Building the Conservative Case for Trans Acceptance | Trans Sandwiched #23

Like a British PM once said, 'I support gay marriage because I'm a conservative'

Welcome back to Trans Sandwiched by TaraElla. Recently, I discussed the idea that the contemporary Western intellectual landscape is lacking a healthy appreciation of conservative philosophy, and how this has led to the rise of an unintellectual, reactionary style of conservatism. To fix this, I think that we need to revive an intellectual philosophical conservative tradition. I think we should at least welcome this philosophical conservatism, as one more lens to see things through, to help resolve our current social controversies. Today, I want to explore how we might approach trans issues from this kind of philosophical position.

I think that, in general, the starting point of an intellectual conservatism should be to adapt effectively to new circumstances and demands, while insisting on preserving the good things in our basic social structure. The goal is to successfully integrate the new solutions into our current social structure. This way, our shared institutions, values and social contract get strengthened in the process, while they also get to evolve to become more adaptive and responsive to the needs of people, hence staying relevant for generations to come. This stands in contrast to a reactionary approach, which just opposes and resists all proposals for change, from a place of fear or resentment. An intellectual conservatism recognizes that some change is essential for preservation ultimately, unlike the reactionary approach. Hence, for an intellectual conservative, the question is, what changes are acceptable, and even to be encouraged, because they will help us further realize our shared values, and what changes are not acceptable, because they will break the fundamentals of society.

As you can see, an intellectual conservatism does not oppose all proposals for change as a knee-jerk reaction. Rather, all proposals are assessed intellectually, and assessed as to the harm or benefit it will have on our shared values and social contract. A good application of this was seen during the gay marriage debate. While reactionary conservatives ardently opposed all attempts to advance gay marriage and even civil unions, many intellectual conservatives saw the benefits of extending marriage to gay couples, including the strengthening of the institution of marriage, the re-establishment of the norm of life-long commitment, and the affirmation of the value of equality of all individuals before the law. Ultimately, the intellectual conservative view provided important arguments that won the marriage equality debate. On the other hand, the proposal of abolishing marriage, that came from the more radical quarters of the gay community, was rightly opposed by intellectual conservatives, because it would only lead to the destruction of our shared institutions and values. It was with the help of intellectual conservatives that the gay community ultimately chose, and got, marriage equality, rather than marriage abolition.

I propose that we start applying the same lens to the trans issues currently under debate. Currently, there are many proposals for change out there regarding the topic of gender broadly speaking. Some of these proposals are clearly at odds with our shared values and social contract. For example, there is no reason that free speech should be compromised, or gender itself should be 'abolished', nor would this benefit trans people. An intellectual conservatism needs to firmly oppose these radical ideological programs, and guide the trans community towards more productive reforms. However, reactionary conservatives are also using these extreme proposals as an excuse to resort to their habitual knee-jerk position, to blanketly oppose all trans-related reforms and social changes. Not only has this approach been discredited by history (given that gay marriage has not destroyed families), it also disaffirms many of our long-standing shared values, including compassion, open-mindedness, accommodating the less fortunate, equal opportunity for all, and more. As you can see, the reactionary approach is basically anti-conservative from an intellectual conservative point of view!

The challenge for an intellectual conservative position on trans issues is therefore to find and support proposals for change that will help integrate trans people into society as productive members with equal opportunities, while preserving, or even strengthening, our shared values and institutions. I think anti-discrimination provisions in housing and employment would fit into this category. Ensuring adequate and affordable access to evidence-based health care for gender dysphoria would be another example. Going forward, there needs to be more discussion about what else could fit into this category, and what does not.