transgender

"There can be no trans liberation under capitalism. This is a fact. Yet it’s not a popular view among liberal and centrist LGBTQ+ advocacy groups, who – as we’ve seen in the course of this book – talk about ‘trans rights’ in isolation as a range of personal freedoms and protections; and who cling to corporations and brands as potential ‘allies’ in the fight for social acceptance."

"The reality is that tens of thousands of transgender and non-binary students have been playing sports for years without any unfair advantages or problems. In fact, the Associated Press asked lawmakers who were seeking to pass these discriminatory bills to cite problem cases in their states and not a single lawmaker could identify a case. That’s why “more than 500 college athletes signed a letter to the NCAA board of governors asking the organization to refuse to schedule championships in states that have banned transgender participation in sports.” All female athletes — transgender and non-transgender — have different shapes and sizes, have different strengths and weaknesses. The research shows there’s no scientific reason to exclude transgender young people. Doing so can lead to immense harm in overall well-being by interrupting an activity crucial to identity and development."

"Being transgender is not a trend and transgender people have a history that spans centuries. Over the past few years, transgender visibility has increased dramatically, a sign that our society is becoming increasingly accepting of diverse gender identities. This is a positive sign, as more and more transgender people feel that they can live openly and receive support. Like the LGBTQ community has seen time and time again, increased visibility often leads to increased attacks by those who wish to shove us back in the closet. Lesbian, gay and bi+ young people should be free to declare their sexuality without others doubting them. The same should be true for young people who have a diverse gender identity."

"Girls deserve equal opportunity to compete and achieve in sports. The Biden administration’s reinterpretation of Title IX is a slap in the face to young women and girls, telling them their hard work, on-field achievements, and athletic futures do not matter. Title IX was designed to stop discrimination and ensure equal athletic opportunities for women. By allowing biological males to compete in girls’ sports the Biden administration will be reversing 50 years of progress for women. H.R. 734, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023 strengthens the law’s existing protections for women, ensures a level playing field for female athletes, and protects the law from the Biden administration’s radical regulatory scheme."

"I believe in fairness. I also believe in inclusiveness. I do not believe however that transgender women have the right to compete against me or any other gender-born women regardless of their age."

"It is the "battle of the beliefs": hanging on to your belief that you are who you are despite how others may define you, while also challenging yourself not to compare your insides to other people’s outsides. It's a constant effort to align yourself externally with how you feel internally."

"Some may feel super woke to say that transgender women athletes belong in female sports, but let me tell you as a biologist, in terms of muscle mass, transgender women have similar advantages over females as male athletes do, even with testosterone suppression therapy, therefore, it is not enough to simply acknowledge transgender as a distinct gender, we must also make necessary alterations to our preexisting societal fields, such as setting up transgender category in sports, where performance is predicated on physiological attributes, so that in an attempt to vest upon the transgender population their long-overdue fundamental rights, we do not start treating other genders unfairly without even being aware of it. Remember, replacing one wrong with another is not rightness. Our purpose is to preserve the rights of everyone, not to change the shape of the violation of those rights."

"We cannot fit a multi-gender world into a two-gender system of sports."

"One of the primary objectives of trans sports activists is to normalize their theory of gender fluidity as settled fact. They sometimes resort to ruthless tactics in order to chill discourse that pushes back against their dogmas. They have de-platformed speakers, such as outspoken feminist Meghan Murphy. They have mobbed opponents on social media and, often successfully, demanded that their accounts be blocked (it helps that platforms like Twitter and Facebook are sympathetic to gender ideology). They have organized campaigns to cripple or end the careers of pre-eminent sexologists, including Dr. Kenneth Zucker, former director of the Gender Identity Clinic at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. And they have ensure that trans activists constitute an influential presence on committees tasked with providing gender identity guidelines in education, jurisprudence, social services, and yes, sport. They label anyone in the media who opposes their claims as "transphobic." Observant readers will have noticed that, in the last few years, the mainstream media have lost heart for engagement on this front and have largely ceded the field to the gender theorists."

"Together, an LGBTQ+ coalition with class consciousness and anti-racism at its core must recover its radicalism and reaffirm its opposition to capitalism and patriarchy. Infighting and division are in the interests of our right-wing oppressors. Gay people and trans people have had to battle similar arguments about being ‘unnatural’: homophobia still often rests on the prejudice that the worthiest form of sexuality is that which is capable of reproduction. Transphobia, too, emanates from a prejudice that a person’s stated identity is more trustworthy if it reflects their ‘natural’ role in human reproduction. Similarly, cisgender women’s reproductive freedom is the first thing to be curbed by conservative regimes. Misogyny, homophobia and transphobia share much of the same DNA. To the patriarchy, we all do gender wrong."

"Even if a tiny proportion of LGB people are willing to team up with right-wing homophobes to oppose trans civil rights, it only takes a handful of committed LGB people wilfully perpetuating these negative narratives for them to become normalized. Such narratives are then taken up by political conservatives and far-right voices, whose ultimate goal is the dismantling of all LGBTQ+ rights because of their profound disgust for us all."

"Moral panics rely on an inherent paradox: that the rights of a small minority of the population wielding little institutional power are in fact a risk to the majority. This is achieved by inciting in the population a mixture of moral disgust and anxiety about contagion. The problem group may be small now, but they will grow. They will grow by encouraging confused young people to join. For sexual minorities, this narrative of recruitment lends itself to the language of seduction and abuse, which helps direct the moral disgust society feels at paedophilia on to an innocent group. It is a shameful but highly effective propaganda tool. Despite the obvious parallels and analogous struggles that trans people have had with the wider queer movement’s struggle for sexual liberation, the claim that trans people are not only actively different but substantially harmful to the LGB movement has been readily embraced and promoted by extreme political conservatives. This includes even politicians who would themselves traditionally oppose lesbian, gay and bisexual rights."

"The simple moral case for resisting transphobia as a form of cruelty should be enough for anyone who has been similarly victimized by society (as cisgender lesbians, gay men and bisexual people have all been in one way or another) to stand with us in solidarity. Yet it should also be a matter of self-interest. The world in which trans people’s rights are restricted relies on narratives of dehumanization and myths of sexual predation. Restricting trans people’s rights relies on policing other people’s gendered appearance in toilets and changing rooms by arbitrating on who looks male or female enough, and by punishing deviation from rigid norms with intimidation and violence. It involves kids following the examples of adults and harassing their peers in the playground for being different. It relies on parents either beating into submission the child asserting their identity, or psychologically breaking them with conversion therapy. These traumatic experiences affect all ‘queers’, whether trans or cis. Advocating for them in any form for any letter will inevitably normalize their use against everyone judged queer. Politically, it is a gift to fascists at a time of growing far-right sentiment in Europe and North America alike."

"Girls deserve equal opportunity to compete and achieve in sports. The Biden administration's reinterpretation of Title IX is a slap in the face to young women and girls, telling them their hard work, on-field achievements, and athletic futures do not matter. Title IX was designed to stop discrimination and ensure equal athletic opportunities for women. By allowing biological males to compete in girls' sports the Biden administration will be reversing 50 years of progress for women. H.R. 734, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act of 2023 strengthens the law's existing protections for women, ensures a level playing field for female athletes, and protects the law from the Biden administration's radical regulatory scheme."

"This powerful new [transactivist] lobby far outnumbers the trans people it claims to speak for. And it serves their interests very poorly. Its ideological focus means it seeks to silence anyone who does not support gender self-identification – which includes many post operative transsexuals, who are under no illusion as to how much bodies matter. It also ignores other possible solutions to problems faced by trans people – research into the causes and treatment of gender dysphoria, for instance, or adding unisex facilities alongside single sex ones. Its overreach is likely to provoke a backlash that will harm ordinary trans people, who simply want safety and social acceptance. When the general public finally realises what is being demanded, the blame may not land with the activists, where it belongs."

"Call me old-fashioned, but if your activism permits men to hit women, and to deprive women of medals, and to humiliate women who’ve trained hard for sporting glory, then it’s not ‘progressive’ – it’s misogyny in woke drag."

"[L]esbians and radical feminists who object to the idea that identification should grant biological men an all-access pass to women’s rights and safe spaces are openly derided as “TERFs” all over social media."

"To talk about the "rights" of someone who has chosen to rebel against responsible living is nonsense. It is simply not true that all human beings have the same rights."

"There is an effort in some countries to manipulate the Church by gaining the often well-intentioned support of her pastors with a view to changing civil-statutes and laws. This is done in order to conform to these pressure groups' concept that homosexuality is at least a completely harmless, if not an entirely good, thing. Even when the practice of homosexuality may seriously threaten the lives and well-being of a large number of people, its advocates remain undeterred and refuse to consider the magnitude of the risks involved.The Church can never be so callous. It is true that her clear position cannot be revised by pressure from civil legislation or the trend of the moment. But she is really concerned about the many who are not represented by the pro-homosexual movement and about those who may have been tempted to believe its deceitful propaganda. She is also aware that the view that homosexual activity is equivalent to, or as acceptable as, the sexual expression of conjugal love has a direct impact on society's understanding of the nature and rights of the family and puts them in jeopardy."

"Transgender activism purports that biological sex and "gender" are non-binary fluid constructs."

"Trans people are emblematic of wider, conceptual concerns about the autonomy of the individual in society. Their rejection of dominant, ancient and deep-seated ideas about the connection between biological characteristics and identity causes a dilemma for the nation state: whether to acknowledge and give credence to the individual’s assertion of their own identity in law and in culture; or to mandate that it, the state, is the final authority on identity, and to assert its power over the individual – by force if necessary. Attacking the very concept of trans people by imposing rigid and immutable definitions of sex and gender, as Orbán’s party has done, is the latest iteration of the way national governments embrace totalitarian ideology. After all, attacking trans people has been a part of fascist practice since the destruction of ’s Berlin back in 1933 by Nazi youth brigades."

"The recent drive for religious exemptions is not born of a neutral concern with religious liberty, but is largely the product of resistance to recent gains in LGBT equality across the United States. The public and legislative debate around these bills has focused on LGBT people exercising their rights, and objections to same-sex marriage, same-sex parenting, same-sex relationships, and recognizing the gender identity of transgender individuals. Proponents of these exemptions have not incorporated protections that would ensure they are not used to discriminate against LGBT people at risk of discrimination."

"It is legitimate and necessary to ask oneself if this is not perhaps part of a new ideology of evil, more subtle and hidden, perhaps, intent upon exploiting human rights themselves against man and against the family."

"[Social Justice Campaigners] decided instead to push vigorously on trans: to pick up the hardest part of the whole question ('I am who I say I am and you can't prove otherwise') and run with it: 'Trans lives matter'; 'Some people are trans. Get over it'. Everywhere, with a wearying predictability, the people who always complain about every aspect of the patriarchal, hegemonic, cis-supremacist, homophobic, institutionally racist, sexist state, decided to run with the trans issue. They specifically claimed that yes, if a man said he was a woman and didn't do anything about it, then yes he was a woman and it was transphobic to suggest otherwise."

"Some trans activists are just as creative as their rejection of reality. Two popular YouTube trans activists (Riley J. Dennis and Zinnia Jones) have proclaimed that it is "cisgender" for people to restrict their mating preferences to "cisnormative" individuals; or in other words, heterosexuality is bigoted. It would seem that my my marriage is transphobic because I never considered a transgendered individual as a prospective wife."

"One of the primary objectives of trans sports activists is to normalize their theory of gender fluidity as settled fact. They sometimes resort to ruthless tactics in order to chill discourse that pushes back against their dogmas. They have de-platformed speakers, such as outspoken feminist Meghan Murphy. They have mobbed opponents on social media and, often successfully, demanded that their accounts be blocked (it helps that platforms like Twitter and Facebook are sympathetic to gender ideology). They have organized campaigns to cripple or end the careers of pre-eminent sexologists, including Dr. Kenneth Zucker, former director of the Gender Identity Clinic at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. And they have ensure that trans activists constitute an influential presence on committees tasked with providing gender identity guidelines in education, jurisprudence, social services, and yes, sport. They label anyone in the media who opposes their claims as "transphobic." Observant readers will have noticed that, in the last few years, the mainstream media have lost heart for engagement on this front and have largely ceded the field to the gender theorists."

"[...] as gender clinics have come under activists' sway, the treatment they offer has taken an ideological turn. Instead of advising parents to watch and wait with sympathy and kindness, they now work on the assumption that childhood gender dysphoria destines someone to trans adulthood. They recommend immediate 'social transition' – a change of name, pronouns and presentation – followed successively by drugs to block puberty, cross-sex hormones and surgery, often while the patient is still in their teens. This treatment pathway is a fast track to sexual dysfunction and sterility in adulthood."

"No one is transgender ... To use names and pronouns that contradict the person’s God-given identity is to speak falsely."

"In an era of growing right-wing populism in the United States and the UK alike, accompanied by an alarming rise in visible street fascism, there is more need than ever for unity across the four different letters (as well as queer, asexual, intersex and other groups). It is in the interests of those who hate us all for us to be at war with one another."

"Trans women are women. We may not be “exactly like” cis women, but then again, cis women are not all “exactly like” one another either. But what we do share is that we all identify and move through the world as women. And because of this, we all regularly face sexism. That is what we should be focusing on and working together to challenge. And as I said at the outset, forcing trans women into a separate group that is distinct from cis women does not in any way help achieve feminism’s central goal of ending sexism. In fact, it only serves to undermine our collective cause."

"While gender socialization is quite real, all of us are capable of overcoming or transcending the socialization that we experienced as children. And gender socialization doesn’t simply stop when one reaches adulthood: All of us are constantly facing gender-related social pressures, expectations, and obstacles throughout our lives. If you believe that these statements are true for cis women, then they also must be true for trans women."

"Claims that trans women are not women often rely on essentialist (and therefore incorrect) assumptions about biology. For instance, people might argue that trans women are not “genetically female,” despite the fact that we cannot readily ascertain anybody’s sex chromosomes. Indeed, most people have never even had their sex chromosomes examined, and those that do are sometimes surprised by the results. Other common appeals to biology center on reproduction — e.g., stating that trans women have not experienced menstruation, or cannot become pregnant. This ignores the fact that some cisgender women never menstruate and/or are unable to become pregnant. Claims about genitals are similarly problematic: Women’s genitals vary greatly, and as with chromosomes and reproductive capabilities, we cannot readily see other people’s genitals in everyday encounters. If you and I were to meet, should I refuse to recognize or refer to you as a woman unless you show me your genitals? And frankly, what could possibly be more sexist than reducing a woman to what’s between her legs? Isn’t that precisely what sexist men have been doing to women for centuries on end?"

"Trans women do not transition out of a desire to be feminine; we transition out of a self-understanding that we are or should be female (commonly referred to as gender identity)."

"Trans women differ greatly from one another. Perhaps the only thing that we share in common is a self-understanding that there was something wrong with our being assigned a male sex at birth and/or that we should be female instead. While some cisgender people refuse to take our experiences seriously, the fact of the matter is that transgender people can be found in virtually every culture and throughout history; current estimates suggest that we make up 0.2 – 0.3% of the population [or possibly more]. [...] In other words, we simply exist."

"Women who insist that trans women are not women often object to being called “cis women” under the false assumption that it somehow undermines their femaleness — this is not at all the purpose of this language. The sole purpose of cis terminology is to name the unmarked majority (similar to how one might refer to white women, or heterosexual women, or able-bodied women, etc.). In other words, referring to someone as “cisgender” simply means that they have not had a transgender experience."

"Like women more generally, many trans women are feminists. Feminism and transgender activism are not in any way incompatible or mutually exclusive. As feminists who acknowledge intersectionality, we believe that we should be fighting to end all forms of sexism and marginalization — this includes both traditional sexism and transphobia. Forcing trans women into a separate group that is distinct from cis women does not in any way help achieve feminism’s central goal of ending sexism."

"Trans women who are conventionally feminine are not in any way asserting or insinuating that all women should be conventionally feminine, or that femininity is all there is to being a woman. Like cis women, trans women dress the way we do in order to express ourselves, not to critique or caricature other women."

"Research exploring the lived experience of sexuality for trans women is limited, with conceptualizations focusing largely on exploring deficits or the impact of gender-affirming medical care, such as hormone therapy (HT) and/or surgeries."

"In trans women who have initiated hormone therapy, but who have not undergone genital reconstruction surgery, difficulty in achieving orgasm was seen to decrease. In one study, the prevalence of orgasmic dysfunction decreased to 29.2% from 46.7% after the initiation of hormone therapy. Whether this finding can be attributed to the simultaneous decrease in gender dysphoria and body dysmorphia associated with the initiation of hormone therapy still needs to be investigated. Ability to orgasm in trans women post-vaginoplasty has also been studied. Due to the unique anatomy of trans women post-operatively, it must be noted that orgasms can occur at multiple locations including the clitoris and prostate via masturbation or vaginal penetration, for example. There is variability in the rates of orgasm post-operatively with studies citing percentages between 40–100%. These studies used the FSFI to assess orgasmic scores and demonstrated ranges of 2.82 to 4.0 out of 6 in comparison to cisgender women without sexual dysfunction who scored an average of 5.1. When analyzing the correlation between sexual activity and achieving orgasm, one study found that direct stimulation of the clitoris had a higher frequency of orgasm when compared to intercourse. In assessing frequency and quality of orgasms post-operatively, studies are inconsistent. While one study reported an increase in orgasm frequency with sexual activity post-operatively, another study of 91 trans women postoperatively found orgasms to occur less frequently in 52.6% of participants and more frequently in 20.5% of participants. Quality of orgasms, when investigated, was found to be more pleasurable postoperatively in 51% of a 218 person study and with no changes in 62.5% of a 31 person study."

"A further study highlights that as many as 26% of a sample of 307 trans women reported difficulties initiating sexual contact, 29% reported difficulties achieving orgasm, and that vaginoplasty was associated with a reduction in difficulties with sexual arousal and sexual aversion (Kerckhof et al., 2019)."

"Trans women are much more likely to report sexual arousal without orgasm, and lower levels of sexual desire in general. Studies with trans women in particular find a wide variance in ability to experience orgasm post vaginoplasty surgery, ranging from 17-100% across 140 different studies. However, these studies are focused mostly on adults who transitioned in adulthood. At this time, there do not appear to be any studies which examine sexual health or orgasmic experience in trans individuals who initiated affirmative treatment prior to adulthood or the onset of puberty."

"The most frequent sexual dysfunctions experienced by trans women and trans men were difficulties initiating and seeking sexual contact (26% and 32%, respectively) and difficulties achieving an orgasm (29% and 15%, respectively). Compared with trans women after hormone treatment and non-genital surgery, trans women after vaginoplasty less often experienced arousal difficulties, sexual aversion, and low sexual desire. Compared with trans men without medical treatment, trans men after a phalloplasty experienced sexual aversion and low sexual desire less often."

"Multiple studies have compared sexual arousal levels of trans women post-operatively with sexual arousal in cisgender women. In these studies, 90–100% of trans women reported experiencing sexual arousal post-operatively, but when level of sexual arousal was assessed using the Female Sexual Function Index (FSFI), sexual arousal scores were overall lower in trans women than in their cisgender counterparts."

"Research into the impact of transition on sexuality reports that, following the commencement of HT, some trans women experience a temporary change in sexual desire (Defreyne et al., 2020). Research has found that trans women are less likely to engage in sexual activities before accessing gender-affirming care (Scheim & Bauer, 2019), and some experience a reduction in sexual activities after starting HT (Knezevich et al., 2012). Rosenberg et al. (2019) also found a difference in orgasm experience after commencing HT in trans women. One clinic-based study further found that as many as 32% of trans women may experience a change in sexual orientation during medical transition (Auer et al., 2014). Barcelos et al. (2022) conducted a systematic review of the available literature concerning trans women’s sexual functioning. They found that, of the 17 available studies, there was a large divergence in how sexual functioning was measured, and overall, there was limited evidence that gender-affirming surgery improved sexual functioning overall."

"As a trans woman, I will be the first to admit that I cannot possibly know what any other woman experiences or feels on the inside. But the thing is, the trans-women-aren’t-women crowd cannot possibly know what any other woman experiences or feels either! Every woman is different. We share some overlapping experiences, but we also differ in every possible way. Every trans woman I know acknowledges this diversity. In contrast, it’s the cis women who attempt to exclude us who seem to have a singular superficial stereotypical notion of what constitutes a woman, or of what women experience."

"General sexual satisfaction has been shown to improve after initiation of gender affirming care, both medical and surgical. Several studies have shown a decrease in sexual distress after a combination of hormone therapy and gender affirming surgery. Interestingly some studies discussed a difference in sexual satisfaction based on the type of genital reconstruction that was performed, with one study showing an increase in sexual satisfaction for those who received a metoidioplasty compared to those who received a phalloplasty. Gender affirming surgery has shown to increase sexual satisfaction, even when solely analyzing body self image as demonstrated in several studies despite surgical complications."

"While there is not much data on sexual pain in trans men, one study found that 12% of 211 participants reported pain at the same frequency before and after genital reconstruction surgery."

"Respondents reported high levels of mistreatment, harassment, and violence in every aspect of life. One in ten (10%) of those who were out to their immediate family reported that a family member was violent towards them because they were transgender, and 8% were kicked out of the house because they were transgender. The majority of respondents who were out or perceived as transgender while in school (K–12) experienced some form of mistreatment, including being verbally harassed (54%), physically attacked (24%), and sexually assaulted (13%) because they were transgender. Further, 17% experienced such severe mistreatment that they left a school as a result. In the year prior to completing the survey, 30% of respondents who had a job reported being fired, denied a promotion, or experiencing some other form of mistreatment in the workplace due to their gender identity or expression, such as being verbally harassed or physically or sexually assaulted at work. In the year prior to completing the survey, 46% of respondents were verbally harassed and 9% were physically attacked because of being transgender. During that same time period, 10% of respondents were sexually assaulted, and nearly half (47%) were sexually assaulted at some point in their lifetime."

"Distress surrounding sexual activity or one’s own sexual health, which may or may not include individual anatomy, may impact general sexual satisfaction. Thus, those experiencing high levels of gender dysphoria may have lower levels of sexual satisfaction. Dissatisfaction with one’s body, or body dysmorphia can heavily contribute to sexual dysfunction and plays a large role in gender dysphoria. Specifically, one study of 141 trans men demonstrated a connection between body dysmorphia and difficulty with sexual arousal in 91% of participants."

"Several factors, both mental and physical, must be considered when assessing for sexual dysfunction in TGDI prior to medical or surgical intervention as these factors contribute to one’s gender dysphoria. A systematic review of 44 studies analyzed data on sexual satisfaction, desire, arousal, orgasm, and pain. Generally, studies found that a healthy and positive relationship can have a positive impact on general sexual function, orgasm frequency and associated pleasure."