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J. Michael Bailey

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J Michael Bailey
BornJuly 2, 1957
Lubbock, Texas
NationalityAmerican
Occupation(s)Professor psychology, Northwestern University

John Michael Bailey (born July 2, 1957 in Lubbock, Texas) is an American psychologist and professor at Northwestern University. He is best known among scientists for his work on the biological basis of sexual orientation, which suggests that homosexuality is substantially inherited. He also wrote The Man Who Would Be Queen, which has elicited a strong reaction from some activists, ranging from revilement on the one hand to a nomination for an award from the Lambda Literary Foundation (an organization that promotes gay literature) on the other. He has been accused of research misconduct and practicing psychology without a license, but these accusations have been found unsubstantiated and characterized as a "form of harassment" by an investigation conducted by Northwestern University.

Background and career

Bailey was born in Lubbock, Texas. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Washington University in 1979 and his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1989, where he studied under behavioral genetics researcher Lee Willerman.

Bailey became a professor at Northwestern University in 1989. In the 1990s, Bailey published several papers that suggested a heritable component for sexual orientation. In 2003 he published his first and only book, The Man Who Would Be Queen.

In October 2004, Bailey resigned as chairman of the Psychology Department. Bailey still serves as a Northwestern professor.

Research

Bailey is well-known for research involving biology and sexual orientation. In the early 1990s he coauthored with Richard Pillard a series of twin studies which examined the rate of concordance of sexual identity among monozygotic twins (52% concordance), dizygotic twins of the same sex (22%), non-twin siblings of the same sex, and adoptive siblings of the same sex (11%).

The Council for Responsible Genetics and other researchers have criticized this work for using a self-selected sample, a problem which his later studies have attempted to remedy.

According to Bailey's interpretation of evolutionary psychology, homosexuality is an evolutionary mistake or paradox, and may represent "a developmental error." He has linked homosexuality to higher levels of psychopathology.

In December 2006, he controversially suggested that aborting a fetus after fetal screening for sexual orientation is "morally acceptable....even assuming, as we do, that homosexuality is entirely acceptable morally" Bailey's view was that selecting the sexual orientation of one's offspring would be beneficial because it "would further a parent’s freedom to raise the sort of children they want to raise.”

The Man Who Would Be Queen

Main article: The Man Who Would Be Queen

The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender Bending and Transsexualism was published in 2003 by Joseph Henry Press. In it, Bailey lays out an argument that male homosexuality is congenital and a result of heredity and prenatal environment. He also suggests that transsexualism is either an extreme type of homosexuality or an expression of a paraphilia, known as autogynephilia.

The book generated considerable controversy, as well as a formal investigation by Northwestern University, where Bailey was Chair of the Psychology Department until shortly before the conclusion of the investigation. Northwestern made it clear that his change in status had nothing to do with the book. Bailey insists that he did nothing wrong and that the attacks on him were motivated by the desire to suppress discussion of the book's ideas about transsexualism, especially autogynephilia.

Written in a popular science style, the book summarizes research done on the topic that supports Bailey's opinions. The online version of the book (along with most other books in the catalogue) was removed from the Joseph Henry Press site in February 2006.

In 2003, critics of Bailey's controversial book levied claims of research misconduct. Northwestern University investigated Bailey, but did not reveal the findings of that investigation and did not comment on whether or not Bailey had been punished. Alice Dreger, an ethics scholar at Northwestern, published a history of the controversy three years after the investigation concluded. The New York Times reported that Dreger found Bailey "basically blameless." Her results have been accepted for publication in the Archives of Sexual Behavior. According to Dreger, the allegations of misconduct could more accurately be described as forms of harassment and intimidation by Bailey's critics in an effort to destroy him personally and professionally. For example, some critics' harassment included postings photographs of Bailey's children with obscene captions to the Internet. "If we're going to have research at all, then we’re going to have people saying unpopular things," said Dreger in a New York Times interview, "and if this is what happens to them, then we've got problems not only for science but free expression itself."

Sexual arousal patterns of bisexual men

Bailey once again stirred controversy in 2005 as senior author of a study which claimed male bisexuality does not exist, based on results of controversial penile plethysmograph testing. The testing found that of men who identified as bisexual, 75% were only aroused genitally by homosexual imagery, and 25% were only aroused genitally by heterosexual imagery. They concluded that bisexuality was a subjective experience: "Male bisexuality appears primarily to represent a style of interpreting or reporting sexual arousal rather than a distinct pattern of genital sexual arousal."

The study received wide attention after a New York Times piece on the study that coincided with the opening of the 2005 International Academy of Sex Research convention. The article and study were criticized by gay and bisexual groups and by FAIR. Critics argued the sample size was relatively small, consisting of only one hundred (100) men. Also, all of these subjects were "self-selected", from ads placed in gay and "alternative" publications. Then the researchers had to disregard results of thirty-five percent (35%) of this population, as non-responders.

Agreeing with the author's conclusion that bisexuality is a subjective experience, the late Dr. Fritz Klein, a sex researcher and the author of The Bisexual Option argued that "social and emotional attraction are very important elements in bisexual attraction."

Still others argued that measuring genital arousal to two-minute-long sequences of pornographic gay or lesbian films is a crude and inaccurate measure, which could be easily influenced by external factors such as discomfort with the research process itself as well as there being issues with the use of plethysmograph. These issues could easily account for 35% of the subjects not responding genitally to any sexual stimuli.

References

  1. ^ "Criticism of a Gender Theory, and a Scientist Under Siege". New York Times. August 21, 2007. {{cite web}}: Text "url" ignored (help) Cite error: The named reference "carey082107" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Professional profile". Northwestern University. February 4, 2008. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. Davis, Andrew (December 8, 2004). "Northwestern Sex Researcher Investigated, Results Unknown". {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help)
  4. Bailey JM, Pillard RC (1991). "A genetic study of male sexual orientation". Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 48 (12): 1089–96. PMID 1845227.
  5. Bailey JM, Benishay DS (1993). "Familial aggregation of female sexual orientation". Am J Psychiatry. 150 (2): 272–7. PMID 8422079.
  6. Do genes determine if we are lesbian, bisexual, gay, or straight? Position Paper by The Council for Responsible Genetics. Retrieved July 24, 2006.
  7. Bailey JM (1999). "Homosexuality and mental illness". Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 56 (10): 883–4. PMID 10530627.
  8. Greenberg AS, Bailey JM (2001). "Parental selection of children's sexual orientation" (PDF). Arch Sex Behav. 30 (4): 423–37, discussion 439–41. doi:10.1023/A:1010265416676. PMID 11446202.
  9. Science told: hands off gay sheep Times Online (UK)
  10. Bailey, J. Michael (2003). The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism. Joesph Henry Press, ISBN 978-0309084185
  11. "Academic McCarthyism". Retrieved 2007-05-15.
  12. Robin Wilson. Northwestern U. Concludes Investigation of Sex Researcher but Keeps Results Secret. Chronicle of Higher Education, 2004.
  13. Dr. Alice Dreger, Medical Humanities & Bioethics Program at Northwestern University "The Controversy Surrounding The Man Who Would Be Queen: A Case History On the Politics of Science, Identity and Sex in the Internet Age"
  14. ^ Rieger G, Chivers ML, Bailey JM (2005). "Sexual arousal patterns of bisexual men". Psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society / APS. 16 (8): 579–84. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2005.01578.x. PMID 16102058.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  15. ^ Carey, Benedict (July 5, 2005). "Straight, Gay or Lying? Bisexuality Revisited". New York Times.
  16. National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (July 2005). The Problems with "Gay, Straight, or Lying?" (PDF) Retrieved July 24, 2006.
  17. FAIR (July 8, 2005). New York Times Suggests Bisexuals Are "Lying": Paper fails to disclose study author's controversial history.
  18. Barker and Howell, The Plethysmograph: A Review of Recent Literature, 20 Bull. Am. Acad. of Psychiatry and Law 13 (1992)

Selected bibliography

  • Bailey JM, Miller JS, Willerman L (1993). "Maternally rated childhood gender nonconformity in homosexuals and heterosexuals". Archives of Sexual Behavior. 22 (5): 461–9. PMID 8239975.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Bailey JM, Pillard RC, Neale MC, Agyei Y (1993). "Heritable factors influence sexual orientation in women". Archives of General Psychiatry. 50 (3): 217–23. PMID 8439243.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Greenberg AS, Bailey JM (1993). Do biological explanations of homosexuality have moral, legal, or policy implications? Journal of Sex Research, 30, 245-251.
  • Bailey JM, Zucker KJ (1995). Childhood sex-typed behavior and sexual orientation: A conceptual analysis and quantitative review. Developmental Psychology, 31, 43-55.
  • Bailey JM, Nothnagel J, Wolfe M (1995). "Retrospectively measured individual differences in childhood sex-typed behavior among gay men: Correspondence between self- and maternal reports". Archives of Sexual Behavior. 24 (6): 613–22. PMID 8572910.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Bailey JM, Pillard, RC (1995). Genetics of human sexual orientation. Annual Review of Sex Research, 6, 126-150.
  • Bailey JM (1995). "Sexual orientation revolution". Nature Genetics. 11 (4): 353–4. doi:10.1038/ng1295-353. PMID 7493006.
  • Dunne MP, Martin NG, Bailey JM; et al. (1997). "Participation bias in a sexuality survey: psychological and behavioural characteristics of responders and non-responders". International Journal of Epidemiology. 26 (4): 844–54. PMID 9279618. {{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Bailey JM (1999). "Homosexuality and mental illness". Archives of General Psychiatry. 56 (10): 883–4. PMID 10530627.
  • Bailey JM, Pillard RC, Dawood K; et al. (1999). "A family history study of male sexual orientation using three independent samples". Behavior Genetics. 29 (2): 79–86. PMID 10405456. {{cite journal}}: Explicit use of et al. in: |author= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Bailey JM, Dunne MP, Martin NG (2000). "Genetic and environmental influences on sexual orientation and its correlates in an Australian twin sample" (PDF). Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 78 (3): 524–36. PMID 10743878.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Bailey JM (2003). The Man Who Would Be Queen: The Science of Gender-Bending and Transsexualism. Washington, D.C: Joseph Henry Press. ISBN 0-309-08418-0.

See also

External links

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