“Gender identity isn’t a real thing. It’s completely unscientific. Male and female are biological facts, like having breasts or having a penis. This is your sex, and the evidence is plain to see. You’re one or the other, and you can’t change just because you feel like it.”
“Sex isn’t a binary. Not everyone is either XX or XY, and in fact some people who are XY are women, and some XX people are men.”
“Intersex people are only 0.03% of the population. The sex binary is valid for over 99.9% of the population. And anyway, intersex people don’t like being used in debates over transgender issues.”
“But I was talking about biological sex not being a binary – and, anyway, 0.03% of people still works out to over a million intersex people around the world. But on the subject of gender and population statistics, a recent survey suggests the numbers of trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming people is as high as 2.7%.”
“Gender non-conforming? Girls liking football and boys liking dolls aren’t transgender. That’s the problem with gender stereotypes. How many girls are being forced to transition just because they like boy things? Being effectively sterilised at the age of 16, or younger, and regretting it for the rest of their lives?”
“Inevitably there will be a few people who have some regrets about transitioning, but the overwhelming majority – over 90% – are satisfied with their lives post-transition.”
“Those statistics are highly suspect. Trans activists control the media and shout down anyone who questions the trans faith. They even get de-transitioning research shut down. Where’s the sense in that?”
“They really don’t control the media. The right-wing press has been vociferously anti-trans for the past year or so. It’s creating a culture of fear that endangers the lives of trans people, and especially trans kids. Nearly half of all trans kids have attempted suicide. They need protecting.”
“They need therapy. They need to understand that gender stereotypes are bad and that it’s okay to be the sex they are.”
“I agree gender stereotypes are bad, but gender identity is innate, not learned. Trans people should be free to be the gender they are.”
“Gender identity isn’t real! Trans activists repeat ‘trans women are women’ like a holy mantra, but that doesn’t make it true. Biology is real. Sex is real. You’re either a man or a woman. The man produces sperm, and the women produces eggs. That’s real. Gender is a fantasy. Transgenderism is a faith.”
“Both sides of this argument are founded on beliefs. The idea that humans can be divided neatly into men and women based on biology is a belief, as if male and female are encoded in a binary switch in the genes.”
“It’s not a belief. Women are women. They have babies, they menstruate, they suffer oppression for their sex, not their gender. Female genital mutilation, for God’s sake! And trans activists say if we talk about FGM we’re being transphobic!”
“Well, the assumption that all children assigned female are actually female is questionable, but I wouldn’t myself say the terms are transphobic. But as I was saying, biology is messy. Most XY people identify as ‘male’ and most XX people identify as ‘female’, but that only makes it a general rule, not an absolute one.”
“Biological sex is a binary. Intersex people are male or female too. And you can’t change from one to another. You can’t pretend you’re a woman just because you feel like one, or because you’ve got a sexual fetish for being a woman. Autogynephilia – look it up. It’s a real diagnosis.”
“It’s not about pretending! Gender identity is innate.”
“Really? Because plenty of people seem to develop dysphoria late in life, or they think they’re trans for a while then change their minds.”
“Well, gender identity can fluctuate over time for some people; sometimes from hour to hour. And for many it’s a coming out process that can take years. And there are people who get confused by gender stereotypes into thinking they might be trans when really they’re gender non-conforming in some other way.”
“But these are all just internal perceptions. Confused beliefs at odds with reality. Why should other people be forced to share their delusions? Trans women aren’t women. They can call themselves ‘trans women’ if they like, but not ‘women’, and they shouldn’t be allowed into women’s safe spaces.”
“Trans women would be far more at risk in men’s spaces.”
“Cross-dressers have a choice. They’re men and can use men’s spaces, or if they must indulge their fetish in public, they should be considerate and use the accessible loos. This is the whole problem with self-ID. Any man can claim to be a women and gain access to women’s spaces, subjecting women to male violence.”
“But how would you do it? Insist that ID showing assigned sex be presented on entry in all toilets? If you make trans men use female toilets, then you’re saying that ‘women’ who look like men are allowed in, and how would you tell the difference between trans men and cis men?”
“Well, trans men and butch women would have to be prepared to show ID if challenged. But it’s not just toilets. In prisons, a lot of male sex offenders are suddenly identifying as women in order to get into women’s prisons, where they can assault female prisoners and impregnate them. And trans women are just as likely to be sex offenders as other men.”
“Trans women are far more likely to be victims of sexual assault than perpetrators.”
“More than men, no doubt, but I doubt as much as women…”
Francis James Franklin (Alina Meridon) 