For non-example
DOCTOR McKinnon did a piece for Vice attacking Rowling yesterday, because of course he did. The byline is Veronica Ivy, and a sentence at the end says:
Veronica Ivy, PhD, is a philosophy professor and athlete who has previously gone by Rachel McKinnon.
Before that he went by Rhys McKinnon. Anyway – the usual lies are summoned.
“Gender critical” is a neologism that refers to a loose collection of people focused on opposing equal rights for trans people, and specifically trans women.
Big lie. We do not oppose equal rights for trans people.
They claim that, for example, trans women are really male/men and should be excluded from women-only spaces, and should not have the legal protections against discrimination on the basis of being women.
And that’s not equal rights, is it, so it’s not “for example,” it’s “for non sequitur.” It is true that we say men should not have legal protections against discrimination on the basis of being women, any more than white people should have legal protections against discrimination on the basis of being black people. That’s what “discrimination” means.
The U.K. has had a recent rash of news media, demonstrations, and events targeting the rights of trans women.
What rights though? The “rights” of trans women to demand all the protections in theory offered to women (though we often have a struggle to find them) while retaining all the entitlement and aggression of men?
Some “gender critical” people have tried to claim that trans women are male and, as Forstater claimed, that sex is immutable, or unchangeable. They use phrases like “biological reality” and “sex matters” to express this sentiment. Their view is that since trans women are really “male,” then allowing trans women equal rights as women removes the rights of cisgender women to be in female-only spaces.
But this is, of course, nonsense. Legally and medically speaking, trans women are women; trans men are men.
Spoken like a true philosopher: if the legal and medical disciplines label men as women then that’s the end of it; there are no other categories. Similarly, if priests and rabbis say there is a god, it is nonsense to say there isn’t. Nonsense of course.
J.K. Rowling’s use of the hashtag #IStandWithMaya, expresses Rowling’s support for Forstater’s legal battle for her right to express anti-trans hate speech.
Another obvious, vulgar lie.
I would go so far as to say that Rowling, who claims she wants people to “live your best life in peace and security,” is contributing to a violation of trans people’s basic human dignity, and creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating, and offensive environment, like Forstater. And as Judge Tayler put it, “The approach is not worthy of respect in a democratic society.”
What kind of environment has Veronica Ivy-Rachel McKinnon been creating for female athletes, I wonder.
So just like the rest of the male sex, of which McKinnon is a member. I’m still waiting to see which generally granted right trans people are being denied.
Minor quibble: You say “Spoken like a true philosopher…”
Naaaah. Spoken like a poor philosopher, at most.
Legally they are female, and medicine may call them female, but medically, they are not female. Medically they retain the body structure of males, and at some point, insisting that medicine treat them like females could lead to a tragedy. Though I suspect the tragedy would be more likely for transmen, when the doctors miss the heart attack because they are presenting with the symptoms more characteristic of a woman. Or something else.
Medically, they are men. No matter how many doctors are willing to cooperate with their delusion, they are men if they have the male body, and need to be going to doctors who are willing to treat them as men, because that may save their life someday.
So when Veronica/Rachel/Rhys gets prostate cancer, will it be hate speech for a doctor to tell “her” so?