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“JT LeRoy,” “Danny Ryan,” and “transkid” hoaxes

   

The “transkid” fraud JT LeRoy has been back in the news. For those who aren’t aware of this minor literary scandal, a middle-aged eccentric named Laura Albert created a hoax a few years ago involving an underaged transgender West Virginia truckstop prostitute turned memoirist. And people actually believed it. People always want to assume the worst about trans youth, though that has been changing in the ensuing years thanks to mainstream media coverage and family support organizations.

One of Albert’s conspirators has just written a book about the whole lurid mess:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/nov/02/savannah-knoop-jeremiah-jt-leroy

It reminded me of Denise Tree, aka Kiira Triea, another middle-aged eccentric who has claimed to have undergone genital surgery for an intersex trait in 1974 when she was 14. Among other telltale signs of fraud in her fantastic tale, she was in fact born in 1951. The gullible press and a few sloppy academics lapped up Tree’s improbable tale of sexualized torment as a teenager in the clutches of the Johns Hopkins clinic. Tree’s aunt, Nancy Henley, got her Ph.D. in psychology from Johns Hopkins in 1968, which may expain Tree’s fixation on the school and knowledge of various programs.

In addition to her own bogus story, Tree is also owner and author of transkids.us, a hoax site allegedly written by trans children. Tree has a long history of using sockpuppets, dating back to USENET in the early 1990s. Transkids.us is her most elaborate creation, believed only by the most gullible of online noobs, primarily LiveJournal denizens. However, Tree has duped a few sloppy academics who buy her stories, much like her counterpart Laura Albert. Tree has even coauthored a paper with J. Michael Bailey, whose own elaborate transkid “Danny Ryan” has come under question. In his 2003 book The Man Who Would Be Queen, Bailey claimed “Danny” was cured of gender identity disorder and is now a happy gay man. JT LeRoy, Danny Ryan, and Denise Tree’s life story all have one thing in common: we are supposed to believe them without independent verification. In all three cases, that has not been forthcoming. In all three cases, the independent evidence put forth to date only raises more questions.

It’s not clear why some people feel a need to make up these kinds of stories. They all seem to desire attention, even negative attention. It seems to be a very specific kind of trolling, in which they strongly identify with or are attracted to the person they create, a sort of skeevy Pygmalion thing.

What disturbs me more than a couple of kooks making stuff up is the lack of concern among academics, especially sexologists. I would hope that a field constantly under scrutiny would see that keeping one’s own house in order should be their first order of business. This is the field that allowed John Money to go unchallenged while his most “successful” patient’s life spiraled into despair and suicide, while Money continued to proclaim the case a success. Why has there been no independent confirmation of Danny Ryan, the child whose “curing” was the framing device of the book Bailey used to get tenure? Haven’t we learned not to take these kinds of people at their word?

I am confident that the whole truth about Danny Ryan and Kiira Triea/Denise Tree will come out in time. The truth caught up with John Money. The truth caught up with Laura Albert. The truth will catch up with J. Michael Bailey and his co-author Kiira Triea. It’s just a matter of time, and I take the long view on all of it.


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Posted by Andrea James on 11/17 at 04:23 PM

Yes, yes, yes. Thank you Andrea. And this creepy ‘literary legacy’ points up a sad objectification of trans youth the broader media has latched onto and made even glossier. Where I also find it thriving is on many of the transforums in the online community, where self-promoted narratives of early, often seamless transition are promoted as a way of often legitimizing some snarky ideological agenda (AGP, some version of homosexual TS… yadda, yadda) and is invariably accompanied by mean attacks on ‘older transitioners’ (anyone over 25). These characters know the trans community holds young transitioners in such high esteem (and, of course, high on the passing totem pole) that they know others won’t dare question them or their intentions. Invariably, such narratives end up being false.

I hate to think of adults trying to get status or self-validation off the real experiences of children and youth who transition. It’s a form of political molestation of the most vulnerable population. Thanks again for all you’ve done (and the brickbats you’ve taken) in exposing these pathetic episodes of trans exploitation.

Posted by Gina Morvay  on  11/18  at  08:03 AM

The problem with the field of sexology is that the majority of those working in this field are working off of the viewpoints of previous generations. This is what they know and understand and to say otherwise in their mind negates their entire career.

As is to be expected being in an authoritative position they control what information they can by pushing ideas that reaffirm their views, and blocking or criticizing ideas that contradict their views. It is not uncommon at all to see academics make up false results from experiments, or simply lie about doing any kind of science at all. This is common in all fields of science and not just a problem of the social sciences. People in a position of authority will do what ever it takes to maintain that position.

It is a very historic time for the tg world in that this is the first generation to be able to easily share information (thanks to the internet), and we are finding that what the social scientists have said about us for years is not at all true. There is far more to gender than anyone could have ever imagined.

Over the next decade or two attitudes with in the academic world, media, and general public will change as the old guard retires, dies off, and ceases to create their own brand of disinformation. This of course is dependent on members of the tg community continuing to speak out and educate others as well as ourselves. This is not a war that will ever be won, but we can significantly improve things. Most important though is that we and future generations will need to continue to keep the lines of free thought, communication, and debate open.

Posted by  on  11/18  at  09:44 PM
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