Trans ideology, often also called gender ideology, is a slur against transgender people and our allies. Invented by the gender-critical and often lead by extreme right-wing academics and the media, you will be hard-pressed to find anything written about trans ideology from the trans camp. The reason is straightforward – it does not exist. I, as a trans woman, have taken on the mantle to fight this slur alone.
I have no backers; I am not a member of Stonewall. I am a member of The Fawcett Society (a UK feminist organisation), the Labour Party and LGBT Labour. I am not an academic. I have never attended a university or had any form of higher education. I am (at the time of writing) 68 years old and proud to be trans. I never claim to be a woman. My gender is a woman for sure, but my sex is “trans” – I am a fully-fledged transsexual and detest, yes, detest the slur ‘trans ideology.’
The correct definition of an ideology, according in Oxford Languages in an “idea” or an “ideal” – I am a human being – I am biology!
This article aims to explore the top ten entries (at the time of writing) within the online search of the phrase ‘trans ideology.’ By the time you read this, the positions may well have changed, but I am sure you will find many more articles from the gender-critical than you will see from any trans person or support group.
So when I searched the internet, the first two articles about trans ideology came from the same person – Joanna Williams writing on the Civitas.org UK website. Entitled “The Corrosive Impact of Transgender Ideology”, Joanna (a known gender-critical academic) produced a 122-page document, which I must say was very heavy reading. I could sit at my desk for a month tearing this article apart, but with limited time, not to mention patience, I intend to contest just one or two issues from the initial ten pieces I am de-bunking. Going forward, this article will expand to debunk other articles as they appear online. I hope as you read this piece, a pattern will appear – that trans ideology is a lie.
Joanna wrote in her article:
“The transsexuals of yesteryear did not deny the reality of having been born male or female even as they sought to change sex; neither did cross-dressers who experimented and played with sexual conventions and stereotypes. In contrast, transgender people today are the creation of gender theory.”
I find this passage so insulting. I am a transsexual of today, and anyone visiting this website will immediately see I acknowledge I was born male. Moreover, I object most strongly to the idea that I am a ‘creation of gender theory’. I was aware I was different in 1957 at the age of five. As my story explains on my website, I had a lifetime (to be precise, 58 years) of gender dysphoria before taking the long (9 years) road of transitioning.
And this woman – Joanna Willams has the audacity, yes audacity, to suggest I am a creation of gender theory?
Moreover, there would be many more transexuals in the UK if there was an improvement in trans healthcare. Waiting times to visit a Gender Identity Clinic (GIC) in the UK just to see a gender specialist is up to five years! And it is a fact that many trans people are driven to suicide because of a lack of proper healthcare for trans folk in the UK.
It is estimated that one-third of trans people commit suicide in the UK – driven to it by hate from the 20% of the UK population who are transphobic, along with incredibly long waiting times to get help from gender specialists.
Joanna’s article continued – referring to GIDS, the UK NHS service that help kids with gender dysphoria, she wrote:
As noted on Transgender Trend: ‘In 2009/10 there were 32 girls and 40 boys referred to Tavistock GIDS. In 2011/12 the sex ratio reversed, and the gap between boys and girls has continued to widen year on year ever since. The total number of referrals for 2018/19 in England alone was 624 boys and 1,740 girls. In less than a decade, there has been a 1,460% increase in referrals of boys and a staggering 5,337% increase in girls.
In this passage, I believe Joanna has shot herself in the foot. For only a few sentences earlier, she refers to the number of trans people in the UK as between 0.5% and 1%. The average between these two figures is, of course, is 0.75%. Currently, in England, there are 12.65 million kids under the age of 16 and if 0.75% are trans, that totals 94,650 trans kids. In consequence, is 2364 kids asking for help from GID’s high? I would suggest it is very low.
And here is the crux. In June 2020, a report entitled “Legal Gender Recognition in the EU” reported that 69% of trans women knew they were trans before their 16th birthday; the figure rises to 71% for trans men. Kid’s have access to the internet from an early age and, of course, can read for themselves the benefit of early treatment to gender dysphoria. Had I been born in 2002 instead of 1952 when I had no information about being trans at all – is it not reasonable that I would have wanted to seek a full life living as a woman?
The second article that Joanna Williams has managed to secure a front-page slot again revolves around the same title, “The Corrosive Impact of Transgender Ideology,” but is just an abbreviation piece of the main article totalling just 339 words.
One sentence reads
“Reports of the attacks on women in prisons carried out by transgender inmates suggest that the feelings of transgender women are being placed above the safety of females.“
Note one word “feelings.”
The issue is not feelings – it is ‘safety’ for everyone, cis and trans prisoners alike. The simple truth is that in the UK, 91% of trans women prisoners are housed in male prisons. On average, a trans woman prisoner is attacked every 33 days. There have been incidents involving trans prisoners in women’s prisons – over the period 2010 to 2020, it averages at one attack every two years! We must also bear in mind that trans women are likely to have little or no strength making potential attacks in a male prison a blood bath. This is because trans women like myself “run” on estrogen, not testosterone – indeed, my ‘T’ level is just 0.6ng/dl – an average male can be as high as 900ng/dl
I would moot, therefore that Williams assertions are grossly exaggerated, incorrect and transphobic.
Williams also writes this:
Arrests and prosecutions have been made for ‘deliberately misgendering’ through the use of male pronouns.
And why not? If someone is screaming outside your house or in the street, insults like “He is a tranny”, should they not be prosecuted? Very sadly, the police rarely take action over verbal abuse – Google “UK prosecution deliberately misgendering” and see how many prosecutions there have been – when I checked, I could not find one! But Williams seems to think it is okay to abuse trans women, other human beings, which of course, it is not.
I have never met Joanna Williams, but what drives her to write as she does? In my view, it is paranoia and hate.
The next article in the trans ideology slur comes from the Heritage Foundation – an extreme right-wing think tank lobbyist organisation with a history of not being trans-friendly. This article is called “Transgender Ideology is Riddled with Contradictions. Here are the Big Ones”. Written by one Ryan T Anderson, he states:
But what exactly is this “gender identity” that is supposed to be the true medical determinant of sex? Adkins defines it as “a person’s inner sense of belonging to a particular gender, such as male or female.” Note that little phrase “such as,” implying that the options are not necessarily limited to male or female. Other activists are more forthcoming in admitting that gender identity need not be restricted to the binary choice of male or female, but can include both or neither.
Just what is wrong with this man?
If Anderson looks like a man, feels like a man and is happy as a man – great, like 99% of society, he is cisgender. However, it is biologically proven that being trans is a medical condition that occurs in the foetus from about six weeks gestation. All foetuses are female, and those biologically destined to be male (with the Y chromosome) normally get two infusions of testosterone at slightly different periods in time – the genitals first – the brain a few weeks later. Sometimes nature messes up (kids are born with heart defects or limbs not perfect), and that is what happened to trans women like myself. My mum infused me with testosterone to the genitals but not to the brain – hence I have maintained my female brain traits. Consequently, it is entirely acceptable that people may feel their gender does not match the sex assigned at birth or feel they are gender-neutral. It is their life, and they know how they feel – just as you know what if you are a man, woman or something in between.
Anderson then writes this:
Many of those who feel distress over their bodily sex know that they aren’t really the opposite sex, and do not wish to “transition.” They wish to receive help in coming to identify with and accept their bodily self. They don’t think their feelings of gender dysphoria define reality.
Again I do not believe this is true. I speak, write or message to hundreds of trans people every week. Yes, we know our bodily sex is wrong, but it is pretty much impossible not to transition in one format or another. Let us reverse what Anderson is saying here. I am assuming you, the reader is cisgender that your sex and gender identity match. Now let us say you are a man – your clothes are men’s, you act like a man – but suddenly you are forced to wear women’s clothes and act like a woman. You could not do it, could you?
You would not “sell” your gender for a million dollars; it would just not feel “right.” For Anderson to suggest that trans people “accept their bodily self” is just plain impossible, we have to transition to a degree to which we feel we can accept ourselves. That may mean some trans folks just need hormones and others have surgery, but to say we do not want transition to some degree is a fallacy.
The next article I looked at was from The Christian Institute, another organisation with a long history of being anti-trans. One wonders why a supposedly Christian organisation which bases their beliefs on the bible are so anti-trans folk. There is hardly anything in the bible that suggests being trans is wrong or against Gods law. I could easily start quoting scripture to them on how they pick and choose what bits of the Bible they practice and other bits that they dont, but that is not the point of this piece. They write:
Transgender ideology claims that each person has a ‘gender identity’ (an internal sense of gender) which may or may not align with their biological sex. The ‘real you’ is what you feel it to be on the inside.
Again this mispresents the truth. An ideology is as previously mentioned as an idea or ideal. Ideologies are taught – religion is an ideology with a handbook to go with it – the bible. No one, however, teaches you how you feel. You may feel love for someone, perhaps your partner, for example – you are not taught how to feel – you just know it.
The article then goes on to say this:
Drastic treatments are being promoted, such as puberty-blocking drugs, hormone treatment and ‘sex change’ surgeries. Many go on to regret this course of action.
This statement is untrue. Neither puberty blockers nor hormone treatments are in any way “drastic.” They are safe for the vast majority of people are often reversible. To suggest that “many go on to regret this course of action” is a fundamental lie. Medical research reports prove the rate of regret varies from country to country – but is always between two to five per cent. Now ask yourself – why is a “Christian” organisation taking a moral stand against a minority group who causes no harm to anyone and in no way threatens their religion?
The next article I wish to confront is from WSJ.com. It is a terse opinion piece with little visible content without buying a subscription which I am not prepared to do – so I can only contest one passage of this article which reads:
Yet it’s one thing to claim that a man can “identify” as a woman or vice versa. Increasingly we see a dangerous and antiscientific trend toward the outright denial of biological sex.
Again this is untrue. No one can deny biological sex. All that trans people are saying is their gender does not match their biological sex!
Moving on. The next article to rebuff comes from the British newspaper The Daily Mail. Very sadly, this newspaper along with several other UK based right-wing press such as The Times, The Spectator and Daily Telegraph all have a history of anti-trans stories – the Mail for instance once publishing three anti-trans stories in one week (period 29th June to 6th July 2020). This article (published on the 24th of October 2020) is again short, and in the main, is fairly written.
However, it uses the phrase “damaging transgender ideology” in the headline, which indicates a negative stance to trans people. The articles subject matter relates to ‘International Pronouns Day’ – an awareness campaign that some people prefer to be called he, she or they, for example. As a fully transitioned trans woman that looks like a woman and sounds like a woman, is it unreasonable of me to be called “she?” Civility costs nothing, yet here are anti-trans campaigners making a song and dance that some people are different – preferring that kids are not told of our existence or preferences.
The next article I looked at comes from Alicia Hendley and has the title “I supported trans ideology until I couldn’t any more” and is published on the Feminist Current website and dated April 10th 2019.
Alicia makes a positive start to her article about why people are trans and why she was an alleged trans allie but then writes this:
“But early this year, everything changed. In January, information about the alleged misbehaviour of a self-declared transwoman (“JY”) was revealed. Initially known for filing human rights complaints against 16 Canadian women who declined to wax male genitals.”
The person to who Alicia is referring to is better known as Jessica Yanev. I will not “slate” Yanev in this article other than to say she does not represent trans people any more than Adolf Hitler represents all German people. As a bona fide trans woman, what Yanev has done appals me as much as the next right-minded person. So why does one person, Yanev, inspire Alicia Hendley to change her views about millions of trans people?
Strange.
Strange, of course, unless you are setting up an article to look reasonable when it is not. At that point, the wind up begins. Alicia writes:
“I tipped, falling away from the beliefs ascribed by gender identity ideology, and onto firmer ground. I was no longer willing to “affirm” transgender individuals at any cost, especially if it cost us women’s rights.
Just how do trans women cost women’s rights? What rights do women have in preference to trans women? What rights do trans women have in preference to women?
None.
And note one more issue. The article has gone from validating a tiny minority of people (both genders) to becoming an anti-trans women rant.
The next article I looked at comes from a Scottish newspaper called “The National” – the article is, in fact, a long letter from a lady called Maggie Melon and published on the 30th of November 2020. I have to say I find Maggie’s letter bewildering, to say the least.
Maggie writes: “Transgender beliefs deny same-sex attraction, and therefore homosexuality“. Err…Maggie look at our umbrella label; it is called LGBT. It stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transgender!
We accept each other as part of the diversity of life. We have fought together – to be recognised as allies together from the Stonewall riots to LGBT+ groups worldwide. What you have written and worse still got published is utter garbage, and any sensible person will accept this to be the case.
Moving on through Maggie’s letter, she writes:
Unsurprisingly, it is girls who are particularly affected by trans-ideology. There has been a huge rise in the numbers seeking a medical solution, having been wrongly promised hormones and surgery will release them from what seems to the adolescent girl the horror of being a woman.
Maggie’s point that the number of girls with gender dysphoria coming forward is true, but this may well because they feel more comfortable in doing so than twenty years ago. Moreover, as this article has demonstrated earlier, the actual figures for kids coming forward with dysphoria are actually very low.
However, for Maggie to suggest that girls (or indeed boys for that matter) are “wrongly promised hormones and surgery” is entirely untrue. As a fifty-eight year adult, I had to fight very hard to get hormones. I was to grilled by a leading gender identity psychiatrist (Dr Stuart Lorimer) before being offered even a low dose of HRT – described in a letter to my GP from him as “to take the edge off.” Moreover, Maggie’s suggestion that kids are promised surgery is just plain rubbish. Again it is incredibly difficult to get surgery – it took me nearly eight – yes, eight years! My story and the difficulties I had to get surgery is on this website. Kids are never, repeat never, promised surgery.
The next article, number nine in the ten that I am looking at, comes from someone called “Dai” and was written on the 12th of December 2020 and published on the Men’s Voices Ireland website. Dai writes this:
The long-simmering divisions within the former LGBTI+ groups have now come out into the open. According to one newspaper report, new organisations such as the LGB Alliance.”
I am bewildered about this statement because there have never been “long-simmering” divisions within the LGBT+ community. Indeed the LGBT+ community are in disgust with this allegation. Looking back in history, we have always fought together, one classic example being Beth Elliott, a trans woman, who in the 1970s fought for the inclusion of lesbians into feminism. A link to Beth’s entry in Wikipedia can be seen by clicking HERE.
It is true a few break-away lesbians founded LGB Alliance. One, in particular, Bev Jackson, is often vocal on Twitter and, on the 24th July 2019, tweeted this:- “Take the Heritage Foundation. Many deeply anti-women policies. Yet it was their publicity that made it possible to launch a gender-critical movement in the US.” However, membership of LGB Alliance is clouded in secrecy. It is reported many, if not all are straight men. LGB Alliance has been reported as a hate group in the UK. There have been petitions against them gaining tens of thousands of signatures in relation to their application to be a charity organisation and their inclusion by media to get quotes from them in relations to LGBT+ affairs.
Dai also writes this:
“It means that transwomen who are male-bodied can claim full access to former single-sex spaces such as women’s changing rooms, women’s refuges, dormitories and of course to take part in women’s sports“.
This is untrue. Participation in sport is dependent on the relating sports clubs and bodies approval. A case in point would be Caster Semenya, the well-known runner from South Africa who, through a congenital disability, has issues with hormone levels. Like us all – she cannot help how she looks or what she is made off. Caster has suffered huge attention for being different and has to contend with her sports body’s numerous requirements to ensure fairness with other competitors.
Equally, it is untrue male-bodied people can gain access en-mass to single-sex (female) spaces. In the UK, the Equality Act gives all service providers the right to discriminate if they wish to and I for one respect that single-sex spaces are required and must remain so. The allegation that lots of trans women are going to invade women’s spaces is sheer nonsense and would undoubtedly gain huge negative media attention if that ever occurred.
And now to article number ten of ten. Not that I am going to let the slur of trans ideology rest. This article is going to stay live with ever-increasing entries in the future. Obviously, I want to avoid too many duplications to the points I raise. You will already have noticed the pattern that is involving from the gender-critical cult – it is a constant tirade of lies so to cause fear, hate and mistrust.
To move on. But opp’s – look who has popped her head above the parapets yet again! Joanna Williams, this time writing on the platform “Spiked” in an article written on the 19th of June 2020. The title is “How trans ideology took over.”
Joanna, this time writes:
“We need to ask why teenage girls were expected to get changed for PE or try on clothes in shops alongside boys”.
Seriously – like this is an everyday event? When, where, – there would be a riot from all parents if this were true. She also writes this:
“Deliberate efforts were made to align campaigns for transgender rights with pre-existing gay-rights groups – adding the ‘T’ to the LGB movement”.
This statement is just malicious.
So assuming you, the reader is just an average person reading this article not involved in the gender war, also know as the terf war. That you are not LGBT+ – you are neutral. Just when have you heard the phrase LGB without the T? It is true the going back thirty years or more, the T was added and then in more recent years, because we are a minority group, we very willingly added Q’s I’s and A’s – but as a group of people, we are known as LGBT+. And I contest Joanna’s writing’s in the strongest terms. Joanna is suggesting that the T was added yesterday, and it is just not the case!
So are you any the wiser what “trans ideology” is?
Do you see the pattern that is emerged from the articles I have quoted from?
In reality, trans ideology is a new slur invented by transphobic people. For the definition of transphobia is (and I quote from Oxford Languages) “dislike of or prejudice against transsexual or transgender people”.
And as you will surely realise, that is precisely what all these articles have in common – transphobia. The aim of gender-critical, transphobic soles on this earth is to politicise trans folk. This has happened before over many centuries, perhaps the most infamous being Adolf Hitler’s successful marginalisation of the Jewish community in the mid-1930s. I am not suggesting that for one minute, trans people are going to end up in gas chambers, but the principle of isolating minority groups is well established and seems to be a favoured tactic by the right-wing. People precisely like the Heritage Foundation and Donald Trump – who set about making the life of trans people unbearable in the US. By the grace of God, the American people kicked Trump out of office to replace him with a far kinder, accepting President in Joe Biden.
In the UK, where perhaps we have seen an even bigger campaign against trans people, we know all about right-wing policies to marginalise minority groups. In the 1980s, the Conservative government introduced an Act (law) known as “Section 28”, which forbade schools to teach school kids about homosexuality. The Act was repealed in the UK some twenty years later. The repeal was the foundation stone for gay people to become entirely accepted in society, and today some forty-five openly gay MP’s sit in our parliament. In the UK, people dont care less if someone is gay or not, but trans is a different matter. Trans folk is about twenty or so years behind our gay brothers and sisters in full acceptance, making us the target by the Christian extremists and right-wing. They want a “pure” society – echo’s, of course, to that of Adolf Hitler some eighty-five years ago. The slur “trans ideology” has been creeping into articles like that I have mentioned to promote fear, hate and the isolation of trans people.
The transphobic do not want kids to learn of our existence – just as the homophobic did not want kids to learn about gay folk – for they are seen as impure too. That’s what joins us together LGBT+ – hated by the same group in society, homophobic, transphobic people.
There is no “invasion” of trans women trying to strip away women’s rights, to erase their sex or their biological beliefs in the binary. There is no invasion into a sport or single-sex spaces. There are no problems – except those invented by the transphobic. And I find it very sad that feminism – true feminism is the loser in this war.
Because all the time the terf war rages, patriarchy goes about its business – silently.
Authored by Steph @PlaceSteph
Links:
https://civitas.org.uk/content/files/2454-A-The-Corrosive-Impact-of-TI-ppi-110-WEB.pdf
https://www.civitas.org.uk/publications/the-corrosive-impact-of-transgender-ideology/
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2020-04-21/HL3198
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52748117
https://www.christian.org.uk/issue/transsexualism/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-dangerous-denial-of-sex-11581638089
https://www.feministcurrent.com/2019/04/10/i-supported-trans-ideology-until-i-couldnt-anymore/
https://www.thenational.scot/news/18907413.empathy-women-defending-rights-short-supply/
https://www.mensvoicesireland.com/news/trans-ideology-and-the-nwc-domestic-violence-and-the-un/
https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/06/19/how-trans-ideology-took-over/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT
