Daily Femail: Missouri isn't sending their best in court. They're sending total clowns.
The state of Missouri’s expert witnesses in defending their ban on gender affirming care for minors are far from reputable sources.
by Mira Lazine
Daily Femail is Assigned Media’s newest column, offering real opinions delivered with a satirical tone to address last week’s biggest news stories. Written by Mira Lazine, the column aims to humorously mock right-wing tabloids while also providing quality reporting every Tuesday.
Missouri is in the midst of an ongoing legal feud surrounding its ban on gender affirming care for minors, Senate Bill 49. The state is trying to advocate in favor of the ban, with the Attorney General’s office protecting their interests. Plaintiffs in the case, including several families with trans children and multiple medical associations, argue that the law is unconstitutional and in violation of their equal rights.
Make no mistake, this is an incredibly important battle that’ll determine the lives of thousands of trans children across the state for years to come. It’s something that should be treated with the utmost caution as it becomes anyone’s game as to who can come out on top.
Apparently, the state didn’t get the memo. According to The Missouri Independent, their expert witnesses are having their entire credibility and relevance to the case called into question - meaning that crucial evidence given towards the state’s side of the argument might entirely fall to the wayside. In other words, the courts are finding that these experts are quacks.
But who are the experts? Some might argue that the state should try to seek out the most reputable and reliable individuals to give an accurate assessment of the evidence, following the truth wherever it may lead. Others might argue that they would want to grab the individuals who give them the best chance at winning the case.
Missouri’s government might reply: “Why do that when we can get a guy who defends a child molestor and a non-expert bankrolled by anti-trans organizations? Surely these are some of the most reputable experts we could get.”
Daily Femail does not exaggerate. John Michael Bailey, one of the leading proponents of anti-trans pseudoscience and a laughingstock of the scientific community, has spent the past few decades promoting fringe claims about trans people. Dr. Daniel Weiss is a lesser known figure who nevertheless has thousands of dollars under his belt from numerous anti-trans organizations.
Bailey has been making a name for himself in the anti-trans world for some time. His claim to fame is his 2003 pop science book “The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism.” The book was met with immediate backlash from the LGBTQ+ community, while nevertheless becoming the most influential work in normalizing the concept of autogynephilia.
For those who are fortunate enough to not be familiar with it, prepare to have your day ruined. Autogynephilia is a “theory” created by sexologist Ray Blanchard in the 1980’s to try and explain away the existence of trans people - specifically trans women. The idea is that there are two types of trans women - “homosexual transsexuals,” and “autogynephiles.” The former group are believed to actually be very gay men who then transition to try and be with straight men. The latter group are thought to be a group of trans people who find the idea of transitioning extremely sexually arousing, and so they transition to satiate their kinks.
Obviously, this has no basis in science, or even common sense. Much of the “theory” relies on ad hoc evidence that proponents try to twist around to claim that they’re never wrong. It’s been debunked by biologist Julia Serano and sexologist Charles Moser in detailed literature reviews, and has only served to propagate harmful stereotypes about trans people.
But Bailey’s history with this concept isn’t the source of his being discredited in court. Rather, that comes from his extremely, definitely high quality “study” on another debunked anti-trans concept, and his… choices regarding how he approaches pedophiles.
Starting off with the former, last year Bailey published a study that claimed to provide evidence for the fringe concept of rapid-onset gender dysphoria (ROGD), or the idea that kids are victims of a ‘social contagion’ that’s convincing them to be transgender. The study itself opted to go to “ParentsofROGDKids.com” to talk to parents who believe their children have ROGD to see what they’d find from a survey. Readers may not be surprised to learn that this was published in a journal spearheaded by Kenneth Zucker, noted conversion therapist whose clinic was shut down.
Now, readers who immediately click on links before reading the surrounding context (such as Daily Femail’s lead writer) will have noticed that this study has been retracted. This means that it’s been pulled from the scientific record for some type of quality, ethics, or accuracy issue.
In this case, it was due to allegations that the two conducting the study, Bailey and the co-author, “Suzanna Diaz,” didn’t appropriately handle informed consent or get proper permission to do this study. Readers will note that Diaz’s name is in quotes. Diaz does not actually exist. The name is a pseudonym of someone tied to the ParentsofROGDKids website. Respondents were not informed of the intention to use the data for academic research, nor did the authors get permission from the institutional review board.
Bailey claims that the retraction was due to pressure from activists. It is unclear what evidence he has in favor of this idea. Regardless, this was only part of the reason Bailey’s credibility was called into question - the other was that Bailey opted to defend former football coach and convicted child molestor Jerry Sandusky. Sandusky was convicted of child molestation across a period of 15 years, and Bailey defends him by claiming he’s actually innocent.
To see just how far down this rabbit hole Bailey is, view this exchange between himself and Wright County Circuit Court Judge Craig Carter. “You believe the people testifying against Jerry Sandusky are lying?” Carter had asked him, according to The Missouri Independent.
“I can see that if you are not familiar with the evidence that I am familiar with, you would be shocked,” Bailey replied. It was at this time that Bailey revealed he got his information from a podcast, praising conservative commentator John Ziegler.
“Do you know [Ziegler]? Have you talked to anybody that was an eyewitness in that case?” Carter said as Bailey’s credibility waned. “I have read testimony, but I have not talked to anyone,” Bailey admitted in reply. Missouri is clearly sending their best experts here.
As for Weiss, he is more straightforward. He’s a senior fellow at the right-wing anti-trans advocacy organization Do No Harm, which has bankrolled him tens of thousands of dollars to testify as an expert witness in opposition to trans healthcare across the United States. Similarly, in this case, he admitted he was paid off by Center for Christian Virtue, a far-right Christian advocacy organization that’s spearheading efforts to bring down gender affirming care. No conflicts of interest here whatsoever.
Weiss is against even adults transitioning. “I’m opposed to it medically,” Weiss said of the subject. “I think there’s no scientific evidence to support it. But if someone wants to do it, and they’re adequately informed, they can do it.” He also admitted he could not make a comparison between puberty blockers, which he does not prescribe in his practice as an endocrinologist.
He was asked if he had ever published peer reviewed research on gender dysphoria. “My article, if I were to write one, would be rejected by most medical journals because there is no good treatment,” Weiss said. “I call it child-harming treatment. There is no good intervention.” He also admitted to not having experience working with minors professionally.
As much as these two deserve to be pointed and laughed at, it’s important to remember the immense harm they’re aiming to do. Their goal is to outlaw essential medical care for youth across the country - and at least one of them is making a career out of this advocacy. They’re terrible scientists (even if they’re the best the right-wing has to offer), but they can still be effective. Bailey, for instance, has single handedly done incredible damage to trans people with his advocacy for the fringe idea of autogynephilia, while Weiss has played a role in getting bills like Ohio’s House Bill 68 brought into law. These two are a joke, but their actions are no laughing matter.
Mira Lazine is a freelance journalist covering transgender issues, politics, and science. She can be found on Twitter, Mastodon, and BlueSky, @MiraLazine