Frank, clear piece setting out problems of transactivism

[Mermoose]

https://m.independent.ie/opinion/comment/eoin-omalley-letting-transgender-lobby-groups-effectively-set-the-law-and-stifle-debate-is-foolish/a97249296.html

This is very well written. It doesn't hide the problems under euphemistic language. It makes it very clear that the objections being made are not about people breaking sex stereotypes - on the contrary, it is transactivism that is reinforcing stereotypes. The Irish Independent has been fairly good at presenting both sides of this debate but it's still a relief to see an opinion piece like this in an Irish newspaper.

It's worth reading the whole article - O'Malley makes good points about the data collected on trans identification - but as it's behind a paywall here are some quotes:

It is a useful exercise to wonder what we are doing now that in a generation people will look back and ask how we could have done such a thing. We look back these days at abuse in the Catholic Church and some state institutions and ­wonder…
What will it be that causes our grandchildren to marvel at our callousness or stupidity? One candidate will be our treatment of those dealing with gender dysphoria.
...
Normalising unusual but essentially harmless behaviour is to be welcomed. There should be no stigma if a man is more effeminate or a woman more masculine than the societal norm. Societal norms should change.However, instead of changing the norms, it is increasingly common to think that the people must change — change their sex.
...
Letting transgender lobby groups effectively set the law is foolish. People with anorexia think they are overweight, but we don’t tell them to restrict their calorie intake. We listen, and we try to prevent them from causing further harm to themselves. That’s what we should do with kids suffering from gender dysphoria.
...
For many women it threatens hard-won rights — the protections based on being a woman are emptied of any force when the word “woman” is emptied of any meaning.
...
Unfortunately, those other institutions that should be the “adults in the room” are stifled by the fear of offending an increasingly strident group of “allies” to children with gender dysphoria probably caused by other underlying issues. Universities don’t allow open discussion of the issue, and so doing research is seen as taboo.
^^
Policy makers too are stifled from open discussion for fear of being labelled transphobic. Meanwhile we use euphemisms to discuss what is a potential scandal that will embarrass us in a generation.

Very good. Glad he was clear about the risks to women and the dereliction of duty in the political and educational spheres.

Thanks for sharing. There's some good quotes here and great to see in an Irish paper - although I'm not sure I entirely agree with the "changing society's norms" bit - isn't that exactly what queer theory is doing to the detriment of society as a whole? I think the writer means accepting gender non conformity as part of that norm, which, of course, I agree with but I don't think the phrasing was helpful there.

Norms are always going to change though. Afaik Queer Theory rejects norms entirely.

The analogy with anorexia is spot on.

Where was the online survey done?

https://archive.ph/6SVFJ

"We are naturally touched by emotional stories of people clearly suffering some trauma. But emotion is not a good guide to policy making. And their lived experience does not equate to expertise."

'Lived experience' is so often claimed in order to shut the other person down in a discussion. He's right, it doesn't mean expertise.

well Irish women, of course, had lived experience of the harms of abortion being against the law. And look how long that took to be challenged. So, i have hope. But not too much.