The New Backlash: 10. The real-life harms of transgender identity politics

If you're a feminist who talks about trans issues online, inevitably some Lefty dude will ask you something along the lines of, "But why does it matter? Why can't you just let anyone identify how they want?"

Mind, these Lefty dudes are not arguing for Rachel Dolezal's right to identify as black, or Donald Trump's right to identify as a genius, or StefonKnee Wolschht's right to identify as six years old, or some jerk at Walmart's right to identify as disabled for a good parking space. They're also happy to tell you that any feminist who objects to the sex industry isn't a real feminist no matter how she identifies, and any woman who thinks we need words for female and male people is a TERF, no matter how she identifies. It's only men identifying as women to which no objection is allowed, to which any objection must be framed as prudery, ignorance, bigotry, hatred.

So why does it matter that people on the Left are enforcing the lie that sometimes men are women?

First of all, transgender identity politics are not limited to Twitter and Tumblr. Rich, white men have organized highly effective campaigns to achieve institutional capture in a wide variety of settings, including government, corporate and non-profit institutions. (A good breakdown of how this happened in the UK: "The Tories let in trans mania - now they must drive it out.") Gender identity laws are finding unprecedentedly rapid acceptance in the United States. "Sex reassignment surgery" is a multi-million dollar global industry, which also rakes in millions of dollars for big Pharma. Doctors, therapists, teachers, cops, wardens, lawyers, judges, lawmakers, journalists, HR professionals et alia - all are instructed by lobbying groups such as Stonewall and Mermaids that in order to be politically correct, they must accept that sex is a social construct; that everyone has a gender identity along a gradient from Barbie to GI Joe; that cross-dressing men are the most vulnerable group in the entire world; that sometimes penis is female and sometimes men give birth; and that calling a man "he" against his wishes is a human rights violation on a moral par with Nazism.

This should be a concern for all Leftists, because it makes the Left look, at best, like idiots who don't know how babies are made or how words work or how power functions, and at worst like dishonest, authoritarian bullies.

Progressive causes are supposed to be about telling truth to power. We should be able to defend our beliefs and work to change hearts and minds with reason and research and analysis. Yet far too many Leftists now want to force everyone to participate in the absurd lie that some men are women.

It seems like a distressing number of (self-identified!) Leftists believe that being progressive means putting all the weirdos - all the people who aren't straight, white, healthy, financially secure, utterly normative men - into a weirdo bucket, to which they can point and say "I tolerate those weirdos because I'm cool and enlightened and nice." Anyone who questions why we need a weirdo bucket, or why, for instance, black people are being lumped in a bucket with forced sissification fetishists, must simply be uncool, unenlightened and mean.

Every time a Leftist says, "If you're a feminist, you should accept that transwomen are women," they are really saying "We are nice enough to pretend female people are fully human, so you should be nice enough to pretend that some men are women." It reveals their misogyny.

Every time a Leftist says "If you accept black women as women, you should accept transwomen as women," they are really saying "We are nice enough to pretend that black people are fully human, so you should be nice enough to pretend that some men are women." It reveals their racism.

Every time a Leftist says "If you support gay rights, you should accept transwomen are women," they are saying "We are nice enough to pretend homosexual people aren't unnatural sinners, so you should be nice enough to pretend some men are women." It reveals their homophobia.

The worst thing about delving into transgender identity politics, for me, has been the realization that so many so-called progressives are just as misogynistic, racist and homophobic as conservatives; they simply think that nice people should pretend otherwise and force others to pretend otherwise.

In short, the Left is now inhabiting a conservative caricature of itself. I don't doubt this plays a large part in the Left losing to complete morons like Donald Trump. That should matter to all Leftists.

And if that is not enough, in addition to compromising the entire Left, transgender identity politics also:

1. Hurt gay people;
2. Hurt gender non-conforming youth;
3. Enable men to invade women's spaces; and
4. Enable men to shut down women's speech.

~~~

1. Transgender identity politics hurt gay people.

The most egregious example of this harm is the "Cotton Ceiling," named after a Planned Parenthood workshop, led by a transwoman and entitled "Overcoming the Cotton Ceiling: Breaking Down Sexual Barriers for Queer Trans Women." The cotton in question? Lesbian's underwear. Trans activists and their allies call lesbians transphobic for not wanting sex with men who identify as women. They are never so clear about their central belief, "women should not be allowed to say no to penis," than they are here.

-A transwoman explains to a lesbian that penis can be female and to refuse sex with be-penised people is transphobic.
-Often, transgender activists will say the "cotton ceiling" isn't really a thing, and was made up by paranoid feminists. Yet a transwoman posts this: The Cotton Ceiling Is Real and It’s Time for All Queer and Trans People to Fight Back

-Here, a transwoman uses a LOT of words to try to convince the trans community to ditch the phrase "cotton ceiling" while doubling down on the male sexual entitlement.
-Enough With "I Date Women and Trans Men" A masterpiece of jargony doublespeak in which the biological reality of sex is completely erased.
-The Struggle to find Trans Love ("And when the overwhelming majority of cis dykes date and fuck cis women, but are not open to, or are even turned off by, the idea of dating or fucking trans women, how is that not transphobic?")
-Shit I cannot believe needs to be said: I don’t dwell on your genitals Shit I cannot believe needs to be said: this shit is bananas.
-More on how lesbianism is transphobic
-Can Cis Lesbians and Trans Women Learn to Get Along? Answer: yes, as long as "cis" lesbians will have sex with transwomen.
-Some thoughts on the cotton ceiling As per usual - lesbians must prove their "acceptance" of transwomen by having sex with them. To refuse sex with be-penised people is backwards and hurtful.
-Cambridge University student union gets in on the Cotton Ceiling
-Results from a survey done by Get The L Out - "Lesbians at Ground Zero"

Hmm. Where have I heard of this "friendzone" before?

The boxer ceiling is also a thing, but transmen, being women, do not have nearly the same clout with which to bully gay men. Not to worry - trans activist Juno Dawson didn't want gay men to be left out of the homophobic party, so he wrote in a national newspaper that "A lot of gay men are gay men as a consolation prize, because they couldn't be women."

Many gay men and lesbians don't like being told their sexuality is bigoted, having their history rewritten, and being forcibly associated with pedophiles (see also here and here and here and here). Because of this, several veteran lesbian and gay rights activists formed the LGB Alliance, which has, of course, been under attack from trans activists since its formation.

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2. Transgender Identity politics lead to the medicalization of gender non-conforming youth

Gender non-conformity in young people is now seen as an illness - little boys who wear princess dresses, for example, have personalities that are wrong for their bodies, and this mismatch is so terrible that in order to avoid almost-certain suicide, they must be transformed into facsimiles of the opposite sex, dependent on lifelong medical treatment, ideally starting with puberty suppressors and continuing to cross-sex hormones and penectomies (or in the case of "trans boys," mastectomies and hysterectomies.) This is gender eugenics. It is also the new conversion therapy.

Some basic Google searching shows how common this is becoming, even for very young children:

-How in the hell is a first grader transgender?
-Seven year old "Transgender boy walks with pride"
-'Sometimes people forget I'm a boy'. Watch this 8-year-old talk about being transgender
-Number of under 10s referred to the NHS for help with transgender feelings has more than quadrupled – with kids as young as 3 receiving treatment
-Children of 12 to be allowed gender drugs to prepare for sex change
-This headline should read "Transgender kids: painful quest to be who they AREN'T"
-It is not "gender neutral parenting" to tell your male child he's a girl or your female child she's a boy
-They Looked Beautiful, They Looked Normal
-Children’s Medical Center in Dallas has unveiled the first pediatric transgender program in the Southwest
-My 7-Year-Old Trans Son Asked Me Where Babies Come From "Sometimes mommies make sperm and sometimes daddies make eggs." Thanks Cosmo!
-BBC film for primary schools telling kids there are 100 genders

Can we talk about the "but my childhood was so miserable" stories, like this gem claiming Janet Mock was never a boy (derp)?

"How are my lived experiences those of a boy? They are not. Boys do not cry themselves to sleep wishing they were female assigned at birth. Boys do not internalise messages about and directed at girls and women as part of female socialisation. Boys do not have parents who recognise their gender as "girl" at a young age."

Contrast this with the common experience of black children telling their parents they don't want to be black, they want to be white instead. Nobody says "OMG they must really be white on the inside, quick, schedule their skin bleaching." No, instead we talk about racism, and internalized racism, and protecting kids, and self-acceptance. But somehow, we are not supposed to talk about how sexist and homophobic socialization also leads to self-alienation? Instead we're supposed to pretend any boy who doesn't revel in masculine socialization is not a real boy, and any girl who doesn't revel in feminine socialization is not a real girl?

No. A boy who doesn't live up to masculine stereotypes is not "really a girl" anymore than a girl who is a "tomboy" is "really a boy." Let kids be kids who grow organically into the only bodies they will ever have.

Further resources:

-Louis Theroux documentary, "Transgender Kids"
-Video: Michele Moore talks about the courage required to stand up against the transing of kids
-Podcast: Heather Brunskell-Evans wants to talk about the idea of ‘trans kids’
-4th Wave Now
-Safe Schools Alliance UK
-Transgender Trend
-Lisa Littman: Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria
-Our Duty (support group for parents of ROGD youth)
-Graham Linehan interviews transman Scott Newgent about gay kids being experimented on for profit

~~~

3. Transgender identity politics enable men to invade women's bathrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms, rape shelters, prisons, colleges, conferences, festivals, and sports.

Bathrooms, locker rooms, changing rooms:

-The politics of the toilet: A feminist response to the campaign to ‘degender’ a women's space
-Cross-dressing man sentenced for battery (Patrick Hagan, hulking male, punched out woman's teeth for questioning his presence in women's bathroom)
-Police: Man in bra and wig found in women's bathroom
-Child sex predator Paul Ray Witherspoon, ticketed for using female restroom, uses "gender identity" defense
-Man dressed as a woman peeps on women in bathroom at Wal-Mart
-Man disguised as woman peeped on students at Bellevue College ladies room
-Man accused of impersonating cheerleader to undergo mental evaluation
-Cross-dressing Peeper Infiltrates Cal Women's Locker Room
-Parents' outrage as transgendered woman is permitted to use the women's locker room 'exposing himself to little girls'
-"Mr. Benson has been known to dress as a female to gain access to undressed minor females by frequenting restrooms, dressing rooms, changing rooms, aquatic centers and pool locker rooms"
-Cross-Dressing Man Secretly Taped Women at Macy’s
-Voyeurism incidents at Target increase after "inclusive" changing room policy
-Man Arrested After Incident In Women's Dressing Room At Montgomery Mall
-Men Love the Ladies Room - Transgender Edition (numerous listings/links)

Rape shelters:

-A Sex Predator's Sick Deception
-GUEST POST: @FredVictorTO Finding Shelter
-Vancouver Rape Relief sued by transwoman Kimberly Nixon, for not allowing him to counsel female rape victims
-Updates on VRR:
Trans activists vandalize rape shelter
Trans activist Morgane Oger succeeds in stripping rape shelter of funding
-Woman writes article entitled "When I was raped, it was female-only spaces that helped me recover", is described as a "transphobic" "TERF" who "thinks like a rapist"
-Shelter forced women to shower with person who identified as a transgender woman and sexually harassed them, lawsuit says
-Man, Transgender, Boasts of Harassing Women in Crisis Shelter

Related:

My Trust Issues With Men (who call into rape crisis hotlines to masturbate)
HUD tells Homeless Shelters to Respect Self-Identified Gender
Woman in Homeless Shelter Threatened by Male, ‘Transgender’ Resident

Women's prisons:

Note: When feminists compile evidence of transwomen committing violent crimes, we're accused of using "a few bad apples" to paint all transwomen as violent criminals. However, we're not saying all transwomen are dangerous. We're simply saying that male people who identify as women are no less dangerous, statistically, than male people who don't identify as women. The numbers back us up- This scientific study found that even males who undergo SRS retain a "male pattern regarding criminality," including violent crime. Furthermore, half of all transgender prisoners are sex offenders or dangerous category A inmates. Gender Identity Specialists have warned of an “ever increasing tide” of transwoman sex offenders.

-Maddison Hall on Murderpedia
"...it was alleged that Hall had sexual relations with several female prisoners, allegations that resulted in Hall being returned to a male prison after 3 months. Hall was charged with rape in relation to one incident, but the charge was dropped due to the victim having left the country upon being released from prison in fear of her safety."
-"Ultra Violent" Transgender Teen "Jane Doe" transferred to male facilty after assaulting another female victim
-Transgender Defense: 'Donna' Says 'Doug' Is the Spokane Serial Killer (Douglas Perry)
"Perry allegedly confessed to killing nine prostitutes "because she couldn't breed and the women had the ability to have children and they were wasting it being 'pond scum.'"
-Transgender bathroom battle smolders in Fort Worth federal prison
-Transgender rapist moved to women’s jail put in segregation after making ‘unwanted advances’ on other lags (Jessica Winfield)
-Michelle Kosilek files lawsuit in bid for sex change surgery, transfer
-Transgender prisoner who sexually assaulted inmates jailed for life (Karen White)
-Calif. Senate Votes to House Inmates By Gender-ID, Despite Male Trans Inmate Allegedly Raping Women in State Prison (Richard Masbruch)
-Trans murderer serving life will receive £80k gender reassignment on the NHS (Paris Green)
"Since being incarcerated, Green from Glenrothes, Fife, has been removed from a women’s prison for sexually assaulting other inmates."
-Julie Bindel: Why are we placing high-risk sex offenders in women's prisons?
-Heather Mason, advocate for women prisoners: The alarm has been sounded, who's going to respond?

Related:

-Allison's Law - Sex offenders and violent criminals should be banned from changing their legal name and gender.
-Transgender male who killed child simply called "woman" by media
If "transwomen are women, period" their crimes will not be counted as male violence.
[Another example, and another, and another - once you start looking, you will see these everywhere.]

Colleges, festivals, sports:

-Why women's colleges still matter in the age of trans activism
-A Letter to My Community Regarding the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival
-You really have to read this propaganda about protesting a MichFest fundraiser for yourselves
-Dana Rivers, member of "Camp Trans" (protest of Michfest) later murdered two lesbians, regular Michfest attendees, and their son
-She's their stand-out player! Transsexual woman (aged FIFTY and 6ft 8ins tall) makes her debut on junior college basketball team
-Peggy Morgan: Why I Won't Fight Fallon Fox
-Transgender woman sues Crossfit for refusing to allow her to compete with other women
-California assembly rolls back Title IX protections for female athletes
-Experts, officials address concerns over transgender student athletes
-Judge sides with trans athletes against girls who just want fairness
-(See Fair Play for Women for more detailed and up-to-date coverage of the men identifying as women and taking women's places in women's sports, including Laurel Hubbard in women's weightlifting, Tiffany Abreu in women's volleyball, Rachel McKinnon in women's cycling, and Hannah Mouncey in women's handball.)

Seems fair.

-File this one under miscellaneous, I suppose: Jessica Yaniv sues immigrant women for refusing to wax his balls

~~~

4. Transgender identity politics enable men to shut down women's speech.

On reproductive rights:

-Why I won't be talking about abortion as a "women's issue" anymore
-Not Everyone Who Has an Abortion Is a Woman - How to Frame the Abortion Rights Issue
-Planned Parenthood's funding is under constant attack but let's pressure them to spend thousands on "inclusive language"
-Because heavens forfend Planned freaking Parenthood talk about sex sensically!
-Speaking of female reproductive reality, did you know that subsidized sperm-freezing is now a women's issue? And that women's wellness centers should provide free cervical exams to transwomen - who don't have cervices?
-Midwives Alliance of North America revises core competencies to remove all references to WOMEN and MOTHERS (as transphobic)

This male is so over it.

On female biology in general:

On female socialization:

-Silencing Shared Girlhood on Social Media
-Shared Girlhood: All the Transphobic, Terfist, White...
-“Shared girlhood,” Red Herrings, and the Creation of the Third Wave

On feminism:

-Forbidden Discourse: The Silencing of Feminist Criticism of “Gender”. This letter was signed by 48 radical feminists from seven countries and posted on a site called Pandagon, which was immediately inundated by complaints, and so took the post down. In response (to the letter, not the backlash,) 790 individuals and 60 organizations from 41 countries felt the need to post this misguided drivel.
-Janice Raymond responds to being disinvited from a conference on violence against women
-Deep Green Resistance responds to physical attack by "queer" activists.
-Victoria Brownworth: Gag Order: Silencing Lesbians on Social Media
-Gia Milinovich hosted a panel in which trans people and radical feminists talked to each other in a friendly manner, discusses the backlash here: Controversy.
-The BlockBot application, ostensibly built to allow Twitter users to avoid MRAs and other abusive trolls, adds gender-critical feminists and gender-critical transsexual people.
-Transgender activists try to develop "TERF tracker" before its founder is outed as a sex offender.
-Salon uncritically reposts a masterpiece of Orwellian doublespeak calling radical feminists a "hate group."
-The TransAdvocate engages in a crusade to have the SPLC *officially* label radical feminists a hate group, blames radical feminists for deaths of transwomen.
-The "F word" blog, claiming to represent "contemporary UK feminism," publishes a male who refers to himself as "a genderqueer, kinky, polyamorous pan/bisexual who can't keep their mouth shut" shaming anyone who dares even befriend anyone not in full support of transgender politics.
-RadFem Rise Up! conference: 30 women meet for a weekend; misogynist heads explode
-radfem2013 conference: The Dangerous Tale of the MREs and Their Allies
-@RoomOfOurOwn accepts submissions from *anyone identifying as a woman,* but since that includes radical feminists, NOT GOOD ENOUGH: