about themselves that are misleading and, in important respects, false." p. 146
 
"Once you've learned about autogynephilic and homosexual transsexuals and seen several of each, distinguishing them is easy." p. 192
 
"The current popular literature about transsexualism is noteworthy for its ignorance of the distinction between autogynephilic and homosexual transsexuals." p. 216
 
Bailey then teaches that the first type, usually called classic early-onset transsexuals by other scientists, are "homosexual transsexual men" - and he then caricatures these trans women as follows:
 
" - - - one type of transsexual man is a kind of homosexual man." p. 146
 
"To be sure, only a small minority of gay men become transsexual, but homosexual transsexuals are a type of gay man". p. 178
 
" - - - homosexual transsexuals are used to living on the margins of society" p. 184
 
"Homosexual transsexuals tend to have a short time horizon, with certain pleasure in the present worth great risks for the future." p. 184
 
"Prostitution is the single most common occupation that homosexual transsexuals in our study admitted to." p. 184
 
"Nearly all the homosexual transsexuals I know work as escorts after they have their surgery." p. 210
 
"As for shoplifting, homosexual transsexuals are not especially well suited as much as especially motivated. For many, their taste in clothing is much more expensive than their income allows." p. 185
 
"Do they get married? ... homosexual transsexuals are not very successful at finding desirable men willing to commit to them." p. 209
 
"When I began writing this book, I had never known a homosexual transsexual who married." p. 210
 
"They wanted to get their surgery (if they had not had it yet) and meet a nice, attractive, and financially stable heterosexual man who would marry them and take care of them ... When I was conducting my study of homosexual transsexuals, I routinely asked them if they knew anyone who had realized this dream. No one did." p. 186
 
"Many of the transsexuals we interviewed in the course of this study were more attractive than the average genetic female." p. 141
 
"Gay transsexuals are boy crazy." p. 178
 
" - - - her ability to enjoy emotionally meaningless sex appears male-typical. In this sense, homosexual transsexuals might be especially well-suited to prostitution." p. 185
 
"When I have discussed the theory that homosexual transsexuals are a type of gay man, I have met resistance. I was surprised at this, for the idea is neither new nor, it seemed to me, controversial." p. 179
 
Bailey then teaches that all other transsexuals (i.e., those who are lesbian in orientation, or who are not attractive as women, or who transition later in life) are "sexually paraphilic men":
 
"Autogynephilic transsexuals are not "women in men's bodies" (Anne Lawrence, a physician and sex researcher who is herself a postoperative transsexual, has called them "men trapped in men's bodies")." p. 168
 
"The autogynephile's main romantic target is herself." p. 183
 
"Most gender patients lie - - - " p. 172
 
"The most common way that autogynephiles mislead others is by denying the erotic component of their gender bending." p. 173
 
" - - - autogynephilia seems to be a type of paraphilia. Paraphilias comprise a set of unusual sexual preferences that include autogynephilia, masochism, sadism ,... , frotteurism , ... necrophilia, beastiality, and pedophilia." p. 171
 
"If a man has one paraphilia, then his chances of having any other paraphilia seem to be highly elevated. p. 172
 
"The best established link is between autogynephilia and masochism. There is a dangerous masochistic practice called "autoerotic asphyxia," in which a man strangles himself, usually by hanging, for sexual reasons. ... About one-fourth of the time, these men are found wearing some article of women's clothing, such as panties. ...Apparantly these men are both masochistic and autogynephilic." p. 172
 
"Cross-dressing has also been linked to sexual sadism - although most autogynephiles are not sexual sadists, they are more likely to be sadists compared with men who are not autogynephilic" p. 172
 
"Paraphilias tend to seem bizarre to typical gay and straight people, whose sexual desires are primarily directed toward conventional sex acts with adults." p. 172
 
Bailey challenges the current-day view that transsexuals suffer from an innate gender identity disorder (GID), and instead proclaims that there motivation to "change sex" is a result of unusual (disordered) sexual drives:
 
"The standard transsexual narrative says that transsexualism is not about sex but about "gender identity", or the internal sense that one is a man or a woman. According to this narrative, transsexuals want to change sex because their sense of self diagrees with their bodies, not because they have any unusual sexual preferences that depend on a sex change. ... It should be clear by now that the "gender, not sex" part of the transsexual narrative is false - - - " p. 180
 
Bailey hopes these teachings will lead to a new pathologizing of transsexualism by the inclusion of these teachings in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders:
 
"With luck, the next revision of the DSM will distinguish between "homosexual" and "autogynephilic" transsexualism." p. 176