I thought I was transphobic

[Garlicked]

I mean, experts both self-appointed and authoritative have been telling me for years that I am.
I misgender as a matter of course - the transgression could be called right-sexing, but it's the same thing.
I don't believe humans can change sex, either literally or 'in effect'.
I've been a gender abolitionist since someone first told me girls couldn't do something that boys were allowed. Gender's a system of social oppression.
I don't believe anyone has an innate sense of their gender, because gender isn't a natural quality.
I never use gender as a synonym for sex.
I don't believe anyone can be transgender, because anyone can pick whichever bits of either gender they want to adopt at any time.
I find it ridiculous that some people think their thoughts about their own gender can determine their sex.
I find beliefs in 'brain sex' absurd in many ways. The brain certainly does not determine a person's sex.
Sex means reproductive category, in humans and most other life forms.
There are fundamental physical differences between the two sexes, which is a function of sexual dimorphism. These cannot be changed.
No woman has a penis and, if you think they do, I've got a diamond mine to sell you.
... etcetera.

I've accepted many labels imposed on me by others over the years, including but not limited to Humourless Feminist, Slag, Bimbo, One Of Those Career Women, Bitch, Old Bag. While the intention of the slurs was not lost on me, I wouldn't dispute the underlying truth of the epithets. So it was with Transphobe.

Anyway, I've just decided to look up a reliable definition of transphobia. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I figured the European Institute For Gender Equality might be trustworthy. It defines transphobia as:
Irrational fear of gender non-conformity or gender transgression, such as a fear of, or aversion to, masculine women, feminine men, cross-dressers, transgenderists, transsexuals, and others who do not fit into existing gender stereotypes about their birth gender.

Surprised to find I am NOT transphobic, I noted that the definition stems from 2016. Well, words change their meanings very fast these days, depending on who's defining them. I double-checked with United Nations Human Rights. Their definition:
Any form of prejudice or hostile attitude towards transgender people, including denying their gender identity or refusing to acknowledge it. Transphobia may be targeted at people who are or who are perceived to be trans, and may manifest as exclusion, stigma, harassment, criminalization, pathologization, discrimination and/or violence.

I meet the first part of their definition. However, the UN's Declaration of Human Rights says:
Article 18 - Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom ... to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.
Article 19 - Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

So I have the right to manifest my thoughts & conscience, freely expressing my ideas. Anyone trying to suppress my beliefs would be violating my inalienable rights. Confusingly, this seems to negate the preceding definition.

The second part of the UN's definition is a bit woolly. I was particularly interested in "Transphobia ... may manifest as exclusion." I'm committed to the exclusion of male people from female spaces & activities as needed. This might be covered by Article 27-1: Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community. Women are sometimes unable to participate in mixed-sex activities of various kinds; don't know if this would technically apply here? Disabled people can, for instance, exclude the fully-able from their activities to ensure their own participation. And let's not forget associations like Old Etonians, which are automatically exclusive by virtue of their purpose.

I'm not especially looking for replies (and have to bugger off the internet for a while) but would be quite interested in further thoughts!
Yours,
Garlic The Transphobe (Arguably) 😎

Get you. Coming on here with your facts, and that....

Maya Forstater established that so-called 'gender critical' beliefs are Worthy of Respect in a Democratic Society.

Nobody can discriminate against you for holding them.

'Philosophical beliefs are protected from discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. Gender-critical beliefs include the belief that sex is biological and immutable, people cannot change their sex and sex is distinct from gender-identity.'

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/employment-tribunal-rulings-on-gender-critical-beliefs-in-the-workplace/

Is it possible not to be transphobic? If you acknowledge that a TW is male, I'm pretty sure that's considered transphobic, but to deny that he's male is to imply he's not trans, which is denying his existence, which is definitely transphobic.

It's a conundrum.

This is perfect

It sure is. The logic, or rather lack of it, is quite something.

To the Blue Fringes, anything short of total obeisance is transphobia.

I never thought I was transphobic. Although I've been accused of it.
"Irrational fear of". Nope, no fear, and not irrational.

I like this definition:
Irrational fear of gender non-conformity or gender transgression, such as a fear of, or aversion to, masculine women, feminine men, cross-dressers, transgenderists, transsexuals, and others who do not fit into existing gender stereotypes about their birth gender.

I think an "unreasonable aversion to trans people" just about covers where I sit with what I find transphobic and what I don't.

Saying males can't change sex is not transphobic to me.

Neither is refusing to use preferred pronouns.

Refusing to employ someone or rent a house to them solely on the basis they are transgender would fall into the "unreasonable aversion" category so that is transphobic to me.

I think an "unreasonable aversion to trans people" just about covers where I sit with what I find transphobic and what I don't.

Saying males can't change sex is not transphobic to me.

Neither is refusing to use preferred pronouns.

Refusing to employ someone or rent a house to them solely on the basis they are transgender would fall into the "unreasonable aversion" category so that is transphobic to me.

That all seems reasonable. Interesting though that the two people who have called me ‘transphobic’ to my face both had a broader definition of transphobia than yours, and I don’t think they were unusual among trans people and their allies.

Nothing ‘ irrational’ about my unease.

Not wanting men, cross-dressers or not, intruding in women's spaces is far from irrational. It's self-protection. Fear of them and what they may do - and given the stats on male trans-claiming prisoners imprisoned for sex offences, it's a higher risk than other men - is entirely reasonable. It's about as far from a phobia as one could get. They're demonstrating their hostility to women simply by forcing themselves in our places.

They're demonstrating their hostility to women simply by forcing themselves in our places.

This thread should be retitled "Transhobic and proud"

just got a call from 2016-they want their hyperbolic bullshit back (you know, the stuff that doesn't work anymore-in case you hadn't noticed)

lol

Really interesting thread OP. Thank you.

In the UK, we espouse that we are a tolerant country. Some 'tolerate' minorities, whereby they would prefer not to have to 'tolerate' them but accept they must. This may involve doing nothing more than not discriminating. Others consider 'toleration' involves embracing and welcoming difference, and taking a 'live and let live' stance. I grew up being heavily influenced by the latter approach. If I was growing up today, in the same demographic, I don't think this would be the same. I don't think the current 'liberal left' support 'live and let live'. It's more like, social justice requires the quashing of some beliefs and values.

The current 'social justice movement' is illiberal and seeks to restrict freedoms from those who hold beliefs and values that undermine the causes that they think are worthy causes. Here, 'hatred' and 'discrimination' is viewed as anything that undermines the movement's aims for a particular group.

Despite what posters on here say about me, I've also been called "transphobic" to my face 🤣

Some people follow the second definition in the OP - "Any form of prejudice or hostile attitude towards transgender people, including denying their gender identity or refusing to acknowledge it."

I don't like that one because that's one where a conflict with women's sex based rights can clearly arise. It's also a bit too close to compelled religion for me.

"-phobic" is largely just a clever linguistic trick to make perfectly valid opinions seem evil.

Any form of prejudice or hostile attitude towards transgender people, including denying their gender identity or refusing to acknowledge it.

In a strange twist of fate...if a person comes into the doctor's office and says 'I'm the opposite gender to my sex' and the doctor gives them cross sex hormones, they have already refused to admit that they ARE the opposite gender to their sex as otherwise they would not have had to give them any hormones.

Bloody transphobes.

How can one be "phobic" about a condition that doesn't even have a coherent meaning or description? Compelled religion is right. "Transphobic!" is right up there with "Blasphemy!" and takes me straight back to Life of Brian.

Omg. No it isn't. It isn't a "perfectly valid opinion" to think homosexuality should be illegal for example.

I’m actually quite cautious around all men I don’t know. And if some of them come across as odd I’ll be doubly cautious. I don’t want to share a private vulnerable space with odd weird men. And I certainly don’t want my dds or elderly mother to either.

I think those instincts a perfectly natural to women and shouldn’t be labelled as unlawful or hateful. Just instinctive protective mechanisms. This is why single sex spaces are so important to uphold.

This thread should be retitled "Transhobic and proud"

We only want a pee

I know I will get pilloried on here for saying this, but I often feel discomfort as a result of reading posts on this board that seem to come from negative bias or generalised negativity towards trans people.

This often takes the form of negative inferences about motivation. Some posters don't acknowledge that their inferences are not facts, and when challenged, will make an appeal to authority. These appeals often relate to the length of time they've been a feminist or on FWR, their own experience with trans people, or simply the level of conviction they have that has been bolstered by others who agree. To me, this indicates that they may have significant blind spots that lead them to hold biased views and automatic negative attributions.

Those who consider themselves to be transgender are a heterogenous group. Some are very vulnerable (at risk) and others are high risk in terms of the harms they might cause others. I expect people who have not encountered many trans people might form biased opinions based on their experiences that they then general use to the whole group. For example, a mother with an autistic daughter who is binding and becoming more and more alienated from her family is likely to hold in mind very different ideas about 'trans people' and what they need and deserve than a trans widow with an AGP ex.

Both, due to their legitimate concerns, are likely to fear views and opinions that are likely to soften or harden other people's views of 'trans people'.

Great piece of thinking and writing, there, Garlicked, thank you! I think I'm going to save it somewhere and refer to it in those moments when I just KNOW someone is talking BS but can't quite verbalise what it is. Which is often, in my case

There is a catch 22 in a 'phobia' which involves something that many people profoundly believe just doesn't exist, and is anti-women in the way it is declared and manifested by its supporters.
If you believe humans can't change sex, you're transphobic from the beginning.
If transgender means changing gender but not sex [which seems to be a current version?] then trans women are, by their own admission, men. So what's all this TWAW nonsense then? Oops, transphobic..
It's a lose-lose situation in the short term, but there are green shoots appearing e.g. in the courts and tribunals🌱

"It isn't a "perfectly valid opinion" to think homosexuality should be illegal for example."

I fundamentally disagree with the opinion that homosexuality should be illegal, but it is debatable, in my view, as to whether this constitutes homophobia.

You may hold beliefs/ views that homosexuality is somehow harmful to society and therefore should be outlawed. At the same time, you may not harbour any negative views towards gay people.

I think this is the crux of the whole thread