It will serve rational conservatives well to highlight more trans (and gay) voices who can explain how queerness undermines everything they're striving for in their lives. I don't agree with every take of this author (for example, I believe sports should be segregated based on birth sex which is not "assigned at birth" but rather recorded while the mother is still pregnant). But the point that putting gender on a spectrum diametrically opposes the binary gender presentation that gender dysphoric people seek is worthwhile and should not be regarded as transphobic. I'm not transphobic. I'm bullshitphobic.
This is a female. She's always been female, she will always be female, and it doesn't matter how she feels about it.
Even if she passes, she's female. Fool's gold isn't gold, even if everyone thinks it is.
She didn't "transition" because sex is binary and immutable.
She is suffering from a mental delusion that still needs to be treated. Mutilation isn't the answer for anyone because opening the door to the "true tranny" means it cannot be stopped.
None of this is real. There is no "gender dysphoria." It's untreated mental illness, nothing more.
There is no such thing as "transphobic." It doesn't exist. Stop using these bullshit, made up words as if they mean something. They mean nothing.
Don’t even try to talk rationally to someone with delusions. Deluded people are in their own little bubble, and can’t see reality. The only thing they can do is lash out! It’s actually comical the words they use, like the nonsense word” transphobic” . There is no such thing ! But it’s always trotted out ! 🤪🤪🤪
If you say : “there are two sexes , male and female “ TRANSPHOBIC!
You say “ a woman can’t have a penis” ! TRANSPHOBIC!
A paper on how early trans detection is now done, which is repeatable evidence of its reality. What, you want trans folk to only have the option of suicide? Robert Sapolsky’s lecture excerpt at Stanford details the neuronal evidence.
Again, I know that you, as a loud bigot ("There's no such thing as trans" which is simply dumb rightwing speech) will have screaming fits of denial, but the neurological research shows, and can be seen in after death brain slices, that transmen (ie, female to male) have more male neurons in their brains, transwomen the same with female neurons. It's not bloody mental illness. It's science. I gave you a link from six years ago, and a lecture by the world’s foremost neurologist showing science probably you didn't know existed. They aren't "made up words," Trump sucker.
Michael Shermer, is this the kind of hate filled person you want following you? Why did you jump on this hateful antitrans schtick? You lose my respect more every day.
You’re telling me that a male can have a female brain?
What is male? What is female?
Provide definitions. Go ahead.
Which tests are given to males to show that they have ladybrains before they’re given estrogen and birth certificate changes? Did Bruce Jenner take it?
Then tell me why you’re providing biological evidence for a social phenomenon.
Go ahead.
Can males have female kidneys? Hearts? Livers? Why not? Explain.
Oh and btw, hospitals and professors are never pushing propaganda due to money and an agenda, so I believe all of it. The guy who did lobotomies had plenty of reasons to push what he did, not to mention the companies who pushed cigarettes, or the doctors who prescribed Thalidomide.
You know, it’s a cult, and if you’re in a cult, you have to believe the lies that the cult believes..things ,in this case , like. “ a woman can have a penis “ or just as ridiculous as, “ a man can have a vagina “… or “ male brains and female brains,etc.”
To be a part of a cult, you have to go along with all the insanity, and if someone tries to show you facts, you have a hissy fit. No logical thinking, no room for any kind of rational discussion.
Cults have been around forever , but this one , the trans cult, is the most dangerous ever, since it has slithered into our society like a bad viper! It’s part of the slippery path to trans humanism, in which everyone will be controlled . The trans cult already is on the way to controlling normal people, so anything that can be done to stop it is good.
There are a few cracks in this cult, so that’s the good news!
Stupid, arrogant, misguided, repetitious, one sided, boring, hate filled rant of ridiculous denial, as predicted. Ignoring anything I gave you which demonstrates how off base you are. You don't want to hear the truth. Go watch Fox News, they probably taught your hate to you. "Freddy Uncle Charlie Katie You," you close minded dogmatist. Same to your "definitions." You don't get to decide anything. Nobody cares about your obsession with trans people. You should maybe have some sex with one? Will that make you feel better? Trans people have always existed. In all cultures. They won't just go away from your wishes. You will never admit you'e wrong and you won't even pay any attention to the science. You are nothing but a Nazi-like Trump-sucking bigot.
I started feeling you were saying something very important but I'm afraid I gave up at the women's sports stuff. You obviously do not care about the safety of woemn. You can no longer speak for women.
You sound a thinker, and I wish you well, but you also sound sadly like someone who has taken on the arrogance of men in relation to women's rights. I do not believe that male biology can ever be equated with a complete understanding of the female condition. And vica versa.
If you want to be male then surely that sets you aside from women who like being women.
And the psychology of trans identities is something we need to discuss. And you can do this much better than I can. The more that non-aggressive trans people speak up the better.
Also I am not a cis women. I am awoman. You are a trans man. What is wrong with those definitions? Equal but different in my mind. Own the trans. You cannot actually change sex.
And I'm afraid a woman is not someone who presents as a woman!
And people are born a certain sex, not allocated/assigned a sex at birth. Genetics matter and its pointless to try to pretend otherwise.
Women have fought for a very long time to gain recognition and rights and e.g. their own sports categories. Men kept women out of a lot of sports and are not now going to push men who have been through the physically emboldening male puberty into womens categories - not men who want to be women, or who want to push women out for their own self aggrandisment. Well I never! As if a man could possibly be so motivated!
We women will continue to fight. We have been at the sharp end of sexual assault by males, and continue to be so. Lets call it rape. Male violence. Testosterone fuelled aggression.
We are in many cases, not all, at the beck and call of our ovaries, our wombs, our bleeding, our ability to bear children, or inability to do so, menopause. This is our destiny, gay or straight. The patriarchy exists believe me. I've been a woman for a long time and experienced it all.
To resonate with JKRowling .....Live as you want, love as you want, dress as you want - and I genuinely send you love and a sincere wishes for your happiness. And pass as best as possible as a woman - or a male - if you need to. But sex will always matter, and strong female identity is hard won for those of us who are women, and we treasure it. Own and treasure your trans identity and your unique human identity.
Please take a Skeptic's look at the foundation of all this, Gender Identity Theory. Also, if gender is a social construct, why not change society instead of bodies? How is gender nonconformity a medical problem, a disability? What is so wrong about masculine women and feminine men? At root, it all stems from homophobia, hating gays and lesbians.
Homophobia and misogyny are incredibly correlated. Transgenderism is a reaction to this in both types. For girls it's a way to escape patriarchy and sexualization; for gay boys it's a way to escape the homophobia that results from the misogyny of being "the woman" or being looked down on for being "f-ed" and penetrated. For autogynophiles, it's a narcissistic trauma response and schizoid inability to be intimate. Mostly due to the dissociative trauma of testosterone driven behavior experienced at an early age.
All of these are disorders of patriarchy and objectification. If we really want to build a better society we must look at these structures and address them.
(FYI since no academics in psychology are willing to research this, you won't find it in the DSM, I've put it together based on Ray Blanchard and Sam Vaknin)
"If gender is a social construct, why not change society instead of bodies?" This is what feminism used to be about. Don't make it your fault for not fitting in as a woman--let's change the rules for how to be an authentic woman. It used to be anorexia, rhinoplasty, facelifts, and boob jobs that we criticized--now the plastic surgery/body mod industry has gone feral with so-called "transgender" surgeries.
Now longstanding feminist institutions like NOW, Planned Parenthood, and the like have been inverted by the distortions of transgenderism. Men are now women, listen to the most oppressed women (men), and don't plan your parenthood, destroy your fertility with cross-sex hormones! But I guess that's an easier and more popular lift than winning paid maternity leaves so that mothers and babies can bond and learn their new roles. That would "only" help 85% of all American women, whether or not they identify as feminists. But no, we have to center the men who believe they're women now and will never be mothers.
I think these kinds of accounts are needed to remind folks that most trans people aren’t “activists” of any kind, simply folks trying to live their lives. Many outspoken trans-critical people, listening to the loudest voices on traditional and social media. seem to have mentally positioned themselves against an imagined army of activists going around making unreasonable claims,brainwashing children and corrupting the psychiatry industry, and this stance is eating away their natural empathy for people simply living with queer condition they didn’t choose that entails substantial challenges.
If these trans people live their lives acknowledging that segregated facilities are segregated by SEX, and that sex in mammals (including humans) is fixed at conception and cannot be changed later by any means, then fine.
But I think very few trans people do acknowledge this. The letter-writer certainly does not. They want access to wrong-sex facilities.
This tramples all over the rights of everyone else to sex-segregated facilities, which have been an aspect of every human society ever, most definitely including our own.
Nobody enters a special category for refusing to accept the reality of their sexed body. These people are suffering from untreated mental illness, and they're part of the problem.
Nobody enters a special category for refusing to accept the reality of their sexed body. These people are mentally ill, and they remain the sex that they are, even if they pass. Which the vast majority never will.
There is no test for "real trans" people who are some of the good ones. If they refuse to accept that sex is binary and immutable, and they take hormones to try to trick others, they are part of the problem. They're not just trying to live their lives. This is a fraud, and once the door is opened, it will inevitably end with men in women's prisons and children being mutilated.
There is no way to stop it, other than a complete rejection of the entire fraud. There are no "good ones." This is untreated mental illness, across the board.
"If they refuse to accept that sex is binary and immutable, and they take hormones to try to trick others, they are part of the problem."
The author of the letter claims that her social "transition" provided relief, and that when she started her medical "transition" she gained further relief. I.e. her motivation for "transitioning" was to gain relief from the dysphoria that had been causing her distress since her childhood. What do you make of that?
Do you believe that attempting to obtain relief from gender dysphoria via "transition" is also part of the problem?
People who live a lie and a fraud and claim they're "one of the good ones" are still part of the problem because they are still pushing the fraud.
There is no such thing as a "transition." She did not go from female to male, and if she recognizes that, what is the point of anything she does?
There is no such thing as a "social transition." She is tricking people into thinking something that she is not and that's if she passes (the vast, vast majority of these people will never pass). Fool's gold is not gold even if everyone thinks it is, and imitations are never that which they imitate.
She does not have "gender dysphoria." There is no such thing. How on earth would she know what it is to be a man? What is her point of reference? She is not male and never will be.
She is suffering from a deeper mental illness that still has not been addressed. What is the cause of her desire to be someone that she is not? Childhood sexual abuse? Autism? Depression? Those are the issues that must be treated.
Imagine this with any other illness. Imagine an anorexic saying "I know I'm not fat, but I get relief from starving myself and taking diet pills. But don't worry, I'm one of the good ones!" Would this person be promoted as "one of the good ones"? Or told NO by doctors since that mentality is part of the problem?
Imagine this with Rachel Dolezal. She felt discomfort at being white since she was a child, and now she feels better after she "transitioned" to black. If that gives her relief, should that be promoted?
Opening the door to mentally ill people like this claiming that they can "transition" means everything must follow--there will be men in women's prisons, men in women's sports, childhood mutilations. How on earth can it be stopped?
So she must be told NO. That is the only solution here. Allowing mentally ill people to live a lie is not the solution. If doctors say no to anorexics, schizophrenics, apotemnophiliacs, why can't she be told no? There are people who want relief from chopping off healthy legs because of discomfort they feel. They're told no, so can people like this.
These people are mentally ill. Catering to mental illness and allowing widespread societal upheaval, leading to men in women's prisons, is not the solution. She should have been told NO because she is and remains as part of the problem.
You run the risk of a contradiction in claiming both that there are no trans people and that it is a mental illness. If a mental illness, that means it exists. If a mental illness, you have to remember that what is an illness is partly culturally defined and not set in stone. Remember that homosexuality itself used to be considered a mental illness by the psychiatry profession and that view is now rejected.
For me, one of the most interesting pieces of evidence that there is in fact a “chip” in our brain that tells us what gender we identify with is that as late as the 1960s, people born with genital abnormalities used to sometimes be made to undergo surgery as infants and be raised from infancy as if they were the opposite of their biological sex, with gender-conforming names and clothing. It is documented that some such individuals verily struggled with the gender identity they were raised woth over their lives, knowing on some level that it didn’t fit them. To me, it would be plausible that such a chip would sometimes accidentally not match someone’s biological sex due to any manner of biological accident.
There is no contradiction here. Mental illness exists. "Trans" does not.
There are no “trans” people. As a category, there is no group that becomes notable for rejecting the reality of their sexed body. Men who don’t want to be men are still men. They don’t need hormones, birth certificate changes, or surgery. They will always be men, that is, adult human males.
Autogynephilia exists, schizophrenia exists, severe depression exists, pornography addiction exists.
This does not mean that the ideas or delusions that these people have should be affirmed, catered to, or taken seriously.
If anorexics demanded liposuction they would be told no because we recognize that they are suffering from mental illness.
When a man demands that the whole world cater to his delusion that he’s a woman, he can be told no as well. That is a symptom of a deeper problem which does exist—usually autogynephilia in adult men.
That’s the difference. There is no contradiction here.
“Trans” does not exist and that is why nobody can define it.
Homosexuality exists because sex exists, and it’s not hard to define. That’s not a comment on its morality. It exists.
And what on earth do you mean by "CHIP" in someone's brain? Where is the proof for that? Where is the test for it? Since the late 60s? Nobody knew a thing about the brain in the 60s, and they still know very little today. The brain is a biological organ--you're telling me a part of the brain can tell you that you're actually a female even if it's in a male body? How the hell would that even work?
No. And don't bring up genetic disorders. That has nothing to do with a physically healthy male who "feels like" he's female. This is ridiculous.
We've been told for decades that "gender" is all social, now you're telling me it's biological? Are these men getting brain scans to PROVE that a tiny part of their brain is female? What is female then--define it.
NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE. There is no CHIP that tells us whether we are male or female. Our bodies are male or female, in their entirety. Read my post on this.
This is bullshit in its purest form. Stop it. "Trans" does not exist.
Transexuals suffer from a physiological birth defect caused by environmental pollution. It is not ''bigotry'' to insist on giving priority to biological FACTS over the wishes of humans. It is part of the same stance of giving priority to nature that is in play in protecting the earth. Regardless of if you like it or not, the biological FACT is that humans, like all other mammals, are born with the reproductive organs of one sex or the other and that remains for life, no matter how they feel about it or what cosmetic surgery alterations are done to them. If we once give in on this point, we start down a slippery slope to giving in on other biological facts in favor of how some other tiny and insigniificant fraction of the humans happen to feel about them.
Transgenderism, like wrong-sex attraction in general, is an environmental issue, not a social issue, since in the vast majority of cases it is a birth defect caused by prenatal damage to the developing hypothalamus when a pregnant woman ingests hormone-mimicking chemicals released into the food and water supply by the manufacture of plastics. The hypothalamus is the part of the brain that controls sexual response and also proprioceptive sensations that tell you what your own body is doing and if there is anything amiss with it. Prenatal exposure to certain chemicals can interfere with this development and result in a homosexual or transexual individual.
As a skeptic and atheist my self, I think we need to logically evaluate what is being said here. I would first challenge anyone to give clear definitions for "gender" "gender identity" "transgender" and all the gender related words she is using here. I already know the answer, they don't have clear definitions, it's a lot of circular reasoning.
Let's talk facts, shall we, It is a medical fact that a woman who injects anabolic steroids like testosterone at high doses is poisoning herself. The female body has a healthy range that testosterone, progesterone and estrogen need to stay within, high levels of testosterone wrecks the female body. Now, one can make the argument that an adult can poison themselves if they want, but that's another debate.
I found it interesting that by her own definitions of what a woman is I am not a woman. Why? Well because other people don't usually perceive me as such out of the corner of their eye? What? We are on very shaking ground here if we are saying a woman only exist if someone else sees her as a woman. No, facts, a woman is an adult female, full stop.
And here is another fact, males and boys after they have begun puberty are faster and stronger than females on average. They do not belong in girls and women's sports. It's unfair, and the science is there to prove it which is why trans advocates always fall back on using the exception to the rule fallacy, or appeal to empathy. They can't have an actual factual argument because facts don't support their case.
Finally, and this is my opinion, her "very uncommon trans experience" is actually a very common experience for butch lesbians. As a butch lesbian my self who also transitioned but has since desisted and stopped taking testosterone, I have studied a lot of lesbian history. I've read accounts from butch lesbians going back a100 years, and we all have almost the same trajectory. Her experience is actually not special at all and is very common for lesbians, who are perceived as masculine. Now, I don't know if she is a lesbian or not, but I would bet she is based on her experience alone. It's very common for gays and lesbians to be gender-nonconforming kids, and it often continues into adulthood. We get a lot of abuse because of this, so it is no surprise and actually quite logical that we would believe we were born in the wrong body.
I must add this because it's a common belief, that "gender dysphoria" is this special issue that is so extreme that people must poison and cut themselves up to treat it. Nothing could be further from the truth, in my opinion. First, "gender dysphoria" is another term with no clear definition that can encompass a whole bunch of feelings. I personally don't believe gender dysphoria is innate or anything special. It's an emotional distress over one's body, just like so many other disorders and things humans deal with. I believe it can and should be treated through mental health care only. Medical intervention for a mental health issue is unethical. It does not fix the issue, it masks it.
If we just logic through what this woman is saying it falls right into the religious belief category. One I don't want to be in when deciding law, and demanding we restructure society.
She is a woman. She isn’t disabled. She chose to take testosterone to look more masculine, that was a choice she made. The entire idea that one can change their gender should be rejected wholesale. And if a woman consents to fighting women in MMA and then ends up getting injured by a man pretending to be a woman, that’s assault because she didn’t consent to that level of risk. And her beliefs about sports and female/male strength differences are delusional. All this nonsense should be rejected wholesale and ignored.
Point well taken -- but there is a sort of Lessing's Ditch here. Definitionally, the physical experience from Menarche to Menopause; physicality, etc. *IS* the definition of womanhood. Any part of that that path that is lacking must be *imagined* without experience.
To whom you are attracted sexually is purely subjective and therefore cannot reasonably be contested by an outside observer.
Where you decide to live your life on a spectrum of superficial, stereotypical male to female attributes (and we all do) is also purely subjective and similarly cannot be questioned.
However, your biological sex reflects an objective reality which cannot be changed by your subjective personal view and futile attempts to do so can result in serious health impacts to you as well as actual harms to members of the sex you are impersonating (especially women).
Finally, others who are grounded in objective reality should never be forced to accept your subjective version of your actual biological sex.
Secondly and I know this sounds harsh but:
If you believe that trans women (aka men) should be allowed to compete against biological women in most sports or that they belong in women's restrooms, locker rooms and prisons then you are either cognitively impaired or intellectually dishonest.
This person truly represents a fraction of 1% of the population. He is genuine and an impressive person. The heart of the letter to me is this: “there can be no such thing as transgender or transsexual if we do not have a gendered binary! I get just as annoyed as you do at the "non binary" and "queer" radicals who think that they're being avant-garde by "deconstructing gender."
If one has to put “trans” in front of “man” or “woman”, you are not.
WRT sports, if a person has already gone through puberty, then no, you play with your biological sex. Full stop.
There are no "reasonable trans" people because there is no such thing as "trans."
"Trans" does not exist.
And if you're looking for a "reasonable" way for mentally ill people to mutilate their bodies and force lies on the rest of society, then you're part of the problem.
There is no reasonable way to do a lobotomy or give a 70 pound anorexic liposuction or let a white person pretend to be black. This is an outright lie. There are no reasonable ways around it.
I’d like to hear more about the effects of testosterone on your body, & also any long form birth control you may have ingested to suppress your menses. Vaginal dryness, incontinence, clitoral growth that’s painful, high cholesterol & kidney problems, osteoporosis/osteopenia, etc.
Many women who believed they were men now suffer from geriatric diseases in their 20s-40s. This is what most people skeptical of “gender medicine” are worried about, especially when it comes to their kids or other young people.
Lisa is great. I met her at Genspect. Thank you for publishing this. It's good to have someone who is "trans" confirm that a person is either born "passing," or not. The lie that "you can pass" when you cannot ever pass *creates* dysphoria. Online "communities" reinforce the lie with love-bombing and encouragement.
If "a woman is a person who appears to be a woman and identifies as a woman" then what is the appearance that all women share? This immediately descends into reified sexist stereotypes every time, without fail. They don't even put a hat on.
The NCAA hurdles are set nine inches lower for women. I wonder if the writer imagines that transition makes the next Lia Thomas nine inches shorter?
This whole issue has been framed in terms taken from the Civil Rights movement, when it should have been seen from the start as a form of birth defect caused by environmental pollution and addressed by the environmental movement.
Like it or not, humans are a biological species, not some sort of supernatural ''soul'' incarnated in a physical body. They have a primarily biological existence and what they experience, including how they experience their own bodies, is best understood by biologists, not psychologists or sociologists.
The hypothalamus is the part of the brain that controls autonomic processes, including sexual response. It also is the part responsible for the proprioceptic sensations that give one a sense of sexual identity.
In recent decades there has been a huge increase in sexual disorders that include both sexual attraction to the wrong sex and misidentification of one's own body. These issues are not just happenstance and are not due to social changes. They are a physical, biological matter caused by chemical contamination of the environment, the food supply, and water supply, by certain chemicals, especially some used in the manufacture of plastic, which are close enough in molecular structure to human hormones that if ingested by a pregnant woman at the stage of gestation when the hypothalamus of her fetus is developing can derail the development process and result in a person who is attracted to the wrong sex or is unable to feel his or her own body sensations in the normal way.
The victims of this form of pollution should be treated the same as any other victim of a disability, of course, but that right does not include the right to bully normal people into changing the language or culture that all human societies have developéd over the whole course of history which reflects thhe biological reality of the specfies. A man wearing a dress who feels himself to be a woman, or a woman who thinks she is a ''man born in the wrong body'' has a perfect right to dress as he or she pleases and be called by any name he or she chooses to go by, but I have a right to use the biologically proper pronouns regardless of how unpleasant that may be to them.
And if that makes them feel ''unsafe'', THAT is the point at which they should consult a psychotherapist--about these unrealistic anxieties.
Thank you for sharing this very thoughtful and thorough explanation of the author's journey. It was both thought-provoking and insightful. Sincerely, Frederick
It will serve rational conservatives well to highlight more trans (and gay) voices who can explain how queerness undermines everything they're striving for in their lives. I don't agree with every take of this author (for example, I believe sports should be segregated based on birth sex which is not "assigned at birth" but rather recorded while the mother is still pregnant). But the point that putting gender on a spectrum diametrically opposes the binary gender presentation that gender dysphoric people seek is worthwhile and should not be regarded as transphobic. I'm not transphobic. I'm bullshitphobic.
There is no such thing as "trans."
This is a female. She's always been female, she will always be female, and it doesn't matter how she feels about it.
Even if she passes, she's female. Fool's gold isn't gold, even if everyone thinks it is.
She didn't "transition" because sex is binary and immutable.
She is suffering from a mental delusion that still needs to be treated. Mutilation isn't the answer for anyone because opening the door to the "true tranny" means it cannot be stopped.
None of this is real. There is no "gender dysphoria." It's untreated mental illness, nothing more.
There is no such thing as "transphobic." It doesn't exist. Stop using these bullshit, made up words as if they mean something. They mean nothing.
Don’t even try to talk rationally to someone with delusions. Deluded people are in their own little bubble, and can’t see reality. The only thing they can do is lash out! It’s actually comical the words they use, like the nonsense word” transphobic” . There is no such thing ! But it’s always trotted out ! 🤪🤪🤪
If you say : “there are two sexes , male and female “ TRANSPHOBIC!
You say “ a woman can’t have a penis” ! TRANSPHOBIC!
“2+2=4 “TRANSPHOBIC!
Saturday Night Live can’t do better comedy!
Neuronal evidence proves the existence of trans people. I'm sure you deny that too, but that proves how wrong you are. With evidence.
"Neuronal evidence"?
Are you trying this to see if you can get away with it?
Idiots have been screaming for years that "gender" is social and that biology has absolutely nothing to do with it.
Now there's "neuronal evidence" as biological proof for a completely social/cultural/feelings/makeup/hair phenomenon?
Where? What's the test? Where's the proof?
Provide the evidence for the test that shows the evidence, replicable studies, and who took it before they got mutilative surgery on their genitals?
You can't even provide a definition for "trans," let a alone a test.
You people are ridiculous.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/05/180524112351.htm.
Lecture on neurological evidence by Prof Sapolsky https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QScpDGqwsQ
A paper on how early trans detection is now done, which is repeatable evidence of its reality. What, you want trans folk to only have the option of suicide? Robert Sapolsky’s lecture excerpt at Stanford details the neuronal evidence.
Again, I know that you, as a loud bigot ("There's no such thing as trans" which is simply dumb rightwing speech) will have screaming fits of denial, but the neurological research shows, and can be seen in after death brain slices, that transmen (ie, female to male) have more male neurons in their brains, transwomen the same with female neurons. It's not bloody mental illness. It's science. I gave you a link from six years ago, and a lecture by the world’s foremost neurologist showing science probably you didn't know existed. They aren't "made up words," Trump sucker.
Michael Shermer, is this the kind of hate filled person you want following you? Why did you jump on this hateful antitrans schtick? You lose my respect more every day.
You’re telling me that a male can have a female brain?
What is male? What is female?
Provide definitions. Go ahead.
Which tests are given to males to show that they have ladybrains before they’re given estrogen and birth certificate changes? Did Bruce Jenner take it?
Then tell me why you’re providing biological evidence for a social phenomenon.
Go ahead.
Can males have female kidneys? Hearts? Livers? Why not? Explain.
Oh and btw, hospitals and professors are never pushing propaganda due to money and an agenda, so I believe all of it. The guy who did lobotomies had plenty of reasons to push what he did, not to mention the companies who pushed cigarettes, or the doctors who prescribed Thalidomide.
You people are pathetic.
You know, it’s a cult, and if you’re in a cult, you have to believe the lies that the cult believes..things ,in this case , like. “ a woman can have a penis “ or just as ridiculous as, “ a man can have a vagina “… or “ male brains and female brains,etc.”
To be a part of a cult, you have to go along with all the insanity, and if someone tries to show you facts, you have a hissy fit. No logical thinking, no room for any kind of rational discussion.
Cults have been around forever , but this one , the trans cult, is the most dangerous ever, since it has slithered into our society like a bad viper! It’s part of the slippery path to trans humanism, in which everyone will be controlled . The trans cult already is on the way to controlling normal people, so anything that can be done to stop it is good.
There are a few cracks in this cult, so that’s the good news!
Stupid, arrogant, misguided, repetitious, one sided, boring, hate filled rant of ridiculous denial, as predicted. Ignoring anything I gave you which demonstrates how off base you are. You don't want to hear the truth. Go watch Fox News, they probably taught your hate to you. "Freddy Uncle Charlie Katie You," you close minded dogmatist. Same to your "definitions." You don't get to decide anything. Nobody cares about your obsession with trans people. You should maybe have some sex with one? Will that make you feel better? Trans people have always existed. In all cultures. They won't just go away from your wishes. You will never admit you'e wrong and you won't even pay any attention to the science. You are nothing but a Nazi-like Trump-sucking bigot.
<Standing ovation>
I started feeling you were saying something very important but I'm afraid I gave up at the women's sports stuff. You obviously do not care about the safety of woemn. You can no longer speak for women.
You sound a thinker, and I wish you well, but you also sound sadly like someone who has taken on the arrogance of men in relation to women's rights. I do not believe that male biology can ever be equated with a complete understanding of the female condition. And vica versa.
If you want to be male then surely that sets you aside from women who like being women.
And the psychology of trans identities is something we need to discuss. And you can do this much better than I can. The more that non-aggressive trans people speak up the better.
Also I am not a cis women. I am awoman. You are a trans man. What is wrong with those definitions? Equal but different in my mind. Own the trans. You cannot actually change sex.
And I'm afraid a woman is not someone who presents as a woman!
And people are born a certain sex, not allocated/assigned a sex at birth. Genetics matter and its pointless to try to pretend otherwise.
Women have fought for a very long time to gain recognition and rights and e.g. their own sports categories. Men kept women out of a lot of sports and are not now going to push men who have been through the physically emboldening male puberty into womens categories - not men who want to be women, or who want to push women out for their own self aggrandisment. Well I never! As if a man could possibly be so motivated!
We women will continue to fight. We have been at the sharp end of sexual assault by males, and continue to be so. Lets call it rape. Male violence. Testosterone fuelled aggression.
We are in many cases, not all, at the beck and call of our ovaries, our wombs, our bleeding, our ability to bear children, or inability to do so, menopause. This is our destiny, gay or straight. The patriarchy exists believe me. I've been a woman for a long time and experienced it all.
To resonate with JKRowling .....Live as you want, love as you want, dress as you want - and I genuinely send you love and a sincere wishes for your happiness. And pass as best as possible as a woman - or a male - if you need to. But sex will always matter, and strong female identity is hard won for those of us who are women, and we treasure it. Own and treasure your trans identity and your unique human identity.
Yes, they went completely off the rails there. Making statements that are not just obviously false but also contraindicated by mountains of evidence.
Very very well said!
I agree with every single word.
Please take a Skeptic's look at the foundation of all this, Gender Identity Theory. Also, if gender is a social construct, why not change society instead of bodies? How is gender nonconformity a medical problem, a disability? What is so wrong about masculine women and feminine men? At root, it all stems from homophobia, hating gays and lesbians.
Homophobia and misogyny are incredibly correlated. Transgenderism is a reaction to this in both types. For girls it's a way to escape patriarchy and sexualization; for gay boys it's a way to escape the homophobia that results from the misogyny of being "the woman" or being looked down on for being "f-ed" and penetrated. For autogynophiles, it's a narcissistic trauma response and schizoid inability to be intimate. Mostly due to the dissociative trauma of testosterone driven behavior experienced at an early age.
All of these are disorders of patriarchy and objectification. If we really want to build a better society we must look at these structures and address them.
(FYI since no academics in psychology are willing to research this, you won't find it in the DSM, I've put it together based on Ray Blanchard and Sam Vaknin)
"If gender is a social construct, why not change society instead of bodies?" This is what feminism used to be about. Don't make it your fault for not fitting in as a woman--let's change the rules for how to be an authentic woman. It used to be anorexia, rhinoplasty, facelifts, and boob jobs that we criticized--now the plastic surgery/body mod industry has gone feral with so-called "transgender" surgeries.
Now longstanding feminist institutions like NOW, Planned Parenthood, and the like have been inverted by the distortions of transgenderism. Men are now women, listen to the most oppressed women (men), and don't plan your parenthood, destroy your fertility with cross-sex hormones! But I guess that's an easier and more popular lift than winning paid maternity leaves so that mothers and babies can bond and learn their new roles. That would "only" help 85% of all American women, whether or not they identify as feminists. But no, we have to center the men who believe they're women now and will never be mothers.
I think these kinds of accounts are needed to remind folks that most trans people aren’t “activists” of any kind, simply folks trying to live their lives. Many outspoken trans-critical people, listening to the loudest voices on traditional and social media. seem to have mentally positioned themselves against an imagined army of activists going around making unreasonable claims,brainwashing children and corrupting the psychiatry industry, and this stance is eating away their natural empathy for people simply living with queer condition they didn’t choose that entails substantial challenges.
If these trans people live their lives acknowledging that segregated facilities are segregated by SEX, and that sex in mammals (including humans) is fixed at conception and cannot be changed later by any means, then fine.
But I think very few trans people do acknowledge this. The letter-writer certainly does not. They want access to wrong-sex facilities.
This tramples all over the rights of everyone else to sex-segregated facilities, which have been an aspect of every human society ever, most definitely including our own.
And that is simply not acceptable.
There are no "trans" people.
Nobody enters a special category for refusing to accept the reality of their sexed body. These people are suffering from untreated mental illness, and they're part of the problem.
Absolutely! The transies want THEIR rights without regard to anyone else’s rights. And that makes them authoritarians .
There is no such thing as "trans" people.
Nobody enters a special category for refusing to accept the reality of their sexed body. These people are mentally ill, and they remain the sex that they are, even if they pass. Which the vast majority never will.
There is no test for "real trans" people who are some of the good ones. If they refuse to accept that sex is binary and immutable, and they take hormones to try to trick others, they are part of the problem. They're not just trying to live their lives. This is a fraud, and once the door is opened, it will inevitably end with men in women's prisons and children being mutilated.
There is no way to stop it, other than a complete rejection of the entire fraud. There are no "good ones." This is untreated mental illness, across the board.
"If they refuse to accept that sex is binary and immutable, and they take hormones to try to trick others, they are part of the problem."
The author of the letter claims that her social "transition" provided relief, and that when she started her medical "transition" she gained further relief. I.e. her motivation for "transitioning" was to gain relief from the dysphoria that had been causing her distress since her childhood. What do you make of that?
Do you believe that attempting to obtain relief from gender dysphoria via "transition" is also part of the problem?
People who live a lie and a fraud and claim they're "one of the good ones" are still part of the problem because they are still pushing the fraud.
There is no such thing as a "transition." She did not go from female to male, and if she recognizes that, what is the point of anything she does?
There is no such thing as a "social transition." She is tricking people into thinking something that she is not and that's if she passes (the vast, vast majority of these people will never pass). Fool's gold is not gold even if everyone thinks it is, and imitations are never that which they imitate.
She does not have "gender dysphoria." There is no such thing. How on earth would she know what it is to be a man? What is her point of reference? She is not male and never will be.
She is suffering from a deeper mental illness that still has not been addressed. What is the cause of her desire to be someone that she is not? Childhood sexual abuse? Autism? Depression? Those are the issues that must be treated.
Imagine this with any other illness. Imagine an anorexic saying "I know I'm not fat, but I get relief from starving myself and taking diet pills. But don't worry, I'm one of the good ones!" Would this person be promoted as "one of the good ones"? Or told NO by doctors since that mentality is part of the problem?
Imagine this with Rachel Dolezal. She felt discomfort at being white since she was a child, and now she feels better after she "transitioned" to black. If that gives her relief, should that be promoted?
Opening the door to mentally ill people like this claiming that they can "transition" means everything must follow--there will be men in women's prisons, men in women's sports, childhood mutilations. How on earth can it be stopped?
So she must be told NO. That is the only solution here. Allowing mentally ill people to live a lie is not the solution. If doctors say no to anorexics, schizophrenics, apotemnophiliacs, why can't she be told no? There are people who want relief from chopping off healthy legs because of discomfort they feel. They're told no, so can people like this.
These people are mentally ill. Catering to mental illness and allowing widespread societal upheaval, leading to men in women's prisons, is not the solution. She should have been told NO because she is and remains as part of the problem.
You run the risk of a contradiction in claiming both that there are no trans people and that it is a mental illness. If a mental illness, that means it exists. If a mental illness, you have to remember that what is an illness is partly culturally defined and not set in stone. Remember that homosexuality itself used to be considered a mental illness by the psychiatry profession and that view is now rejected.
For me, one of the most interesting pieces of evidence that there is in fact a “chip” in our brain that tells us what gender we identify with is that as late as the 1960s, people born with genital abnormalities used to sometimes be made to undergo surgery as infants and be raised from infancy as if they were the opposite of their biological sex, with gender-conforming names and clothing. It is documented that some such individuals verily struggled with the gender identity they were raised woth over their lives, knowing on some level that it didn’t fit them. To me, it would be plausible that such a chip would sometimes accidentally not match someone’s biological sex due to any manner of biological accident.
There is no contradiction here. Mental illness exists. "Trans" does not.
There are no “trans” people. As a category, there is no group that becomes notable for rejecting the reality of their sexed body. Men who don’t want to be men are still men. They don’t need hormones, birth certificate changes, or surgery. They will always be men, that is, adult human males.
Autogynephilia exists, schizophrenia exists, severe depression exists, pornography addiction exists.
This does not mean that the ideas or delusions that these people have should be affirmed, catered to, or taken seriously.
If anorexics demanded liposuction they would be told no because we recognize that they are suffering from mental illness.
When a man demands that the whole world cater to his delusion that he’s a woman, he can be told no as well. That is a symptom of a deeper problem which does exist—usually autogynephilia in adult men.
That’s the difference. There is no contradiction here.
“Trans” does not exist and that is why nobody can define it.
Homosexuality exists because sex exists, and it’s not hard to define. That’s not a comment on its morality. It exists.
And what on earth do you mean by "CHIP" in someone's brain? Where is the proof for that? Where is the test for it? Since the late 60s? Nobody knew a thing about the brain in the 60s, and they still know very little today. The brain is a biological organ--you're telling me a part of the brain can tell you that you're actually a female even if it's in a male body? How the hell would that even work?
No. And don't bring up genetic disorders. That has nothing to do with a physically healthy male who "feels like" he's female. This is ridiculous.
We've been told for decades that "gender" is all social, now you're telling me it's biological? Are these men getting brain scans to PROVE that a tiny part of their brain is female? What is female then--define it.
NONE OF THIS MAKES SENSE. There is no CHIP that tells us whether we are male or female. Our bodies are male or female, in their entirety. Read my post on this.
This is bullshit in its purest form. Stop it. "Trans" does not exist.
https://kathighsmith.substack.com/p/ten-responses-to-the-exquisitely
Transexuals suffer from a physiological birth defect caused by environmental pollution. It is not ''bigotry'' to insist on giving priority to biological FACTS over the wishes of humans. It is part of the same stance of giving priority to nature that is in play in protecting the earth. Regardless of if you like it or not, the biological FACT is that humans, like all other mammals, are born with the reproductive organs of one sex or the other and that remains for life, no matter how they feel about it or what cosmetic surgery alterations are done to them. If we once give in on this point, we start down a slippery slope to giving in on other biological facts in favor of how some other tiny and insigniificant fraction of the humans happen to feel about them.
Transgenderism, like wrong-sex attraction in general, is an environmental issue, not a social issue, since in the vast majority of cases it is a birth defect caused by prenatal damage to the developing hypothalamus when a pregnant woman ingests hormone-mimicking chemicals released into the food and water supply by the manufacture of plastics. The hypothalamus is the part of the brain that controls sexual response and also proprioceptive sensations that tell you what your own body is doing and if there is anything amiss with it. Prenatal exposure to certain chemicals can interfere with this development and result in a homosexual or transexual individual.
Bullshit.
Nothing in your word salad means anything and you have no proof for any of it.
Be quiet.
Well said.
As a skeptic and atheist my self, I think we need to logically evaluate what is being said here. I would first challenge anyone to give clear definitions for "gender" "gender identity" "transgender" and all the gender related words she is using here. I already know the answer, they don't have clear definitions, it's a lot of circular reasoning.
Let's talk facts, shall we, It is a medical fact that a woman who injects anabolic steroids like testosterone at high doses is poisoning herself. The female body has a healthy range that testosterone, progesterone and estrogen need to stay within, high levels of testosterone wrecks the female body. Now, one can make the argument that an adult can poison themselves if they want, but that's another debate.
I found it interesting that by her own definitions of what a woman is I am not a woman. Why? Well because other people don't usually perceive me as such out of the corner of their eye? What? We are on very shaking ground here if we are saying a woman only exist if someone else sees her as a woman. No, facts, a woman is an adult female, full stop.
And here is another fact, males and boys after they have begun puberty are faster and stronger than females on average. They do not belong in girls and women's sports. It's unfair, and the science is there to prove it which is why trans advocates always fall back on using the exception to the rule fallacy, or appeal to empathy. They can't have an actual factual argument because facts don't support their case.
Finally, and this is my opinion, her "very uncommon trans experience" is actually a very common experience for butch lesbians. As a butch lesbian my self who also transitioned but has since desisted and stopped taking testosterone, I have studied a lot of lesbian history. I've read accounts from butch lesbians going back a100 years, and we all have almost the same trajectory. Her experience is actually not special at all and is very common for lesbians, who are perceived as masculine. Now, I don't know if she is a lesbian or not, but I would bet she is based on her experience alone. It's very common for gays and lesbians to be gender-nonconforming kids, and it often continues into adulthood. We get a lot of abuse because of this, so it is no surprise and actually quite logical that we would believe we were born in the wrong body.
I must add this because it's a common belief, that "gender dysphoria" is this special issue that is so extreme that people must poison and cut themselves up to treat it. Nothing could be further from the truth, in my opinion. First, "gender dysphoria" is another term with no clear definition that can encompass a whole bunch of feelings. I personally don't believe gender dysphoria is innate or anything special. It's an emotional distress over one's body, just like so many other disorders and things humans deal with. I believe it can and should be treated through mental health care only. Medical intervention for a mental health issue is unethical. It does not fix the issue, it masks it.
If we just logic through what this woman is saying it falls right into the religious belief category. One I don't want to be in when deciding law, and demanding we restructure society.
She is a woman. She isn’t disabled. She chose to take testosterone to look more masculine, that was a choice she made. The entire idea that one can change their gender should be rejected wholesale. And if a woman consents to fighting women in MMA and then ends up getting injured by a man pretending to be a woman, that’s assault because she didn’t consent to that level of risk. And her beliefs about sports and female/male strength differences are delusional. All this nonsense should be rejected wholesale and ignored.
Point well taken -- but there is a sort of Lessing's Ditch here. Definitionally, the physical experience from Menarche to Menopause; physicality, etc. *IS* the definition of womanhood. Any part of that that path that is lacking must be *imagined* without experience.
I wish we could hear more voices like this rather than the radicals distorting the conversation.
First of all:
To whom you are attracted sexually is purely subjective and therefore cannot reasonably be contested by an outside observer.
Where you decide to live your life on a spectrum of superficial, stereotypical male to female attributes (and we all do) is also purely subjective and similarly cannot be questioned.
However, your biological sex reflects an objective reality which cannot be changed by your subjective personal view and futile attempts to do so can result in serious health impacts to you as well as actual harms to members of the sex you are impersonating (especially women).
Finally, others who are grounded in objective reality should never be forced to accept your subjective version of your actual biological sex.
Secondly and I know this sounds harsh but:
If you believe that trans women (aka men) should be allowed to compete against biological women in most sports or that they belong in women's restrooms, locker rooms and prisons then you are either cognitively impaired or intellectually dishonest.
This person truly represents a fraction of 1% of the population. He is genuine and an impressive person. The heart of the letter to me is this: “there can be no such thing as transgender or transsexual if we do not have a gendered binary! I get just as annoyed as you do at the "non binary" and "queer" radicals who think that they're being avant-garde by "deconstructing gender."
If one has to put “trans” in front of “man” or “woman”, you are not.
WRT sports, if a person has already gone through puberty, then no, you play with your biological sex. Full stop.
How can you be genuine when you are lying?
Such a breath of fresh air to hear from a reasonable trans person.
The radical trans activists really poison the discourse.
There are no "reasonable trans" people because there is no such thing as "trans."
"Trans" does not exist.
And if you're looking for a "reasonable" way for mentally ill people to mutilate their bodies and force lies on the rest of society, then you're part of the problem.
There is no reasonable way to do a lobotomy or give a 70 pound anorexic liposuction or let a white person pretend to be black. This is an outright lie. There are no reasonable ways around it.
Presenting themselves as reasonable while making unreasonable points.
Trans-reasonable, perhaps.
I’d like to hear more about the effects of testosterone on your body, & also any long form birth control you may have ingested to suppress your menses. Vaginal dryness, incontinence, clitoral growth that’s painful, high cholesterol & kidney problems, osteoporosis/osteopenia, etc.
Many women who believed they were men now suffer from geriatric diseases in their 20s-40s. This is what most people skeptical of “gender medicine” are worried about, especially when it comes to their kids or other young people.
If your on Testosterone your period stops. When go off it comes back. If you still have a uterus.
Lisa is great. I met her at Genspect. Thank you for publishing this. It's good to have someone who is "trans" confirm that a person is either born "passing," or not. The lie that "you can pass" when you cannot ever pass *creates* dysphoria. Online "communities" reinforce the lie with love-bombing and encouragement.
If "a woman is a person who appears to be a woman and identifies as a woman" then what is the appearance that all women share? This immediately descends into reified sexist stereotypes every time, without fail. They don't even put a hat on.
The NCAA hurdles are set nine inches lower for women. I wonder if the writer imagines that transition makes the next Lia Thomas nine inches shorter?
There is no such thing as "trans." It does not exist.
Anyone who claims to be one of the "good trannies" is part of the problem.
This is untreated mental illness. And it won't solve anything, and neither will anyone who makes excuses for this nonsense.
For me the main thing is that he seems to be honest.
This whole issue has been framed in terms taken from the Civil Rights movement, when it should have been seen from the start as a form of birth defect caused by environmental pollution and addressed by the environmental movement.
Like it or not, humans are a biological species, not some sort of supernatural ''soul'' incarnated in a physical body. They have a primarily biological existence and what they experience, including how they experience their own bodies, is best understood by biologists, not psychologists or sociologists.
The hypothalamus is the part of the brain that controls autonomic processes, including sexual response. It also is the part responsible for the proprioceptic sensations that give one a sense of sexual identity.
In recent decades there has been a huge increase in sexual disorders that include both sexual attraction to the wrong sex and misidentification of one's own body. These issues are not just happenstance and are not due to social changes. They are a physical, biological matter caused by chemical contamination of the environment, the food supply, and water supply, by certain chemicals, especially some used in the manufacture of plastic, which are close enough in molecular structure to human hormones that if ingested by a pregnant woman at the stage of gestation when the hypothalamus of her fetus is developing can derail the development process and result in a person who is attracted to the wrong sex or is unable to feel his or her own body sensations in the normal way.
The victims of this form of pollution should be treated the same as any other victim of a disability, of course, but that right does not include the right to bully normal people into changing the language or culture that all human societies have developéd over the whole course of history which reflects thhe biological reality of the specfies. A man wearing a dress who feels himself to be a woman, or a woman who thinks she is a ''man born in the wrong body'' has a perfect right to dress as he or she pleases and be called by any name he or she chooses to go by, but I have a right to use the biologically proper pronouns regardless of how unpleasant that may be to them.
And if that makes them feel ''unsafe'', THAT is the point at which they should consult a psychotherapist--about these unrealistic anxieties.
Thank you for sharing this very thoughtful and thorough explanation of the author's journey. It was both thought-provoking and insightful. Sincerely, Frederick