18th December 2022:
There has been in place since 2004 the Gender Recognition Act, an act that allows individuals to change the gender on their birth certificate. Basically, it means that if I am biologically male (or female) but feel that this does not adequately represent how I feel about myself, or how I identify myself as an individual, then I can use this law to legally change my gender from that of a man to that of a woman (and vice versa).
Okay, sounds fair enough. If a biological male prefers to identify themselves as a woman, personally, I don’t have a problem. If a biological male, however, wants to identify as a woman, and wants to access women’s spaces, such as women’s prisons, toilets, changing rooms, refuge centres, and anywhere else that biological women expect a space free of biological males, then yes, personally, I have grave problems with that, and that is what the Gender Recognition Act 2004 allows. That is, it doesn’t just allow a biological male (or female) to change their legal gender, which is just a matter of editing some words on a document, it allows them to access women only spaces.
Why do biological males want to access women only spaces? Men who prefer to identify as women are still biologically male, they have testicles and a penis, hairy chests, and they may be bald. Furthermore, they may be a threat to women, in the sense of being males who predate sexually on women. Many feminist groups have been campaigning, quite rightly, against this ill-conceived piece of legislation (see, e.g. https://womansplaceuk.org/). To safeguard against the potential problems associated with this legislation, the legislation requires that those individuals who want to change their legal gender to have to undergo some kind of psychiatric/medical diagnosis. But that is beside the point, because no-one who is biologically male should be accessing women only spaces, and the only people who would seek - demand - to do so, and campaign actively to do so, as though they are being oppressed because people with male genitalia are not treated as real women (which they quite obviously are not), are people whose motivations should be questioned.
This is not about the oppression of trans, LGBT or any other people. People should be free to express their own sexuality, their own manner of clothing, call themselves he or she, and the way they seek to do so is their own business. I support freedom, but I do not support the freedom for people to behave irresponsibly, and biological males who are trying to sneak their way into women’s spaces, claiming that they are being oppressed if they are not allowed in, are taking the piss. Totally taking the piss. I’d think it was a joke if it wasn’t actually happening. As a man, who might one day have a daughter, but who has a sister and a mother, and aunties, and female friends, I feel pretty appalled at this state of affairs. The law has not consulted me, nor any of the fathers, sons and brothers up and down the country who would be outraged at men accessing women’s spaces, demanding to access them, and even on ocassion assaulting women who try to defend those spaces (see eg https://www.feministcurrent.com/2018/04/27/trans-identified-male-tara-wolf-charged-assault-hyde-park-attack/), and shutting down meetings where women gather to discuss this assault on their freedom.
This legislation is not thought through, it is just equal rights gone mad, insane. People who have not got a clue about human rights or equal rights, or libertarianism (such as politicians) being swayed by a vocal minority who are openly confusing the issues and riding on the bandwagon of two centuries of grassroots organising on equal rights. And to make matters worse, currently going through the Scottish Parliament is a reform of the Gender Recognition Act that will remove the current weak barriers – the psychiatric and medical screening – to persons biologically male who decide they are women and want to access women’s spaces. Apparently, these biological males are outraged that they have to get psychiatric or medical approval, now they want their own decision to be enough. In other words, I can decide tomorrow that I am female, legally change my sex status to female, and then jump in the female showers at the local gym. Apparently, because I felt like a woman that morning, or that year, or that month, or that decade, I have the right to do so, and there should be no barriers.
It’s madness. The website transcrimeuk.com has records of some of the of people who are biologically male and who identify as women and who have been convicted of sexual offences against real (biological) women. These are biological males who live in the UK and who identify as women, and who are registered sex offenders who prey on women, and who would love to get into women’s spaces. Apparently, according to the Gender Recognition Act, they must be allowed to do so, they have a right to do so, and the law must remove all barriers to them doing so. Take a look at that website before you make any decision on this matter, and take a good look at all those people, and the crimes they have been convicted of, and ask yourself: should they have the legal right to access women’s spaces? And yes, they are accessing women’s spaces. Biological males in prison for sex offences against biological women are switching gender and getting sent to women’s prisons. You couldn’t make it up. This legislation allows for sex offenders to access women’s spaces, and the proposed changes to the Act make it even easier for them to do so. And bear in mind that those who are actually caught and charged represent in reality probably the tip of the iceberg.
Personas who are biologically male and who seek and demand the right to access women’s spaces are not to be trusted. No person who is biologically male (and yes, there is such a thing as biology, over and above what people feel that they are, or identify as) and who has any hint of decency, ethics, sense of what is appropriate, or sensitivity to female and feminist issues, is ever going to insist on accessing women’s spaces. And what kind of mindless political class panders to this kind of nonsense anyway? The answer: gameshow host politicians who are interested only in appearances and getting votes and who lack any substance.
I have no issue with men identifying as women, dressing as women, their sexual orientation, or anything they want to do. And I recognise that persons biologically male but presenting as women face potentially severe oppression and violence in male spaces. I would stand up and defend them from societal abuse, from threats of attack, from intimidation, and from anything else that comes their way. I would take a beating for them, and fight their cause, because they have a right to dress and act however they want, and no-one has the right to bully or abuse them, and I recognise that the potentiality within males is a lot more colourful and expansive than the limited options society presents to men for expressing it. But the answer to the real issue of trans oppression is not opening up women’s spaces to biological males who present as female, because that is wildly inappropriate and shows no understanding or sensitivity at all to the reality of women’s oppression by biological males, regardless of what gender they choose to represent themselves as. And besides, I do not recognise persons who are biologically male as women for one simple reason: they are not women. If they stood naked and presented themselves to any human culture anywhere in the world at any time in history, every single person would recognise them as males, without exception, and not females. Biological sex is not just about how you feel or choose to identify, the physical sex of the body produces its own unique set of instincts, influences and consciousness. Trying to pretend otherwise is just misguided at best, and at worst, it is insidious and downright creepy, and brings the whole issue of trans and LGBT rights into serious disrepute.