Kiira Triea (Denise Tree) and the "transkids.us" hoax

• Introduction
• Date(s) of birth
• Early life
• Johns Hopkins
• Family problems
• Early adulthood and "breakdown"
• Name changes
• From activist to middle-aged recluse
• Sexual identities
• Conclusion
• References
• Appendices
  • GenderTalk transcript
• Email addresses
• Associated personae
• Websites
• Images

Introduction

Denise Tree, also known as Kiira Triea (she pronounces it "KEER-uh TREE"), is a 57-year old computer technician and amateur recording engineer from Baltimore. Around the time she stopped using her legal name Denise Tree online, she was an early activist in the intersex movement, but in the ensuing 15 years she has moved away from making positive contributions. Currently, Triea is waging a long-running online war of words with transgender people she dislikes. In 2007, Triea shifted her highly fluid identity from intersexed lesbian to heterosexual "transkid," which prompted this overview of her bogus life story.

Triea is the owner and author of transkids.us, a website created in December 2004. It promotes a taxonomy of transwomen proposed by Ray Blanchard, J. Michael Bailey, and Anne Lawrence. Bailey and Lawrence had links to it on their sites within minutes of its publication, suggesting a coordinated effort between Triea, Bailey, and Lawrence. Triea claims the material is written by "homosexual transsexual" (HSTS) children she knows. Since most of the material published by these "transkids" is pseudonymous and anonymous, we are simply supposed to take Triea's word that it's all true.

So... let’s take a look at how truthful Denise Tree / Kiira Triea is (hint: not very).

This report examines:

• Kiira Triea's frequently changed birthdate
• Kiira Triea's frequently changed medical history
• Kiira Triea's frequently changed sexual identity
• Kiira Triea's many names, associated personae, pseudonyms, and friends

Basically, Triea is an older and less successful Laura Albert, the musician wannabe and notorious hoaxer who created "transkid" JT LeRoy out of thin air, eventually even pretending to be LeRoy in person as well as online. As Laura Albert did, Triea has been able to dupe several lesser academics and authors with her fabrications, most notably Alice Dreger and Simon LeVay, both of whom cite Triea in their published work. J. Michael Bailey even coauthored with Tree in 2007.

Unfortunately, most of the information in this overview is self-reported by Triea and not independently verified. This article reports on what Triea claims in various published statements, which are not necessarily true. Tree's claims that can be independently verified have often turned out to be false. Given the inconsistencies, all statements by Triea and those she claims to represent should be verified independently with third-party documentation, even those reported by journalists and sloppy academics, before being considered factual.

Getting Triea's many claims gathered in one place is the first step to debunking most of them.

Date(s) of birth

Triea claims to have been born on Clark Air Force Base in the Philippines [1], a "Navy brat." [2]

Depending on the point she’s trying to make at the moment, Triea has claimed to be born anywhere between the late 1950s and mid 1960s:

• In 1996, she claimed to be born "in the late fifties." [3]
• In 1998, she was claiming a 1960 birth, [4] [5] reiterated on GenderTalk. [8]
• In 1999, Triea told two different reporters she was 35 (born in 1964). [6] [7]
• In 2000, a sociologist wrote that Triea claimed to be born "in the mid-1960s," [9] reiterated in 2002. [10]

2007 legal troubles led to published proof that Triea was actually born on September 2, 1951. She shaved over 13 years off her real age over the course of her various versions of her life story.

The date of birth is an important aspect of Triea's claims about the age at which she presented at Johns Hopkins, as discussed below. Later birthdates are used when she wants to claim an earlier age for medical intervention.

Early life

Triea states she was assigned as a boy at birth: "I am an XX person who was exposed to progestin prenatally and assigned as a male, no surgery, at birth in the late fifties." [3]

In other versions, she has told reporters she was "assigned as a boy at age 2." [11]

She claims her biological father is Finnish, and that she was raised in Finland until age two. [12]

She writes that at some point her mother married, and Triea and her sisters lived with her stepfather in Baltimore. [13] This made the Johns Hopkins Gender Identity Clinic, Psychohormonal Research Unit (PRU), and Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) the closest major academic program focused on gender.

Johns Hopkins

Triea told a reporter she "did not learn of her intersexuality until puberty, when she began to menstruate through her phallus." Triea claims "I was raised as a male until age thirteen," [3] at which time she "began to menstruate." [14]

Triea told a sociologist she was "reassigned female at age 14 when she experienced a feminising puberty." [9] She was diagnosed with "progesterone-induced female pseudo-hermaphroditism." [10]

She claims she was a patient of sexologist John Money at the PRU "from age 14 to 17; this was in the mid-1970s." [11] Other versions report she was "treated in the mid-through-late seventies." [9]

Triea says she was injected with testosterone before being given the option of a vaginoplasty:

Since I had been raised as a male I was given testosterone, to see how I reacted. I cannot describe the sense of horror and the feeling that my entire being was being raped, which I experienced from being endocrinologically mutated against my will. I reacted so badly that they decided it might be better if I were a girl and so now I was given that choice. The surgery was explained to me... I was a girl and now I would "be like other girls". I was so afraid by then that they were going to rip out my ovaries and start with the mutating drugs again that vaginoplasty sounded like the best course of action. [3]

In 1997 she told reporter John Colapinto she had vaginoplasty at age 17 [11], but later claimed that was "misstated," and that she had vaginoplasty at age 14. [15] She claims the procedure was performed by Howard W. Jones, Jr. in 1974. [16]

Family problems

Triea claims her condition led to the breakup of her family:

My mother has all the damned answers in the *world* why her "little boy" died ... it is in my medical records that I am an XX person who was exposed to progestin. This does not enable her to love me... no. My family was literally blown apart at the seams because of my intersexuality. Do you think that my mother and stepfather went "well gee we have an intersexed child and that's that". ?? No they didn't. Before puberty my stepfather cared about me, took me to ball games and tried to be a good father... like a "real" father. After I had surgery he bagn to verbally abuse me in front of my mother and sisters... and hit me with his closed fist. Do I need to go on? I really don't think so because I bet this all sounds *very* familiar to many people on this NG. When my mother left him she said "Come on girls". And left me in the house with him. (emphasis mine) [17]

Triea does not describe how long she was left to live alone with her stepfather Joe after her mother and sisters left. Later in life she describes a reconciliation of sorts with her mother Dorothy Main Magner and her grandmother Estella Ziegenhein Main (Triea's post identifies her as "Estelle"). [18] Triea has stated her aunt is UCLA Professor Emerita Nancy M. Henley, who got her Ph.D. in Psychology from Johns Hopkins in 1968. [19] After her mother died in 2006, she stated in an online journal "all three of my parents are no more in my life."

Early adulthood and "breakdown"

She claims to have lived a life of lesbian separatism shortly after getting out of the Hopkins program. "When I was a teenager in Berkeley I lived in a communal house with a band called Bebe K'Roche, The Berkeley Women's Music Collective."[20] Like many musician wannabes, she has reasons she never recorded with her housemates: "I was 17 and I didn't *care* if solos were androcentric or not I just wanted to crank up the 50 watt plexi and punch in my Univox Super-Fuzz and ruin my hearing. I'd been playing since I was 11 and gigging since I was 15 and I was obsessive about practicing. I think I was ahead of my time truthfully, I hadn't even heard of April Lawton. The next band I played in was a Latin/Funk/hard rock bunch in Philadelphia with a horn section. Woo woo! Bebe K'Roche did a record on Olivia. I'm glad I wasn't around because it sucks." [21]

The "rock bunch" she describes as a "Hispanic/Finnish rock band" called Moon and Sun allegedly included another guitar player named Ceasar Lopez. [22] She also claims "I played in gospel street bands in N. Philly and recorded crickets off the back porch in N.C." [23]

Remarkably, Triea also underwent a "detransition" in her 20s: "I am an XX person with functioning ovaries... though I was born intersexed because of my exposure to progesterone and I tried living as a boy in my 20's. It pretty much didn't help. When I discovered my sexuality I also discovered my identity. It was nice." (emphasis mine) [24]

By 1992 she says she was attending Towson State University in suburban Baltimore as a biology major, but was very interested in computers, eventually switching to a computer major. By 1993, she was so involved in Linux activism that she was chosen as editor of Linux News for about six months. [25] It was also during this time that Denise Tree got an email account at Johns Hopkins. [26]

However, a major event was on the horizon:

On February 28, 1993 something happened and I awoke, I don’t know why. I experienced what I can only describe as a constructive breakdown. The intense awareness of my life and the implications of being intersexed ripped through my existence and the implosion hurt. I couldn’t continue in school with my math and computer science degree. (emphasis mine) [27]

The day after her "breakdown," Triea writes that earlier in her life she was referred by a private physician to a very competent surgeon:

I have to second this and my experience with clinics is first hand. I was assisted by a private clinical psychiatrist and obtained surgery from a very competant surgeon because of her referral. A clinic _may_ be able to help but then again they may be more interested in their own a grindinges and their own beauocracy (sp). Health care is not free after all and you have the right  to "hire" someone who will do what _you_ need. A competant clinician will admit that they are unable to help if they are not TG aware and refer you to someone who can. Just remember... if someone acts and talks like they are full of crap, it usually means they are full of crap. (emphasis mine) [28]

This description of Jones immediately after her "breakdown" is in stark contrast with Triea's later comments about the quality of her surgical results:

I seriously doubt that Dr. Howard Jones, who performed genital surgery on me, paid any consideration at all to that function. I have no clitoris at all; whatever was there before seems to have been relocated, perhaps entered into the witness protection program and now living in Arizona. Jones seems to have taken care though, to ensure that I was able to be penetrated, as my “vagina” seems to be deep enough to allow for that. Part of my left upper arm was pressed into genital duty here, which bothered me greatly when I came out of surgery. I wish I’d been consulted, or at least informed. Of course, why would I need to be informed? The objective was to make the hermaphrodite fuckable. (emphasis mine) [29]

"They wouldn't listen, even when I returned as an adult and made it clear that I desperately needed help." (emphasis mine) [30]

Name changes

She has used many variants of her female name as an adult, starting with Denise Tree and moving over time to Kiira Triea after the "breakdown," mixing and matching the two.

Tree/Triea made several statements noting that her aunt is Nancy Henley (a psychologist trained at Johns Hopkins) [19], her mother's name was Dorothy [18], and that she had sisters [17]. She has also stated her mother died in early 2006. The January 17, 2006 obituary in The Baltimore Sun, states:

On January 14, 2006 DOROTHY MAIN MAGNER, a retired Medical Administrator and artist and devoted mother of Denise Tree, Mary Malloy, and Bernice Magner. Loving grandmother of Amy Malloy. Sister of Edyth Anderson and Nancy Henley and aunt of Christopher Henley. Also survived by 1 nephew and 2 nieces. Friends are invited to call at the Burgee-Henss-Seitz Funeral Home, Inc. [emphasis added]

Later she began posting as Dr. Arika Aeirt, an anagram which is roughly "Triea, Kira" spelled backwards.

Kira was a popular name with geeks in 1993, the surname of a character played by Nana Visitor on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Triea took the name the year the series debuted, later giving it a Finnish spin. Triea gives this etymology: "Kiira is the Finnish spelling of Kira which is actually Russian derived name. My biological father was Finnish and I was raised in Finland until the age of two. I changed the spelling when I learned this... one of those "back to my roots" things." [12] She has also stated "I am from Finland" many times. [39][40][41][42] Of the pronunciation, she says "Yes with two 'i's. No not "Ky-ruh". It's "Kear-ah". No not "Try-uh", it's "Tree" as in leaves and limbs. Yes Finnish does have a lot of vowels". [43]

It is interesting to note that Triea's fixation on all things Finnish coincides with her fixation on Linux, created by Finnish software engineer Linus Benedikt Torvalds. See Associated personae section below for more on Triea's many Finnish friends from the "House of Benedikt," like Gisle Benediktsson.

Finnish readers take issue with Triea's claims of Finnish heritage:

No sighting of Kiira in Finland 2002-2004! That is too bad, because Finland has a pioneering ts/is -support group. Surprising that a member of ISNA has no contact with us. "Triea" is not a Finnish name. None holding that family name has ever been recorded in Finland. Also "Tree" is an unknown family name in Finland. "Benediktsson" yields less than five occurrences. As a comparison, my uncommon surname gives 2687 hits.

Athletics and hobbies

Triea has claimed to be a competitive runner who held a national record set at the Millrose Games:

"That laughing. The Gym Class Laughing. It's all the fault of those ball sports. I fixed them... I ran track. I got to hear that gym teacher say "If you beat Kiira you get an A". Ha! My 9:47 2 mile time at the Melrose Games stood for 12 years as a national record." [44]

Later she claims to be an experienced bicycle maker. Like many of her hobbies, she is more fixated on the jargon and technical aspects of the equipment than the hobby itself. [45] She also claims to be a metalworker who does bicycle welding/brazing (she says her father is a welder) and owns her own lathe. [46]

From activist to middle-aged recluse

She has claimed to be an early member and webmaster for Intersex Society of North America (ISNA). [47] An article she wrote appeared in the first edition of their newsletter Hermaphrodites With Attitude, [25] and she sometimes signed letters as a representative. [48]

In 1994, she claimed she was moving to Tucson, Arizona. [35] Kiira's "friend" Stephanie Alejandra Velasquez also claims to be from Tucson.

In 1995-2001, Triea was doing computer work at Baltimore Substance Abuse Systems, Inc. [49] She has lived near Johns Hopkins for many years. [50]

In 1997, she started signing posts with "Guitars and Vocals - 'Sex Kosmologie'" [51] (an unsigned, unreleased band similar to Laura Albert's defunct group Thistle). According to Triea, the Sex Kosmologie singer was named Jannelle Seryonsovin. [20] No online outlet seems to carry works by either Sun and Moon or Sex Kosmologie. [52]

By the end of 1997, she used the affiliation of an organization she started, Coalition for Intersex Support Activism & Education (CISAE). [53] She went on to use this in letters to the editor, etc. [54] This "coalition" was little more than her website with anecdotes from others. It was never recognized as a non-profit and faded away after a few years. It was around this time that Triea began to get a lot of validation from J. Michael Bailey, who allowed Triea to join his closed SEXNET mailing list.

She claimed to have lived in Finland [55] for over two years in 2002-2004, returning to set up her home recording studio, Treehouse Studios.

Sexual identities

In a paper she coauthored, she identified thus:

For instance, one of the authors (Kiira Triea) identifies as "intersexed lesbian female" while explicitely [sic] rejecting being simply labeled a "woman", as this label implies a socio-medical / biological history which is quite different from the experiences of an intersexed female. [56]

However, this is just one of many ways she has identified, depending on the point she wants to make:

"But when I acquired a sense of sexuality I imagined myself first to be heterosexual because of the nature of my sexuality, then bisexual and finally "empirical lesbian" seemed to fit best. This was at age 32." [16]

At 17 she agreed to undergo feminizing surgery to create female genitals, but when she became sexually active for the first time, at age 32, her erotic orientation was toward women. [11] She claims to have been "too traumatized over body and sexual issues to attempt sexuality (my situation until age 36." [4]

She was firmly identifying as a lesbian for many years: "So I went with my mom to see my grandmother at the nursing home yesterday and my grandmother asked me if I had a boyfriend. Of course I replied that I didn't because I was a lesbian but I was in a committed r'ship with another woman, and my mother just about hit me. She got this really uptight tone of voice and said "Well I would hardly call you a *lesbian*." Meaning I guess that I am actually just your everyday garden variety Martian or something. Time to get out the "I *AM* a lesbian" button I guess. I had intended it's use to be educational for straight guys, not my mother. You would think she would be used to this... I've not been sexually involved with a man in my entire life." (emphasis mine) [57]

She occasionally claimed bisexual interests when posting on bisexual forums: "I'm shy too but only bi in my fantasy life... and also the fantasy life of my mother. I am the only lesbian in Baltimore. I'm 37 and my mom treats me like I am 14." [58]

However, Triea's most remarkable shift has been from intersex lesbian separatist to heterosexual transkid as of 2007:

For instance, I am an adult former "transkid" and I am also technically intersex and my medical diagnosis would be something like "progestin affected female" so if I talk about medical aspects of that group of people with doctors and academics I would use that term to explain my etiology, I would speak their language. But socially, I am a heterosexual woman who was also raised as a boy until age 14 when I redefined my socio-sexual identity as female. Intersex people who redefine themselves to a more workable sex do so for the same reasons as HS transkids. But we all have to learn to communicate in the most effective way with the people who can help us better with our situation. So we have adopted the medical terminology which is used because it is the effective thing to do. (emphasis mine) [59]

Taking a page from the Laura Albert playbook, Triea has moved from being an alleged intersex ally for "transkids" to being a "transkid" herself. As soon as Laura Albert started pretending like this, she got busted, so it seems fitting to call out Triea now.

I am not the first to point out that Triea's adamant claims of not being transsexual are especially interesting in light of which "type" she is if she is in fact transsexual. Triea displays many hallmarks of others who claim to have "autogynephilia":

• Strong interest in technology (especially computers)
• Affinity for language
• Interest in music
• Hoarding and other compulsive fixations (in her case, computer code, electronics, and audio equipment)
• Exaggerated claims about accomplishments and importance
• Difficulty interacting with others
• Online trolling as a preferred method of interaction
• Use of aliases (sockpuppets) to bolster claims
• Attracted to women but claims an attraction to men
• A deeply felt fixation on and identification with young attractive transwomen
• A deep need for validation and attention from "authority" figures, especially academics

Triea lashes out at anyone who challenges the people who have validated her by promoting her work. That's probably the way she is most like Laura Albert, who began lashing out, even at former supporters, when things began to unravel. It's also notable that Triea has harshly slammed Laura Albert. This is a common theme in Triea's life: slamming people who share remarkable similarities with her.

The fluid identities, the blatant lies, the immersion in whatever she is fixated on at the moment, whether it's a country, a hobby, or a sexual identity... all of it raises serious concerns about her credibility. Kiira Triea is, to put it bluntly, not to be believed.

Conclusion

"It would be better if anonymity were used as a stepping stone, rather than a rostrum for one's fantasy life."

-- Kiira Triea [60]

Like Laura Albert, Triea will downplay all the fluid dates and names and outright fabrications as playing with identity or some sort of pseudo-academic attempt at subverting discourse, etc. Eventually, as more evidence is made available, she will blame the lying on family problems, or Johns Hopkins, or her perceived enemies, or society, etc.

This overview obviously leaves readers with more questions than answers. It shows the danger of letting someone speak for others. As we saw with John Money and J. Michael Bailey, this kind of anonymized anecdotal report by proxy easily leads to abuse in service of ideology. We live in a day and age where legitimate scholars and researchers fact-check their stories and first-hand reports, and the more fantastic the story, the greater need for independent confirmation.

Sadly, some people can't be taken at their word like Money, Bailey, or Kiira Triea and her many "friends." The Alice Dregers [61] and Simon LeVays [62] of the world will always take claims like Kiira's at face value, unltimately undermining their own credibility when the truth inevitably comes out. Just ask everyone taken in by the JT LeRoy hoax. Triea's compulsion will ultimately hurt the very people who tried to help her most. It's sad and pathetic, but too common among lazy academics who can't take the time to confirm the most basic information in this "publish or perish" world.

Acknowledgement

Thanks to all who have contributed information to this report. Stay tuned for much more. This is only the start of a long process of debunking these ongoing "transkid" hoaxes. Other hoaxes have typically taken about five years from start to finish, like the "boy2woman" hoax that we finally got removed from the web in late 2006. If you have any information you'd like to share, please send it along so we can get this hoax settled once and for all.

Appendices

(click chart to enlarge)

GenderTalk transcript

Triea appeared on the radio show GenderTalk #250 with hosts Nancy Nangeroni and Gordene O. MacKenzie on March 20, 2000. Listen at the link above or read the Kiira Triea interview transcript.

Email addresses

Triea posted on USENET for about ten years from 1992 to 2002, which gives a good sense of her evolving interests.

Top-level domains used in approximate chronological order:

Her eBay name is kiira-t. One unhappy buyer put up a website about her at emdee.ath.cx/kiira/ (the victim is mdestiny @ comcast - net).

In 2007 she sold a lot of audio equipment and apparently took up sewing. Apparently, she's not the most reliable seller:

• Sep-01-07 (Item 270132188912) Buyer gyroscorpian writes: "$93 ITEM NEVER RECEIVED - OVER 2 MONTHS NOW - WORST EBAY EXPERIENCE EVER!!!!!!!!"

• Aug-21-07 (Item 270127224608) Buyer jan-nana writes: "Seller said sewing machine i good condition.Arrived no power cord.PoorConditn"

• Jul-11-07 (Item 270132199413) Buyer dhj_at_nospam-dot-com writes: " Took a while, packing protection marginal - luckily no damage. OK transaction."

• Elna Sewing Machine Custom Cam/Disc # 05 9 April 2007
• Elna Sewing Machine Custom Cam/ Disc #02
• Elna Sewing Machine Custom Cam/ Disc #01
• 1 Pair/Premium 7 in./Gold Toledo Sewing Scissors/VGC !
• Complete Vintage Working Elna Supermatic Sewing Machine
• ELNA SUPERMATIC SEWING MACHINE MANUAL
• Vintage Pink-King Pinking Shears in Original Box LNew
• Womens DEXTER blue suede Leather MOC shoe 7.5 Made USA
• Vintage ELNA SUPERMATIC Sewing Machine PORTABLE Classic
• 18 Antique Glass Buttons 3/8" Lavender NR
• Set of 16 Vintage Buttons Colorful Abalone Shell NR
• VINTAGE GRIFFON PINKING SHEARS - EXCELLENT CONDITION
• 12" Gauss 2840 bass/keyboard/pa, very heavy (seller)

Associated personae

This section is in progress and will be significantly expanded.

Reykja K. Sigurdsson

Main article: Reykja K. Sigurdsson.

Woman of Icelandic heritage living in Colorado and active on USENET in 1992-1993. Friends with Gisle J. Benediktsson.

Gisle Benediktsson

Main article: Gisle J. Benediktsson.

Woman of Finnish heritage living in Colorado and active on USENET in 1992-1994. Friends with Reykja K. Sigurdsson. Triea wrote a lot of love poems to Gisle.

Cheryl Chase

Cheryl Chase is founder of Intersex Society of North America, and with Alice Dreger, is the chief architect of renaming intersex Disorders of Sex Development.

Chase and Triea have remarkable similarities in their life stories:

• Progestin-affected females
• Assigned male at age two
• Childhood surgical intervention
• Interest in foreign languages
• Computing and programming skills
• Lesbian
• Difficulty getting medical records
• "Breakdown" that led to activism
• Name change at start of activism

It's amost as if Triea appropriated elements of Chase's life story for her own, the way someone might appropriate information about a culture or language in order to pass herself off as part of that group.

Ariika Aeirt

Dr. Ariika Aeirt is an alter ego Triea has used.

"I am a former Baltimore City paramedic. We once brought in a young woman who had suffered a shotgon blast to the stomach. We had pulled her out of an ongoing gunfight and gotten MAST trousers on her and gotten her to Hopkins ER alive. At the ER they removed the MAST trousers and she died on the spot - of course. After her death a crash cart routine was enacted... it's called CYA. A big city ER is a very busy place and every once in a while someone makes a very bad decision and then someone dies. This may have been what happened with Tyra Hunter, meaning that ER personel realized their neglegt too late

Dr. Ariika Aeirt"

LOL. "I blame-ah myself" :-) Please don't start calling yourself AGP Heike or you'll totally screw up my AGP/wannabe gestalts.

BTW - are you and Ray pals now? The Clarke really *does* treat trannies "PRU style" there and I'm sure he Ken or Maxine will never listen to me if *I* draw that to their attention. :-) vilpitomasti, Dr. Ariika Aeirt

Janelle Laren

"Janie" is one of Tree's first trolling personae on transkids.us. See Janelle Laren

Stephanie Alejandra Velasquez

This is one of Triea's favorite trolling personae. See Stephanie Alejandra Velasquez

Deni

This is one of Triea's first trolling personae in 1998. See Deni

Jenni Niska

Jenni Niska was listed as secretary of CISAE.

Paul Napoleon Moscatt, Jr.

Owner of Little Shop of Hardware in Baltimore, where Triea occasionally does some work. Listed as host of the domain she's used.

• moscatt.com
• jamiesway.com
• 2tough.com
• filmfest.com
• welcometo.com
• hampdenwireless.com

Heike Boedeker (aka Heike Spreitzer)

Between 1998 and 2000 Heike Bödeker described herself as "Kiira's partner" [19d] "This is what happens when one's gf lives in Germany" April 25, 1998

• Michal Rachel Nahrnan (August 2000). Embodied Stories, Pragmatic Lives: Intersex Body Narratives on the Net.
• Both CISAE and GMSSG and EZKU used to be hosted on this domain.
• Wrote pro-autogynephilia piece in response to Becky Allison
• Wrote article on Native v. White gender variance with Triea
• http://www.sonic.net/~boedeker/ (now Heike's mother's site)
• Boedeker has gone to considerable effort to erase her presence from the net.
• boedeker@netcologne.de

Teresa Binstock

Binstock coauthored with Triea and Bödeker in 1998 (but was removed as an author eventually). She has written about autism and the etiology of transsexualism. See Teresa Binstock

Jenn Ross

Ross helped Tree develop the transkids.us hoax site in 2004. See Jenn Ross

Websites

• http://www.qis.net/~triea (1998 - 2002, defunct)
• http://www.sonic.net/~cisae (1999, defunct - also former home of Heike Boedeker site)
• http://www.2tough.com/~kiira/ (2001 - present, 2004 to present for site)
• http://transkids.us (December 2004 - present)

Images

Below: Kiira Triea, wannabe rocker.

Below: Kiira Triea, wannabe recording engineer.

Below: An undated photograph from either her first or second attempt at living as female.

Note: Triea has an advanced case of internet disease, with her most recent photo being about 10+ years old as she gets more reclusive. You can cut and paste the links below for a few additional images.

• http://www.2tough.com/~kiira/rec/images/hkiira.jpg
• http://www.2tough.com/~kiira/Kiira_vocals.jpg
• http://www.2tough.com/~kiira/cisae/images/attitude.gif (from Cowley, G. 1997. Gender Limbo. Newsweek, 19 May, 64-66.)
• http://www.manleylabs.com/images/gallery/n_kiira.jpg
• http://www.2tough.com/~kiira/kiira-caster.jpg

Lots of shots of her electronic and audio equipment, though:

• http://www.2tough.com/~kiira/rec/studio1.jpg
• http://www.2tough.com/~kiira/rec/studio2.jpg
• http://www.2tough.com/~kiira/rec/studio3.jpg
• http://www.2tough.com/~kiira/rec/studio4.jpg
• http://www.2tough.com/~kiira/rec/images/prima_d.jpg
• http://www.2tough.com/~kiira/rec/images/amps.jpg
• http://www.2tough.com/~kiira/rec/images/preamp1.jpg
• http://www.2tough.com/~kiira/rec/images/tps0.jpg

References

1. Denise Tree (June 3, 1993). Obtaining personal medical records from military hospital. misc.consumers

"I too have been unable to obtain my medical records (concerning birth and pre-natal care) from the Navy. I was born on Clarke A.F.B. [sic] and the Navy states repeatedly that my medical records were lost, and I know my sponsor's SSN. A lawyer friend has been unable to help."

2. Denise M. Tree (January 25, 1993). Linux News #12. comp.os.linux.announce

3. Kira Triea (1996). "The Choice... The Awakening..." Intersex Voices. Retrieved December 7, 1988.

4. Kiira Triea (October 30, 1998). Intersex 101. soc.motss

"I am a former client of the Psychohormonal Research Unit at Johns Hopkins Hospital. [...] many IS people are simply too traumatized over body and sexual issues to attempt sexuality (my situation until age 36. I am 38. But for those who do express sexuality... most of us are lesbians or bisexual."

5. Kiira Triea (January 25, 1999). Dykes raising sons. soc.women.lesbian-and-bi

"I did my best to exclude men from my existence between the age of 17 and about 26 or so (1977-1986). I lived in the Berkeley Women's Music Collective and played some with Bebe K'Roche (as on Olivia Records) and I was awfully damned happy to live in an environement where my aversion to men was completely accepted."

6. Hank Hyena (December 16, 1999). The micropenis and the giant clitoris. Salon

"In Baltimore, intersexual Kiira Triea, 35, claims her genitalia "look like crap" because doctors treated her like an "exotic lab rat." Born with in-between organs, she was raised as a boy until doctors decided to feminize her at puberty. To accomplish this, they hacked off her enormous and sensitive clitoris and they surgically created for her a rudimentary vagina. A full-time anti-surgery activist now, Triea directs an online support group for intersexuals worldwide."

[Taking the date of publication and claimed age, there's a 95% chance Triea claimed to be born in 1964 and 5% chance for 1963.]

7. Louise D. Palmer (December 9, 1999). Hermaphrodites Press Surgeons to Quit Gender Adjustment of Infants. Newhouse News Service (wire service)

8. Nancy Nangeroni and Gordene O. MacKenzie (March 20, 2000). GenderTalk #250. Minute 66:00 ff. Full Kiira Triea interview transcript.

"It was diagnosed, but I was born in 1960 in the Philippine Islands. I’m a Navy brat, so you know, one of those not-so-rare instances where I was treated outside of the treatment methodology, and kind of fell through the cracks until I was 14."

9. Michelle Morgan LeFay Holmes (January, 2000). The Doctor Will Fix Everything: Intersexuality in Contemporary Culture. Concordia University

"Kiira Triea, who was assigned male at birth but reassigned female at age 14 when she experienced a feminising puberty..."

10. Morgan Holmes (2002). Rethinking the Meaning and Management of Intersexuality. Sexualities, Vol. 5, No. 2, 159-180

"Kiira Triea, who was born in the mid-1960s and assigned male, but was diagnosed with progesterone-induced female pseudo-hermaphroditism and treated in the mid-through-late-1970s by John Money and his colleagues at Johns Hopkins..."

11. John Colapinto (December 11, 1997). The True Story of John/Joan. The Rolling Stone, 54-97.

Kira Triea was assigned as a boy at age 2 and did not learn of her intersexuality until puberty, when she began to menstruate through her phallus.  She was a patient of Dr. Money’s at the Johns Hopkins Psychohormonal Research Unit from age 14 to 17; this was in the mid-1970s, concurrent with John Theissen. They have never met, but Triea’s story bears striking parallels to his.  [...] At 17 she agreed to undergo feminizing surgery to create female genitals, but when she became sexually active for the first time, at age 32, her erotic orientation was toward women.

12. Kira D. Triea (April 20, 1998). aiii I cut my hair... alt.support.srs

13. Kiira Triea (August 6, 1999). Your First Amp? alt.guitar.amps

"I had to play in the basement when no one was home because my mother and my sisters thought I had lost my mind. Next summer of 1975 I turned 15 and got a summer job."

14. Analee Newitz (July 27, 1999). They Wrecked My Genitals! gettingit.com

"Chase's fellow activist Kira Triea says she was raised as a boy until she turned 13 and began to menstruate. Her frightened parents took her to Johns Hopkins. Under extreme duress, she was given a clitoridectomy and what she calls "a crude vaginoplasty, an artificial vagina made from a piece of skin on my arm. Basically it's a bunch of scar tissue and a hole." Triea was asexual until she reached 32, when she fell in love with a woman."

15. Kira D. Triea (December 9, 1997). Sex Reassignment and Feminism. soc.feminism

"BTW - It is misstated in the article that I had vaginoplasty at age 17...  it was 14 after a period of 4 months in which I was tracked for testosterone treatment and phalloplasty."

16. Intersex Society of North America (July 12, 1998). John/Joan redux in Pediatrics. Press release.

17. Kira D. Triea (April 23, 1998). Being there (defining Transsexualism). alt.support.srs

18. Kiira Triea (August 27, 2001). 3" XJ lift questions. rec.autos.makers.jeep+willys

Self-describes as an "off-road motorhead" in a 1988 XJ Limited: "My mother needs to drive this XJ with no highway glitches at all - it gets driven from N. Minnessota to Baltimore MD."

19. Kiira Triea (April 24, 1999). Take Our Daughters to Work Day. soc.women.lesbian-and-bi

20. Kiira Triea (September 5, 1998). Eggcarton Question! rec.audio.pro

21. Kiira Triea (September 8, 1998). Eggcarton Question! rec.audio.pro

22. Kiira Triea (February 2, 2002). I love my Langevin DVC (was Re: Royer's MXL 2001 Tube Mod) rec.audio.pro

23. Kiira Triea (June 15, 2001). Yet Another "What If" Mic Collection Thread. rec.audio.pro

24. Kira D. Triea (April 18, 1998). having done it young ... alt.support.srs

25. Denise Tree (January 1, 1993). Linux News #9. comp.os.linux

If you have praise, criticisms, suggestions, virtual beer or pizza or postcards send to:
tree@midget.towson.edu
Denise Tree
348 Ilchester Ave.
Baltimore, MD. 21218

26. Denise Tree (January 10, 1993). Linux News #10. comp.os.linux.announce

"tree@cs.jhu.edu ( a real special thank you to hometown Activist Bill Bogstad, at J.H.U., for this account, no more will "less" be my news reader)!"

27. Kira Triea (1994). The Awakening. Hermaphrodites With Attitude, Volume 1, Number 1, Winter 1994.

28. Denise Tree (March 1, 1993). information tidbit requested. alt.transgender

29. Kira Triea (1997). Power, Orgasm, and the Psychohormonal Research Unit. Chrysalis, 23-24.

30. Tracy Baim (September 10, 1997). Snyde & Sneak. Outlines

31. Denise Tree (June 21, 1992). GCC2.11c stdlib.h. comp.os.linux

32. Denise M. Tree (January 25, 1993). Linux News #12. comp.os.linux.announce

33. Denise Michele Tree (April 24, 1993). Female orgasm, yet again. alt.sex

34. Kira Triea (1993). Intersex Newsletter/Mailing list. Quoted in E.C. Bryant (August 17, 1993). Intersexuality mailing list. soc.bi

35. Kira D. Triea (November 25, 1993). Gender discussion. alt.transgender

36. Kira Denise Tree (June 10, 1994). 20something swm seeks sf for relationship (midwest). alt.personals.ads

37. Kira Tree (September 29, 1994). Moving to Tucson: Need an IP! az.general

38. Kiira Triea (November 22, 1997). SWLAB-MJG Facts and a proposal. soc.women.lesbian-and-bi

39. Kira D. Triea (June 13, 1998). Todd Rundgren. alt.guitar

40. Kira D. Triea (November 11, 1997). The Myth of Walking Away. soc.women.lesbian-and-bi

"I changed the spelling of my first name to Kiira because recently I found out some very nice things about the first two years I spent in Finland."

31. Kiira Triea (October 11, 2001). Can Cycling replace a car without problem?uh, winter? rec.bicycles.soc

"Winter? What winter? Sorry, I'm from Finland? :-)"

42. Kira D. Triea (May 12, 1998) Beaulieu power repair question. rec.arts.movies.production

"Kiira is Finnish... as am I. :-)"

43. Kira D. Triea (July 17, 1998) Blessings. rec.audio.pro

44. Kiira Triea (December 25, 1999). Logic, Math and Kiira's Bowling Story. soc.women.lesbian-and-bi

"That laughing. The Gym Class Laughing. It's all the fault of those ball sports. I fixed them... I ran track. I got to hear that gym teacher say "If you beat Kiira you get an A". Ha! My 9:47 2 mile time at the Melrose Games stood for 12 years as a national record. Kiira - Finnish and proud"

45. Kiira Triea (March 8, 2002). Old Atala: guesses on age? rec.bicycles.tech

"my teenaged years as a bike assembler"

46. See Kiira's posts at rec.crafts.metalworking in 2001 and 2002.

47. Kira D. Triea (Jun 30 1997). Intersex: what does it mean? soc.women.lesbian-and-bi

"I do the web pages for isna"

48. Kira Triea (April 14, 1997) Letter to editor. Time

"As a former intersexed client of Johns Hopkins Hospital, I am pleased to see the true story and outcome of "John/Joan's" treatment. The erroneously published outcome of his case has stood for more than 20 years as "proof" that gender is acquired, that sex and gender--and by implication, sexuality--can be surgically imposed upon children who are genitally nonstandard, regardless of the cause. I assure readers that this surgical treatment modality was not confined to "the 1960s and early 1970s": it continues today for approximately five children per day of the perhaps 1 in 2,000 children born with some anomaly of biological sex differentiation. The ramification of this experiment is not that "dozens of other boys may have been needlessly castrated." It is that thousands of children had, and continue to have, their bodies and their lives mutilated and traumatized by unconsented surgical, hormonal and psychological medical interventions. KIRA TRIEA Intersex Society of North America Baltimore, Maryland"

49. Kira Denise Tree (September 27, 1995). Workstation resellers? misc.forsale.computers.workstation

50. Kira D. Triea (April 20, 1998). new person. soc.women.lesbian-and-bi

"I live in Hampden. It's like a giant trailer park with no trailers!"

51. Kira D. Triea (April 7, 1997). Female guitarists: stand up and be counted. rec.music.makers.guitar

52. Kira D. Triea (October 22, 1997). Best Female Guitarists. rec.music.makers.guitar

53. Kira D. Triea (January 20, 1998). Gender therapy - An Anonymous Submission. soc.feminism

54. Kiira Triea (February 28, 2000). Letter to the editor. Salon

55. Finland 2003

56. Heike Bödeker & Kiira Triea (April 15, 1998). Native vs. White Sex Cosmologies: Sex and Gender Variability vs. Variance in Inter- vs. Intracultural Perspective. Yumtzilob

57. Kira D. Triea (April 20, 1998). The Wrath of Mom. soc.women.lesbian-and-bi

58. Kira D. Triea (April 21, 1998). new person. soc.women.lesbian-and-bi

"I am the only lesbian in Baltimore. I'm 37 and my mom treats me like I am 14."

59. Kiira Triea (2007) Questions about transsexuality. transkids.us

60. Kira D. Triea (November 27, 1993). Hi. alt.transgender

61. Alice Domurat Dreger, ed. (1999). Intersex in the Age of Ethics.Hagerstown, MD: University Publishing Group. ISBN-13: 978-1555721008 (reprint of Triea's Power, Orgasm, and the Psychohormonal Research Unit at pp.141-144.)

62. Simon LeVay and Sharon McBride Valente (2005). Human Sexuality, 2nd edition. Sinauer Associates, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-0878934652