Facts are not rights, rights are not facts

Now it’s Ian McEwan’s turn. Pink News reports that he has Said Things.

Award-winning author Ian McEwan has waded into a debate on trans rights, claiming that he can’t seen anyone with a penis as other than a man.

McEwan, 67, is the latest to offer his opinion on the rights of trans people, mentioning an ongoing controversy surrounding people like Germaine Greer, who denies that trans women can truly be women.

Wait.

Rights are one thing, and perceived facts are another. There can be spillage along the border, but all the same – there is a difference.

McEwan’s saying he can’t seen anyone with a penis as other than a man isn’t part of a “debate on trans rights.” It’s not a right to be seen as something in particular. I don’t have a right to be seen as Japanese or tall or Shakespeare. Germaine Greer isn’t giving her opinion on the rights of trans people when she denies that trans women can truly be women.

It’s entirely possible to see trans people as trans people and think they should have all the rights everyone else has, be safe, be free from discrimination and abuse, and so on. None of that is or should be dependent on mystical beliefs about “gender.”

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