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To burn or not to burn?
From our archives
Lesbians frightening horses
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[Back to News Slant]
Chicago gay paper blackballs sex researcher after transgenders protest. Censorship? Or keeping science accountable?
By
Jim D'Entremont
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By
persephone
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10/07/06 05:08 PM
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Your discussion of the case of Dr. Bailey appears balanced at first glance, but it is oversimplified. It has been demonstrated by books like Impure Science by Steven Epstein, a sociologist of science who studied the interaction between scientists and AIDS activists, that the conflict between ideologically motivated members of the community and ‘objective’ scientists has been complicated in America by the unfortunate circumstance that many of the scientists themselves are ideologically motivated-- especially those who, like Bailey, are supported by the NIH under Bush. For example, Epstein shows convincingly how confrontation with activists was necessary to induce scientists to pose the right questions for progressive AIDS research instead of simply furthering the interests of drug companies.
I have had personal experience of the ideological rigidity of Bailey’s associates at Toronto’s Clarke Institute. Their policy was that a candidate for transgender surgery could not proceed without consultation of the spouse; but they only recognized heterosexual relationships. Common- law female spouses whose relationship lasted one year were consulted, but when my then male lover applied, the Clarke did not even want to interview me, his male partner for 10 years. My lover, who should have been entitled to surgery under Ontario’s medicare, was eventually accepted for surgery in England after a competent psychological assessment there at her own expense. We are now legally married and have remained happily in love for another 18 years—another reality that proves Bailey and company were wrong. Jim (jim@jamesjope.ca)
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