Well, no, it doesn’t. (a) what it means to be transgender is to have a condition that has been known for decades as “gender dysphoria”. It is a belief that one is not in the “correct” body, and wishes live as the opposite sex. It does not, however, by any science known to homo sapiens, mean that the person suffering from gender dysphoria is indeed the opposite sex (with or without hormone medicines or surgery). Just as I’m not a black man, by putting on black make up. Nor do we consider allowing someone suffering from anorexia to attend a diet program. The man remains a man, no matter his feelings. Which the world can sympathise with and accommodate -- just not when that accommodation bumps up against the feelings and sensitivities of natal women.
Later on in the video here, Takano claims that a woman beating a trans-woman (ie a man) in a competition, “proves” that there’s no need for professional sports women to worry about trans-women in sports (!). This is stupid. It makes no more sense than if you believed that a particular individual woman being taller than a man “proves” that the bell curve of average heights showing men are on average taller than women, is somehow not correct. This is sloppy, lazy, thinking from the congressman.
This whole, suddenly fraught, issue is because of two sensitivities -- two human rights -- bumping against each other. In ways that appear irreconcilable.
The sensitivities and rights of trans-women vs the sensitivities and rights of women. Till recently there were no issues, as people just got on with it. I’m sure trans women went into women’s bathrooms with no particular hassle. Now it’s fraught because (a) there are many more people identifying as trans, for reasons not fully understood, (b) they are much more militant in pressing their rights and sensitivies (c) people of good will want to show them tolerance and kindness, but (d) in so doing are bumping up against the genuine worries and concerns of the sensitivities of women. It’s not just changing rooms, but in prisons, where there is plenty of evidence that increasing numbers of men charged with a crime are identifying as women so they can get into women’s prisons, and that this is leading to a documented rise in sexual assaults in women prisons. The Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon was toppled over this very issue. Takano is flat out wrong to say that there are no cases of assault on women by trans women in what till now have been women-only spaces. There are many documented cases, in both bathrooms and prisons, and his ignorance of them, or dismissal of them, is not going to help soothe matters.
It’s an issue that has to be faced. And a good dose of reality, of “the science” wouldn’t go astray. Women’s groups have put forward suggested solutions. But the “trans lobby”, that is the radical elements of the trans movement, don’t accept the solutions, because they demand the full-on acceptance that “trans women are women”. That is, they demand we accept the refutation of science.
ADDED:
"Allowing biological men to compete against women is demoralizing, anti-woman, and physically threatening to the safety of women and girls. When athletes with male genitalia are allowed to use women’s changerooms, it affects the mood of the entire team by taking the focus off competition and comradery.... The entire structure and integrity of women’s sports are destroyed when we deny science to adopt policies that are fundamentally anti-woman."
MCENANY, MIMS And CAMPANA: Trans Athletes Are Turning The Dream Of Title IX Into A Nightmare
