There is something profound about being seen. Being accepted and loved for exactly who you are. It’s life changing. It’s simple. It’s transformative. But some people don’t get to experience this. Nearly half of transgender Australians have attempted suicide.
That data tells the very real impact of discrimination, stigma and lack of access to gender-affirming surgery. I write this as a woman who was born a woman, who identifies as a woman. I’ll admit, that even in that gender role, that fits within the societal binary, I’ve had my own challenges.
I know the pain of not meeting the societal expectations about what women ‘should’ look like. What they ‘should’ do. I know what it feels like to push back. I know what it feels like to be discriminated against. To be the only woman in the room. I know what it feels like to walk a street and feel unsafe. But I do not know what it feels like to be a trans person.
I do not know what it feels like to have a gender that is different to what was presumed for me at birth. I do not know what that feels like growing up. I don’t know the sense of loneliness. The isolation. I don’t know what it feels like to be told by society not to be me. I don’t know what it feels like for this conversation to sit in the public domain, like it doesn’t belong to you.
As a feminist I do not understand or agree with TERFS – or gender-critical feminists. If transgender people don’t have allies in feminists who can embrace broad definitions of gender, who can stand in solidarity with anyone hurt by the same system that has hurt us, then what is the point of smashing the patriarchy? From my perspective, trans-rights are an integral part of the feminist movement. A movement that by its very definition, claims to subvert exclusion.
I don’t understand why some fear transgender people. They are one of the most marginalised groups in our community, yet there seems to be an endless amount of unfounded, bigoted fear and misinformation. Hate speech abounds. The hate is very often hidden in posts about ‘women’s safety’. I came across one the other day on a local community Facebook page. I will not repeat what it said because it was so offensive, but it inferred that transgender acceptance would lead to women being unsafe in public bathrooms. Mainly men were on the post.
I scanned past it and wondered how admin of the group had not blocked it. I read the comments. It was a hate fest. There wasn’t a single comment in defence of trans people. I can’t imagine what it would feel like reading that as a person who identified as transgender. As a cis-woman I found it disturbing. This kind of hate is laced with violence. Ironically they were talking about women’s safety – like they give a shit. Real data shows us that women are not at risk from trans people, we are at risk from men. Angry men who we are in relationships with. Men in our families or in trusted institutions who sexually assault us.
So that’s what I wrote. Basically, if you are so worried about women’s safety stop killing us. One woman is murdered by her partner or ex-partner every week. And it’s a man. Be a man who stands up against that. Transgender people in public bathrooms pose no risk. Statistically they are the community at risk in public places.
March 31 every year is International Transgender Day of Visibility. It’s about celebrating accomplishments and victories. It’s about raising awareness of the work that still needs to be done. It’s about being seen. Being celebrated. And being safe.
Let’s make our spaces – public, and private – from physical buildings to metaphysical mindsets, inclusive. Let’s see.
I think people are not so much cranky with transgenderism, rather how silly our society has become.
Kaz, “transgenderism” is not a 21st century phenomenon. What maybe an increasing trend though is an understanding that we need to walk that proverbial mile before engaging in bigoted knee jerk rejection, more of a live and let live outlook and a valuing diversity. What’s waning perhaps is a willingness to let ancient texts dictate our attitudes to all of life’s complexities.
Does “valuing diversity” include “valuing” self harm?
You encourage psychosis with your zeitgeist nonsense. Take a break.
‘Does “valuing diversity” include “valuing” self harm?’ you ask. What do you think Kaz?
“zeitgeist”? You’re the one who told me that evolution is ongoing. I’m agreeing. As a species we are reaching higher planes of understanding, empathy and autonomous thought.
Thanks, but I don’t feel the need for a “break” right now!
There have always been people that identify as blind, or feel that an arm or a leg is foreign to them, but we never used to do surgery on them to blind them or amputate. Body dysmorphic disorder is treatable.
I thought the ultimate libertarian view is that people should do what they bloody well like and it’s nobody else’s concern unless it causes harm. Where’s the harm?
I saw a big one in a little black miniskirt and fishnet stockings, at a local country market! I was eating at the time and was well offended. No harm done?
I couldn’t have asked for a better answer to the question. Thanks Kaz
Just so you know, suicide rates for trans people are double after medical transition than before transition. Yes trans people have higher rates of mental health conditions, but transitioning often isn’t the quick fix they’re hoping for. You need to look into what detransitioners are saying; teens being sold a lie that they can change sex and be happy, when what they needed was good mental health care through their uncertain teen years.
Genuine trans people are no risk but gender self-i.d. has emboldened some very unsavoury male sexual fetish predator types to become public with their crap under the guise of being transwomen. So tell me how we are to know the difference if we find them in our women’s spaces. This is real and if you bother to try harder to research you will find how real it is.
Great points!
Can you provide the source of “suicide rates for trans people are double after medical transition than before transition. “
The woke cancel culture has done its own thing to be not taken to seriously. May I remind Mandy about the Russel Brand witch hunt. I feel that transgenderism is almost a kind of self hatred, and a lot of people are really sick of it, myself included.
So who’s invoking the “cancel culture” here?
The weekday moderator!!!
Roughly 0.05% of the population experience gender dysphoria, yet it receives about 15% of media coverage (and probably double that if you watch the ABC).
Furthermore, they’ll never report transition regret or the growing rates of detransition surgery, especially those teens who felt pressured by trusted adults to commit to hormone medication and surgery.
As parents, teachers, doctors, counsellors etc, we have a moral obligation to show compassion for those struggling with identity issues (yes, we all have a need to be seen) and to treat mental health with the discernment and sensitivity it requires.
I reckon the vast majority of parents desperately want what’s best for their children. Any parent faced with distress their child is suffering from gender dysphoria will most likely baulk at major medical intervention for someone in their teens – or younger. In the trauma of navigating the best way forward I’d suggest none would “pressure” their child to commit to hormone medication and surgery. Likewise the professionals they might encounter. Is there a skerrick of evidence that this occurs?
are you serious… this is what the “affirmation model” is about… fast tracking kids into medicalisation. And parents are told this is what is best and have trust in the medical profession. Before this “affirmation model” used by the medical profession now (apart from a number of health professionals who have spoken out against it), the “watchful waiting” model was used. The upshot of that was that kids got good psychological support for their gender dysphoria through those formative teen years and by the time they were in their late teens, most had desisted and had realised they were either gay or lesbian or just “grew out of it”. A small number continued of the path of transition and made their own decisions about medicalisation. At that age they were way more competent to make the sort of decisions which would impact their lives forever.
Are you referring to puberty blockers here, Annette? Some indication of the sources of your research would be good 😊
Puberty blockers are the beginning, then cross-sex hormones, then surgery, leading to lifelong and irreversible changes with a side-effect list that is truly horrific. Pubert blockers have been banned from many European and Scandanavian countries and UK for under 18s or for medical trials now the evidence is in for the long-term damage done and the lack any positive data. Australia needs to play catch-up. Parents are at the mercy of the medical and drug companies, being told their kids will suicide if they don’t start treatment and the statistics simply do not back this up. On the contrary, as I said previously, stats show suicide becomes more likely after medicalisation. As a parent I would be avoiding medicalising any child unless it is absolutely necessary.
I’m surprised that anyone who is really interested in this issue has not done their research, but simply go with the playbook of what the lobbyists are saying.
Annette, you have not provided the source of “suicide rates for trans people are double after medical transition than before transition. “ which you quote again.
I have a nephew, who began transitioning from female to male at 18. It was all his choice, but parents and other family were very supportive. He is now an extremely happy and successful man in his thirties.
The entire Tavistock Clinic scandal!!!
You can not have Feminism without a Gender Binary. Transgenderism (In fact anything derived from Queer theory) is in direct opposition to Feminism and Homosexuality
As a feminist since I can recall conscious thought, I’ve never found it so. Decades ago I was part of a group working on a local campaign. One evening we met in a pub and, while I was buying a drink, a female acquaintance sidled up to me and asked in horror: “What are you doing here with all those blokes?”. Contrary to feeling discomfort at being “the only woman in the room”, I hadn’t really noticed. We were people with a common goal.
When interacting with people it never occurs to me to dwell on whether they have inboard or outboard motors.
There are inconsistencies in your post.
Only in your imagination Kaz
yes…and medicalising gender confused kids becomes basically “conversion therapy” for gay and lesbian kids. Telling them they’re trans rather than accepting their homosexuality, simply because they are gender non-conforming.
What the author fails to acknowledge is that the rates of offending among men do not magically change when they begin to identify as women. So yes she is right that we should be focusing on male violence against women, and we are. Transgender women remain male and their propensity to offend against females remains the same.
Sorry but I just don’t get the point here 🤯
So men who are violent before they identify as women are no less violent after? Who’d a thunk it? And what was the test sample size?
Or having some men identify as women doesn’t make the general population less violent? Who’d a thunk it?
The point is, we don’t allow cis men into women and girl only safe spaces.
Recommended reading.
TRANS
Gender Identity and the New Battle for Women’s
Rights
By Helen Joyce
Published by One world
2021
There is nothing , ” Big and Beautiful” about the systemic erosion of Womens’ hard fought rights. The Greens and Labor are hellbent on kowtowing to the Trans agenda, which wants to erase the term Woman, encourage the use of Gender bender drugs on young people, permit people to change their sex identity on their birth certificates, call mothers, ” breastfeeders” and the vagina a “Front hole” or a ” Glory hole”. Once again it’s males wanting to call the shots and tell women what it is to be a woman.
How did we get to this? Lesbians are no longer permitted to associate with other Lesbians at gay pride marches because they do not include Transwomen. This is society fraying at the edges.
Many women feel that once again we are being asked to step aside to accommodate the demands of men, in this case, men who claim to be women. It is definitely a feminist issue, but not in the way Mandy Nolan asserts.
Our biology is being erased, along with our rights. Why should a trans woman be allowed access to a women’s refuge, a place of sanctuary for women who have fled violence from “persons with penises”? Why should a trans woman, with all his physical advantages, be allowed to compete against biological women? Why should our language be changed to appease these strident males?
And on the issue of gender affirmation, we don’t affirm the body dysmorphia of a young person with anorexia so why is the gender dysmorphia of a young person affirmed and medicalised when to date, there is no research on the long term effects of transition treatments?