If we were to transport ourselves back to the 80s and imagine ourselves reading the medical literature, we could have seen the transexual phenomena come under clinical academic scrutiny for the first time. Blanchard's research revealed an astonishing set of circumstances:
- That transexual ideation was especially common in children who would later grow up to identify as homosexual. And that in those individuals, the desire to be the opposite sex usually vanished.
- That of the men seeking transexual medical services most were heterosexual - in one of his studies the ration was 73 to 52.
- That the women seeking seeking transexual services were practically invariably homosexual - in the same study 71 women were homosexual and one was (in his view very questionably) heterosexual.
- That this number was disguised for a long time because clinics would not accept heterosexual men as patients - so many of them lied.
- That, of the heterosexual men who sought treatment, 80% had a clear sexual fetish, that of the homosexual men approximately 10% did and that of the homosexual women, 0% did.
- That, among the men, it was the heterosexual men who had the more stable transexual identity. The implication being that for many of the homosexual men, the reason they didn't desist from being transexual in adulthood was a difficulty of adjusting to being an adult male homosexual. (internal homophobia)
So, the 'true' transexual has always the heterosexual male with an erotic interest in 'being' a women.
Blarchart was clear that the suffering of all the individuals was intense, though in different ways depending on the sub-category. Blanchart's personal views were clear: transsexuality and any accompanying fetishes were morally neutral. His concerns were what treatment would be most effective at alleviating suffering and how the person in question could lead a happy life.
Much subsequent research has been spoiled because of the profound need of TRAs to bury Blanchard's findings in euphemism or to obscure them, that's why his work, especially in the 80s should be given considerable weight.
What should have happened in the 80s was a robust debate about how we (as a society) accommodate transexual men who are likely to be heterosexual and have a sexual fetish to be seen as women - but also for whom being unable to present as women causes very great unhappiness.
The first question is: is it even appropriate to insist that such men not be discriminated against. It's hardly beyond the pale for women to object to men parading around in public exhibiting a sexual fetish. When JKR made her 'dress as you like' post she was already conceding a lot. When KJK argues that she shouldn't be forced to hirer such a man, she's making a serious argument. I should add that I personally think that the argument comes down to one of self expression, and that in free society we need to grant individuals a maximum degree of self expression freedom, so long is their appearance is decent, so clearly in the JKR camp.
The next question is: should we as society should go to considerable lengths to keep such individuals from being forced into communal same sex facilities with their own sex and if so what does that look like. That is essentially the one that the UK has codified in law, but did so without a proper debate.
As for the question: to what degree should such men have a right to be treated as women. The answer is obviously none at all. And it was obviously irresponsible of Blanchard et al. to promote treatment that assumed that men should have access to women's single sex spaces. Presumably he felt that such policy considerations were beyond his professional expertise and remit. But we can trace the original sin to that irresponsible presumption by medical professionals.
With respect to 'protect the dolls', that is an attempt to refer back to a previous (to the 80s) era when transwomen placed under the category of homosexual men whose extreme effeminacy made it difficult for them to live everyday life as men. During the 60s such men were given the camp expression 'dolls' when they dressed up as women. So, its an active, awkward attempt to manipulate the debate with language, which describes the history of TRA in capital letters.