Illinois professor fired

[BrianR]

I would have taken exception to his example of sex changes being about the sex act.

It clearly is not about sex, it is about mind/body congruity (is that a word? it should be!). All the transsexual people I know agree that they did not undergo the physical and chemical changes so that they could engage in sex; they did it so that their brains and their bodies would be better matched than nature allowed. Sex is only a small part of it. In fact, many transsexuals remain attracted to the same gender that they preferred before their transition. Homosexuality has nothing to do with gender noncomformity. If a transsexual was "straight" before, they will likely be "straight" after. It is believed that those who switch gender preference during their transition were actually attracted to that gender before but repressed that desire to better conform to the roles that were assigned to them at birth.

Not that I don't take exception to more than that one topic, but that professor and I would have had to have a debate on the matter of gender and sex right then and there.

I don't support firing him however. He was doing what he was hired to do. Anyone taking that course should have known that they would be exposed to Catholic doctrine and thought. If they didn't like it, as I do not, there was room for debate and idea exchange. That is the purpose of higher education. To expose yourself to new ideas and to think about them in depth and detail. You don't have to agree with everything you are taught, you just have to learn to think about things critically.

Some people are just not ready to challenge their ideas.

Brian