I have been a trans ally ever since college, and it is sobering to say that that has been more than 20 years now. I went through training in an allyship program to learn how to discuss the topics of LGBTQI individuals and the dangers they are subjected to in society. That was before the time when gays could be married, when they were vilified and ostracized themselves. That was before they could serve openly in the military.
I have been a feminist even longer, and remember when my mother had to get my dad‘s permission to get a credit card, even though she was the breadwinner of the household. I remember Anita Hill testifying against Clarence Thomas.
I have been an advocate for racial equality and remember Rodney King and the LA riots that came after his arrest and videoed beating.
They say there is nothing new under the sun, and in this day and age after witnessing the #metoo movement and the exposure of people like Bill Cosby, Donald Trump, Harvey Weinstein, Brett Kavanaugh, Roy Moore, and so many others, not to mention the race riots and police brutality we are still witnessing in the streets, it is all too evident that we still have a long way to go in raising our consciousness as human beings in regards to the plight of others.
Trans people have always existed, but it seems that now they are the new frontier when it comes to civil rights and people being marginalized, treated as though they are somehow lacking, mentally ill, or second class citizens. Yet there are vintage photographs of them out there. There are stories, letters, literature, there is the fact that we used to jail people for this, commit them, and even further back in history put them to death. Even today they can be denied services in any business they go to. Luckily they can no longer deal with job discrimination thanks to a recent SCOTUS decision. But yet they are still vilified, they are still heaped upon with hate, and they are still murdered in the streets simply for being what they are. If memory serves, 19 trans women in the Dallas area were killed last year alone; that’s not even statewide or even nationwide, but it is a hate crime, and it was done because of what they were and nothing else.
Back in the 1900s women were seldom allowed the chance to go to college, because the general consensus was that we were weak minded. We did not have the capacity to be able to take on such ventures, and in fact husbands were still allowed to beat us or rape us, as we were not allowed any rights in marriage. Possession of a woman passed from father to husband, as did any property or possessions she owned and that included her own children. We were frequently committed to asylums for the “sickness“ of what they called hysteria or hysterics. The causes for hysteria could range from anything including PMS, grieving the loss of a child, novel reading, and any other issues that ranged from trifling to legitimate mental health concerns. In short, we were weaker, with limited brain capacity. And they even used junk science of the day to elevate their opinions. As far as they were concerned, it was true because “science“ said so.
All in all we were not given a fair shake, neither were black people, neither were gays. Oscar Wilde, as a homosexual man, spent time in jail for the sole crime of “buggery.” His own lover turned him in. And underlying all of that was still the view that another subset of humanity who would’ve been jailed, beaten, and ostracized for the supposed mental illness and aberration they also were afflicted with. Again, history giving us a subset of people who are viewed as substandard and lacking somehow, or broken, and again, with junk “science” to prove it.
And this is my point — ever since that time transgenderism has been treated as a mental illness by many as well. At the time they would have quite literally been medically treated, sometimes with frontal lobotomies, by actual mental health professionals of the day. Likewise women with “hysterics” and homosexuals. Blacks were operated on with no anesthesia and treated like animals, because as far as white people were concerned “science” said that they could not feel pain. This is the energy people give when they treat transgender people like they are still some sort of aberration from nature and society. That is how antiquated the view is To say that “science“ dictates this.
And thus, transgender rights has become the new frontier, as much as we have made inroads with racial equality, sexual equality, it is now gender identity that has come under the microscope. Is there still a long way to go in regards to race, sexual orientation, and gender equality? Yes. But we have to throw in gender identification as well, or we have proven that we’ve learned nothing from history.
There is a distinction between gender dysphoria and actual transgenderism. Even in the United States military (for a time) a soldier could undergo the transition process. However, he or she first had to prove to behavioral health but they were not suffering from gender dysphoria, so that they would wind up wanting to undo a very permanent decision. Once they passed all the checkpoints of a mental health evaluation, they would typically be passed through and allowed to transition. [As a sidenote, yours truly could’ve had a breast augmentation following the same procedure. Go through mental health, have a mental health eval, and wind up on the operating table.] Yes, your tax dollars pay for these things. It’s part of that life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness gig that we are all entitled to. But the bottom line is this: transgender people are not suffering from some kind of mental illness.
The American Psychological Association acknowledges this now and has joined the 21st-century. Other people, such as JK Rowling unfortunately are still catching up.
Luckily biologists are on board as well. They have made note that the expression of sex and nature can take myriad different directions. In short, it is an oversimplification to say that there is only a binary when it comes to sex expression scientifically.
“Defining gender as a condition determined strictly by a person’s genitals is based on a notion that doctors and scientists abandoned long ago as oversimplified and often medically meaningless.” -NYT
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Intersex people are a very big inclusion in that, though they may not like to get lumped in with transgender people because of the blight of stigma that is on transgender people right now, the result is the same. You can be born in a body that has either genitalia, or both. But the fact is, that science on multiple fronts acknowledges not only multiple sexes, but the fact that there can be multiple gender expressions without regard to whatever sex is assigned at birth. You cannot win an argument against transgenderism with science when the scientists agree with transgenderism.
All that being said, the gender identity of someone transitioning from what their birth sex was to the one that they have felt in their heart that they are is not a question of how the DNA lines up, nor how the body looks. It is a question of how they feel about themselves inherently. It is not in any way to detract from the plights of women. And when it comes down to JK Rowling, her past experiences, her traumas, and her particular brand of feminism, the reaction—which is nothing more than a knee-jerk reaction—is that somehow her plight will be downgraded or nullified by acknowledging the plight of transgender women. This is a fallacy. It is an oversight on her part, and a huge misstep to jump into the fray with as little knowledge as she has.
The same way that we must acknowledge male victims of domestic and sexual violence is the same way that we must acknowledge that transgender women are discriminated against and abused by society just as much if not more than biological/cisgender women. It is stated all of the time in the progressive community – – there is no oppression Olympics. Rowling does not “win” just because she is a woman who has been abused in a domestic situation and sexually assaulted. Nothing takes away from her claim, not especially acknowledging the plights of transgender people. But to deny transgender women based upon “science” is also a fallacy, and it is an oversight that she needs educating out of. She didn’t just make herself look bad, she did damage to people who found hope in her stories and previously in her advocacy.
Point of fact, she really needs to revisit her standpoint on this particular character, because everything she said about him now applies as well to transgender people. Not that they were “infected“ at any point, but most of them realize when they are young that they are not the gender they were assigned at birth. The way his “furry little problem“ is treated is much the same as how people treat transgenderism as well—as though it is some kind of toxic aberration from a person who is perceived as inherently flawed.
Does that however mean that with “throw the whole person away“? Absolutely not. If there is one problem with cancel culture it is that knee-jerk, absolute, and extreme response of one negative thing that a person does discounting every positive thing that they have ever done. J. K. Rowling has made a lot of headway and helped a lot of people. She has made inroads when it’s come to literacy, and has made inclusion an art form... until it comes of course to transgender people. Everyone has a character flaw however. Everyone has the one thing that they are biased against, or that they refuse to see. We all have our prejudices. And the problem that she suffers is the same thing that her detractors suffer, and that is seeing things in extremes and refusing to see anything else. It is the hubris of cancel culture that they will want to “throw a whole person away“ or “cancel” someone entirely altogether for wrongs. It is a modern day, Internet witchhunt, in which the horde brings their pickaxes in torches by way of doxxing , unfollowing, heaping hate, and boycotts. This fixes absolutely nothing, and it only works until some other issue gets inflated and they go haring off after the person at the center of that controversy to spew hate, judgment, and further muddy the waters. In effect, it shuts down all dialogue and takes what could be a teachable moment and a moment of growth for humanity and instead turns it into a mudslinging contest with no winners. Cancel culture makes it impossible to educate people out of their biases and to lift the blinders off. We see it with issues of race, party politics, sexual violence, and now transgender issues. It is everywhere, and it fixes nothing. This sad little dance, takes us three steps forward and four back every single time. In the middle stand I, an ally in full support of my trans brothers and sisters, disappointed in Rowling’s lack of vision, and yet still refusing to burn my books and dvds in a petulant display of self-righteousness. Instead I may just have to binge watch the movies again and in the meantime keep sharing the science and the scientific community’s comments on the matter. Aside from one stray evolutionary biologist, the medical and scientific studies are on the side of transgender people. And at that point, what else is there to be said, but “welcome to the 21st century”? It is okay to be female, it’s okay to be gay, and it is equally okay to be transgender. we are all in this together. Ultimately it is time to leave the biases in the past where they belong—and the witch hunts too.
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