A lifelong feminist

It wouldn’t matter, except that he’s a Labour Councillor.

But what is “one’s identity”? The first definition via Google is “the fact of being who or what a person or thing is.” The first in the Concise Oxford is “the quality or condition of being a specified person or thing.” (The Concise Oxford is 1672 large closely-printed pages, so it’s not all that concise.) In other words the first definition is factual. So…trans women are trans women, but that doesn’t mean they are women, and in fact they’re not women, they’re men who “identify” (in a different and rather nebulous sense) as women.

So what are we talking about when we talk about being respectful of one’s identity? Well in Councillor Doyle’s case we’re talking about respecting a fictional identity, and an ever-growing number of people are getting tired of being told to do that. It’s a fiction that men can be women; it’s a fiction that “identifying” as a woman means you are one; it’s a fiction that “identifying” as a woman makes you one. Actual, literal women are under no obligation to believe men’s claims that they are women because they “identify” as such. We would also quite like people to stop calling us “terfs” for saying something so mild.

Excluding it from what?

Not believing people’s far-fetched claims about themselves isn’t excluding them, nor is it depriving them of rights.

Well I can say I’m a lifelong advocate for LGB rights, but that doesn’t mean I get to tell LGB people to accept straight people who “identify as” lesbian or gay as in fact lesbian or gay. It’s not my call.

Sigh. He has no problem sharing his space with women who “identify as” men. Fine; good for him; it’s still not the same as forcing women to share their spaces with men who “identify as” women. Trans  men are not a threat to men; trans women can be a threat to women.

Councillors should be better informed on such issues.

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