“The allure of escaping womanhood would have been huge, “ she writes. “If I’d found community and sympathy online that I couldn’t find in my immediate environment, I believe I could have been persuaded to turn myself into the son my father had openly said he’d have preferred.”
and
When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman—and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones—then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside.”
These are the two quotes that you have pointed out as being JK Rowling’s ‘transphobbia’.
Did you note that even the writer of this weak argument wrote the following:
“Transitioning isn’t easy but Rowling seems to be saying people can choose to transition on a whim simply because they think it’s more convenient to be one gender than another.”
‘Seems’ So… they even indicate that this is their own interpretation of her words that they, personally, have extrapolated.
What is interesting, is that this writer has missed something hugely significant. in the UK, transitioning only requires someone saying they have a transgender identity. This writer has used their personal belief about what a transgender identity means and any process required to gain a GRC to make their accusation.
This writer has confused their own belief about the pathway people have to take to be considered someone with a transgender identity with the reality of the process. And added their own perception of the emotional journey as well. They have decided their own personal criteria and belief about transgender identities as being representative of all of the group of people with transgender identities.
I consider this transphobic of the writer. This writer has arbitrated what is criteria for being a person with a transgender identity. We have seen numerous posters on FWR do this over the years who consider themselves to be defending transgender people.
That is also why neither of these two direct quotes you have selected and bolded show what you, and the writer of this woefully weak article, believe it shows.
As for this justification from the writer :
“The fear that a large number of transgender women are just men who want to be able to use women-only spaces unchecked is a harmful stereotype that paints trans people as predators instead of just human beings who want to live their lives.”
The writer has used emotional reasoning to coerce, while using misinformation to confuse the reader.
“a large number of transgender women are just men who want to be able to use women-only spaces unchecked”
There are male person who is above 8 years old who do claim to have transgender identifies who do want to use the female only single sex provision. They self publish that they do, and indeed, many simply did as they wanted when this article was written. In large numbers.
This writer then attributes the fear to those male people being painted as predators.
There are two issues immediately that spring to mind about that action from the writer. One is that it tries to dishonestly make the statement that no male people with transgender identities are predators.
The writer doesn’t address that materially real fact proven with convictions in the UK that some male people with transgender identities have been in prison for sex crimes which specifically fit the description of ‘predator’. Instead the writer uses a false generalisation device to make the reader believe this never happens.
The writer hides the truth behind a false generalisation.
The other obvious issue that this writer ignores is the general behaviour pattern that can be described as ‘predatory’ is that of ignoring female people’s lack of consent and acting in ways that cause that female person harm. Any male person over the age of 8 years old using a single sex provision where female people have the expectation that no male people over the age of 8 years old are also using that provision with them, is doing so without that female person’s consent.
Being a male with a transgender identity does not mean that they can ignore female people’s consent and it never did. They might have believed otherwise, however, from a safeguarding principle perspective a sex segregated provision was only ever for female people to access. As humans cannot change sex, those male people should never have been using a female single sex provision. The behaviour of ignoring a female person’s consent by entering a female single sex provision is a predatory behaviour.
The writer is lazy and uses very superficial explanations and their own bad faith and inaccurate representations that fall apart with scrutiny. It makes the accusations meaningless.
Edit to add: I forgot to clarify how the writer attempts to coerce in that false statement. They attempt to coerce because they portray female people as being unreasonable in rejecting those male people with transgender identities. That is an emotional coercion tactic.