“Is it Child abuse to make a trans child ‘Change’?”

This is the topic for a NY Times “room for debate.” It is in response to the very sad suicide of Leelah Alcorn, a trans child whose parents loved almost everything about her, her mother said. Just not her being trans; they took her to conversion therapy to try to change her back to a boy named “Joshua” (her name at birth).

There’s a special feature to this NY Times debate. Everyone thinks it is an exceptionally bad idea to try to make a trans child change. This is the first “room for debate” I’ve seen when the other side has had no representation.

Kristie Dotson, Philosophy from the Position of Service

If you’d like to know more about the author of the essay at Philosop-her, “Philosophy from the Position of Service,” then check out the interview she gave to Heidi R. Lewis for The Feminist Wire.

From Philosop-her:

The folks who knew me best were simply confused by my choice to pursue a career in philosophy. After all, I’d never once mentioned philosophy.

The questions, as you can imagine, were relentless. They all clustered around one particular question, “Why philosophy?”

Check out her answer there. Then check out the interview at the Wire:

Publishing, “How is this Paper Philosophy?” even without its current reception, was watershed for me. The essential message of that paper is that anyone who thinks that questioning the justification for a given philosophical project is a legitimate question without clarifying one’s own conception of philosophy and philosophical engagement is acting like an asshole.