aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South

Thursday, March 16, 2006

On Michael Bailey and the Queen Gene

Wayne Besen weighs in on the 60 Minutes segment. Here he comments on Michael Bailey, the psychology professor at Northwestern University described as a leading researcher in the field of sexual orientation:

Whether Bailey has hit the scientific jackpot or is a crackpot is open for debate. Many people bristle, for example, when he claims that gay people walk and talk differently.

True, your gaydar does not have to be finely tuned to figure out Richard Simmons or Clay Aiken is gay.

Oh, wait, is Clay gay?

Before Bailey makes such broad assumptions, however, he should put on football pads and collide with former NFL player Esera Tuaolo. This might rattle him out of his one-dimensional mindset and lead him to expand his research to include gay men and lesbians who are not borderline transgender.

Other critics rightfully question Bailey’s potentially dark motives. He once told the New York Times that if it became possible for parents to determine sexual orientation in the womb than, “Selecting for heterosexuality seems to be morally acceptable.

He concludes “the “60 Minutes” segment, as a whole, was very helpful to the argument for gay equality. It brusquely dismissed the inane pseudo-science of our opponents.”