•  15
    Including Transgender Identities in Natural Law
    Ergo: An Open Access Journal of Philosophy 10 (n/a). 2023.
    There is an emerging consensus within Natural Law that explains transgender identity as an “embodied misunderstanding.” The basic line of argument is that our sexual identity as male or female refers to our possible reproductive roles of begetting or conceiving. Since these two possibilities are determined early on by the presence or absence of a Y chromosome, our sexual identity cannot be changed or reassigned. I develop an argument from analogy, comparing gender and language, to show that this…Read more
  • What does it mean to be a good ally to the LGBTQ community? Does it count if you attach a rainbow pin to your backpack or post occasional messages of support on social media? We argue that in order to be a good ally involves avoiding the vice of complacency and that allies need to ask themselves two distinct, but related questions: (1) Who are you an ally to?; (2) How are you an ally? While reflecting on these questions helps allies examine what they have or have not been doing so far, these que…Read more
  •  309
    There is an emerging consensus within Natural Law that explains transgender identity as an “embodied misunderstanding.” The basic line of argument is that our sexual identity as male or female refers to our possible reproductive roles of begetting or conceiving. Since these two possibilities are determined early on by the presence or absence of a Y chromosome, our sexual identity cannot be changed or reassigned. I develop an argument from analogy, comparing gender and language, to show that this…Read more
  •  393
    Are Mass Shooters a Social Kind?
    Res Philosophica 99 (4): 427-451. 2022.
    On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold shot and killed fifteen people at their high school in Columbine, Colorado. National media dubbed the event a “school shooting.” The term grimly expanded over the next several years to include similar events at army bases, movie theaters, churches, and nightclubs. Today, we commonly use the categories “mass shooter” and “mass shooting” to organize and classify information about gun violence. I will argue that neither category is an effective tool …Read more
  •  944
    And If It Takes Lying: The Ethics of Blood Donor Non-Compliance
    Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 31 (4): 373-404. 2021.
    Sometimes, people who are otherwise eligible to donate blood are unduly deferred from donating. “Unduly” indicates a gap where a deferral policy misstates what exposes potential donors to risk and so defers more donors than is justified. Since the error is at the policy-level, it’s natural and understandable to focus criticism on reformulating or eliminating the offending policies. Policy change is undoubtedly the right goal because the policy is what prevents otherwise safe eligible donors from…Read more
  •  304
    Rethinking Same‐Sex Sex in Natural Law Theory
    Journal of Applied Philosophy 37 (3): 428-445. 2019.
    Many prominent proponents of Old and New Natural Law morally condemn sexual acts between people of the same sex because those acts are incapable of reproduction; they each offer a distinct set of supporting reasons. While some New Natural Law philosophers have begun to distance themselves from this moral condemnation, there are not many similarly ameliorative efforts within Old Natural Law. I argue for the bold conclusion that Old Natural Law philosophers can accept the basic premises of Old Nat…Read more
  •  19
    In 2015, the FDA revised its indefinite deferral policy towards MSM blood donors. I develop an empirical case for the revised policy and show why rights-based objections fail. I introduce and defend a distinction between “ordinary” and “exact” justification that accounts for the worries in the empirical case. I conclude that the FDA is committed to further revising the policy to let MSM donors with exact justification donate.
  •  182
    Allied Identities
    Feminist Philosophy Quarterly 2 (2): 1-23. 2016.
    Allies are extremely important to LGBT rights. Though we don’t often enumerate what tasks we expect allies to do, a fairly common conception is that allies “support the LGBT community.” In the first section I introduce three difficulties for this position that collectively suggest it is conceptually insufficient. I then develop a positive account by starting with whom allies are allied to instead of what allies are supposed to do. We might obviously say here that allies are allied to the LGBT co…Read more