This is another illustration of the frightening decline of Western (and especially North American) universities which have, by and large, become centers of politically correct indoctrination and spawning grounds of ignorant knowledge, ceasing long ago to be institutions of objective learning.

Thank you for covering this topic and especially for the link that led me to Dreger’s rather large paper on the issue.

While I disagree with many of your conclusions about the transgender issue that I’ve seen you write about elsewhere, I thought that Bailey got a very unfair shake by Andrea James and other TG militants. It was somewhat unfortunate and embarrassing (since James actually does some great amount of good for the TG community) that they felt the need to take things so far and behave as they did. It rather tarnished everything positive being done.

A few reality checks:

Bailey did not lose his university job. He’s still a professor at Northwestern.

Blanchard’s theories are not accepted by the majority of professionals in this field. This isn’t because they’re all terrified of not appearing politically incorrect, but because they find those theories silly and not particularly representative of the clients they see.

McCloskey did not blame Bailey for her estrangement from her children, she blamed the kind of bigoted thinking he represents. There is a difference.

Bailey has called for screening for homosexuality in the womb so that the gay population can be wiped out via selective abortion. When someone is actually advocating genocide, Nazi comparisons don’t seem that over the top.

The captions Ms. James put under picture of Bailey’s children were taken directly from his book. As long as they were being applied to transsexuals, they were “sympathetic.” As soon as they were applied to nontranssexuals, they became, to use Bailey’s own words, “dirty” and “obscene.” I happen to agree, which is why I think Bailey probably shouldn’t have written them in the first place.

Alice Dreger was not part of the panel Northwestern put together to investigate the charges. The actual investigative panel found at least some of the charges to have merit and took some sort of action, but refused to say what it was, as even Dreger was forced to acknowledge in her “scholarly history” (solicited by a journal that includes Bailey, Blanchard, and several members of Blanchard’s clinic on its editorial board- no bias there).

If some academics feel that following proper human subject research protocols is too much of a bother, then I hope they are scared off by these events. People like that don’t belong in academia.

There was a time, not too long ago, when only Caucasion males could vote in America. Then along came the Women’s movement, the African-American civil rights movement, etc., and now the gay/lesbian/transgender movement.
All of those folks; the women, the African-Americans and other minorities, the gays/lesbians/ and transexuals, have been in America for hundreds of years. Gradually they are taking their place in American society. But for awhile, there is resistance to every one of them.
In 2008, America could have it’s first African-American or fermale president.
America, due to immigration, and other reasons, has become more diversified, As time goes on, more women, Blacks, Hispanics, as well as Caucasion men, and more non-religious people, or people of a religion other than Christianity, as well as Christians, and more even gays, lesbians, and transwomen, will be elected to political office.
One of the arguments against gays, lesbians, and transexuals is that they don’t have families, that they don’t procreate. But many of them do have families. Many of them are bisexual and have children with the opposite gender before becoming gay, lesbian, or bisexual. Lesbian women also are artifically inseminated and raise childeen with their lesbian partners. Some gasy men adopt. Some male to female transwomen get their legal status changed to women after their feminization process is completed, and then marry men and adopt children.

John said:

“There was a time, not too long ago, when only Caucasion males could vote in America. Then along came the Women’s movement, the African-American civil rights movement, etc., and now the gay/lesbian/transgender movement.”

This is a completely specious comparison. Nobody has ever denied voting rights to homosexuals and transsexuals. Nobody has ever sent them to separate schools, made them sit in special sections of public transportation, use specially marked drinking fountains, etc., etc. The so-called “gay rights movement” is an artificial creation of some individuals who just feel the urge to change the society mostly for the sake of change only, sometimes for much more ulterior motives. They came too late to take part in the legitimate rights movements so they invented this one out of the whole cloth. There are, of course, many other reasons behind this fallacy, none of them rational or disinterested. And then there are the naive fellow travellers who support this dangerous fiction because “it is about human rights”, the latest idol of our confused society.

To Mariusz above:

“This is a completely specious comparison. Nobody has ever denied voting rights to homosexuals and transsexuals. Nobody has ever sent them to separate schools, made them sit in special sections of public transportation, use specially marked drinking fountains, etc., etc.”

They’re denied housing, employment, basic medical care, protection from the law, and from the police forces (when you know, they get beaten to an inch of their life).

Woohoo I can vote...but I can’t work, or put bread on the table. I’m so glad I can vote though. And if I need a transfusion, I better hope I don’t get discriminated against, cause it happens often. Paramedics who come and check me after a car accident, could decide to laugh me off instead of help me, letting me die on the way to the hospital for lack of proper care - as what happened in Washington not too long ago.

Or they could say my boyfriend beating me to death, and killing me, as somehow being justified because I “deceived him”.

“There are, of course, many other reasons behind this fallacy, none of them rational or disinterested. And then there are the naive fellow travellers who support this dangerous fiction because “it is about human rights”, the latest idol of our confused society.”

It is equal rights. I want the right to rent an apartment or buy a house without being told no right off for no reason besides being trans. I want the right to work, be hired if I qualify, and get paid, without suffering discrimination from co-workers, or my own boss. I want the right to be served with dignity and professionalism if I ever need a trip to the hospital.

So yes, it IS about equal rights. Rights everyone else enjoys by default.

Jennifer, I read your comment with some sad amusement.  I’d just run across Andrea James’ blog again, and saw an announcement for TYFA:  “TYFA envisions a society free of suicide and violence in which ALL children are respected and celebrated.” I instantly remembered how this horrible person “respected and celebrated” Michael Bailey’s children by posting “satirical” accusations that they had been raped by their father, that the daughter (she was what, eight years old?) was a cock-starved exhibitionist, and so forth. 

As for Boo’s claim that Bailey said the same things about TG people, I don’t remember him claiming that TG people raped their own children.  I don’t remember him saying anything horrible about anyone’s little kids.

The TG community does not appreciate the damage this single person has done.  From my grandmother’s perspective, it looks like this:  On the one side, we have a university professor talking about some idea.  On the other side, we have a person who wrote horrible things about innocent little children.  You don’t have to like it, but the fact that James behaved horribly to these children is all Meemaw cares about.  That single incident *proved* to her that Bailey is right and Andrea James is wrong.  Since then, the only thing she has to say on the subject is “I don’t understand why that bad person isn’t rotting in jail.”

“You don’t have to like it, but the fact that James behaved horribly to these children is all Meemaw cares about.  That single incident *proved* to her that Bailey is right and Andrea James is wrong.  Since then, the only thing she has to say on the subject is “I don’t understand why that bad person isn’t rotting in jail.””

Sure...because publishing a book nation or worldwide claiming the same that those captions said such as “Trangender people are more suited to prostitution” is perfectly fine.

The irony is that Bailey calls it gentle and understanding when applied to transgender people, but dirty and offending when associated with his children - you know, the exact same captions. God protect Bailey if one of his children turns out to be trans, the captions will suddenly be respectful…