Autogynephilia
Autogynephilia (Template:PronEng) (from Greek  (self),  (woman) and  (love)  "love of oneself as a woman") is the term coined in 1989 by Ray Blanchard to refer to "a man's paraphilic tendency to be sexually aroused by the thought or image of himself as a woman." It has been suggested that the concept pertains to romantic love in addition to sexual interest.
According to a series of published research findings, Blanchard concluded that biologically male transsexuals who were sexually attracted to males fundamentally differed from biologically male transsexuals who were sexually attracted either to females, to both males and females, or to neither; he referred to the former type as homosexual transsexuals and to the latter type as nonhomosexual transsexuals.  Moreover, Blanchard found that the nonhomosexual transsexuals were sexually aroused by the thought or image of themselves as women, refering to them as autogynephilic.

# Sexual fantasies
Blanchard classified four subtypes:
- Transvestic autogynephilia: arousal to the act or fantasy of wearing women's clothing
- Behavioral autogynephilia: arousal to the act or fantasy of doing something regarded as feminine
- Physiologic autogynephilia: arousal to fantasies of female-specific body functions
- Anatomic autogynephilia: arousal to the fantasy of having a woman's body, or parts of one

# Blanchard, Bailey, and Lawrence theory controversy
The "BBL Controversy" also known as the "Autogynephilia Controversy" is an ongoing and heated line of discussion in the transgendered community. The concept had not received much attention outside of sexology until sexologist Anne Lawrence, who self-identifies as an autogynephile, published a series of web articles about the concept in the late 1990s. Lynn Conway and Andrea James responded to Lawrence's essay. Conway started an investigation into the publication of Bailey's book by the United States National Academy of Sciences. Accusations of misconduct by Bailey were leveled. Northwestern University investigated Bailey, but did not reveal the findings of that investigation and did not comment on whether or not Bailey had been punished. According to intersex activist and bioethics specialist, Prof. Alice Dreger, Ph.D., who is now one of Bailey's supporters, two of the four transwomen who accused Bailey of misusing their stories were not mentioned anywhere in the book, and Bailey's critics' publication of obscenely titled photographs of his minor children constituted an unconscionable harassment campaign.
Some scientific concerns have been raised.  A transgendered psychologist writing under the pen name of Madeline Wyndzen identified four possible scientific concerns with Blanchard's model:
- Blanchard's findings had not been replicated independently at the time of publication.
- Blanchard did not include control groups of typically-gendered women.
- Blanchard did not statistically standardize age differences in his data, and
- Blanchard hypothesized causality from observational data.
Some of these concerns are common to any new idea (independent replication takes time), and others can not be tested in any practical or ethical fashion (causing people to be transsexual to prove causality).
Wyndzen is concerned that Blanchard's research promotes the politically and socially dangerous idea that transsexual people are mentally defective:  "Rather than asking the scientifically neutral question, What is transgenderism? Blanchard (1991) asks, "What kind of defect in a male's capacity for sexual learning could produce ... autogynephilia, transvestitism ...?" (p. 246).""
Furthermore, critics claim that the distributions of sexual orientation among transsexuals do not reveal two categorically distinct groups, however researcher Yolanda Smith found in a follow up study conducted in the Netherlands:
Study of this theory is ongoing and it is not either accepted or rejected by a majority of psychologists.
One of the harshest nonacademic critics of the theory, Andrea James, initially endorsed Blanchard's work: "I  found many of his observations to be quite valid, even brilliant, especially in distinguishing early- and late-transitioning TS patterns of thought and behavior."

# Ray Blanchard on men who have sex with men
Ray Blanchard has also hypothesized that autogynephilia is a motivation for some men who have sex with men who identify themselves as heterosexual.
He is quoted in an article by Dan Savage  as saying: