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from Gender Identity Disorders
Transgender Professor Proposes a
New Theory of Evolution Normalizing
Homosexuality and Transsexuality
July 1, 2004 -
Joan Roughgarden, a male-to-female transgender, is a Stanford University biology
professor who was recently featured in the San Francisco Chronicle. The subject
of the interview was his book, Evolution's Rainbow--Diversity, Gender and
Sexuality in Nature and People published by the University of California press.
In the Chronicle interview, Joan Roughgarden, who was formerly known as
Jonathan, says that "The time has come to take a stand, to say that we, in all
our shapes and sizes, in all our gender expression, sexual orientations and body
parts, are healthy."
Evolution's Rainbow promotes a new theory of evolution. In it, Roughgarden
maintains that more than 300 species of vertebrates have sex with the same
gender and that there are gay sheep and lesbian lizards. He criticizes
psychologists who have pathologized "gender and sexuality-variant people" and
recommends social policies that protect and celebrate sexual diversity in our
culture. In addition, he has proposed that a "Statue of Diversity" be erected in
San Francisco harbor.
Roughgarten's book was reviewed in the May 14, 2004, issue of Science magazine
by Alison Jolly, a British biologist at the University of Sussex. In it, Jolly
quotes Roughgarden as saying: "When scientific theory says something's wrong
with so many people, perhaps the theory is wrong, not the people."
Roughgarten proposes a new theory of evolution called "social selection," in
which all members of a society are recognized--including those who pursue kin
selection instead of reproduction.
Roughgarten chronicles the history of individuals in history who are alleged to
have been transgendered individuals, including Joan of Arc. According to Jolly,
"Following the arguments of Leslie Feinberg, Roughgarten describes Joan of Arc
as 'a male-identified trans person' who chose to be burned alive rather than
wear women's clothing--and who was so convincingly masculine that her
executioners raked away the coals to display her naked body and remove people's
doubts that she was a woman.
Jolly observes: "She [Roughgarden] ends her text with an agenda, a list of what
she believes transgendered people want. It includes the desires 'to be cherished
as a normal part of human diversity'; 'to be treated with courtesy and dignity';
and 'to be respected as people, not bodies.'"
Jolly urges scientists to expand Darwinian evolution to include a more expansive
view of sexual diversity in our culture, including "biological bases of life
choices that do not lead to personal reproduction, as well as the malleability
of both sex and gender among other species."
Updated: 8 February 2008
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