Tickle VS Giggle - why I support trans inclusion
by Helen Said, Autistic advocate, Melbourne Australia
The Australian Federal Court has recently upheld a decision that the female-only App, Giggle for Girls, discriminated against trans woman Roxanne Tickle by excluding her from the App.
Many older feminists of my era are horrified by this ruling, as they believe that trans women are men pretending to be women, who make cis women feel unsafe in women's-only spaces, including social spaces, support groups, sports, womens bathroom facilities and women's prisons. But is the science and the hard data on their side?
I proudly belong to these organisations which uphold trans rights
* Australian Labor Party, whose Victorian Values Statement specifically opposes transphobia
* Women With Disabilities Australia, which is run by and for women, girls, feminine identifying and non-binary people with disabilities
* Australia & New Zealand Autistic Self Advocacy Network, which recognises the prevalence and rights of LGBTIQ people within the Autism Spectrum and commences its meetings by declaring acceptance of all gender, sexual and romantic expression
As a woman member of the ALP, WWDA and AUNZ ASAN, I do not feel, in any way, harmed or disadvantaged by the their trans-inclusive policies or the presence of trans people within these groups. I believe trans acceptance strengthens these groups and fosters a deeper commitment to diversity and equality. I feel certain that anyone who objectively explores the facts will come to the conclusion that, while most of us have a binary male or female identity, trans and gender diverse people have always existed and that trans women need and deserve the support of women's organisations.
Pick your cellmate - Chelsea Manning or Ghislaine Maxwell?
When I was handing out how-to-vote cards at last year's federal election, the Liberal Party campaigner complained loudly about Labor's support of trans people and asked me if I would be comfortable allowing my young daughter to use the women's toilets if a trans woman was around, to which I replied, "Yes". I said I had a trans friend who was a good person, and she said, "That's just one person", obviously implying that good trans people are the exception, not the rule.
Who would you rather your daughter met in a women's toilet block, a trans woman or Ghislaine Maxwell? A women's-only prison, with womens-only toilets, currently houses this Epstein co-conspirator, who is accused of trafficking and raping under-age girls. Women aren't necessarily safe in women's only spaces. Many women have experienced terrifying ordeals at the hands of men, and are far more likely to have been harmed by men than women, but it's wrong to assume that all cis-women make us feel safe. Both ascendant One Nation leader Pauline Hanson, and her billionaire backer, Gina Rhinehart, are enamoured with another Epstein co-conspirator, Donald Trump - hardly a desirable alternative government for women.
Should trans women be allowed to serve their sentences in a women's prison? In the case of Chelsea Manning, who declared she was trans after being convicted of releasing classified information to Wikileaks, and exposing war crimes, the answer would probably have been yes - better to meet Chelsea than Ghislaine in a women's toilet block. On the other hand, consider local life prisoner Paul Denyer, who killed three women and told police he hates women, then requested gender reassignmnet surgery. Obviously he should never be sent to a women's prison. Transgender Victoria agreed with the government that his request for gender reassignment was not a bona fide case and he has since reverted to identifying as a man.
Trans women in men's prisons fear for their safety, while women's advocates point to the potential danger to women inmates of transferring them to women's prisons.The above cases demonstrate that there are no easy answers but safety must come first. Each case needs to be considered on its merits. More importantly, we need to take a step back and ask why our "correctional facilities" are so unsafe in the first place. People who turn to crime are overwhelmingly from harsh and traumatic backgrounds, many of them with intellectual or other disabilities. Governments are ultimately responsible for the inhumanity of prisons and the high rate of recidivism. Prison reform is long overdue.
The hysteria around trans women entering women's toilets has obvious consequences for trans women's access. Many venues do not have gender neutral toilets, and if they do, they are only for use by disabled people. Many trans women feel pressured to avoid certain venues, risk outing themselves by avoiding the ladies loo, or risk being attacked for using the "wrong" toilet. Worse still, anti-trans hysteria impacts cis-women who don't look "feminine", who also get abused by anti-trans fanatics for supposedly using the "wrong" toilet.
"Stigma, psychological distress and long‑term harm to athletes"
Increasingly creepy and invasive gender tests are being mooted in some girls' sports overseas, in countries where governments or courts have made anti-trans rulings.
A new editorial published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine has warned,
"the rules contradict scientific evidence, violate fundamental human rights and may disproportionately penalise athletes with a difference of sex development (DSD). The new editorial has been produced by 34 academics with expertise across medicine and ethics, standing in firm opposition to the new regulations....
There is further concern for the disproportionate burden placed on DSD athletes, who may be compelled to disclose sensitive medical information or undergo unwanted examinations to continue their sporting careers.
Professor Williams, who has previously served as an expert witness in major international cases relating to athlete eligibility, adds that the lack of meaningful scientific evidence underpinning the policy makes its implementation both ethically and legally questionable.
Silvia Camporesi, Professor of Bioethics and Sports Integrity and Ethics at KU Leuven in Belgiu, who has published extensively on this topic since 2009, said: “This editorial is particularly important as it is unique in collating expertise of scientists, historians, legal scholars and ethicists, bringing together a formidable array of expertise and internationally renowned scholars.
“I never thought I would still be working on this topic after 15 years, but leaders of key sports-governing bodies such as World Athletics have made this a personal battle to target women with differences of sex development and not only dissuade them from competition as they had been doing with the previous testosterone regulations, but exclude them from competition under the pretence of protecting the female category.
https://www.mmu.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/story/mandatory-gene-testing-female-athletes-unscientific-and-harmful-say#:~:text=Mandatory%20genetic%20testing%20for%20some,of%20Sports%20Medicine%20has%20warned.
Trans women transition so they can stop pretending to be men
I recently asked the mother of two trans "biological men" to explain how they adopted their trans identities. She said that when you or I, or anyone else, is accidentally misgendered, we immediately react with the sense of knowing that "I am not a boy, I'm a girl!" or "I'm not a girl, I'm a boy!" She said her kids had that same strong, innate sense of knowing that they were not boys, even though they were born as her sons.
Trans identity is backed by science: “since sexual differentiation of the genitals takes place in the first two months of pregnancy and sexual differentiation of the brain starts in the second half of pregnancy, these two processes can be influenced independently, which may result in transsexuality.”
NIH National Library of Medicine, Sexual differentiation of the human brain in relation to gender identity and sexual orientation, Ivanka Savic 1, Alicia Garcia-Falgueras, Dick F Swaab, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21094885/
· “the underlying brain anatomy in transgender people is shifted away from their biological sex towards their gender identity.”
NIH National Library of Medicine, Brain Sex in Transgender Women Is Shifted towards Gender Identity, Identity, Florian Kurth, Christian Gaser, Francisco J Sánchez, Eileen Luders, https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8955456/
While some feminists of my era accuse trans women of being "biological men who pretend to be women", many trans people say that they transition so they can stop pretending to identify with a birth sex which doesn't fit with their true identity. The scientific and anecdotal evidence quoted above confirms this. Pre-colonial cultures provide examples of gender non-conforming people - Tiwi Islander brother boys and Sista girls, Indigenous American two-spirited people, Mexican Muxes, Albanian Burrneshas - who were accepted within their cultures and often revered.
While Australian courts have upheld trans rights, we have a long way to go in accepting gender non-conforming attributes. Famous drag performer Courtney Act is adored for seeming convincingly feminine, yet trans woman Roxanne Tickle, who has a female birth certificate and gender reassignment surgery, was ridiculed and rejected by Giggle for Girls admin for not having a stereotypically feminine appearance. Neither trans women nor cis women should have to deal with narrow-minded judgements of their appearance. No member of any minority should have to worry about whether they "pass" as being feminine, masculine, white, straight, able-bodied, neurotypical, young or wealthy.
Unfortunately, anti-trans hysteria spills over to people born with ambiguous genetalia or XY chromosomal variations. The AIS (Androgen Insensitivity) Support Group Australia Inc advises parents to tell friends they either had a boy or a girl, depending on what medical experts say, and to raise their child as either a boy or a girl - to pretend that their child has a binary gender, to raise their child under that pretended gender and then seek advice if the pretense ends up clashing with their child's self-identified gender.
chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.rch.org.au/uploadedFiles/Main/Content/endo/Atypical_Genitalia_Parents_Guide(1).pdf
These pretenses are being forced onto intersex children because of transphobic binary gender fanatics. If wrongly gendered intersex children then transition to their self-identified gender, they are not "pretending". Some intersex children may well need gender affirming surgery, to change their birth certificates, to use the "wrong" toilets and compete in the "wrong' sports team. But where is the support for them?
Queensland Greens founder Drew Hutton, who was expelled from his party for anti-trans views and had his membership reinstated by the court, claims to support intersex people, while continuing to rail against a supposed "trans agenda". But how can he carve out intersex people, and protect them from the runaway gender discrimination that he is promoting against the "trans agenda"? What is the "trans agenda" anyway? I told my kids, when they were in kindergarten, that some people look like boys on the outside, but feel different on the inside, and they just accepted it. We are all straight and doing fine and, thankfully, marked safe from the 'trans agenda"!
It's time for the women's movement to extend solidarity to all women. Trans women are also oppressed by patriarchy. Patriarchy, not gender non-conforming folk, is what makes us unsafe. Trans women face gender issues of their own and need company, respect and understanding. The women's movement is big and broad enough to accommodate women from every walk of life.
I hope the small amount of compensation that Roxanne Tickle received is enough to help her get on with her life and I hope her court win is meaningful. Let's respect science and keep the MAGA-inspired anti-trans agenda out of Australia.
Comments
Post a Comment