What has JK Rowling said or done that’s transphobic

100% accurate.

It's a shame that trans activists and cringey men don't use facts.

I don't agree with the idea of being trans. You're either a man or a woman. There's no changing it.

I'm broadly GC - as most people are I believe - but this entire nonsense about insisting being transgender is not a thing is just beyond me. Clearly there are trans people. Clearly there are trans children. Clearly they don't spring into being at 18 and immediately become porn-addled delinquents. JK Rowling has been very clear that she supports genuine trans people into having surgery and medical treatment to become their acquired gender and I agree with her. However I am occasionally utterly sickened at the level of othering and calm hatred expressed on here.

It really is not hatred to doubt someone else's unsupported word for something you have reason to believe is not a fact. (I did not hate my children when they asserted they could eat forty-eight Mars Bars all at once, or had flown to New York for tea yesterday; I didn't believe them, but that's not hatred. I didn't even hate them when they said they had washed their hands before tea when those hands were visibly covered in mud.)

I think "hate" and "hatred" are strong terms which need to be kept for the real thing, not casually used to mean mild distaste for or disapproval of or incredulous amusement about something.

What, as opposed to the seething hatred shown to women defending their sex based rights? I mean, on the TRA side you gave death threats, rape threats, threats of violence and piss protests and on the other you women saying men cannot be women. Tell me again which side is worse….

Thanks for this very sensible, balanced and thoughtful perspective. I am not "gender critical" - I think the theory is entirely misguided, but I really appreciate the humanity and balance here and the recognition that being trans is a real and legitimate experience, and the "othering" and hatred expressed towards trans people on mumsnet is truly disturbing.

If you want to find out more about JKR and trans stuff, there's a really interesting podcast from a few years back by The Free Press looking at the controversies around her, which includes interviews with her. She was very clear that she thought medical transitioning was the right solution to gender dysphoria for some people. It's a very balanced podcast and goes through the history of how the trans movement took off, which I found really interesting.

www.thefp.com/p/the-witch-trials-of-jk-rowling

There is a very small cohort of XY individuals whose body has presented as externally female from birth.

The starting principle is that sex is fundamentally physical and also is uncomplicated for the vast majority of humans.

With that broad principle covering most people including almost all trans people, we can then be compassionate annd accomodate the small number of people whose physical sex is more complicated.

A very few, like some various famous athletes who were initially believed female then found to virilise at puberty, will have the hard experience of finding the sex they believed themselves to be and maybe even want to continue to live as is not the sex they actually are, and the physical differences and consequences of that for other women are too great for that not to matter.

Even fewer will have the hard experience of finding the sex they believed themselves to be is not in fact the sex they are chromosonally, but the physical differences and the consequences of that for other women are so minor that it doesn't matter if they continue to be considered women.

In no case, would someone making a decision to adjust their body hormonally or surgically as an approximation of the opposite sex, or even make no adjustments but claim their inner feelings are those of the opposite sex, justify treating them as the opposite sex. Because while the physical body is the fooundation of sex, single sex protections are about the person. And a person whose entire life experience from birth is of being physically female reaches adulthood different a million ways from a person whose life experience from birth is of being physically male but who happens to want others to treat him as female, or vice versa.

This is where the famous nuance should really be being used. To be flexible around the edges because biological sex is sometimes complicated.

Not to leverage entirely typical male bodies into female identities, spaces and rights based on their personalities with an argument based that basically boils down to just "but they reeeeeeeeeallllly want to, and they will be good, honest!"

Thank you for the link, I keep meaning to listen to this!

Did you quote the wrong post? You seem to be arguing against something I haven't said. Hatred does rot the brain.

Transgender is an experience, yes.

But it's not the same thing as being of the opposite sex, and no one has ever made any reasonable case for why we should treat it as if it is. No one has ever explained why we can't look at is as another facet of human experience in its own right.

Personally, I think it's coming from the same place that gods, mediums, spirit guides, animal speakers and mermaids come from. Everyday mysteries make very natural metaphors for the human mind to use to try to understand itself.

Ummm… did you not say this a few posts ago?

However I am occasionally utterly sickened at the level of othering and calm hatred expressed on here

I mean, we could quote the whole post but….. dint want to make you look more stupid than you already do

That there is gender dysphoria - is not doubted
That there are those who have mental health issues around their body or sex is absolutely fact

However - neither of those things is 'trans' anything - because basic biology, reality, fact says you can not transition - you are what you are born and that is it...

so, all those who are confusing this debate by insisting that a man can become a woman, or that a man can identify as a woman merely take away from the actual real needs that smaller set of people do have - which is horrendous.

so, no, there are no 'trans children' there are children who are confused and who have mental health issues, where society, or peers, or parents have told them that perhaps they are in the 'wrong' body (whatever that is meant to mean!)... it is no surprise the correlation between 'trans' identifying children and other issues they have...

but there is no such thing as 'trans' because not a single person has ever transitioned, nor can they.

I’m utterly sickened by the lies told about this board and its posters. Everyone knows the issue is men in female single sex provision and children being caught up in an ideology which could cause them serious harm but as that is a perfectly reasonable stance, the detractors have to pretend that we are transphobes and bigots.
If we were, there would be many posts about transmen, but there isn’t.
Because it is, and always had been, about protecting female single sex provision from men and protecting children from making life changing decisions before they are old enough to decide.

I haven't said it's the same thing as being the opposite sex. It isn't. It is, however, a legitimate thing. The denial that trans exists is demonstrably batshit.

And that led you to think that I am not sickened by other things. How odd.

As I said...

So if trans is nothing to do with being the opposite sex, why do trans people insist on being allowed in to spaces designated for that are not for their sex? Why not use the mixed gender single sex spaces relevant to their sex?

OP, I posted a thread months ago outlining JKR’s position and asked anyone who disagrees with her, what it is they actually disagree with. I’m still waiting.

Funny how it was just the “hatred” on here you mentioned…. How odd

Not really.

I think everyone can agree that making death and rape threats is beyond sickening and quite rightly - criminal. That surely goes without saying.

What is much more remarkable is the way that mumsnetters ridicule, belittle, deride and attack trans people on masse on these threads, and then protest that they aren't a bit transphobic!

Well yes, because this is where I'm commenting... You seem confused and a little bit over the top?

the recognition that being trans is a real and legitimate experience

the belief that you are trans - yes, that exists...
being trans - nope, doesn't exist - no-one has ever transitioned from man to woman or v.v. no-one has ever transitioned gender...

that there is such a disconnect tells us that therefore the belief must be a mental health issue - if someone's whole life is dominated by, consumed even by the belief that they are the opposite sex / in the 'wrong' body - then there is a mental health issue at play.

the "othering" and hatred expressed towards trans people on mumsnet is truly disturbing.

'othering' is not a word...

there is no hatred being expressed - in fact the only hatred I have seen in this debate is 100% from the trans-rights-activists who have demonstrated hatred of anyone disagreeing...

as you will see if you read mumsnet for what is actually said, rather than through distorting lenses...

• mumsnet shows huge compassion towards those (especially children) who have gender dysphoria
• there is huge concern about the abuse and safeguarding issues around adults who allow children to be mutilated / abused / put on hormones / have their dysphoria confirmed and augmented...
• there is a depth of understanding of the emotional and mental anguish someone must have to agree to butcher their physiology in pursuit of an un-fulfillable dream or concept

equally

• there is a dislike of lies, distortion and emotional blackmail
• there is an anger that a few men especially should have the arrogance to put women in danger by what they do
• there is a deep frustration at the ideological capture of so many public organisations by those with ulterior motives and agendas
• there is a disagreement with those who come onto the forums and spout nonsense, or who make claims without any attempt to show evidence for those claims
• there is a dislike of the deceit that claims this is a personal issue for a few not affecting anyone else - while pushing every door possible to oppress women and remove their rights.

but nowhere is there a hatred of anyone (hatred is a big word)
and nor is it aimed at 'trans people' because we all know that no-one has ever transitioned, so it is not possible to be a 'trans person' - however, any man who comes on and claims that a man can be a woman, or have a female gender will have themselves neatly packaged and deposited back at the door as spouting ridiculous untruths...

and don't forget, in the arrogance of dismissing all of mumsnet

• not all who argue this way are women, some of us are men - proud to play a small part in helping fight against these lies...
• and also - you are as much a part of mumsnet - so do you include yourself in those generalisations?

Prove it. Show us where the posters on here do this.