Alex Byrne’s “colleagues” dogpile him for co-writing a critique of American pediatric gender medicine

[UtopiaPlanitia]

I read a detailed article on Jerry Coyne’s blog (linked to on TwiX by Richard Dawkins) detailing the latest academic struggle session regarding Genderism in the US.

Here’s a link and some excerpts to give an idea of what’s happened:

Alex Byrne’s “colleagues” dogpile him for co-writing a critique of American pediatric gender medicine

Because Alex contributed to the writing of a Health and Human Services Review of treatments for pediatric gender dysphoria, he is in the process of being demonized by a group of academics. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the HHS review, really; the demonization came because it was issued by an HHS whose head was appointed by Trump, and also because it goes along with the increasing evidence that treating childhood dysphoria with “affirmative care” is deeply problematic, leading to premature dispensations of hormones and surgery to adolescents and children who, without that “care,” would mostly come out as gay…

…Finally, Alex is getting dogpiled because his critics aver that, because he’s a philosopher, he has no expertise to weigh in on issues involving gender, even if he’s written about them repeatedly in scholarly venues. That’s rich because, as you’ll see, most of his critics don’t even approach Alex’s level of expertise.

The whole brouhaha serves to demonstrate that “cancel culture”—the attempt to ruin someone’s career if they transgress “progressive” ideological stands—is alive and well.

The announcement of the dogpile was tweeted by Jesse Singal, who has suffered his own accusations of “transphobia” for taking positions similar to Alex’s…

Oh wow! This quote from the 'whyevolutionistrue' link.

"b.) His real crime is almost Soviet-style in its nature: “Collaboration with the Current Presidential Administration.” Because the report came out as an HHS document, it can be traced to Trump, ergo to Satan, and ergo Byrne is an agent of Satan. It’s Trump, Jake! Read this again and weep (from the letter):

Collaboration with the Current Presidential Administration. The past few months have witnessed the Trump administration engage in the kidnapping of international graduate students from the streets, the deportation of innocent people to dangerous foreign prisons without due process, the cutting of lifesaving aid to millions across the world, and the undermining of the independence of colleges and universities across the country. We find these actions appalling, unethical, and undemocratic.

For these reasons, we believe it is deeply myopic for any academic to collaborate with the Trump administration in this moment, regardless of one’s particular views about gender. However misguided one may think “gender ideology” is, it is simply unconscionable to for that reason, make common cause with an administration so engaged."

@UtopiaPlanitia thank you for highlighting this. I will buy a copy of Alex Byrne's book to give him a tiny bit of support. It looks interesting.

Trouble with Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions is out with Polity Press in the UK (October 27, 2023), and was released in the US at the beginning of January.

I tend to think that genderism, particularly in academia, has a Soviet feel in that the theory of gender identity is similar to Lysenkoism in that it’s a politically motivated and reality denying pseudoscience. And the public denouncing & cancellation of dissenters is very much about demonstrating adherence to correct political thinking and the suppression of research that’s considered unsupportive of genderist political goals.