Vern Bullough

From Philosopedia

Bullough, Vern L. (1928 - 21 June 2006)

Once the dean of natural and social sciences, State University of New York at Buffalo, Bullough was a member of the secretariat of the Council for Secular Humanism’s International Academy of Humanism and was on the board of directors of the Committee for Secular Humanism. Also, he was on the Council for Secular Humanism’s Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion and was a Secular Humanist Mentor.

In the 1950s, when he was an assistant professor of history at Youngstown University, he reviewed books for The Humanist. Bullough addressed the Tenth International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) World Congress held in Buffalo (1988). In 1992 he was named Dean of the Institute for Inquiry, an organization which offers courses in humanism and skepticism and sponsors an annual summer session as well as periodic workshops. He also was presented with a Distinguished Humanist Service Award in Amsterdam at the 40th IHEU Congress “for his life-long commitment to humanism and his outstanding contributions to the fields of sexology, history, and the health care profession, where he has sought to apply the highest humanist values.”

With his wife, Bonnie, Bullough wrote Women and Prostitution, “The Causes of Homosexuality: A Scientific Update” (Free Inquiry, Fall, 1993), and Sexual Attitudes: Myths and Realities (1995). “It is no longer possible to argue that either nature or nurture alone is the answer,” they wrote concerning the causes. “It is clear that both are involved in producing sexual preference.” The work describes prostitutes who became Christian saints, the U.S. Army saddle which was designed to prevent stimulation of the male penis, the Talmudic prohibitions against widows owning dogs lest they use them for sexual satisfaction, and the role menstruation played in Lizzie Borden’s murder trial. The two also wrote Sexual Attitudes, Myths and Realities (1995).

Bullough’s "Science, Humanism, and the New Enlightenment” is in Challenges to the Enlightenment, In Defense of Reason and Science (1994). He wrote Science in the Bedroom: A History of Sex Research (1994), an extensive review of the unsatisfactory history of studies of sexuality. Bullough also wrote an introduction to Toward A New Enlightenment. He is author, co-author, or editor of more than eighty books. In 1996 Bullough spoke at the Humanist World Congress held in Mexico City.

One of the many forewords to books that he wrote was for Warren Allen Smith's Cruising the Deuce (2005), comparing the work about gay 42nd Street movie houses from the 1940s to 1980s with books by Laud Humphries about T Room trade, Ned Rorem's about bath houses, and Jack Nichols's about gay life in small towns across the nation. Dr. Bullough was a fellow and former president of the Society for the Scientific Study of Sex.

From 1994 to 1998, Bullough was Co-President of the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU), during which time he built up a positive reputation for his wit and sagacity. In 1995, he and his wife were given an Alfred C. Kinsey award for outstanding contributions to the scientific study of sexuality. Bullough signed Humanist Manifesto 2000. {WAS}