Hi all,
I am discussing the GC and TRA debate with my lovely best friend. I fall very much on the GC side, while she is very much of the view that transwomen should be treated as a category under the umbrella of ‘woman’.
The debate has stayed friendly and respectful, and neither of us have at any point got angry with each other 
The one thing I am trying to get my head around is the race vs gender identity question and why we might reject one and accept the other.
I am musing over this article as a topic for our next debate. It’s written by an assistant professor in the philosophy department at Yale University who identifies as non-binary, and a PhD candidate in Philosophy at Rutgers University.
The argument hinges on the concept of ‘accumulated generational inequality’ as a basis for justifying why a white person shouldn't be able to identify as black, but a man should be able to identify as a woman.
The authors claim that since they believe women as a sex class don’t experience this accumulated generational inequality (due to multi-gender households), it’s okay for a male bodied person to identify as a woman, despite the sexism they experience.
It also describes J K Rowling as an ‘anti-trans activist’ and contains what I think is a bit of pseudo-science thrown into the mix.
They also state:
“In cases where revising a classification would have a negative sociopolitical impact that outweighs the good of respecting how an individual identifies, we think that the classification should not be revised. And we think that revising the rules of race classification to accommodate transracial identification into Blackness is a case like this.”
But while they talk about the negative consequences of a person identifying as black, they make no acknowledgement of any potential negative impact of expanding the classification of ‘woman’.
Nevertheless, I’m not a philosopher (albeit I am universality educated to MA level in a similar subject), so it’s quite possible I’m missing something.
I would greatly appreciate your thoughts on its merits and weaknesses, as this will help aid the discussion!
bostonreview.net/race-philosophy-religion-gender-sexuality/robin-dembroff-dee-payton-why-we-shouldnt-compare
Thanks all!