Artistic Director of Queer Up North speaks out on trans activism, Stonewall and women's rights

[SanctimoniousMorph]

medium.com/@JonnnyBest/the-story-of-my-first-brush-with-trans-activism-and-what-i-learned-3ef13e31fd37

It’s such a non confrontational article. I do hope Robert Webb has his gin and retweets.

He won't Alittleshaderequired.

Rather than self-reflect, he has been drawn to a gender critical view point presumably because this validates his transphobia and saves his ego from harm.

That is clearly nonsense. I doubt you even believe half the rubbish you type. Have you actually read the article?

That’s a shame, Saul. He calls himself a feminist and he’s the father of 2 young girls. Women can discuss and intelligently debate this for hours but the tide will only really turn when men in the public eye come out against the nonsense that is, ‘nodebate’.

It is, of course, toxic masculinity that is to blame for all of this. And yet men get off scot free it seems, which is why we are so grateful for Jonny's input.

I am not trying to invalidate trans people's identities, but until a discussion can actually be had about toxic masculinity, and how feminine males cannot feel comfortable in their sex, and in male spaces, and about how masculine women feel pressured into becoming men to be accepted, all of this is just shouting into the void.

Sarah Ar
That's a malicious accusation.

Gender identity is already written into the law. Gender identity is an inherent part of the medical condition gender dysphoria see www.nhs.uk/conditions/gender-dysphoria. And today the only way you can legally change your gender is with a diagnosis of gender dysphoria.
.... There is a difference between gender dysphoria and gender identity, as you well know. Gender dysphoria refers specifically to a mismatch between one's sex and one's internal identity (gender identity). The law is written with transsexuals in mind. Gender identity (which includes things like the plethora of non-binary identities) in and of itself is not protected, AAIK. Gender reassignment (which presumes transitioning form one gender to another, not any other gender identity), and there is mechanism for a legal gender change which requires a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Gender identity is merely a declarative statement. Gender dysphoria is a medical condition that has been assessed and treated by an external professional.

If self-id goes ahead, then the need for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria goes away. In fact gender identity is removed from the law. All that is needed is the intention to live in your acquired gender for the rest of your life.
Yeah. This is exactly the problem. It will rely on a person saying "I am what I say I am, I promise, and I promise to always be this."
No evidence is required. There is no way of questioning this. Please tell me how we would stop someone like Ian Huntley or Christopher Hambrook from taking advantage of this system and claim legal entitlement to female services? Also, what are you going to do about detransitioners or gender fluid people? Surely they should be able to change back to a previous gender if you are making everything purely based on self-declaration?

Sadly Jonny is another in a long series of progressive non-trans men who have been called out on their transphobia (here's looking at you Graham Linehan). Rather than self-reflect, he has been drawn to a gender critical view point presumably because this validates his transphobia and saves his ego from harm.
He is questioning the orthodoxy of the trans activist movement. He has clearly shown that he cares about trans people, but wants to show an interest in female concerns. If anything, he has taken great personal risk for expressing these views as a person within the LGBTQ+ community. No woman here wants him to necessarily start parroting our exact words. We are just grateful to anyone who actually listens to us, instead of sending death threats... That is how low the bar is now - someone reading a board on a parenting forum is enough to make me feel grateful that they're at least considering the feminist viewpoint, and it's enough for you to condemn them to guilt by association.
How can you possibly say we are terrible females, just for speaking on this subject, and then smear someone for interacting with us? Why are females the only group not allowed to define themselves and their boundaries? Can we not have an opinion on things that actually deeply affect us?
Many of us have done a LOT of careful reflection, research and thinking on this issue, partly because it is so dangerous to even start questioning. We have to at least talk about this.

Agreed Alittleshade. And it is exactly what he should be sticking his neck out about, but at least he replied to JB on the thread. He is absolutely the right person to highlight the issues though. But he will be afraid, as so many are.

Great article Jonny, I really look forward to your future work and seeing you on here again too hopefully. It's sparked a very interesting thread too, seems like many of the views here are interesting to you and helping to develop your thinking. Welcome to the thousands of us who are here visibly or invisibly and agree with that sentiment.

JonnyBest 👏👏👏👏

Nail. Head.

What an excellent article. Perfectly summarises a lot of the issues that have been concerning me. Thank you OP for sharing.

Thanks for such an articulate article @JonnyBestthe implications of people intimidated into silence needs to be repeatedly highlighted.

The current and real risks in prisons and health settings are deliberately downplayed.

Just caught up. Happy for this. Thanks Jonny.

Agree with PeakPants and Datun on so much.

Third spaces... and men giving away women's female reality when it wasn't theirs to give, an dall this emen who support transing men because they still identify with=empathise with any man more than any woman. And hierarchy of women. No. The line is drawn at female.

Saul No one is erasing trans identities. I beleive they feel trans. I will recognise people are trans. I have no hate for them because of it unless they behave hatefully first.. But if the guy down the road tels me he is Elvis, I am going to think he has a MH disorder. I will be considerate in how I repsond but in no way am I erasing his identity by knowing that he isn't what he believes he is.

Even it transwomen are attracted to men and therefore perceived as less sexual risk, as a broad rule I don't want male bodied people, gender dysphoric or not, in my toilets etc because of male people's general propensity to be sexist/misogynistic. It is bad enough to get that from some women in female spaces, but I'll be damned if I want to suffer it from a male bodied person or transwoman. Because we are talking about random strangers here in random public or semi-public places - not just people we can get to know individually and have discretion and possibly some influence over like maybe at a small and friendly workplace.

SarahAr All that is needed is the intention to live in your acquired gender for the rest of your life

"living in your acquired gender" is completely indefinable and 'unevidencable' unless you use either biology (which cannot be changed and therefore cannot be genuinely lived as), or gender and feminine stereotypes (which are oppressive to women and not all women live by) as PeakPants says.

It is a loophole that you TRAs use to try to trick us into feeling reassured, but actually I think you know it would be easy to prove in court using GC women and general women that there is no one type of woman as a gender (only bio sex), so women as a gender can mean whatever they want it to mean if biology mens nothing, nicely encompassing Beardy Drummond and Danielle Muscato - the double upside for some TRAs/MRAs being that with the right judge you could attempt to enshrine the performance of some aspects of femininity or femal roles in law as a defining feature of being a woman - so its a win-win potentially when you try to move the agument away from the restrictive term transsexual to something that is more nebulous and suitable for your manipulation.

There is only murky recourse in law here (as with zero recourse for self-ID in toilets), but more deliberate tactics to stop women being able to define and protect ourselves and each other.

I don't believe in 'trans' people as in some people are across both sexes.

I believe in biology where there are two human reproductive sexes which are fixed from conception.

I recognise sexism, where some people are more comfortable living out the stereotypes associated with the opposite sex than their own.

I recognise mental disorders where people obsessively feel there is something wrong with their body.

But 'trans' no.

It linguistically forces users into legitimising the phenomena of mental disorders and sexism.

seafret

For you

What is that about please BraveandStunning? I don't generally watch random vids.

Seafret

It's Kirsty mccall singing there's a guy works down the chip shop swears he's Elvis.

OK, so I braved the vid and found the superb Kirsty McColl!!!

I try to avoid watching some stuff as it is just too disturbing or upsetting!!!!

Sorry for the delayed cross post! Got side tracked. Thanks transplants :)

I truly wonder what nest stage of awfulness I am going to see or hear sometimes... not envy

Contribute to his next article
Jonathan Best
@JonnnyBest
I'm writing a short piece for the Spectator on the widely-drawn 'official' (i.e. Stonewall) definition of transphobia and its silencing effect. I'm seeking real-life examples of its use, opinions on how right/wrong it is - anything.

@JonnnyBest

Nic Williams of FairPlay for Women has all the info you need. Quotes, links, the lot.

fairplayforwomen.com/misogyny_hate_silencing/

I will be considerate in how I respond but in no way am I erasing his identity by knowing that he isn't what he believes he is.

Really good post. And even if someone does subjectively feel erased by your not validating and confirming their personal choice of identity, why and how should this be your problem to solve rather than theirs?

All that is needed is the intention to live in your acquired gender for the rest of your life.

Yeah, Pippa Bunce. Woman some days, man some days, depends on how they feel when they get up in the morning. Plenty of cross dressers who enjoy the sexual experience of cross dressing (trans and fully entitled to all woman access according to Stonewall) limit it to weekends and holidays since it doesn't mix well with working life.

And no evidence to be requested: means in practice that under self ID any man walking into any women's facilities will be assumed to have self declared just by walking in. Self ID means, in fact, any bloke can walk anywhere into the most private of women's spaces, and expect to be accommodated there without question, regardless of what distress and embarrassment and negative impact he may cause to the women in that facility.

The banging on about 'declared intent' is asking women to trust that everyone will be jolly good chaps and never abuse this open door access.

So let's ditch background and police checks for people working with kids and vulnerable people, eh? They can just self declare they're nice people who never abuse anyone and nothing can possibly go wrong.

@JonnnyBest

I'm writing a short piece for the Spectator on the widely-drawn 'official' (i.e. Stonewall) definition of transphobia and its silencing effect. I'm seeking real-life examples of its use, opinions on how right/wrong it is - anything.

Here's a (helpfully screenshotted by Twitter) post from an MNer, which I think explains the position women find themselves in. To say that we cannot name ourselves, delineate ourselves, get accurate information about ourselves as a group - this, apparently, is transphobia. So y'know. I'm definitely transphobic. Because I will continue to name myself, delineate myself, and align myself with my sisters.

Thanks for getting the word out, Stickerladiesoftheworldunite

I'll keep an eye on this thread and read all comments.
Cheers

I’m heartened that my male boss shared this article with me, apropos of nothing. So a totally different demographic are being reached when people like JB speak out. Thank you.