Followed you from Medium. Enjoy your perspective and will continue reading. Hate that it's come to this, but I can see why you switched. The amount of anti-racist racism is suffocating at times, and despite avoiding it, it fills my feed.
You have on Medium authors posting very racist stories, and they get free passes to the point that I thought there was no moderation on Medium.
After reading this essay, I would say that I cannot believe they can ban or threaten to ban someone for this. I read hundreds of articles per month on Medium, and there isn't much in here to be shocked by.
The harshest part in this extract would be "...to appease .0001% of the population". It signifies that some people matter less, however, there is a clear "and I wholeheartedly support their right to live their lives however they choose".
Some people write very hateful articles on Medium, and they get nothing for that.
All that piece says is that no matter how hard we try, we are what we are.
Thank you for the thoughtful reply. And I agree, judging by the amount of questionable content I've seen on Medium, I too thought it was a largely unmoderated platform. Apparently not.
When I said ".00001% of the population," I certainly didn't mean to suggest that some people matter less. What I meant is that I question the calls to abolish single-sex sports, locker rooms, and prisons which protect 51% of the population in order to avoid hurting the feelings of a demographic that's likely less than 1%. Many trans people agree single-sex spaces for women matter, so I think the group loudly arguing that we should disregard women's safety is a tiny minority we should not capitulate to.
And yes, ultimately, that is my position: We should absolutely respect trans people's pronouns and preferred names, but at the end of the day, women really are women and men really are men and that cannot be changed. If some on an individual basis seek to change their bodies and hormonal profiles, let them! But we cannot and should not rearrange society, change the definitions of important words, and undermine women's safety because some people say they "feel like" the opposite sex. Apparently, that was too edgy for Medium.
I saw your post on Medium, related to this, and would like to address your comments on this:
You said "I am not convinced that self-identification is a sufficient standard for biological males to be placed in women’s prisons."
I agree with you on this. There is a standard of care that should be enforced and that the person should be following before any type of privilege like this should be adhered to. However, I do take some offense to your reference of biological male. At the proper point of revelation...I would no longer consider the person to be considered biological male. (But I am in process of writing a medium article discussing this point - to be published soon...)
You said - " I am not convinced that everyone has a gender identity which is innate and internal."
This I completely disagree with. It is just hard to recognize the difference when it is congruent. People with congruency had a hard time distinguishing the difference, while those with incongruency have no issue distinguishing. (It was incongruent for me...) This is primarily a lack of experience/education problem.
You said - "I am not convinced that all, or even most, cases of gender dysphoria should be treated with irreversible hormones that cause infertility, lead to health problems, and don’t address the root causes of depression and self-loathing anyway."
Partially disagree, but this is again an education problem. There is a process one has to go through that attempts to root out this very problem. Its not perfect, and some may sneak by, but its about the best the medical community can do to try to avoid it. It creates a lot of gate keeping and delay for those who truly have a problem, but also helps to root out the issue if it is truly not needed. Infertility and other issues are well known issues and are discussed many times before it is ever impacted.
You said - " I believe that, given the massive uptick in the number of gender reassignment surgeries being performed globally, we as a society need to have an honest, informed, and unbridled debate about the extent to which our culture and institutions should be obligated to affirm a person’s trans self-identification."
The massive uptick is mostly related to 2 things - education on the subject and affordability. The internet generation is becoming much better informed about medical issues and acting up on them accordingly. Secondly, the insurance industry, only relatively recently, started covering gender affirming care. All of sudden, a bunch of people who could not afford expensive surgeries could now get them covered. This has made a huge impact in the industry....
I don't disagree that that honest debate and education on these topics is not desperately needed. There is way too much politically motivated misinformation on the topics that is having way too much influence on the topics on the general public as it is. It has likely affected your opinions and thoughts.
I do appreciate that you mentioned that "I want to be clear that I absolutely support trans people’s right to live and thrive however they choose." I can also see how Medium may have flagged your comments. I hope my clarifications above help educate you on the subject and help in your own education journey on the subject.
"There are four lights." -- Jean Luc Picard
Followed you from Medium. Enjoy your perspective and will continue reading. Hate that it's come to this, but I can see why you switched. The amount of anti-racist racism is suffocating at times, and despite avoiding it, it fills my feed.
You have on Medium authors posting very racist stories, and they get free passes to the point that I thought there was no moderation on Medium.
After reading this essay, I would say that I cannot believe they can ban or threaten to ban someone for this. I read hundreds of articles per month on Medium, and there isn't much in here to be shocked by.
The harshest part in this extract would be "...to appease .0001% of the population". It signifies that some people matter less, however, there is a clear "and I wholeheartedly support their right to live their lives however they choose".
Some people write very hateful articles on Medium, and they get nothing for that.
All that piece says is that no matter how hard we try, we are what we are.
It was just an opinion—shameful Medium.
Thank you for the thoughtful reply. And I agree, judging by the amount of questionable content I've seen on Medium, I too thought it was a largely unmoderated platform. Apparently not.
When I said ".00001% of the population," I certainly didn't mean to suggest that some people matter less. What I meant is that I question the calls to abolish single-sex sports, locker rooms, and prisons which protect 51% of the population in order to avoid hurting the feelings of a demographic that's likely less than 1%. Many trans people agree single-sex spaces for women matter, so I think the group loudly arguing that we should disregard women's safety is a tiny minority we should not capitulate to.
And yes, ultimately, that is my position: We should absolutely respect trans people's pronouns and preferred names, but at the end of the day, women really are women and men really are men and that cannot be changed. If some on an individual basis seek to change their bodies and hormonal profiles, let them! But we cannot and should not rearrange society, change the definitions of important words, and undermine women's safety because some people say they "feel like" the opposite sex. Apparently, that was too edgy for Medium.
Thank you for reading!
I saw your post on Medium, related to this, and would like to address your comments on this:
You said "I am not convinced that self-identification is a sufficient standard for biological males to be placed in women’s prisons."
I agree with you on this. There is a standard of care that should be enforced and that the person should be following before any type of privilege like this should be adhered to. However, I do take some offense to your reference of biological male. At the proper point of revelation...I would no longer consider the person to be considered biological male. (But I am in process of writing a medium article discussing this point - to be published soon...)
You said - " I am not convinced that everyone has a gender identity which is innate and internal."
This I completely disagree with. It is just hard to recognize the difference when it is congruent. People with congruency had a hard time distinguishing the difference, while those with incongruency have no issue distinguishing. (It was incongruent for me...) This is primarily a lack of experience/education problem.
You said - "I am not convinced that all, or even most, cases of gender dysphoria should be treated with irreversible hormones that cause infertility, lead to health problems, and don’t address the root causes of depression and self-loathing anyway."
Partially disagree, but this is again an education problem. There is a process one has to go through that attempts to root out this very problem. Its not perfect, and some may sneak by, but its about the best the medical community can do to try to avoid it. It creates a lot of gate keeping and delay for those who truly have a problem, but also helps to root out the issue if it is truly not needed. Infertility and other issues are well known issues and are discussed many times before it is ever impacted.
You said - " I believe that, given the massive uptick in the number of gender reassignment surgeries being performed globally, we as a society need to have an honest, informed, and unbridled debate about the extent to which our culture and institutions should be obligated to affirm a person’s trans self-identification."
The massive uptick is mostly related to 2 things - education on the subject and affordability. The internet generation is becoming much better informed about medical issues and acting up on them accordingly. Secondly, the insurance industry, only relatively recently, started covering gender affirming care. All of sudden, a bunch of people who could not afford expensive surgeries could now get them covered. This has made a huge impact in the industry....
I don't disagree that that honest debate and education on these topics is not desperately needed. There is way too much politically motivated misinformation on the topics that is having way too much influence on the topics on the general public as it is. It has likely affected your opinions and thoughts.
I do appreciate that you mentioned that "I want to be clear that I absolutely support trans people’s right to live and thrive however they choose." I can also see how Medium may have flagged your comments. I hope my clarifications above help educate you on the subject and help in your own education journey on the subject.