The MIT Free Speech Alliance and Adam Smith Society are pleased to co-host our third Oxford Union-style debate at MIT, with the following proposition: “Resolved, that sex is biological and binary, and gender identity is no substitute for sex in social policy.” The debate will be held on Wednesday, April 17, 2024.

Alex Byrne, Professor of Philosophy at MIT and author of Trouble with Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions, and Holly Lawford-Smith, Associate Professor of Political Philosophy at the University of Melbourne and author of Gender-Critical Feminism, are arguing in favor of the proposition. Alice Dreger, historian and author of Galileo’s Middle Finger, and Aaron Kimberly, Executive Director of the Gender Dysphoria Alliance and co-host of the Transparency podcast, are arguing against the proposition. Nadine Strossen, professor emerita at New York Law School and former president of the ACLU, is serving as moderator.

Neither the Adam Smith Society nor the MIT Free Speech Alliance takes an official position on the debate proposition. Rather, our goal is to provide a model of vigorous yet civil discussion for both the MIT community and the wider public. We hope that you will join us in this endeavor.