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‘Galileo’s Middle Finger’: anti-transgender book

Galileo’s Middle Finger is a 2015 book by anti-trangender activist Alice Dreger. Dreger uses the book to launder anti-trans extremism into mainstream media, like promoting the disease “autogynephilia.”

The book is notable for Dreger’s additional laundering of the “Danny Ryan” academic hoax.

The center section is Dreger’s defense of J. Michael Bailey and Kenneth Zucker, originally printed in Archives of Sexual Behavior, a journal Bailey and Zucker both edit. Zucker was fired from CAMH the year the book came out.

The book was a significant moment in the history of the “intellectual dark web,” a reactionary anti-progressive political movement in which Dreger was an inaugural member.

It is also the key example of what biologist Julia Serano calls the Dregerian narrative: “There is a cabal of transgender activists who are irrational, overly sensitive, out of control, and on a mission to censor any and all science that they do not like.”

Background

The full title is Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and One Scholar’s Search for Justice.

The book describes Dreger as a heroic figure with personal involvement in several academic controversies:

  • Pathologizing and exploiting people with differences of sex development (which Dreger calls “disorders”)
  • Supporting J. Michael Bailey’s 2003 anti-trans book The Man Who Would Be Queen
  • Supporting the 2000 book A Natural History of Rape by evolutionary psychology proponents Randy Thornhill and Craig T. Palmer
  • Criticizing Patrick Tierney’s 2000 book Darkness in El Dorado, an exposĂ© of controversial anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon
  • Criticizing pediatric endocrinologist Maria New and use of prenatal dexamethasone for reducing genital virilization in fetuses with congenital adrenal hyperplasia

The book was briefly nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in 2016 before being rescinded following protests. Dreger attempted to claim there was trans community support for the book by soliciting help from Jamie Faye Fenton and “Emily Hobbie.”

References

Serano, Julia (March 29, 2021). The Dregerian Narrative (or why “trans activists” vs. “scientists” framings are lazy, inaccurate, and incendiary). Medium https://juliaserano.medium.com/the-dregerian-narrative-or-why-trans-activists-vs-276740045120

Jones, Zinnia (April 1, 2016). Alice Dreger, autogynephilia, and the misrepresentation of trans sexualities (Book review: Galileo’s Middle Finger). Gender Analysis https://genderanalysis.net/2016/04/alice-dreger-autogynephilia-and-the-misrepresentation-of-trans-sexualities-book-review-galileos-middle-finger/

Tannehill, Brynn (March 25, 2016). Lambda Literary Foundation Snuffs Out Anti-Trans Scandal. The Advocate http://www.advocate.com/commentary/2016/3/25/lambda-literary-foundation-snuffs-out-anti-trans-scandal

Beyer, Dana (March 22, 2016). The Lambda Literary Foundation Trips but Rights Itself Quickly and With Dignity. HuffPost https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-lambda-literary-found_b_9526090

Editors (March 8, 2016). Who Are the 2016 Lambda Literary Awards Finalists? Out https://www.out.com/art-books/2016/3/08/lambda-literary-awards-finalists-revealed-carrie-brownstein-hasan-namir-truman

James, Andrea (June 11, 2015). Sexology’s war on transgender children. Boing Boing https://boingboing.net/2015/06/11/sexologys-war-on-transgender.html

Pielke, R. Scientific ethics: Science under the political steamroller. Nature 519, 290 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/519290a

Muller, M. N. (2015). Review of Alice Dreger’s Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science. Human Nature, 26(3), 346–350. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-015-9235-6

Staff report (January 1, 2015). Galileo’s Middle Finger by Alice Dreger. Kirkus Reviews https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/alice-dreger/galileos-middle-finger/

Coverage in anti-trans publications

Watter, D. N. (2016). A Review of “Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science.” Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 42(7), 660–662. https://doi.org/10.1080/0092623x.2016.1224357

Arthur, M. (2016). Book Review: Alice Dreger, Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science. Theory in Action, 9(3), 75–81. https://doi.org/10.3798/tia.1937-0237.16020

Hunter, David (August 5, 2015). Galileo’s Middle Finger: Book Review. BMJ Forum https://blogs.bmj.com/medical-ethics/2015/08/05/galileos-middle-finger-book-review/

Bauer, Henry (2015). “Crusading for Evidence-Based Actions. Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science by Alice Dreger.” Journal of Scientific Exploration 29(3) https://philpapers.org/rec/BAUCFE

Dobbs, David (April 17, 2015). ‘Galileo’s Middle Finger,’ by Alice Dreger. New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/19/books/review/galileos-middle-finger-by-alice-dreger.html

King, R. (2015). Alice in blunder land. Evolution, Mind and Behaviour, 13(1), 47–51. https://doi.org/10.1556/2050.2015.0004

Bartlett, Tom (March 10, 2015). Reluctant Crusader: Why Alice Dreger’s writing on sex and science makes liberals so angry. Chronicle of Higher Education http://chronicle.com/article/Reluctant-Crusader/228377/

Miller, Laura (March 7, 2015). ‘Galileo’s Middle Finger’: When scholars and activists clash over controversial research, we all lose. A feminist historian investigates the high price paid by scholars whose research is politically unpopular. Salon http://www.salon.com/2015/03/07/gaileos_middle_finger_when_scholars_and_activists_clash_over_controversial_research_we_all_lose/

Book

Dreger, Alice Domurat (2015). Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science. Penguin Press. ISBN 9781594206085

Media

The Institute for Freedom and Community with Edmund Santurri and Alice Dreger (January 8, 2020). Truth, Justice, and the Science of Gender. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohSFnCsMWdY

UVA SOM Medical Center Hour with Alice Dreger (April 20, 2016). Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBP1YksWwck

Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Education (WISCAPE) with Alice Dreger (March 9, 2016). Alice Dreger – Galileo’s Middle Finger. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ucOGnGgYgU

Gad Saad with Alice Dreger (February 16, 2016). My Chat with Bioethicist Alice Dreger, Author of Galileo’s Middle Finger (THE SAAD TRUTH_138). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qD6EVe87w1c

Andrea James (June 11, 2015). Sexology’s war on transgender children. Part 1: Saving Danny Ryan. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVZ6__9OgjM

Resources

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

Alice Dreger (alicedreger.com)

Penguin Random House (penguinrandomhouse.com)