Respectfully, sir, gtfo
He’s horrified is he? Where’s he been all this time?
He says he’s horrified, yet he still says we have to “find a way through” this business of a man in the women’s changing room, staring at them while they undress. He says he’s horrified, yet he still says we’ve got to find a way through that treats trans people with respect first – before saying anything about the women who don’t want to take their clothes off in front of a staring man before they start their shifts as nurses. Why does he talk about “treating trans people with respect” first? Why don’t women ever get to be first? Why does a man’s desire to be in the room where women take their clothes off deserve any respect at all?
If only a clear thinker with a good turn of phrase had written something about respecting a trans woman’s right to call themselves whatever they wanted, wear whatever they wanted, and sleeping with anyone who’d have them; while expecting them to stay out of spaces and positions reserved for women. Yes, if only. Maybe we can commission JKR, I bet she’s got some rough notes lying around somewhere.
Like far too many men who achieve positions of power and influence, he still doesn’t think of women as full human beings in respect of being entitled to their own specific rights; so, when men want something that has no effect on his life, he doesn’t even think of the impact that handing that privilege to men will have on the rights of women.
As far as ‘trans’ is concerned, he’s still mainly in the mindset that it’s a real thing. He’s gradually starting to notice that what others have been saying for decades is true – that predators always take advantage of any opportunities – but is still thinking that such predators are in a tiny minority, and that all other men claiming to be women actually are, and should be treated as, women. Hence his bafflement.
I thought that I was slow to get it, but I feel like Einstein compared to many politicians.