Who do the members of the transgender community hate even more than “cis bigots”? According to a recent article in Slate, that would be the trans folks who actually think that gender aligns with biological reality.
Called “gender critical” or “gender apostates,” this group is so detested because they refuse to toe the line and accept the orthodox conviction that gender is completely separate from biological sex or socialization. Although gender critical transgender people may choose to live as the other sex, they don’t actually believe that gender differs from sex. Thus, while living a transgender lifestyle, they see their conditions as psychologically abnormal.
Author Michelle Goldberg introduced her readers to several members of this small but vocal group. After a transition to identifying as female, trans woman Helen Highwater revealed: “I’m male, I own it.” Referring to her trans female partner Miranda Yardley, Highwater explained, “We identify as a gay male couple. We don’t identify as lesbians.”
With sincerity, Highwater put it this way. “What seems to be a much more honest approach is: ‘I am an adult human male who has suffered with a level of sex dysphoria for whatever reason for decades, and have now got to the point, where I’ve had to make a social transition.’”
Kudos to Slate for revealing that there are, indeed, such dissenters among the ranks.
Highwater and Yardley are, as Goldberg worded it, “struggling against an ideological tide.” Many traditional trans activists have blacklisted the dissidents, subjecting them to online harassment. “I am more afraid of my community harming me than I am of society harming me,” revealed Corinna Cohn, a creator of one of the first gender-critical trans blogs. In fact, other trans folks have privately contacted Cohn in agreement, but have expressed fears that they will be disowned by their community for not towing the line.
A real tolerant community, eh?
“It is empirically unreasonable to expect that someone who has been socialized male, has undergone a male puberty, is in all sense of the word anatomically male, can simply say, ‘I’m now a woman,’ and have the world recalibrate all of its autonomic algorithms about sex and gender and say, ‘Yes, you’re a woman.’” Makes sense, right? Or is that just the bigoted opinion of an angry white man?
Nope. It’s the view of trans woman Aoife Hart, a Ph.D. in gender and psychoanalysis and a self-professed “gender apostate.” According to Hart, “You can’t identify your way out of your body. Genderism is a myth that suggests that’s possible.”
Well done, Slate, for revealing that the views are many within the LGBT community. Now, if the trans movement really believes all its rhetoric about inclusivity and tolerance, it will accept the apostates into the fold. Don’t hold your breath.
