The University of Southern Maine is the subject of a story in the Bangor Daily News.
“I want her to do some diversity training at least — or just retire,” said student Elizabeth Leibiger, who plans to become a high school English teacher.”
Students demand USM replace professor for allegedly saying there are only 2 sexes https://t.co/Er72w1w3EM
— Kathleen Stock (@Docstockk) October 1, 2022
I thought the students were conflating gender with sex, but they actually see both sex and gender as interchangeable terms. A graduate program must be completed in order for a student to be certified as a teacher in Maine.
The students accused Hammer of being transphobia for saying a biological truth that seems unpalatable. The article has a little bit of it.
Nearly two dozen graduate students at the University of Southern Maine are demanding their education professor be replaced after the professor allegedly said only two biological sexes exist.
The students said professor Christy Hammer’s remarks were inaccurate and transphobic.
After all but one student walked out of Hammer’s class on Sept. 14 in protest, they demanded a facilitated restorative justice meeting between the 22 students and their professor.
They got it, but, according to students, Hammer maintained her position saying non-binary biological sex designations are merely variations on male and female. Now they want Hammer gone.
Biologists believe there is a larger spectrum to sex than just the male-female binary
Most animals don't have us. Sex is a spectrum because of the rare existence of people with disorders of sex development and intersex. None of these individuals are considered members of a different sex because they don't have the same size gametes. There are two sexes in humans.
The students argue that sex is a spectrum. The student has a gender identity that is non-binary. There is a student mentioned.
I want her to do some diversity training at least — or just retire,” said student Elizabeth Leibiger, who plans to become a high school English teacher.
According to several students, the situation began Sept. 7 while Hammer was teaching a graduate course in the Extended Teacher Education Program titled “Creating a Positive Learning Environment.”
The class is required to complete the graduate program and become a certified teacher in Maine.
During the session at Bailey Hall on the Gorham campus, a free-for-all discussion erupted over both social gender and biological sex identifications, with one student and Hammer saying they believed only male and female biological sexes exist.
The rest of the class maintained both biological sexes and social genders are on a spectrum.
The heated discussion was not resolved before the end of the class period.
Leibiger, who is non-binary, was absent from class that week but learned about the incident from classmates. When Leibiger arrived for the next class, on Sept. 14, they immediately brought up the discussion again.
“I asked [Hammer] how many sexes there were,” Leibiger said. “She said, ‘Two.’ I felt under personal attack.”
Leibiger then gathered their things and walked out of class because they no longer felt respected.
The students are trying to change biology to fit their beliefs.
If anyone knew anything about biology, this would blow over. There was a meeting, and some "resolution" was worked out.
The students then drafted a letter to the school of Education and Human Development, asking for a facilitated restorative justice meeting with their professor and the single student who agreed with her.
“We thought she was just speaking from a place of ignorance, not hate,” Leibiger said.
The meeting took place Wednesday, and the sole student who had disagreed reportedly apologized to classmates. But Hammer maintained her position on the binary nature of sex.
“I went in very optimistic, but at the end of the three hour session it felt like we weren’t listened to,” said [student Michael] Lombardi, who plans to teach high school science.
I hope he won't teach biology. I don't think it's necessary to harp on the way that scientific facts deemed politically inconvenient are being rejected, or the way that scientific definitions are rewritten so they fit with the Au Courant ideology. Students demandstorative justice and even the resignation of a teacher who says what is accepted by biologists about humans.
Two items have been added to Channel 23 in Maine. Two other students gave quotes.
“I believe that everyone should be accepted based on their identity,” Petersen said. “And I think the professor was in the wrong for invalidating her own students.”
Is it invalid? What is the way?
“It’s just not something you say out loud, especially with the current environment and stuff like that,” USM student Jalen Charles said. “It’s something you should really keep to yourself.”
Don't let the truth get to you. This kind of stuff is called "chilling of speech" or "censor hip."
Something has been done to appease the students, according to the Channel 23 piece.
Two students in the class say they’ve reached a solution with USM that all the students are satisfied with, though they’re not releasing details.
I don't know what that solution is, but it's not something biologists would like. The professor has to be punished in one way or another, either through making her apology, allowing the students to avoid her class, or something else.
If the students don't like what Professor Hammer said, they should look up something on the internet called "Gonochorism". They will find this at that location. It is my job to be bold.
In biology, gonochorism is a sexual system where there are only two sexes and each individual organism is either male or female. The term gonochorism is usually applied in animal species, the vast majority of which are gonochoric.
Humans are a part of that vast majority of animals.
I wonder if my posting will cause a big fight on Wikipedia that will change the definition, so I will put a picture of it below.
There are many hermaphrodites, including the famous and oft-cited clownfish, which can change from male to female. The hermaphrodites have only one sex and can be considered as a species. They are more common in plants than in animals. All the discussion is about Homo sapiens.
Next paragraph
Gonochorism contrasts with simultaneous hermaphroditism but it may be hard to tell if a species is gonochoric or sequentially hermaphroditic. (e.g. Patella ferruginea). However, in gonochoric species individuals remain either male or female throughout their lives. Species that reproduce by thelytokous parthenogenesis and do not have males can still be classified as gonochoric.
It's the same thing as saying that biologists are wrong.
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