Trans myths (1): “Trans rights and women’s rights are in harmony”. Trans activists are pushing the idea that there cannot be a clash of rights because transwomen are female. So opening up sex-based safe spaces/protections to transwomen would not make any difference for women...
But this is false. The law in the UK allows biological males to change their gender – based on a legal fiction (see here: theelectricagora.com/2019/10/14/leg…)...
Trans rights do clash with women’s rights. For this reason the UK Equality Act 2010 makes provisions to exclude transwomen from female-only spaces, in order to promote (or protect) the wellbeing of women...
For example, if a transwoman attends a group session for female victims of sexual assault, her rights might clash with the wellbeing of those women since some may not want to share their experience or even attend if a male-bodied person is present...
So, here there is a conflict of rights. The Equality Act affirms that in such a context the rights of women are more important and that transwomen can be excluded (see Explanatory Notes to the Equality Act 2010: 157)...
Further, there are increasing numbers of trans people who reject the idea of transitioning. As ‘trans women’, they keep presenting as men but insist that they identify as women...
If we return to the example of the group session, this could cause even greater alarm and distress to already vulnerable women traumatised by male violence...
The exemptions in the Equality Act, which permit excluding transwomen, confirm that we are dealing with a legal fiction. Otherwise, both groups would have to be treated exactly the same. This also explains why trans activists insist...
... on doing away with the exemptions in the Equality Act. Without these exemptions, more people might actually start to believe the legal fiction that transwomen are female. And this would also promote the myth that trans rights and women’s rights are in harmony.
