Thread by @stephenwhittle

1. @garylfrancione for 40yrs, I studied trans lives in a socio-legal context, in the UK & Europe,

That included frequently reviewing what TP & clinicians think about what being trans ‘means’

I found no evidence of any consistent or agreed ideological viewpoint amongst them. …

https://twitter.com/garylfrancione/status/2020599192461451702

2. TP & Trans healthcare providers have wide & varied range of views/beliefs about trans identities;
- how TIs come into being
- how they develop
- what transition & persistence mean.

There is little consistency in those views or in any relationships between those areas

So …

3. … I find no basis for the claim that there is such a thing as Trans ideology (TI)

- except Ti does seem to ‘exist’ widely as an apparently derided ideology amongst anti-trans (gender critical/sex realist) activists (ATAs)

Even then, there are a many & varied views held …

4. … by ATAs as to the content & purpose of ‘TI’

I do not doubt some ATAs have a substantive disagreement with whatever version of ‘TI’ they believe to exist.

Importantly I see
- ‘TI’ adopted by ATAs, but not by TP
- TP find ‘TIs’ to be incomprehensible concepts ..

5. … - ‘TI’ provides meaning & purpose to the activities of ATAs, but not to TP or their activities

Finally, there is strong & consistent evidence of the MASSIVE influence of that factor - that I short-handedly referred to as the ‘Yuck factor’ - in the history of …

6. … human rights & anti-discrimination laws.

It is the factor resulting from the manifest discomfort many feel when faced with a person who is different.

You won’t need examples of where this factor has had a long & negative influence on people’s access to rights …

7. … but for other readers here are a few

- anti-miscegenation laws that prevented inter-racial marriage in parts of the USA until 1967 (Loving v Virginia), Australia until 1961), Nazi Germany (1935-45), & in Sth Africa (1940-85)

- early 20th century Eugenics based marriage …

8. … bans preventing people with intellectual disabilities, mental illnesses, or epilepsy from marrying, eg. The UK’s The 1937 Matrimonial Causes Act allowed marriages to be declared void if a spouse was considered of "unsound mind" or subject to "recurrent fits of epilepsy. …

9. I could give many examples not just relating to marriage

Almost all had no basis in necessity, they were a result of a visceral, emotional aversion, a feeling of disgust toward something/ someone perceived as unnatural, immoral, or contaminating (a Yuck factor).

Gay men …

10. … & lesbians suffered centuries of persecution because of it

Up to 12 million Black Africans could be enslaved because of it

As a Trans person, I had no rights until 1996 because of it ,
& until the mid 1980s, TP like me were almost always referred to in the media …

11. … as sexual perverts because of it.

TP do not possess any singular ideology about being Trans, their views. & beliefs are wide & varied

However, I have no doubts that for most women the ‘yuck factor’ continues to have a significant part to play in the ongoing …

12. … campaigns which, if successful, will make it
- impossible for TP to use public spaces we have been using for almost a century without major concerns, &
- exclude us from the participation in public life we have enjoyed for the last 30yrs

Most ATAs have no reason to …

13. … support those exclusions

As our research has shown there simply are not the assaults they claim exist, & they have not personally faced assault by a TP, nor do they know anyone who has.

See translucent.org.uk/how-many-compl…

translucent.org.uk/trans-women-in…

…

14. The few who have direct experience of violence or assault at the hands of a TP should take the matter to the police & seek prosecution

If convicted I’ll support the punishment a TP receives unless there is manifest injustice.

I hope that helps

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