MORE GENDER WOO-HOO

 

MORE GENDER WOO-HOO

On the 17 March 2023, hospitality blogsite Propelinfo.com published an article titled: ‘Busting transgender myths’ by James Manning and ‘trans woman’ Gaynor (formerly Geoffrey) Mary Warren-Wright. This article follows a format of ‘myths and answers’, a format that is similar to that used in an article I wrote on transgender myths for Propel, titled ‘Enough is enough’ that was published in January, and which caused an outpouring of faux outrage from the Trans Lobby.

Below are extracts from Manning and Warren-Wright’s article, and my responses to them are given in italics:

“MYTH: Being transgender is a new phenomenon. Transgender and non-binary people have been around for centuries in culture and history. However, the terms “transgender” and “non-binary” are relatively new terms for them.”

Response: This is a classic example of the historical revisionism used by the Trans Lobby. There have indeed been people who are gender non-conforming “around for centuries”. Most of them are people who we would today refer to as being lesbian, gay, or bisexual. What latter-day gender ideologists try to do is purloin that history and claim it as their own.

What is new is the development of a rationalising ideology that attempts to move consideration of gender dysphoria (a profound sense of discomfort with one’s biologically-sexed body and a desire to live as a member of the opposite sex) out of the clinical domain and into the social justice domain. The attempt to do this is encompassed by the emergence of ‘Queer theory’. This is a field of post-Marxist social-structuralism that emerged in the early 1990s out of ‘queer studies’ (often, formerly, gay and lesbian studies) and women's studies. For the most part it is incoherent nonsense.

“FACT: There’s still confusion about what these labels mean. Non-binary means a person who does not identify as either male or female. Transgender means a person whose gender identity is different from the gender assigned to them at birth.” 

Response: Transgender and its abbreviation, trans, have two subtly different meanings. The first refers to people who have a gender identity that differs from their sex. This definition, which makes sense only if you believe gender identity exists (which it doesn’t), positions ‘transgender’ or ‘trans’ as something that a person is. The second refers to people who assert a gender identity different from their sex – that is, people who do something – seek a medical or surgical ‘transition’. Sex in humans (and all other mammals) is determined at conception and observed at birth (and often before at the 20-week scan) by medical professionals. The phrase “assigned at birth” is scientifically inaccurate.

“MYTH: The transgender community only care about pronouns and gender-neutral toilets. This damaging perception downplays a complex, nuanced human experience that includes challenges relating to healthcare, mental health, discrimination and access to work.”  

Response: This is a ‘straw man’ argument. Insofar as it has any validity it is a consequence of angry trans activists insisting on the use of pronouns and access to women’s spaces.

“FACT: Misconceptions can have damaging consequences. We have seen increased suicide and murder rates across the UK. 2021 was the deadliest year on record for transgender people, with a five-fold rise in hate crimes reported over the previous five years.”

Response: It is commonly claimed that trans people are at extremely heightened risk of being the victim of a crime. There is no evidence to support this. Statistics that purport to show that trans people are at unusually high risk of suicide or violent crime all rely on very poor-quality evidence. The two sources most often cited are the US Transgender Survey of 2015 and a survey by British charity PACE in 2014. Both are of self-selected samples, meaning that the results are not representative of any broader group. Both have been debunked as sources of population-level statistics on trans people. Collected case studies of trans people who have been murdered feature many murders in South America. In this part of the world murder rates are far higher than in Europe or North America. Trans people in this region are at very high risk of homophobic attacks in public because of their perceived gender non-conformity. They also disproportionately work in street prostitution, which increases the risk of assault still further. In safer parts of the world, the characteristics that would put a particular trans person at high risk of assault and murder are the same as for anyone else, such as homelessness and drug addiction.

“FACT: Practical support for this community remains scarce. Currently, gender-inclusive care clinics have a 52-month waiting time to get a first appointment, with another 12-18 months to get a second.”   

Response: Gender identity care, particularly for children and adolescents, is a massive medical scandal. I suggest you read Hannah Barnes’ book ‘Time to Think’, which tells the story of the collapse of the Tavistock’s Gender Service for Children. Most children and adolescents with gender dysphoria grow up gay if their development isn’t hijacked – leading to them being rendered in gender abattoirs.

And then on ‘allyship’ with the trans community, they write this:

“Include your pronoun on your email signature and/or social media profile. Simple support helps normalise the use of preferred pronouns.” 

Response: Don’t do this. You are under no obligation to collude with the delusional architecture of someone else’s psychological disorder. People can’t change sex, and the notion that we all have an innate gender identity that may be different from our sex is false.