As a transgender woman, parent, and teacher, I affirm that J.K. Rowling is absolutely right: pushing children to change sex is violence against them.
The best-selling authors have been stigmatized for warning that transactivists are pushing children with psychological difficulties to take hormones and have surgery. However, she acts bravely and faithfully, speaking out on this subject. After a flurry of insults that hit her last month for asking her to return the word “woman” to describe her gender, J.K. Rowling was probably forgiven for passing the human rights baton to others.
The transgender discussions she entered into are probably the most toxic and aggravating controversy in social media. But Rowling knew what she was getting into. She published an excellent 12-page essay explaining why she decided to speak. She studied the arguments and relevant literature, talked with those involved in this issue, including with a transgender friend, and only wanted her fears as women to be heard, and not to threaten and insult her. However, sound reasoning does not fit into discussions where demagogy and emotions set the tone.
According to Rowling's opponents, women who reject the postulate that trans women are women are vicious TERFs that need to be canceled. Previously, the word "TERF" was an acronym for the English expression Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist , which means "radical translucent feminist." But now it has become an insult applied to any woman who dares to defend her rights on the basis of [biological] gender, and it is used with the fury inherent in medieval witch hunters. While stunned eyewitnesses may notice a confrontation between the transgender lobby, which claims that transgender women are women, and women who do not believe that transgender women have anything to do with the female gender, the battle hidden from Eye: The clash between common sense and demagogy.
I may be a transwoman, but in this dispute I am on the side of common sense and therefore support Rowling. When the actors who became famous thanks to Rowling’s [films on] books lined up to renounce her, someone less principled would backtrack. But to the delight of those of us who supported her, Rowling was persistent. For example, another writer, Gillian Philip, was ostracized for adding the hashtag #IstandwithJKRowling (“I support JK Rowling”) to a link to her blog on Twitter. After sexually abusive and deadly trans-lobby threats, she tweeted, “Go ahead, homophobes and wood-haters!” For this, the employer fired her. It is frightening that this trans-lobby has become so powerful that it can deprive people of work, but even more frightening is its influence on politics. As gender came to change in the English-speaking world, this handful of activists began to use gender identity instead of gender as a tool to split humanity.
Forget the fact that we did not create the floor, but the floor created us. In the logic of transgender people and the laws that arose under their influence, psychology is more important than biology. It turns out that if we can choose who to be - a man or a woman, then we can choose our gender.
In this situation, those who are weaker suffer. The rights of women, inherent in them by virtue of their gender, lose their meaning if any man who pretends to be a woman can get them. At least it’s naive to believe that men will not use it.
However, on Sunday, Rowling drew attention to a group far more vulnerable than women. In a series of bold tweets, she condemned the impact on children: "Many doctors are worried that young people who are experiencing psychological difficulties are being encouraged to take hormones and surgery, which is not necessarily better for them."
In this I fully support her. I am a trans woman, but also a parent and teacher. I work with young people every day, and for me, caring for them is most important.
Many children do not easily tolerate puberty, but before they were not offered the opportunity to postpone it or degenerate into something different from what was intended by nature. As a result, young people who are considered not mature enough to get tattoos are put in a quandary. They are told that they can choose their gender, implicitly grimly hinting that the wrong decision can forever ruin their lives.
I made the [transgender] transition, but as an adult. I made a mature and balanced decision to agree to treatment, after which I remained barren. Directly in my case, the possibility of having children was already ruled out thanks to a vasectomy, which I did after I started a full-fledged family. I believe that forcing children to make such a choice until puberty is violence against children.
The path that they are guided, as Rowling herself writes, is an uncontrolled full-scale experiment on children, the author of which is sometimes homophobic parents who are unable to reconcile with the fact that their child’s gender identity does not coincide with his biological sex.
The scandal surrounding potential child abuse is fundamental to this debate. Political leaders turn their backs on the uncomfortable truth that our gender depends on biological traits recorded at birth. Meanwhile, Rowling stands up for the most vulnerable - first for her gender, then for the children.
For her courage, she deserves praise, but the reaction was different. Hate speech has always existed in society, but because of the rights of transgender people, it gets a new opportunity to oppress women who dare to say their word. Meanwhile, the sane majority is silent, fearing what might happen if the crowd gets angry.
The time has come to thoroughly tackle the existing problem. What Rowling has done over the past month, of course, is amazing, but the protection of vulnerable people should not fall on the shoulders of individuals, no matter how brave and famous they are. Those who agree with Rowling must support her and decisively and irrevocably condemn the outrage.
The author’s point of view may not coincide with the position of the publisher.