Joyce, Helen. Trans. A One World Book, 2022.
Sometimes, you have to speak up!
As a high school teacher, recently the subject of transsexuality has become an important topic. After teaching for over 19 years, suddenly, the halls of our small, rural high school have begun to populate with trans students. Last year, there was one male to female trans student and numerous female to male trans students. Our school was quick to be accommodating and created a co-educational physical education section that was open to students of all sexes and did not include the need for a changing room or shower. Trans students were allowed to use the restroom of their original (birth) sex or were allowed to use the individual restrooms located near the nurse’s office. Everyone lived in harmony to my knowledge. With only one student transitioning from male to female, our small school never had to make a decision about allowing or not allowing trans students to compete in women’s sports because that student was not an athlete.
In addition to a potential issue with sports competition, another issue that was concerning to me as a teacher and mother of six was whether or not I would have a student in my class who identified as a gender different from his/her birth gender AND was hiding the fact from his/her parents. That was not uncommon, fortunately, while I did have trans students in my classes, all of them had parents who were aware. I felt comfortable calling trans students by their new names and pronouns in my classroom. It was a bit difficult sometimes as some students, new in their transition, did not always present as their preferred gender and our learning management system used their original names and gender ID. I would always call students by their preferred name and pronouns regardless of whether it was a nickname or new choice of names, but it would have been difficult for me to participate in hiding something from a student’s parents or guardians. Thankfully, I was never asked to do that.
Recently, I have watched You Tube videos featuring detransitioners and also female athletes who have been harmed by the inclusion of trans athletes in competitions. As a mother, teacher, and woman, these stories prompted me to do a little soul searching and reading. I found the book Trans by Helen Joyce and managed to read it yesterday. Joyce is an Irish atheist with a PhD in mathematics from University College London. She is the Britain editor of The Economist. She and I are very different from one another, but I share her opinion about the trans issues she writes about in updated 2022 edition of her book.
At first, I was so surprised that she managed to get a book published that was in any way not in total agreement with trans ideology, but by the time I got to Chapter 10: The American Left’s Embrace of Gender Self-Identification (pages 201 – 221), I had my answer. In that chapter, Joyce is very critical of American Conservatives as well as Christians. I believe that expressing disdain for Conservatives and Christians is what made the book palatable to all those who are quoted as loving the book such as: Evening Standard, Spectator, The Times, Richard Dawkins, and more. Had a Conservative or Christian tried to get this book published, it would have been discarded as trash.
In the Introduction of the book Joyce claims, “My intention is not to be unkind to trans people, but to prevent greater unkindness” (8). Here, she is talking about the potential negative effects of transitioning children using hormone blockers that cause medical problems, sterility, and sexual dysfunction as well as compromising the safety and rights of women by allowing anyone who self proclaims to be a women to be in women’s private spaces or compete against women at all levels of athletic competition. According to Joyce, this is setting back the long, hard work of feminists in an “admirable, but poorly thought-out, sense of compassion for trans people” (8). She is also very concerned about the effect of trans rights on the lesbian community by the negating of the definition of woman. She calls out the media and big businesses who spout nonsense words such as “chest feeders,” “birthing persons,” “people who bleed,” and etc. that describe women.
Throughout the book, she is sensitive and compassionate toward trans people while always maintaining the there are only two sexes. She quotes Judith Green (co-founder of Woman’s Place UK), “The legal definition of sex is something that affects everybody, and in particular women, because we suffer from sexism. The second demand was that women-only spaces must be upheld and if necessary extended” (272). Green, a British woman is speaking out against allowing transwoman to self identify and be given access to women only spaces, has been subject to “intimidation and harassment” that Joyce reports “are carried out opening and proudly” (254). Many who support trans rights call anyone who speaks up for women only spaces bigots (255).
In the beginning of the book, Joyce discusses the research around the issue of medically transitioning children. She says, “It (the best study) found that more than 90 percent of them later ceased to feel dysphoric and became reconciled with their sex, generally before or early in puberty” (33) as a caution against using puberty blockers in young children with “cross-sex” feelings. She claims, “adult male homosexuality is often heralded early in life by ‘effeminate’ behavior” (35). She therefore cautions parents to love and affirm their young children if they present as gender non conforming instead of leaping to socially or medically transition them. Puberty blockers and cross sex hormones have side effects such as bone thinning, IQ loss, and memory loss. Their long term effects have not been studied nor were they created for use in young people. Research has shown that “without affirmation, most gender-dysphoric children will desist” (84). Right now, many are thinking, but what about suicide? Joyce says, “Horrifying statistics are thrown around without context. Once you search for sources, they fall apart.” The biggest, most often cited study was of twenty-seven British trans people from a LGBT website. Parents are told “they must affirm their child’s gender to stop them killing themselves” (85). This is just not true. I wonder about the suicide rate of transitioners who regret the loss of sexual function and/or fertility.
In addition to the medical harm done to children who are rushed into medical transition, adult women suffer when the rights of transwomen trumps the rights of women. This is seen in women’s sports, women’s locker rooms and restrooms, women only trauma groups, and sadly, women’s prisons. Joyce makes it perfectly clear that she is not saying that transwomen are a threat to women, but points out that men who are a threat to women can now self identify as women and legally gain access to women only spaces. While transwomen may need protection, biological women should not be made unsafe as a result. The book is excellent and one of the very best aspects of the book is the end where Joyce provides solutions to all of the problems that self-ID has created for women. She says, “Casting the mind beyond gender self-identification in this way will ensure that everyone affected gets a say. It will also help governments write a new agenda for improving trans people’s lives” (294). I agree whole heartedly. Let’s step back and look at these issues and solve them in a way that is sensitive to the needs of trans people, women, and children. Let’s open up the floor for discussion and debate. Let’s allow people to disagree and have their own beliefs without threatening them with cancelation or violence.