How Transphobia ‘Crowded Out’ Real Feminist Issues in the UK Election
Research shows right-wing media coverage of gender-critical culture war activists like JK Rowling led to women’s and feminist election issues being ignored
A large part of so-called gender-critical (anti-trans) activism’s focus is on the false claim that trans women’s rights are harmful to cisgender women — the idea that trans women using bathrooms, changing rooms or other single-sex spaces will result in cis women being assaulted, either by predatory trans women or by cisgender men pretending to be trans women.
Trans women have always used the women’s bathroom — because we’re women — and there is no evidence that laws allowing us to do so increase violence against women. Research shows that there is no increase in violence against women in states that have trans-inclusive laws around single-sex spaces.
Conversely, separate research focusing on trans youth shows that when you force trans people to use single-sex spaces, they experience higher rates of sexual assault.
Those arguing that trans people should be banned from using single-sex spaces aligned with their gender identity are effectively pushing for a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist…
