It's a really, really fantastic article. Genuinely thoughtful, kind, fair, and honest.
If you follow this topic you will be aware of so many women in the public eye (pretty much always women) being ‘cancelled’ for this kind of wrongthink. It is women being threatened with violence, including sexual violence, and losing their jobs for asking questions about the new realities proposed by trans activism, or for supporting others who do so.
JK Rowling is beyond the pale for querying gender self-identification, but when male John Cleese questions self-id on twitter, it’s just fine. Trans activist authors quit the agency over JKR, but not over them representing male racist homophobe Tyson Fury. Emma Nicholson was sacked from the Booker, but male Damian Barr, an actual transphobe, provoked no major outcry. Allison Bailey, black female lesbian, is being complained about by Stonewall for setting up an LGB group to support LGB people, but male Simon Fanshawe, not so much.
It is hard not to come to the conclusion that there is a significantly misogynist dimension to trans activism. This is not at all a comment on the majority of trans people who are just trying to live their lives. It is an observation about some trans activists, many of whom are not trans. Indeed many of them are ‘cis’ white males.
Trans people, like all people, should have, and legally do have, full human rights (freedom from discrimination, employment, housing, healthcare, political representation, etc.), and in UK Equality Law are also protected from being discriminated against for undergoing, or having undergone, gender reassignment.
But trans activism also claims that trans women need access to all women’s spaces (i.e. those protected as exceptions in UK Equality Law) as a matter of urgency and principle. Therefore, it is not trans rights that are being debated here, but women’s rights.
It's long, but such a worthwhile read. Thank you for sharing it.