J. Michael Bailey

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J. Michael Bailey : biography

July 2, 1957 –

Outside of the transsexual community and sexology researchers, this controversy is largely notable because of its implications for academic freedom and freedom of speech. In an interview with The New York Times, Dreger said, "If we’re going to have research at all, then we’re going to have people saying unpopular things, and if this is what happens to them, then we’ve got problems not only for science but free expression itself." While one critic compared his work to Nazi propaganda, and another posted pictures of his children on her website with sexually explicit captions, other critics believe that their actions against Bailey and his book represent legitimate comment on a topic of public interest.

Research and criticisms

Biology and sexual orientation

Bailey is well known for research involving biology and sexual orientation. In the early 1990s Bailey and Richard Pillard coauthored 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%). More recent research by Bailey et al. on twins however found much lower concordance rates for monozygotic twins regarding homosexual orientation of only 20% for men and 24% for women pointing to a significant contribution of environmental factors in sexual orientation; Bailey suggests an explanation for the much lower concordance rate among monozygotic twins in this study as opposed to previous studies: In those previous studies, twins deciding whether to participate in a study clearly related to homosexuality probably considered the sexual orientation of their co-twins before agreeing to participate.Bailey, J. Michael; Dunne, Michael P; Martin, Nicholas G.Genetic and Environmental Influences on Sexual Orientation and Its Correlates in an Australian Twin Sample. J Pers Soc Psychol, Volume 78(3).March 2000.524–536. link http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/JMichael-Bailey/Publications/Bailey%20et%20al.%20twins,2000.pdf

Homosexuality

Another line of Bailey’s research has concerned the ways that homosexuals are sex-atypical (or gender nonconforming) compared with heterosexuals, as well as the ways that homosexuals are sex-typical and gender conforming. For example, he published a meta-analysis showing that on average, homosexual men and women recall being much more gender nonconforming children, compared with heterosexual children. In contrast, he also showed that for many traits related to mating (such as interest in casual sex, and emphasis on a partner’s physical attractiveness), homosexuals appear to be similar to heterosexuals of their own sex. Recently, he has researched the gaydar phenomenon.

Bailey has been interested in the evolutionary paradox of the persistence of homosexuality. "Male homosexuality is evolutionarily maladaptive," he told the New York Times which also noted that Bailey intended "that the phrase means only that genes favoring homosexuality cannot be favored by evolution if fewer such genes reach the next generation."

In an article coauthored with Aaron Greenberg, he suggested that allowing parents to choose the sexual orientation of their children is morally acceptable, provided the means used to accomplished that goal are themselves morally acceptable. (For example, killing infants who will become homosexual would obviously be wrong. The acceptability of aborting "gay fetuses" or "straight fetuses" would depend on whether one believed that abortion, per se, is morally acceptable.) Alice Dreger criticized Greenberg’s and Bailey’s argument and they responded.

Sexual arousal

A third line of research has examined sexual arousal patterns and their relation to sexual orientation in men and women. This research has focused on both genital and self-reported sexual arousal measures. For example, Bailey’s lab showed that men’s genital sexual arousal patterns closely tracked their sexual orientations, but women’s did not. In 2005 this research produced a study which questioned whether male bisexuality exists in the way that it is sometimes described; the study was based on results of penile plethysmograph testing. The testing found that of men who identified themselves as bisexual, 75% were only aroused genitally by homosexual imagery, and 25% were only aroused genitally by heterosexual imagery. They concluded: "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. A 2011 study using similar methodology filtered participants more stringently, requiring at least two sexual partners of each sex and at least one romantic relationship lasting three months or longer; this study finds both genital and subjective arousal, though it is not clear which arousal pattern is more prevalent in the modern bisexual community.