Let’s Call Transphobia By Its Real Name – Sickening Bigotry

Sunday, 2 July 2023, 5:58 am
Opinion: Ian Powell

If someone had said that I should write on transgender rights when I began my Political Bytes blog in January 2021, I would have said nonsense.

Partly this was because I didn’t appreciate the level of intense bigotry and hatred of those opposed to their rights that subsequently emerged. And partly it was because I had not drilled down into the underlying issues.

I simply intuitively supported transgender rights as I would for the victims of other forms of discrimination or oppression, such as racism, sexism or homophobia. The common driver is dislike of bigotry.

But there is another driver; that opinions on things have an evidential as well as values base. Call it epistemological (theory of knowledge) if you like. Opinions on matters should be empirically well-founded.   

Oh what a visit from a far-right anti-transgender bigot known as ‘Posie Parker’ has made!  To date I’ve published two blogs. The first was on 4 April: Class, transphobia and street democracy. The second was on 23 May: The bullying of Marama Davidson.           .

The consequences were both a significant increase in the readership of Political Bytes (the smaller of my two blogs) and being ‘cancelled’ by bombastic blogger Bomber Bradbury’s The Daily Blog (if I was younger I might have put this on my CV; to be fair he does express support for trans rights and opposition to Parker’s bigotry).

The catalyst for this blog

And now there are three blogs! While I had been thinking about it for some time, the catalyst was a Facebook post (21 June) from Len Richards.

He is aggressively anti-trans and part of the similarly transphobic Workers Now group. His personal views are consistent with ‘mainstream’ transphobia, including those of the far-right Destiny Church.

Richards was criticising the deregistration of a teacher for his treatment of an upper high school transgender student. He boiled it down to the use of pronouns.

However, it is clear that the decision was more about the teacher’s professional conduct in expressing his opposition to the student transitioning.

In Richards’ words:

Whatever his beliefs (strongly Christian in this case), all he is doing is upholding scientific truth and the reality of biology.

And the BELIEF (and that is all it is) that a child can be the opposite sex to that which they were born is inviolate and cannot be questioned?

A teacher loses his job for not participating in the ‘transgender’ charade!

The reversal of reality that is the ideology of the trans-cult is now being officially preached and enforced in all NZ schools.

Children are being shepherded down the road of irreversible bodily damage from drugs and surgery that are the ultimate destiny of any child who travels on the trans-train.

Key messages

The key messages in this post are:

• transgenderism is contrary to “scientific truth” and biological “reality”;
• the belief that one can be different from their assigned sex at birth is false;
• transgender is just a “cult” or “trans-train”; and
• children are being pressured to undertake “irreversible bodily damage”.

What characterises this post is its dogmatic rigidity of Richards’ views on transgenderism and transgender people. Trans people are artificial constructs; they aren’t natural. It is as if they are sub-human. This, for Richards, is all that needs to be said on the subject!

There is no scope for any other view. Neither nuance nor sensitivity get a look in. Richards’ hardline post is simply a stream of bigoted unsubstantiated and uncompromising absolutes masquerading as evangelical truths.

Fellow travellers

Given his claim to be left-wing (a claim I find incredulous) Richards might want to think about the contrasting experience in Cuba and Florida of a trans woman, Melinda Butterfield, from New York (16 June): Trans women reflects on Cuba and Florida.

Next, he might want to contemplate the congruence between his position and the bigotry of Florida Governor and Republican presidential aspirant, far-right Ron DeSantis.

Richards also has another far-right Republican governor fellow traveller, Greg Abbot of Texas, as reported in The Intercept (5 May): Genocidal anti-trans campaign opens new front in Texas.

Understanding transgenderism

Who has the better the understanding of transgenderism between Len Richards, ‘Posie Parker’, Destiny Church and Workers Now, on the one hand, and the World Medical Association on the other? If ever there was a rhetorical question, this is it.

At its General Assembly in October 2015 the World Medical Association (WMA) adopted a statement on transgender people, along with several resolutions, which was strongly supportive of their rights including to healthcare: World Medical Association on transgender people.

It is a highly informative read providing invaluable insights, including on the science and what transgenderism and gender identity are. There are few best placed to analyse these issues that the medical profession with its strong scientific foundation.

The statement begins by noting that in most cultures, an individual’s sex is assigned at birth according to primary physical sex characteristics.

Individuals are expected to identify with their assigned sex (gender identity) and behave accordingly (gender expression). Gender comprises both identity and expression.

Transgender refers to people who “experience gender incongruence”; that is, “a marked mismatch between one’s gender and the sex assigned at birth.” WMA advocates that these people be treated without stigma or pathological characterisation.

WMA recognises this is a complex ethical issue. There is a spectrum of transgenderism. Hence the importance of the quality and sensitivity of the medical profession’s advice over possible treatments.

The spectrum includes those who seek to change their sex characteristics and gender role completely in order to live as a member of the opposite sex (transsexual).

There are others who seek to “…identify their gender as falling outside the sex/gender binary of either male or female (gender queer).”

While some transvestites and intersex people aren’t transgender, some are depending on their gender identification.

Being transgender is not a form of mental impairment. However, they can suffer from ‘gender dysphoria” where they experience “…clinically significant distress resulting from gender incongruence.” Hence the importance of access to appropriate healthcare support.

Success, acceptance and joy

It is encouraging that the medical profession in New Zealand, including general practitioners, is stepping up to provide this support in caring and sensitive ways.

On 6 January New Zealand Doctor republished a sensitively written article (paywalled) by Dr Cathy Stephenson. She provided suggestions to help GPs work successfully with transgender and non-binary young people, to ensure they don’t add to the barriers their patients face.

Another paywalled article (27 April) reported on a Goodfellow Symposium attended by around 1000 delegates. Dr Rona Carroll, GP and transgender health expert, was a keynote speaker.

She advocated for GPs taking a bigger role in managing and repeat-prescribing gender-affirming hormone therapy.

Dr Carroll promotes empowering health professionals in primary care to feel confident in supporting their trans and non-binary patients.

She referred to a 2018 survey identifying that over a third of gender-diverse young people had avoided seeing their doctor at some point.

What these accounts highlight is the compassion, respect, sense of professional responsibility, and empathy that doctors have towards the transgender people they work with.

This is something Len Richards, Workers Now and the Destiny Church would do well to learn from.

They might also benefit from reading the heart-warming story of Monica Mulholland by Olivia Caldwell in the Sunday Star Times (28 May): Coming out as a transgender woman in conservative New Zealand has brought success, acceptance and joy. 

Seven years since 59-year old Mulholland came out as a transgender woman from “deep in the heart of conservative New Zealand”.

At the time she had been a member of the Queenstown Rotary Club, “traditionally filled with ex farmers, business community and conservative types.”

Now she has been elected president! If this doesn’t confirm the kindness and tolerance of most New

Zealanders, I’m not sure what does. It was a severe kick in the teeth of bigotry.

On 15 May Stuff reported another heart rendering transition experience described as “euphoric”: Being trans: the euphoria of looking how you feel. 

Women’s rights

One of the attacks on transgender people is that they will aggressively violate women’s privacy in public spaces, such as toilets. It is based on an unsubstantiated assumption that transgender women are inherently predators.

Not only is there no evidence to support this claim. There is also no consideration given to the fact that many transgender women have their own apprehensions about using these same spaces.

NZ Herald investigative reporter David Fisher provides a well-written observation on the specific fear-mongering claims concerning safety in toilets (2 May): Toilets and changing rooms going unisex bringing comfort to gender-fluid ‘comfort stops’ .       

Speaking for all women?

Those who claim that transgender people are a threat to women’s rights frame it in a way that implies they are speaking on behalf of all or most women. Arguably the most well-established women’s organisation in Aotearoa is the National Council of Women New Zealand.

Prior to the arrival of ‘Posie Parker’ (Keen-Minshull), on 23 March, the Council made the following media statement:

NCWNZ recognises transwomen as women and affirms their rights to live free of discrimination from physical and mental violence. NCWNZ President Dr Suzanne Manning says, “We are concerned that Keen-Minshull’s rhetoric attacks transwomen’s rights to live their lives without gender discrimination. Her active promotion of prejudicial and stereotyped views of gender identity sends the message that transwomen should not be permitted to simply exist and that they should hide their authentic selves from the world. This goes against basic human decency, and infringes on transwomen’s human rights.”

NCWNZ believes that gender equality is a fundamental human right which applies to people of all genders and all expressions of gender and sexual identity. Transwomen and all people have a right to live without fear of physical violence and mental distress and the hate speech demonstrated by Keen-Minshull puts these rights at significant risk. We stand with those who support transpeople and their rights to live with the same freedoms as other New Zealanders.

The highly level of tolerance towards trans people reinforces the view that those arguing women in public spaces is under threat is held by only a relatively small number and basis on dogmatic prejudice rather than evidence.

In my first blog on transphobia (see link above) I reported an international survey of tolerance towards transgender men and women (2023).

Conducted by Ipsos Global Trends, it asked whether transgender men and women should be free to live their lives as they wish.

The results for New Zealand could not have been more impressive; second fractionally behind Vietnam. Aotearoa is a world leader.

The survey provided three answers to the question – Agree, Neutral and Disagree. Globally 70% agreed. New Zealand was 88%. Globally 10% were neutral; New Zealand was 4%. Globally 20% disagreed compared with 8% in New Zealand.

I struggle to believe that that women respondents would be markedly less supportive of trans rights than the male respondents.

An important caution

There is an important caution, however. As the World Medical Association noted, the issues are complex. Understanding them is relatively new. It was only in May 2019 that the World Health Organisation stopped categorising being transgender as a “mental disorder”.

It has to be remembered that for a long time homosexuality was considered to be a “mental disorder” contributing to horrible consequences for gays. Fortunately expert assessments evolve as evidence and experience improves.

In respect of transgenderism there are important lessons from the experience of the United Kingdom’s only children’s gender identity development service, run by the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.

It was the subject of a review led by paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass which presented its interim report in February 2022: Cass Review. Its full title is the Independent Review of Gender Services for Children and Young People: Interim Report.

The Cass Review was “strictly focussed” on the clinical services provided to children and young people seeking help from the National Health Service to resolve gender-related stress. It was not about the wider issues of gender identity.

The interim report was not, as claimed by them, a vindication for anti-trans activists. Dr Cass herself was explicit about this when these claims were made. However, the report did raise some serious concerns, particularly about the robustness of the evidence relied upon for puberty blocking.

It recommended the replacement of the single gender identity development service (Tavistock and Portman) with a series of regional hubs. Dr Cass drew upon her experience of regional paediatric hubs in the NHS to develop this recommendation.

The review’s warning about the approach to puberty blockers is important. It should be incorporated into a more cautionary approach in New Zealand as further evidence and learnings unfold.

Time to call transphobia out

The Cass Review is not a shot across the bows of transgender rights. Rather it is an invaluable lesson for how best medically to approach a complex issue and a firm reminder of being confident of evidence.

It is opposite to the aggressive negative hostility towards transgenderism and transgender people which is the essence of transphobia. Transphobia is consistent with the intolerance that has prevailed towards particular groups in particular times for centuries.

Trans activists have been criticised as being overzealous or dogmatic. I have some sympathy for this view but only in respect to a passionate component of the wider transgender movement. But the same can be said for anti-racism, anti-sexism and anti-homophobia movements.

Dogmatism can be offspring of some of the victims of these various forms of discrimination and oppression. In fact, dogmatic zeal also exists in both the political left and right (except that the left has been more successful in developing it into an art form).

It is time to call transphobia out for what it is. It is time to be blunt. Transphobia is shameful uncomplicated and sickening bigotry.

I’ll leave the final word to comic-cartoonist Toby Morris in The Spinoff (2 May): Trans tipping point: transphobia and scapegoating.

© Scoop Media

Ian Powell

Otaihanga Second Opinion is a regular health systems blog in New Zealand.

Ian Powell is the editor of the health systems blog 'Otaihanga Second Opinion.' He is also a columnist for New Zealand Doctor, occasional columnist for the Sunday Star Times, and contributor to the Victoria University hosted Democracy Project. For over 30 years , until December 2019, he was the Executive Director of Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, the union representing senior doctors and dentists in New Zealand.

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