Before I could reply to her third letter, Deirdre McCloskey wrote again:
Dear Professor Roberts:
Having looked into it a bit I am very intrigued by your diet, and will buy the book and try it out.
You have a lot of nerve, however, to quote Bohr— “The common aim of all science” is “the gradual removal of prejudices”—and then without self-experimentation, without consulting people like me who have self-experimented, without examining any of the literature except the sort you like, to relay to the world your prejudices about gender crossers. A lot of nerve.
Sincerely,
Deirdre McCloskey
I replied:
Dear Professor McCloskey,
I’m intrigued. What self-experimentation should I have done? [Later I realized she meant dress as a woman.]
Thank you for reading my book. Yes, Bohr’s quote is relevant. Science does remove prejudices. Including the science in Bailey’s book, I believe. I think Bailey’s book will be a powerful force for tolerance, you think the opposite. Let history decide.
I am not anti-gender-crosser. Nor is Bailey — but I wasn’t appalled by what you and Conway did to him because I liked his book. I have defended Holocaust deniers and praised a book with a generous view of creationism. I don’t deny the Holocaust and I’m not religious. I believe everyone deserves to speak, to be heard. Everyone. Without harassment or punishment.
Sincerely,
Seth Roberts
I think SLD is the answer to world peace.
This is not simply a harmless academic debate. The welfare of a whole group of people is at stake. It is one thing to defend responsible free speech, but it is quite another to defend overt bigotry. Are transgendered people low socioeconomic liars and shop lifters especially suited for work in the sex trades? Such claims, published by Bailey under the guise of high quality science, engender and maintain the oppression, ostrasization, and violence that transgendered people face. The real question is why the entire psychology community failed to question Bailey about the nature of his writings and behavior, leaving a disadvantaged population holding the bag. I applaud the heroic efforts of Lynn Conway, Deirdre McCloskey, Andrea James, and others to bring these issues to light. Although Andrea James has long ago sincerely apologized for her one act of poor judgement, Bailey has yet to utter a single word of apology and continues to strenuously defend even his claim that transgendered people are especially well suited to be prostitutes (this can be found on the audio recording of last weeks Kqed Forum show). It is a dirty business fighting bigots who often claim to care about the people they are targeting and to be proving their bigotted opinions using science. Throughout history, silence from the advantaged non-targetted groups is invariably the rule. Remarkably, Seth Roberts is not only silent and completely insensitive to the bigotry in Bailey’s book, but is actively defending Bailey. The transgender community will no longer sit by silently while “professionals” claiming to care about us, write books filled with transphobic hate speech, practice clinical psychology without a license, sleep with their subjects, do research without informed consent, and do junk science that is then used to support public policy and opinion against us. Roberts is concerned about the chiling effects of trans activism on free speech, but he forgets that the only free speech under concern is overt bigotry. Why is he so passionate in his defense of bigotry? Why isn’t he concerned about the chilling effects this bigotry has on a whole oppressed group of people?
Ben Barres
Great reply, Seth. To the heart of the matter, sincerely, and well said. Not much you can add to that, at all.
And Pearl: Preach on, sister!
Ben Barres: “Why is he [= Seth Roberts] so passionate in his defense of bigotry?” Ignoring the “when did you stop beating your wife?” aspect — Bailey’s book is not, in my opinion, bigoted, quite the opposite — that’s a good question. What you call bigotry I call speech. Claiming that certain people do not deserve to be heard has often been an early step down a well-trodden path toward being violent toward them — including murdering them. That’s the short answer to your question.
Thanks, KimBooSan! Although I felt my reply was slightly pompous I feel better about it now.
And while we are talking about violence and murder, why aren’t you equally concerned about the violence that transgendered folks face or the nearly 50% AIDS/HIV infection rate in gay and transgendered folks who have been forced into prostitution to survive because of employement discrimination or because they have been thrown out of their house by their parents as still frequently occurs with young teenage gay boys.