In fairness to Raymond Blanchard, his theories should be discussed as being possible. As should others. I don’t see any more scientific refutation anywhere than “If you don’t believe my theory, you are deluded…or unethical…or just need to be spanked!!!”

To erase the voices of people who have lived through a transgender/transsexual experience simply by saying, “Well, they are just wrong, either lying or deluded” cuts off scientific inquiry then and there. That is a fair charge.

I say that for both sides, and I do mean Profs. McCloskey, Conway, as well as Andrea James (who is not a professor*), not to say Michael Bailey, Anne Lawrence, Alice Dreger, or any other of his supporters as well. I am unimpressed with any shrillness on anyone’s part. Keep it calm, and academically detached.

Keep it tabula rasa, too. There are many who argue transsexualism is not a mental disorder, but a state of being. Transsexuals want to choose how they deal with it, and if surgery is part of that, they should have enough control over their own lives and destinies to opt for that.

That is not examined in the BBL typologies. It’s already assumed to be false. It’s true that no science is impartial; as long as humans conduct it, there will be biases. Part of the process of giving research out is to examine those biases (from the standpoint of our own biases, observes a skeptic)

Blanchard’s theories need to be examined without the escape clause. There may well be autogynephiliac transsexuals and homosexual transsexuals in the world. There may well be others typologies, however, has anyone examined what the causations of autogynephilia might be…or if it is a manifestation of something else?

Does autogynephilia show up in people who are not transsexual?

How about following through on the lives of transsexuals who do transition, versus those who may be convinced to live as gay men, if there are such people?

Do the autogynephiles and homosexual transsexuals who transition lead happy lives…, or can they lead happy lives, especially if the public someday is conditioned to accept them as any other citizen. A huge question. I would ask a great many transsexuals some very detailed questions about that, and replicate the studies, before answering.

All this said, I applaud Alice Dreger for pointing out that “attack academics” are deplorable. I would add “regardless of the theory involved.” Questioning is par for the course. Ethical questioning, btw, is also, but it involves a process that does not start out with a conclusion. Alice Dreger is right in pointing that out.

*nor am I, for that matter.