Listen to experts
Let’s stand and applaud Washington State University Regents Professor Patricia Hunt for her outstanding column on the biology of sexual development in humans.
Her words were a thoughtful rebuke of everyone’s favorite off-the-rails Daily News columnist, Chuck Pezeshki. Rather than belittling her fellow WSU professor, Hunt provided a gentle explanation for how one’s sexual identity can be at odds with one’s gonads.
Simply put, what’s going on inside your brain is much more important than what’s between your legs when it comes to determining your sexual identity. Gender identity is not simply a matter of XX or XY chromosomes.
“When the body’s external features are at complete odds with the brain’s view, this creates huge problems for the individual,” Hunt wrote. “The medical help provided for these individuals is not barbaric, it is life-saving.”
No snarky put-downs. No “gotcha” moments. Just a thoughtful and gentle explanation from someone with real expertise in a highly specialized realm of scientific inquewiry. On this issue and many others in the contentious world we inhabit, it’s worth listening to the experts before announcing you have nothing left to learn.
Bill Brock
Pullman
Impressive response
Apart from the substance of her stinging rebuke to Chuck Pezeshki’s ignorant, insensitive comments on transgender, professor Patricia Hunt (April 11) provided an impressive example how a carefully organized, precisely worded argumentative essay can be effective.
The quality of her restrained writing is truly admirable and wins over her reader, showing how prose style enhances meaning.
Applause!
Doug Hughes
Moscow
