A lawyer and philosopher on opposite sides of the debate about trans and women’s rights respond to seven propositions—ranging from single-sex spaces to puberty blockers for children

1. TRANS WOMEN ARE WOMEN

2. IT SHOULD NEVER BE LEGAL TO EXCLUDE TRANS WOMEN FROM WOMEN-ONLY SERVICES AND SPACES

3. TRANSPHOBIA IS THE IRRATIONAL FEAR OF, AVERSION TO, OR DISCRIMINATION AGAINST TRANS PEOPLE

4. CHILDREN UNDER 16 SHOULD NOT BE PRESCRIBED PUBERTY BLOCKERS

5. TRANS PEOPLE IN THE UK NEED BETTER ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE

6. THE CENSUS SHOULD COLLECT SEPARATE DATA ON SOMEONE’S BIOLOGICAL SEX AND GENDER IDENTITY

7. WE NEED TO REFORM THE PROCESS OF GENDER RECOGNITION THROUGH WHICH PEOPLE CAN CHANGE THEIR LEGAL SEX

The conflict over trans rights has become one of the most fraught debates of our time. The stakes are incredibly high: JK Rowling and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie are just two of the women who have found themselves subject to vicious attacks for saying things that others believe are beyond the pale. Some trans people feel careless use of language serves to increase stigma and transphobia. At the heart of the dispute is a disagreement between those who think someone’s gender identity—whether they identify as a man or a woman, regardless of their biological sex—should always take precedence in single-sex services, sports and spaces; and others who believe biological sex cannot be altogether replaced by gender identity. On one side of the argument, trans activists claim it is hateful to say being a woman is anything more than a question of someone’s self-declared identity. On the other, some feminists argue that to reduce womanhood purely to this is to minimise the fact women have always been oppressed at least partly on the basis of their sex, and that differences between males and females are relevant to things like prisons and sports. The polarised tone in which this debate is often conducted makes it more difficult to make sense of what’s actually at stake. Here, we bring you two perspectives from opposing sides of the debate in the hope of illuminating points of contention as well as areas of agreement.

TRANS WOMEN ARE WOMEN

Robin White

Robin White

Of course we are! Though it does, of course, depend on the test you apply. If you were to ask those who love us, work with us, are friends with us, or just sit next to us on the train, you would find that we are accepted into the female diaspora (just as trans men are accepted as men). We are female lawyers, doctors, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, train drivers, and—by dint of the 2004 UK Gender Recognition Act—we can have our status recognised by the state, and international jurisprudence stands behind that. The great majority of the trans people I know have brought some or all of the secondary sex characteristics that appear during puberty into line with our acquired or affirmed gender. Most of us pass by you unnoticed.

Biological essentialism (the idea that only chromosomes matter) fails at every practical hurdle. How many readers have had their chromosomes tested? Do you have to have your genitals checked before using the supermarket toilets?

Kathleen Stock

PORTRAITS FOR PROSPECT BY SARAH M LEE

Kathleen Stock

Humans are a sexually dimorphic species. 99.8 per cent of us fall clearly into male or female categories, which in nature is as binary as it gets. Much ink is spilt to deny this, even talking about how we are all on a “spectrum.” But according to one plausible account, what determines which sex category an individual falls into is whether the developing human is on one of two pathways, either to produce small gametes (male) or large ones (female), even if that pathway is later disrupted through variation or disease.

Biological difference makes for social difference. That most females can get pregnant is one important fact. That females are on average weaker and smaller than males is another. The first makes a difference to earning power. The second makes a difference to assault statistics and to the performance gap in sport. These aren’t universal generalisations, but there are discernible patterns for those with eyes to look.

These and other relevant sex-associated patterns are more than skin deep. They go beyond outward appearances wrought artificially through hormones and surgery, let alone mere inner feelings of identity. There are situations where it’s polite and cost-free to respect someone’s preferred identity, but these are by no means ubiquitous. To describe sex-associated patterns, we still need words for the two types of human, and we need to use them. We also need words for the sexually mature and immature versions, for sexual maturity produces many important differences too. The words we have are “woman,” “man,” “girl,” and “boy.” Nearly all languages have equivalents. We can selectively go along with a fiction that people can change sex if we choose to, but we can’t afford to lose the words altogether.