The Key To Trans Civil Rights is Compromise? | Re Andrew Sullivan | An Asian Trans View

Welcome back to the TaraElla Report. Today, I want continue responding to a recent article by Andrew Sullivan on Substack, titled 'A Truce Proposal In The Trans Wars'. In this second part, we will be looking at what Sullivan considers to be good discourse and good compromise, and see if I have anything to add, from my perspective and experience as a trans woman.

Sullivan states that 'trans activists dreamed for years of civil rights protection; now they have it', referring to the Bostock decision that banned employment discrimination across the US last year. However, the truth is that we still have a long way to go, both in the US and in other countries. The objective fact is that the trans unemployment rate remains very high, and trans people are still subject to frequent discrimination in things like housing and service provision. As I often say, I don't care too much about things like pronouns. We need to focus on employment and housing, because equality in these areas is key to our dignity as people. As a gay man who fought for gay civil rights over many years, I believe Sullivan would understand what I am talking about. Just like how the lack of marriage rights made life difficult for gay people in many areas of life, trans people in many places currently lack adequately accessible and consistent mechanisms to update their documentation. This, in turn, often causes both a lack of confidence in seeking employment and associated services, and sometimes outright discrimination from being outed before they even get in the door for an interview. There's also a major problem around trans people being able to access the health care they need, with waiting lists being as long as 4 years or more in the UK, for example.

Now we get to the main sticking point of the whole debate. Sullivan states it plainly. "Defend the rights of both women and trans women. In the overwhelming majority of cases, there is no conflict. In the few where there are, compromise." I couldn't agree more. While I certainly have a problem with people who essentially propose to exclude trans women from the category of women as a blanket rule, I don't have a problem with the idea that there could be clearly defined and well justified cases, where the difference between trans women and genetic women are recognized and dealt with accordingly. Sullivan went on to provide several examples where trans women might be treated differently from other women, and I think these are broadly reasonable in spirit, even if I may not agree entirely in the details. I guess an important point that needs to be made is that, even where trans women need to be treated differently from other women, their needs regarding safety and gender dysphoria should still be upheld. For example, even though it might not be appropriate to house trans women prisoners with other female prisoners, it still won't justify throwing them into the general male population, or denying them the right to present as a woman. Sullivan appears to get this, so good on him, but too many people out there don't.

Sullivan also states that 'most of the "problems" associated with trans people — a non-existent threat of sexual assaults in restrooms, for example — dissipate on inspection. Thanks, Andrew! The gender critical movement has been able to get away with making outrageous claims about the supposed effects of certain simple reforms, that don't stand up to basic scrutiny. For example, a UK proposal to allow trans people an easier process to change their documents, which would help in things like housing and employment, was scuttled by claims that it would lead to predatory men being able to enter female bathrooms. As if bathrooms actually decide who can get in based in their ID! Another similarly groundless claim is that if the government allowed trans women to be identified as women, statistics of all kinds would be distorted by the supposed contamination of data about women. Given that women account for about 50% of the population and trans people account for only about 0.2% of the population, mathematically the inclusion of trans women can't make a meaningful difference in any case! Let's face it: claims like these are fundamentally rooted in a desire to exclude trans women from the category of 'women' as a principle, based on ideological commitments, nevermind that doing so would cause a lot of pain and trouble in the lives of trans women. I mean, I recognize that trans women are not exactly equivalent to genetic women, and where there are conflicts in rights claims I am more than willing to compromise. However, it is simply transphobic to have an ideology that is fundamentally committed to excluding trans women from the category of women as a rule, even when it is not justifiable to do so, and it makes no practical sense to do so.

On the hot button issue of giving puberty blockers to minors who identify as trans, Sullivan says that he doesn't support a blanket ban like many Republicans are now proposing, but 'it seems to me you need a very good reason to use them'. Again, I think this is a very reasonable stance. What Sullivan may not know is that a substantial part of the trans community share his concern about young people potentially wrongly believing that they are trans, and coming to regret it in the future. Still, many trans people are wary of excessive gatekeeping, because gender dysphoria is a crippling condition, and one that many people don't seem to have enough sympathy for. It is already hard enough to get medical treatment for gender dysphoria as it is. That's why any suggestion centered on increasing gatekeeping is bound to get a lot of resistance. Any workable solution would need to take this into account. Comprehensive solutions need to be developed that has the support of both the trans community and the broader general population, and is acceptable to people across the political spectrum. We need to remember this is a serious issue where the welfare of children must come first, and society cannot afford to let it be turned into another culture war political football.

Finally, Sullivan remains pessimistic that compromise solutions, like the one he proposed, will be taken seriously. 'I doubt these recommendations will have any appeal to the trans rights radicals or the Fox News right,' he says. And I have to agree, reality being reality. However, I don't share his general pessimism, because society isn't made up solely of the far-left and the far-right. There are many reasonable people in the middle, and we need to engage them in the discussion. After all, it was the reasonable people in the middle who decided that gay marriage was okay after all, after a rational discussion and consideration of the evidence. A similar discussion is yet to take place regarding trans issues.

What I believe needs to happen is that we need to improve the understanding of trans issues among the general public. We need more trans media representation, but more importantly, it needs to reflect the full spectrum of experiences and opinions in the trans community, not just the activist voices that shout the loudest. Many people would be positively surprised by what diversity there actually is in the trans community!

What also needs to happen is that we need to stop people from getting away with being intellectually lazy, or worse, being bad faith bigots. We need to stop accepting arguments from people who are simply against what another group supposedly wants, while not offering anything concrete or constructive of their own. For example, you can be against the position of certain trans activists. But you need to state what you are for instead, like Sullivan has done here. This is crucial to the development of good dialogue, and the prevention of the formation of bad faith coalitions that are internally contradictory, but simply exist to demonize common perceived enemies, which would just turn everything into an us-vs-them battle with no rational dialogue possible. For example, an alliance of skeptical atheists, the religious right, and gender critical feminists against trans rights is simply transphobic and completely bad faith, and should be called out for that. We need to contrast their bad faith position with the good faith position of people like Sullivan.