Are “trans rights” an extension of gay rights? Are “trans rights” human rights?
❏ Everyone, including “transgender” people, has human rights as stated by the United Nations Declaration. “Trans rights” activists seek to claim extra rights that others don’t have, for example, to be able to keep secret a previous identity, or to be able to prescribe how language is used.
❏ Gay rights concern the right for consenting adults to have same-sex relationships and to have the same rights as heterosexual people. “Trans rights”, on the other hand, seek the extra right to self-identify into a protected group and be eligible for that group’s special discretions. Here’s an excellent blog post describing the problem.
❏ Gay rights accept and celebrate the body and sex. They do not deny biological science and recognise there are two sexes and the distinct reproductive capacity of each.
❏ “Trans rights” reject the science of body and sex. They deny the material reality of biological sex and claim that what a person thinks and feels is of most importance and that those thoughts and feelings can literally transform a body into the opposite sex. “Trans rights” dictate that everyone adheres to the “trans” way of interpreting and describing “gender” and sex.
❏ Gay rights do not involve medical or surgical treatment. “Trans rights” demand both these as a right and put “transgender” people, often young people influenced by social media, onto a conveyor belt of lifelong medicalisation.
❏ Gay rights do not require others to forfeit anything. “Trans rights” insist on the forfeiture of single-sex spaces, sports, scholarships, representation and even language. Further information here.
❏ Gay rights do not demand fundamental changes to everyday language. “Trans rights” push to censor the words used to describe women and women’s bodies – foundational words like ‘mother’ or ‘woman’ – and replace them with dehumanising words like ‘birthing parent’, ‘uterus-bearers’ and ‘people who menstruate’.