I'm Jenni Murray. Thank you Jenni. I have real empathy for people who feel revulsion at their bodies and believe they need surgery to feel at ease in themselves. Likewise, I have absolutely sympathy for anyone who doesn't wish to conform to gender stereotypes. I would imagine the vast majority of us don't confirm entirely because we are all nuanced human beings. If some people feel that physical traits and clothing typically associated with the opposite sex make them more comfortable then we should be working to make it more acceptable for anyone to look however they like, rather than saying "this individual likes dresses, gossip and shopping thus they are female." That just reinforces damaging gender stereotypes which say that women and men have certain innate character traits, interests and abilities.
I would like my young daughter to grow up knowing that she can be a mechanic, a pilot, a footballer, have short hair, wear trousers, be attracted to women and that none of those things mean she is masculine, or indeed male.
I am left-wing, liberal and have always believed in inclusivity. Like the overwhelming majority of MN posters that I've seen discussing this over the past year or so, I recognise that there are people who believe fervently that they are born in the wrong body and I wholeheartedly believe that those people need support, and services dedicated to their needs. But the recent rhetoric is to say that those people, by dint of feeling they are the opposite sex, therefore actually are that opposite sex. That ignores very real biological differences between males and females, particularly with regard to strength, hormones and reproduction.
We currently have some separate services for females, because it is considered potentially unsafe for women to share these services with men. If transwomen also feel unsafe without separate spaces from men then we need to ensure that such spaces exist. However, by saying that anyone who identifies as a woman is legally viewed as a woman, anybody can access any woman's space, not just women and transwomen but any man, who can simply claim to be a woman and claim transphobia if anyone questions his presence in a female only space. There is no way of distinguishing a genuine transwoman from a disingenuous man claiming to be trans in order to have access to women and girls in previously single-sex contexts, and that is where the danger lies, not with genuine transwomen.
In addition, saying that transwomen and women are the same skews statistics with regards to crime, representation in different industries, pay gaps etc. Which puts women at a further disadvantage as it could mask inequality. For example, if a company had a quota to employ more women in particular roles but privately didn't want to employ a woman because they might go on maternity leave, hiring a transwoman could get round that.
Lastly, biological differences clearly exist between the sexes- a transwoman competing at sports against a woman has distinct physical advantages. Women are routinely called for cervical smears and breast cancer screening, they can be impregnated; they have different anatomies and to deny these or to change language around these is to deny biological fact and cause confusion.
There needs to be a word for the sex class that produces eggs to distinguish it from the sex class that doesn't. And with those different sex classes come different hormones, anatomies, ailments and importantly- reproductive capabilities. We need language and laws that reflect these differences and what they can mean for those individuals and we had those, and have those. We now need to recognise transgender people and their needs as well and to have language and laws to reflect their needs which don't then put women, whose rights have been fought long and hard for, at risk or at a disadvantage. We need to support and protect women and transwomen and to conflate the two groups and their needs gives transwomen validation, and I feel for them in needing that, but I believe that both groups have needs that are ultimately more important than that.