Guidelines: Transphobia
Definitions
- Assigned gender: The gender you was assumed to have at birth.
- Trans(gender): To identify with a gender that differs from your assigned gender.
- Cis(gender): The opposite of trans, to identify with the gender you were assigned.
- Non-binary: A gender identity that doesn't align with the binary categories of 'man' and 'woman'.
- Transition: To undergo changes in order to better align with their gender identity. Doesn't necessarily mean medical transition, e.g. going by a different name or pronouns.
- Detransition: Someone who stops or reverses their transition.
- AFAB: Assigned Female At Birth, i.e. assumed to be a girl/woman.
- AMAB: Assigned Male At Birth, i.e. assumed to be a boy/man.
- Trans man: An AFAB person who identifies as a man.
- Trans woman: An AMAB person who identifies as a woman.
- Gender critical: A broad term for different groups that all believe the idea of trans people is a political project that needs to be opposed.
- TERF: Trans exclusionary radical feminist, a subgroup of gender criticals.
Transphobia
Fear, hatred or a belief in the inferiority of trans people or trans identity.
A naïve definition would posit that only hatred or wishing harm on trans people should be considered transphobia, but this fails to cover that an important aspect of bigotry is believing the subject of it to be inferior and therefore deserving of it. Just as it's racist to believe that black people are inherently less intelligent, even if you don't necessarily hate them, it's transphobic to believe that a trans person's identity is worth less or is less valid than a cis person's, even if you don't feel any malice for trans people.
What language to use
General
The following section is a guide on how to engage in trans topics. It explains what terminology to use or avoid and why.
Use cis(gender)
When talking about trans people it's normal to want to talk about them in contrast to non-trans people. You should use the term cis in these cases. Like trans, it's a Latin prefix meaning 'on the side of'.
Avoid contrasts that treat trans people as distinct from the same gender category as their cis counterparts, e.g. saying 'men and trans men' as this implies that trans men aren't men.
Avoid phrases like 'normal women' or 'normal men' when you mean cis men/women as this has the implication that trans people are abnormal, which itself has subtle implications of strangeness or freakishness.
Dog whistles
A dog whistle is a seemingly innocuous way to phrase a political opinion in a way that's only understood by others who already know what it's signalling. It's a way for people to garner support for opinions that would, if stated outright, not be allowed.
This is a list of common dog whistles you should avoid.
'Biological' man/woman
A phrasing used to imply an immutable connection between sex and gender. Cis should be used instead.
Do note that 'biological male/female/intersex' is a common way for people, trans and cis, to refer to their assigned/biological sex.
'Transgenderism'/Gender ideology
A common neologism employed by gender criticals to imply that trans people are an artificial construct for political purposes ranging from encroaching on women's spaces/rights to a devious plot to destroy Western culture. Should be avoided in all contexts.
'What is a woman'
An interesting philosophical question that has been co-opted as a slogan by anti-trans activists to deride trans people/activists who aren't able to come up with a short, simplistic definition (see 'Adult human female' section).
For a more in depth look at the question, and why anti-trans activists are wrong about it, see the Lonerbox video "What Is A Woman?" A Response to Matt Walsh. (Fair warning contains a lot of Twitter lefty shitposter jokes/language).
Adult human female
This is the literal dictionary definition of woman, but is more often than not employed by anti-trans types to both imply an immutable connection between assigned sex and gender, and say that trans activist don't know what a woman is and are therefore too out-of-touch to be listened to.
Trans-identified male/female (TIM/TIF)
A way for gender criticals, and TERFs in particular, to misgender trans people and imply an immutable connection between sex and gender.
Also, a more formal way of doing this employed by institutions, like the EHRC, is to use language like 'people who identify as trans' instead of trans people, as the former implies a certain fakeness to being trans.
You should say trans man/woman instead.
41%/Suicide rates
The 41% figure reference to a Williams Institute Survey on suicide attempts among trans and gender non-conforming adults. This is either used as a direct call for trans people to commit suicide or used to imply trans people are not of sound mind and are therefore not fit to make decisions for themselves.
Misconceptions about major events
Cass review
Despite what the media and the Health Secretary say, the report didn't call for the blanket ban on puberty blockers for under-18s, nor did it conclude that they were unsafe, only that there was insufficient evidence that they are safe and a call for all children currently on these medications to be put into a longitudinal study.
This is not to say that the review is a good report, but it's important to highlight how it's scope has been expanded as a political tool against young trans healthcare. See here for a roundup of criticisms of the report from medical professionals and trans activists.
For Woman Scotland vs. Scotland Supreme Court ruling
The Supreme Court ruling did not, despite media and minister claims, change the legal definition of woman to mean 'biological sex', they ruled that:
- The only consistent definition of 'sex' for the purposes of the 2010 Equality Act was 'biological sex'*;
- That a lesbian is an AFAB woman who is sexual attracted to other AFAB women;
- That it's legal to exclude trans people from single-sex spaces;
- They also ruled that it was permissible to exclude trans people from spaces of their 'biological sex' if they look too much like their gender identity, though it has to be deemed an 'appropriate' measure;
- Service provides still need to demonstrate legitimate reasoning for limiting a service to single-sex.
* The SC defines this as the sex put on your birth certificate as opposed to any actual biological characteristics.
The SC didn't rule, however, that provides of single sex had to exclude trans people, only that doing so is not a breach of the 2010 Equality Act.
Plenty of criticism has been levied at both the ruling itself and the process that the SC used to get to it, including a challenge to the European Court of Human Right over breaches of the European Convention of Human Rights and a disregarding of normal procedural safeguards.