The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey

We haven’t kept in touch, but I have kept paying attention to the subjects he studies.Īs Mayer and McHugh note, the exact boundaries of a sexual orientation are hard to nail down. I never took any of Bailey’s classes, but I did interview him once for the Northwestern Chronicle, the conservative student newspaper-and as editor of the Chronicle in 2005, I published Bailey’s own account of the controversy. Among much else, the book advanced the theory that some male-to-female transsexuals are driven by “autogynephilia,” or sexual arousal at the thought of oneself as a woman, which some activists find offensive. During my undergraduate years at Northwestern, where he teaches, a nasty controversy swirled about his book The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism (free PDF). Michael Bailey, one of the nation’s leading sex researchers, and several prominent colleagues.īefore we begin in earnest, though, I should confess I’m biased: Bailey is the reason I’ve been following this research casually for more than a decade. The problem is easily seen if one, upon finishing their New Atlantis report, proceeds immediately to “Sexual Orientation, Controversy, and Science,” a paper from earlier this year by J. Mayer and McHugh are absolutely correct that the reality of human sexuality is complicated and messy-no explanation would be complete unless it addressed both the “genetic or innate” and the “environmental and experiential.” What’s more, the authors have a praiseworthy willingness to confront the taboo, most evident in their discussion of whether childhood sexual abuse might increase the odds of homosexuality in adulthood.īut Mayer and McHugh don’t strike quite the right balance between the innate and the environmental-in fact, they gloss over some of the most compelling evidence on the innate side of the ledger. McHugh, both affiliated with Johns Hopkins University-take aim at the idea that gays and the transgendered are “born that way.” Perhaps this sentence, from their section focusing on homosexuality, best captures their overall attitude: “ Research suggests that while genetic or innate factors may influence the emergence of same-sex attractions, these biological factors cannot provide a complete explanation, and environmental and experiential factors may also play an important role.” The New Atlantis has published an extensive report about homosexuality, transgenderism, and their causes.

The Man Who Would Be Queen by J. Michael Bailey