Transgender vs Intersex: Philosophical Conflict on Biology
Are we harming ourselves by pretending that we are *that* different biologically?
In recent times there has been a lot of transphobia thrown about. The USA removed protections regarding health care based on gender identity and expression. Hungary just repealed legislation allowing transgender persons to change their gender on legal documents. Even the author JK Rowling has jumped on the trans-bashing bandwagon by making repeated public comments against transgender rights.
As a scientist, engineer and advocate, I have spent a lot of time throughout my life performing self-reflection in an effort to remove unconscious bias and assumptions based upon limited or no evidence. It has been difficult for me to understand how so much in the world has changed based upon beliefs and assumptions, and not facts or evidence.
JK Rowling’s rants have surrounded a belief that by allowing transgender women into safe “women” spaces, we are in fact opening the doors for men to just walk into those spaces and harm women. This seems to based upon an assumption that transgender women are in fact just “men” who say they are “women,” and that they are not women.
Supporters of Rowling highlight incidents where a transgender women (or at…
