Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality

by Helen Joyce

The final indication of a crony belief is that nothing important is allowed to ride on it. To show that this is true of gender-identity ideology, I offer the following thought experiment. Picture a person who insists that transwomen are women in every circumstance. If transwomen commit crimes, they belong in women’s prisons; if they play sport, they belong on women’s teams. If they are attracted to women, lesbians must regard them as potential sexual partners. Such a person will accept no distinction between sex and gender. Transwomen differ from ‘cis women’ only in having been mistakenly ‘assigned male at birth’. Now, what will our true believer do if they need a gestational surrogate? I am familiar with some men in this situation. They spend a good deal of time harassing the women they call TERFs, and trying to get them fired. But when it comes to something central to their own lives, their beliefs fly out the window. The distinction between male and female that they refuse to admit even exists is tacitly accepted once it is crucial to something they really want. My point is not that the capacity to become pregnant is a necessary condition of being a woman. Some women are too young or too old, or have undergone hysterectomy, or have health conditions that make pregnancy unachievable or unsustainable. The point is that if a ‘cis’ woman cannot become pregnant, there must be some such reason, and if she is of child-bearing age you would need to ask about her medical history...