Alice Dreger

In the battles between scientists and social justice activists, sometimes our democracy takes collateral damage.

Maybe it's not politically feasible, but most kids will need sexual knowledge more than Shakespearean verse to be functioning adults. Here's a sample curriculum.

The vagina is not the homologue to the penis. Why do we keep treating it as such?

Even though I don't identify as a furry.

One mother makes up for the gaps in sex education.

Researchers of fraternal birth order effect argue that sexual orientation correlates with an individual’s number of older brothers. Could this help to explain the homophobia of some traditional religious societies?

Or, more specifically, what's wrong with taking a steroid, while you're pregnant, to try to increase the odds that your female fetus will someday grow up to be a straight woman who gives you grandchildren, and not a lesbian daughter more interested in puppies?

By intentionally taking a step back from a career she worked hard to start, Alice Dreger estimates she has cost her family $750,000. Was it worth it?

Sexuality is a fundamental component of the human experience, and it's one we need to have a better understanding of.

Many of us probably get our core gender identities as much from our biological origins as we do from our gender educations.

Feminist scholars aren’t yet liberated from restrictive clothing norms, but at least they think about why they’re wearing what they’re wearing.

There are better ways to protect against the transmission of STDs, and other common sense arguments against some of the most common reasons parents give for circumcising their children.

Of kinks, crimes, and kinds: A look behind the scenes at how the American Psychiatric Association's Paraphilias Sub-Work Group proposed revisions to the DSM for all manner of things relating to sexual arousal brought about by atypical objects, situations, or individuals.

This simple idea, encouraged by medical texts of the past that taught deviation from the norm would lead to confused sexuality and gender identity issues, has put a surprising number of babies under the knife.

The families of individuals born with socially challenging bodies don't see them as they're portrayed in the medical literature.

The biggest issue is not surgery, nor hormonal treatments, nor even the criminal lack of psychological support. The biggest issue is shame, and how no one deals with it in a way that lets people know there is nothing to be ashamed of.

It does more harm than good.

Imagine a prenatal test that, like the one for trisomy 21 (Down's syndrome), could show a predisposition to gayness.

Speaking from personal experience, Northwestern University Professor Alice Dreger reminds us that sexual harassment isn't the only issue we should be concerned about.

We don’t need the state to adjudicate who is who, do we?

Acts of public sex typically represent a reversal of cultural norms.

To be mistaken for the oppressed is to momentarily become the oppressed.

The use of latex masks during sex could be an example of autogynephilila, an orientation in which a biological heterosexual male is aroused to the idea of being or becoming a woman.

It's no longer standard in pediatrics to turn a baby with a small penis into a girl, but there are lots of areas of health care where good intentions pave the way for scientifically-questionable medical procedures.

Both involve underlying biological states, but it's the cultural setting that determines whether suffering will occur.

Are gay male couples a new thing, evolutionarily speaking?

Federal, state, and local health agencies are shutting down traditional lines of communication in increasing numbers, but public health, history shows, is profoundly affected by mainstream media.

Specialists have moved away from sex-changing baby males with small penises and recommending vaginoplasties in very young children as they become less phobic about sex atypical (but healthy) organs.

Another example of how correlation does not equal causation.

There are three basic approaches: therapeutic, accommodating, and supportive.

Meet the hebephiles.

We have solid proof, based on penile blood flow, that it's actually heterosexual men who show greater sexual attraction to underage kids.