By Mecca Fowler
Editor’s note: The opinions expressed here are those of the authors. View more opinion on ScoonTV.
I believe that trans people should be able to exist as themselves and not be discriminated against or have their civil rights trampled on. I believe that most people want trans individuals to be as happy as they possibly can be and to be able to live freely, without prejudice or persecution. However, there is a trend in society of prioritizing trans women’s feelings over biological women’s safety and well-being that has gone off the deep end. We are entering into vastly dangerous territory that if left unchecked will leave women and girls under the boot of transwomen for the sake of inclusion.
The biggest issue stems from the concept of “self-ID.” Self-ID allows people to claim the opposite gender without having any prior intervention. This means men can claim that they are women without necessarily having any medical transition surgery done. In other words, they could still have male genitalia, still present themselves as a man, and can “self-id” themselves as a woman whenever they want. This is a slippery slope because any sexual predator could randomly claim to be a woman to gain access to women and girls’ spaces that normally shield them from men including private restrooms and changing areas, shelters, and prisons. In fact, this has even happened a few times.
In 2021, a story out of California swept through the media after a woman who was a patron of Wi Spa recorded a video alleging that a man entered a women-only area of the spa. She furiously exclaimed to the front desk employees that the man exposed himself to several women. One of the employees of the spa said they do not discriminate against people’s sexual orientation. They cited California Civil Code 51(b) and 51(e)(5) which made it illegal to “discriminate” against transgender and gender-nonconforming people. They assumed that the man may have been a trans woman. Soon after, the media made this story about transgender rights, called the irate woman transphobic, and LAPD even labeled it a hoax.
In all reality, the ordeal was no hoax. The man who exposed himself, Darren Agee Merager, had a bountiful history of exposing himself to women and children and is a convicted sex offender. Additionally, he did not seem sincere or resolute in his belief that he was a trans woman in an interview with LA Mag. It seems he took advantage of the self-ID policies in California to repeat his misbehavior.
In a recent incident in California, a teen girl accused a trans woman of being naked in the YMCA while she was showering, purportedly still having male genitalia. The trans woman in question has previously sued Crunch Fitness for discrimination after they refused to let her use the women’s changing room.
At another YMCA in Ohio, a trans woman was charged with three counts of indecent exposure for being naked in front of women.
In several cases across the world, men who have sexually assaulted women and/or girls have “transitioned” into women after being jailed and have been put in incarceration with females instead of males.
If trans women do not feel comfortable using the men’s facilities because of safety reasons, what makes them believe that biological women would be comfortable with biological men occupying their spaces? The logic does not track.
Women, especially liberal women, have been more than amenable and open to trans women coming into their spaces. We have let trans women into our sports competitions, pageants, and other areas that women have historically occupied. But we have to draw the line because the interpretation of trans women has now become anyone who “feels” that they are a woman. If anyone can be a woman under the law, then there is no such thing as a woman, and sex-based legal protections are meaningless.
It seems that policies that are being instituted have exclusively focused on the feelings of trans women and have not explored the detriment it might mean to biological women.
This conversation should not be as contentious and toxic as it has become. It’s really simple, do biological women’s rights matter or do they not? However, it has become a controversial topic and we are deeply divided about it in this country.
In conclusion, the dogma that “transwomen are women” just is not true, no matter how many times the media repeats it. As such, there needs to be a distinction in protected class issues for biological women to keep them safe. It is misogynistic for biological men to insist that biological women must accept them as women, regardless of if they still have male genitals and have not completely transitioned. This leaves the door open for men to take advantage of loopholes in policies that have not been fully thought out.
The acceptance of one group need not imply the rejection of another. We may accept transgender women while not diminishing the real need to protect biological women. We still belong to a separate category with our own unique needs and rights.
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