Bottom-line: there is clear neurobiological evidence for the argument that transgender people are probably born transgender, I just have to pee, I really strongly like people that bother to ask about my pronouns, and parental support can take a transgender kid's chances of attempted suicide from 60% down to 3%.
Objections seem to be, primarily:
A) semantics arguments, which are...semantics arguments...and
B) objections against critical theory, which I do not even really follow.
Does that about sum it up?
No.
What this looks like to me is a combination of mansplaining and male privilege.
What matters to you is all that matters. And you'll tell us why what you care about is important, while hand waving away the concerns of women, like
@Emily Lake.
Does that about sum it up?
Tom
I don't think @Sigma has hand-waved away concerns.
@Loren Pechtel,
@Jimmy Higgins, and
@Jarhyn have though. It's the people who insist that sex doesn't matter, genitals are not a problem, and that women should just shut up and accept the risk of having people with penises in their spaces, because hey, what could go wrong? They're the ones hand-waving away concerns.
It's the male born-and-raised people who insist that because penises have never been a problem for them, and because they wouldn't be concerned to have a naked female in their midst, that the same thing should apply to women. They're the ones who see to think that the statistics for rape and sexual assaults are irrelevant, and that women just be crazy hysterical overreacting and all that.
As someone that is both queer and transgender, I have never fully understood it. Gay and bisexual men, in my life, have been considerate and respectful. My negative encounters, with the human race, have mostly been violent ones.
You have no idea how scary it is to be surrounded by five or more violent individuals, and you don't know whether they are trying to scare you, this time, or actually intent on killing you. Yes, I could tell you that living that way messes a person up, but I cannot really communicate it, even if you would choose to believe me. It is like explaining color to a blind person. This happened to me in the same year that Matthew Shepard was murdered. I don't know how to get it across.
It is like you trying to explain rape to somebody that wants to understand it, but a real understanding never gets through. It is a qualia that can only be understood by having felt it. And I STILL cannot genuinely understand that, except maybe I can understand the frustration of trying to explain color to a blind person and just feeling very alone because of that.