2/28/2021 The gender identity ideology seems less about acceptance of ourselves and others and more about forcing others to agreeRead Now I’m a disabled LGB woman who has leaned far to the liberal left my entire life. I’ve been a voting member of the US Democratic Party since the 2000 Presidential elections. I was involved in Gay rights activism in the 90’s and 00’s, I protested the Iraq war, and have been a disabled rights activist for the last dozen years. I’m a Democratic socialist who resisted Trump and boosted the DP’s candidates. I’ve voted straight Democrat every ticket of my adult life. I have a bachelors in science and believe in the promise of the scientific method. I believe in diplomacy over violence. I believe in tolerance and open debate.
However, I no longer feel that my party represents me. As a disabled woman, I depend on sex-based laws and medical research that accounts for the material difference between male and female patients. There is already a disparity in medical research and healthcare outcomes for women. Now the Biden administration is further diminishing sex-based legal protections. Major medical institutions around the world are erasing the language of biological sex and the liberal government parties around the world are facilitating the process. It goes against science and will cause disproportionate harm to the human beings most dependent on medical care: the disabled. I have no problem with trans identified individuals. They should be able to dress and call themselves what they want. They should have the same rights as anyone else. However, that is not what I see happening in the trans rights movement. I don’t see people being accepted for who they are. I see people, including young children, being encouraged to change their bodies with hormones and surgery if they don’t fit snugly into rigidly-defined gender roles. I see the social pressure on young people to identify their gender driving them to deep depression and searing anxiety. I see families torn apart when a kid comes home from school one day demanding to be called by a new name and itching to call their parents abusers if they have any questions before putting their child on the path to medical transition. I see culture wars breaking out all over the world over this issue, and anyone with doubts or quest being branded as a right-wing bigot. I see women being called TERF for using the word ‘woman.’ I see women deplatformed, doxxed, harassed, fired, and threatened with death and ‘corrective’ rape for saying only people born female can menstruate or get cervical cancer. Or for asking what safeguards are in place to prevent children being accidentally treated for gender identity disorder. I see people with whom I once shared a political party and tolerant world-view accept this kind of behavior because they think the target of such harassment is transphobic and therefore barely human. I see women being told to make room in their legal protections, sports, changing rooms, domestic violence shelters, trauma support groups, rape crisis centers, and online spaces for any male born individual who self-identifies as a woman. Regardless of whether or not this person has done anything to transition, if a male claims to feel female, they should be allowed to bunk with a battered woman in a rape crisis center or be moved to a women’s prison. I have no problem with trans identified people having equal protections, third spaces in sensitive situations like jail, hospital rooms, changing rooms, and trauma support groups. I would love to see more peer-reviewed and replicable research on gender and more effective treatments for dysphoria. I would willingly donate my money and volunteer my time to make these things a reality. I want everyone to live their safest and most authentic life. They should have the same access to healthcare, housing, and gainful employment as their countrymen. Equal, not superior access. Equal, not superior social status. Unfortunately, that is not what is happening. The gender identity ideology seems less about acceptance of ourselves and others and more about forcing others to agree. That behavior is not compatible with a liberal Democratic society. I would not support such means regardless of the end. I can’t support self-ID laws. I can’t support the erosion of women’s sex-based rights. If that one principle is enough to convince you that I am no longer a member or the liberal left and have joined the authoritarian right, you may have a shallow or distorted view of the issues involved in the gender identity debate. |
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