Discussion Impossible - Transgender Sexuality

His name is J. Michael Bailey, and he is a psychologist at Northwestern University. What makes Dr. Bailey remarkable is a recent book he wrote entitled The Man Who Would Be Queen. A study about transgender psychology and an explanation of sexual biology, the book proposes that some men who wish to become women are, according to Dr. Bailey, spurred on by an erotic fantasy of seeing themselves as women. This is clearly much different than the alternate approach, which states that men who feel themselves truly to be women are instead victims of a mistaken biology.

Following the book’s publication Dr. Bailey was then attacked on several fronts, both academic and otherwise. One transgender computer scientist compared Dr. Bailey’s research to Nazi propaganda, while several people Dr. Bailey had interviewed came out and argued that he had committed ethics infractions – one claiming Dr. Bailey had sex with her. Dr. Deirdre McCloskey, a professor from the University of Illinois, joined in, seeking to curb what she believes is "a false and unscientific and politically damaging opinion." Dr. McCloskey also wrote to Northwestern accusing Dr. Bailey of ethical research violations. Nevertheless, a recent investigation conducted by Dr. Alice Dreger, an ethics scholar at Northwestern, has concluded that all the accusations against Dr. Bailey are ultimately baseless. But in a world where a transgender advocate smeared pictures of Dr. Bailey’s children with sexually explicit captions on her website, the question arises whether academic discussion of politically sensitive topics can be conducted at all.