The state of Maine televised their debates on gay marriage and it was highly influential in changing the public’s mind. Members of the public got three minutes to argue for or against gay marriage. The pro side was filled with pleas for fairness, stories of people who couldn’t see loved ones in hospital due to not being next of kin, rational discourse on how marriage wasn’t purely for procreation. The anti side was, to put it bluntly, irrational. It came down to “the bible says so” or “it’s disgusting.” The anti side couldn’t muster any decent points against gay marriage.
What’s interesting about this is the public saw this and responded. They recognised that one side made decent arguments about the current unjust system. Open debate and discussion was welcomed because it was instrumental in getting people to support gay marriage. It was the same with the women’s rights movements - people respond and sympathise with deep unfairness and injustice.
It’s striking how in just ten years or so debate has now been discredited. And to be perfectly cynical about this, I think it’s because the trans rights movement is hopeless. They aren’t on the side of rationality- if anything they are like the evangelicals clutching their Bibles. It is very, very difficult to persuade the public that biological sex isn’t real (which they DO claim, despite protestations to the contrary) or that males can turn into women by having a certain thought in their head. It’s a hard sell, and the trans side knows it. Hence no debate.
They don’t even really have fairness on their side. Once the issues are laid out and explained it’s deeply unfair for women to lose their spaces - see how unhappy most people are with trans women in female sports, for example.
The trans rights movement can’t rely on open discussion or debate because quite simply they will lose. So what they have done instead is create a climate where even just discussing this stuff is bigoted and evil.