Speaking Truth to Power in the Era of Trans Rights Activism
It’s been six months since I reached “peak trans,” a term used by the gender-critical feminist community to describe the moment a woman loses faith in trans ideology. It’s been about six months since I found myself unable to give trans activism the no-limits backing it demanded from me if I were to remain a member-in-good-standing of LGBTQ and progressive communities. It’s been six months since, almost overnight, I went from an ally to a bigot, from an advocate to a Nazi. I was a vocal feminist, an out-and-proud lesbian, but, because I couldn’t agree that biological sex was nothing more than a feeling, the rest of it didn’t matter. I was out.
I’m still a little stunned and confused, because, a few years ago, believing that biological sex was real and immutable wasn’t a controversial position. I supported transgender people’s rights to behave and dress as they chose without fear of violence or harassment. (I still do.) I believed that they should be protected from housing or employment discrimination. (I still do.) I supported the use of post-transition names and preferred pronouns. And I assumed that nobody was claiming that transitioning gender literally made a male person female, or a female person male. I was wrong. I was so, so wrong.
Over the course of just a few years, the prevailing position of trans ideology…