Birth Order in Androphilic Trans Women

In addition to his proposal that late-transition gynephilic trans women be regarded as “autogynephiles`”, Ray Blanchard proposes the Fraternal Birth Order Effect.

Here is Kay Brown`s summary of Blanchard’s position:

The Fraternal Birth Order Effect is the now well established fact that androphilic males (both gay and transsexual) have more older brothers than sisters.  That is to say, that the odds that a given male baby will be androphilic increases with each male child that their mother had carried previously.  This is a cumulative effect.

Recently Kay Brown endorsed a study that found that “when blood from a previously pregnant woman is transfused in men, their subsequent mortality is increased compared to women who are transfused. Blood from women who had never been pregnant did not increase men’s mortality”. She uses this in support of Blanchard`s Fraternal Birth Order Effect.

Kay has, of course, made her peace with the usage of describing heterosexual trans women as “androphilic males”. Blanchard describes such as “homosexual males”.

I personally am a first born. I have a younger sister and a younger brother, both quite straight. As such I am very sceptical of the Fraternal Birth Order Effect.

Out of curiosity: what is Kay`s birth order? In the short autobiography that she wrote for the TS Roadmap in 2008, when she was starting to claim to be a “homosexual transsexual” as per Blanchard, she avoids stating her birth order. However, earlier, in 1998, for her Transsexual, Transgender and Intersex History site (now no longer available) she wrote of herself:

“Growing up as the first of four children, Kay took on childcare responsibilities early”.

A test of the hypothesis

What neither Blanchard nor Brown has done is to test the hypothesis against the biographies of known androphilic trans women who mention their birth order (most do not). Here is a first cut at doing so. For each of the women below, we have enough information about their birth order, and also the fact that – one way or another – they are best described as androphilic (Kinsey 5 or 6 relative to birth gender). Some of these persons were early transitioners like Kay who never went through a phase as a gay man but later married a man; others went through homosexuality on the way to womanhood.

Only Child, Eldest, only AMAB (assigned male at birth) with sisters

According to Blanchard and Brown, this should be unusual. However it seems to be common.

Nadia Almada - eldest with five younger brothers
Manabi Bannerjee – only AMAB with two sisters
Sally Barry - only child
Aaïcha Bergamin – only AMAB with three sisters
Georgina Beyer – elder of two
Kay Brown – eldest of four
Bobbi Cameron – three older sisters
Candis Cayne – twin boys
Dorian Corey – elder of two
Candy Darling – only child
Jamie Lee Hamilton – only child
Yasmene Jabar – only child
Norma Jackson – only child
Christine Jorgensen – second child
Jill Monroe – only child
Patricia Morgan – only child
Sylvia Rivera – elder child, younger sister
Shonna – eldest, two younger sisters
Dawn Langley Simmons – only child
Hedy Jo Star – eldest of seven
Joe Tish – eldest of seven
Laxmi Tripathi – eldest of seven
Diane Wells – eldest of three
Zagria – eldest of three

Younger children

These conform to Blanchard’s model in having older brothers.
Agnes – youngest of four
April Ashley – two elder brothers, one elder sister
Sharon Cohen - youngest of three
Asha Devi – three elder brothers and three elder sisters
Nicky Kiranant – seventh child
Greer Lankton – third child
Marie-Marcelle Godbout – youngest of seven
Naomi – fourth of eight children
Carmen Rupe – youngest AMAB of 13 children
Angel dela Vega – seventh of eight children
Jackie McAuliffe – third of four AMAB
Angie Xtravaganza – one of thirteen children

Conclusion

Not proven. Androphilic trans women come from all positions in birth order. The Fraternal Birth Order Effect would predict that most be the second category. In fact there are fewer in the second category.