LGBT Objectivists
When I said that I am transgendered, I was being provocative, but not entirely untruthful. It hinges on the definition of “gender.” When our daughter was born in 1979, it was quickly very clear that I knew more about running a home than did my wife whose mother was a lawyer. I was Mr. Mom four years before Michael Keaton. Gender is a role. Masculinity and femininity are learned within a culture. Sex is a physical attribute. Moreover, just as gender roles exist along a spectrum, so does sex. Nonetheless, the mass media and LGBT advocates alike misuse the words "gender" and "sex" with ambivalence and contradiction. I am not responsible for them. Still, the fact remains that LGBT people are found within Objectivism. Objectivists advocate on the same side as LGBT activists for many of the same issues. You can find many discussions of these topics on the Objectivist discussion boards. I point to these:
“What is the Objectivist view …?” by Bridget Armozel on Rebirth of Reason here.
http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/Obje...
(I believe that Bridget was born a male, but you would have to read all of her posts closely to determine that.)
Jeanine Ring is also apparently a transgender Objectivist. She is the author of a collection of poems, “Deck of Cards: A Courtesan’s Book of Illusions.” See Rebirth of Reason here:
http://rebirthofreason.com/Articles/R...
She also launched a discussion of this media sound-bite:
"Jordan Lorence, a Phoenix-based lawyer with the conservative Alliance Defense Fund.... said 'Americans face a choice of whether to view marriage as primarily an act of individual satisfaction or as an institution serving the communal good.'"
On Rebirth of Reason here:
http://rebirthofreason.com/cgi-bin/SH...
On Objectivist Living, this was one of several discussions on LGBT topics:
Seal Team Six Veteran Inspired by Atlas Shrugged Goes TG
Read here:
http://www.objectivistliving.com/foru...
Also on Objectivist Living was this discussion: “Homosexuality: Does Choice Matter?” Not surprisingly, it garnered 170 posts as rational individualists argued their notions pro and con.
http://www.objectivistliving.com/foru...
Dr. Leonard Peikoff of the Ayn Rand Institute is against any form of sexual deviation, calling them all irrational attempts to fake reality. That claim, among others, is discussed on Objectivist Living under the rubric, “Peikoff’s Latest Howler.” Dennis Hardin (Ph.D. in psychology and a licensed therapist) commented here:
http://www.objectivistliving.com/foru...
Prof. Deirdre McCloskey started writing about "bourgeois virtues" back in 1990 when she was Donald McCloskey. She now has three books glorifying the middle class values of capitalism. Her website has a tab for Gender Change:
http://www.deirdremccloskey.com/gende...
McCloskey was fired from his professorship when he changed sex. Fortunately, and not surprisingly, several universities jumped at the opportunity to bring her to their faculties.
It should be clear that LGBT issues are not the monopoly of the left.
The dimensions of gender and sex are not unique to humans. As I pointed out on Rebirth of Reason:
http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/Gene...
The Evolution of Sexual Reproduction
NOTE: These are lecture notes for Biology 391, Organic Evolution
For example, in water fleas (crustaceans in the genus Daphnia), which live in ponds, reproduction is asexual -- females produce females asexually -- throughout the spring and summer, but when they are getting ready to produce the forms that will overwinter and hatch out the next spring (possibly in a very different environment, since it will be a different year), males are produced and then they reproduce sexually. So sexual reproduction is timed to occur when the environment is about to change.
http://www.utm.edu/departments/cens/b...
Homosexual Activity Among Animals Stirs Debate
James Owen in London- for National Geographic News - July 23, 2004
Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it. So go the lyrics penned by U.S. songwriter Cole Porter.
Porter, who first hit it big in the 1920s, wouldn't risk parading his homosexuality in public. In his day "the birds and the bees" generally meant only one thing—sex between a male and female.
But, actually, some same-sex birds do do it. So do beetles, sheep, fruit bats, dolphins, and orangutans. Zoologists are discovering that homosexual and bisexual activity is not unknown within the animal kingdom.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ne...
(My comment: According to Objectivism, animals have automatic modes of survival. They cannot choose to be anything other than what they are. We inherited two billion years of evolution from them. Dr. Leonard Peikoff claimed that transgendered individuals are irrational and anti-reality, declaring that their whims are superior to nature. (Did he say nature or "Nature"?) Rather than acting contrary to reality, they seem to be acting in accordance with it.)
Perhaps the best exposition on LGBT issues and Objectivism is the monograph Ayn Rand, Homosexuality, and Human Liberation by Chris Matthew Sciabarra with a foreword by Lindsay Perigo. (Sciabarra is the author of several books about Ayn Rand. He also edits the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies.)
"Chris Sciabarra's discussion of homosexuality and the moralistic, unreasoning rage unleashed against it--and against Dr. Sciabarra--by a small number of self-appointed guardians of the 'one true Objectivist faith' almost make it embarrassing to admit that one has any past or present association with Objectivism. The booklet is an expose of cultism at its most hysterical." --Nathaniel Branden. (See rebirthofreason.com/Store/Ayn_Rand,_H...
You can find the book for sale on Amazon:
“A combination philosophical exegesis, sociological study, and political tract, this monograph examines Ayn Rand's impact on the sexual attitudes of self-identified Objectivists in the movement to which she gave birth and the gay subculture that she would have disowned.” http://www.amazon.com/Ayn-Rand-Homose...
“What is the Objectivist view …?” by Bridget Armozel on Rebirth of Reason here.
http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/Obje...
(I believe that Bridget was born a male, but you would have to read all of her posts closely to determine that.)
Jeanine Ring is also apparently a transgender Objectivist. She is the author of a collection of poems, “Deck of Cards: A Courtesan’s Book of Illusions.” See Rebirth of Reason here:
http://rebirthofreason.com/Articles/R...
She also launched a discussion of this media sound-bite:
"Jordan Lorence, a Phoenix-based lawyer with the conservative Alliance Defense Fund.... said 'Americans face a choice of whether to view marriage as primarily an act of individual satisfaction or as an institution serving the communal good.'"
On Rebirth of Reason here:
http://rebirthofreason.com/cgi-bin/SH...
On Objectivist Living, this was one of several discussions on LGBT topics:
Seal Team Six Veteran Inspired by Atlas Shrugged Goes TG
Read here:
http://www.objectivistliving.com/foru...
Also on Objectivist Living was this discussion: “Homosexuality: Does Choice Matter?” Not surprisingly, it garnered 170 posts as rational individualists argued their notions pro and con.
http://www.objectivistliving.com/foru...
Dr. Leonard Peikoff of the Ayn Rand Institute is against any form of sexual deviation, calling them all irrational attempts to fake reality. That claim, among others, is discussed on Objectivist Living under the rubric, “Peikoff’s Latest Howler.” Dennis Hardin (Ph.D. in psychology and a licensed therapist) commented here:
http://www.objectivistliving.com/foru...
Prof. Deirdre McCloskey started writing about "bourgeois virtues" back in 1990 when she was Donald McCloskey. She now has three books glorifying the middle class values of capitalism. Her website has a tab for Gender Change:
http://www.deirdremccloskey.com/gende...
McCloskey was fired from his professorship when he changed sex. Fortunately, and not surprisingly, several universities jumped at the opportunity to bring her to their faculties.
It should be clear that LGBT issues are not the monopoly of the left.
The dimensions of gender and sex are not unique to humans. As I pointed out on Rebirth of Reason:
http://rebirthofreason.com/Forum/Gene...
The Evolution of Sexual Reproduction
NOTE: These are lecture notes for Biology 391, Organic Evolution
For example, in water fleas (crustaceans in the genus Daphnia), which live in ponds, reproduction is asexual -- females produce females asexually -- throughout the spring and summer, but when they are getting ready to produce the forms that will overwinter and hatch out the next spring (possibly in a very different environment, since it will be a different year), males are produced and then they reproduce sexually. So sexual reproduction is timed to occur when the environment is about to change.
http://www.utm.edu/departments/cens/b...
Homosexual Activity Among Animals Stirs Debate
James Owen in London- for National Geographic News - July 23, 2004
Birds do it, bees do it, even educated fleas do it. So go the lyrics penned by U.S. songwriter Cole Porter.
Porter, who first hit it big in the 1920s, wouldn't risk parading his homosexuality in public. In his day "the birds and the bees" generally meant only one thing—sex between a male and female.
But, actually, some same-sex birds do do it. So do beetles, sheep, fruit bats, dolphins, and orangutans. Zoologists are discovering that homosexual and bisexual activity is not unknown within the animal kingdom.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/ne...
(My comment: According to Objectivism, animals have automatic modes of survival. They cannot choose to be anything other than what they are. We inherited two billion years of evolution from them. Dr. Leonard Peikoff claimed that transgendered individuals are irrational and anti-reality, declaring that their whims are superior to nature. (Did he say nature or "Nature"?) Rather than acting contrary to reality, they seem to be acting in accordance with it.)
Perhaps the best exposition on LGBT issues and Objectivism is the monograph Ayn Rand, Homosexuality, and Human Liberation by Chris Matthew Sciabarra with a foreword by Lindsay Perigo. (Sciabarra is the author of several books about Ayn Rand. He also edits the Journal of Ayn Rand Studies.)
"Chris Sciabarra's discussion of homosexuality and the moralistic, unreasoning rage unleashed against it--and against Dr. Sciabarra--by a small number of self-appointed guardians of the 'one true Objectivist faith' almost make it embarrassing to admit that one has any past or present association with Objectivism. The booklet is an expose of cultism at its most hysterical." --Nathaniel Branden. (See rebirthofreason.com/Store/Ayn_Rand,_H...
You can find the book for sale on Amazon:
“A combination philosophical exegesis, sociological study, and political tract, this monograph examines Ayn Rand's impact on the sexual attitudes of self-identified Objectivists in the movement to which she gave birth and the gay subculture that she would have disowned.” http://www.amazon.com/Ayn-Rand-Homose...
