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voicelessvoicemusings · 2 months ago

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To The British Government, The Supreme Court Judges, and The Equality and Human Rights Commission

(And indeed to any person who should read this who hasn't walked 10 seconds in a trans person's shoes)

I find myself writing this with very little to give as to a reason why. I don't know what I hope to gain from it. Perhaps, if nothing else, it is a desperate attempt to simply bring some awareness. Or perhaps, as people like myself so often feel we are doing these days, it is simply another scream into the void - a desperate plea to a world that seems determined to hide us from view and keep us in the shadows.

The Supreme Court ruling in For The Women Scotland vs The Scottish Ministers was a difficult piece of news to process. I have flipped from rage to despair to defeat and back again a million times, never quite landing before the next draws me in. But the interim EHRC guidelines that have followed are nothing short of cruel. Perhaps, what is the most difficult part to swallow of all is just how nonsensical this all is, the court - and, in fact, so many people - having so little regard to the complexities of society, human nature, and biology. This ruling and the guidance that has followed sets a dangerous precedent for everyone, and further still - given the various and, quite frankly, dangerous organisations that have backed this fight to the 'victory' they were seeking - it is a terrifying step further towards Britain joining the trend of rising fascism the world over.

I could repeat the one million and one talking points about the difficulty in policing and enforcing "correct" usage of "single-sex" spaces, or the dangers to intersex people, who are too often ignored or disregarded in these conversations. I could discuss what this means for cis women that do not uphold the constricting, often racist, standards of femininity, and the dangers they may face. I could point out the ways this unrelenting attack on trans people and the misinformation spread echo bigotry and moral panics of the past, all of which have been proved to be illogical and outright lies. But, as I said, these have all been repeated countless times, and they fall on deaf ears. I can only hazard a guess at why. For the government, I fear it is a desperate attempt to cling to any semblance of power. I wonder why you should feel the need to bother to appeal to right wing-voters. What exactly worries you about the Conservatives, or indeed Reform, gaining the seats required to beat you in elections when you so clearly share their politics and views for this country's future? Or, at the very least - and perhaps more concerning - you are willing to compromise your beliefs for that power.

No, I shall not repeat those sentiments, but I will ask some questions. Not in the hope of answer or response of any kind, merely to imagine you even attempting to provide them, and perhaps with some tiny semblance of hope that you haven't been asked them before.

Firstly, no matter what For The Women Scotland, or indeed, anybody espousing their gossamer thin excuses for their transphobia, biology is not, in fact, simple. The Supreme Court ruling sets out that in the sections of the Equality Act 2010 pertaining to a person's gender, and regarding pregnancy, it must be interpreted as man and women meaning, respectively, "biological man" and "biological woman". I wonder, just as a thought exercise, if you could give me a definition of the terms "biological woman" and a "biological man"?

As far as I can tell, currently, there is no legal definition for such, and I would go so far as to guarantee there is not a definition that you, nor anybody in parliament or our legal system (nor indeed any biologist) could provide that does not A. use terms such as "typically" or "usually" (or similar words), allowing for exceptions (which would then include trans people identifying as that gender, would it not?), b. exclude many cis women who For The Women Scotland, and other such anti-trans groups, claim to wish to protect with this "clarification" of the Equality Act, or c. Both.

In any event, I have done the leg work for you. If you look up terms such as biological women, or biological female, you will find definitions that make reference to XX chromosomes, conceiving or "producing" young", and possessing ovaries and ova. Similarly, for biological man/male, you will see reference you xy chromosomes and sperm/testes. However, you should also note that many of these will say "typically". Meaning not all. Meaning there is not a definition that includes all cis women, but that most women meet these markers. The same is true when you allow for trans women.

But, I ask you, if you wish for clear definitions that do not allow trans women to fall into the same category - i.e. "woman" - (or "men" for trans men) what that could potentially mean for the 1 in 5,000 women in the UK born without a uterus, therefore never possessing ovaries, conceiving or producing ova. What does it mean for any of the estimated 13 million women in the UK currently experiencing menopause or perimenopause. Or the 30% of women who are the point of issue in the 1 in 7 heterosexual couples in the UK who experience infertility. What about the 55,000 people that have hysterectomies in the UK (albeit a very small number of these will be trans men and transmasculine non-binary people). I wonder if you can tell me how many people are aware of the chromosomes they possess - not working off of educated guesses, but who have undergone genetic testing and can confirm with absolute certainty, and evidence of it. Do you? Does anybody you know? Even still, where would such a definition leave intersex people? If the definition of male relies on the production of sperm, are there no male children? Unlike children born with the typical reproduction system of a female, who are born with ova and puberty simply sparks the means to release them, male children do not produce sperm until puberty. Are they only male from then on? What about men with a 0 sperm count? Are they not male?

But, far more importantly than all of this, when the court is allowed to determine who counts as a woman or man in certain and specific spaces, especially when refusing to allow input from the people who stand to lose access to those spaces, what precedent does it set for the citizens of this country, and for its future? Furthermore, what do you think the feminists of history, who fought to be seen for who they are, rather than what reproductive organs they possess - their ability to bear and birth children - would feel to know people who claim to be fighting the same fight as them have just undone their work? Do you think they would be proud? Do you think we have done them justice? Do you think we have continued to carry their torch, or have you just smothered the fiame, ending a more than century long battle not with a bang but with the fizz and sputter thanks to spilled champagne foam?

And beyond that, though I know many of you do not care, what precedent does it set for men to claim that there is something inherently aggressive in their nature, and that women are inherently weaker and unable to protect themselves? I wonder if you could point to what makes that so? You seem to believe it is biology, but can you tell me what part? Can you point to it? Can you tell me a reason that is not sociological? And if you can accept that it is, in fact, sociological, can you explain with any modicum of sound logic and reasoning how you can possibly believe that this ruling and its intended outcomes do not actively reinforce that? Do you not see that you share your beliefs of men and women with dangerous misogynists?

As for the EHRC guidance, we were told this would bring clarity, and yet its quiet release late on Friday evening has provided nothing of the sort. Unless, of course, you believe clarity to mean confirmation that trans people are no longer welcome to a free and comfortable public life, stating trans people should use the single-sex facilities of their "biological sex" but indeed there should be times when they cannot do that either. I can confirm as somebody who took a long time to feel secure in using the men's bathroom due to long NHS waiting lists meaning I am still awaiting access to gender affirming care, and am therefore still largely perceived by strangers as "biologically female", the only harassment, confrontation and disgusted looks I have received have been when using the women's bathroom. I do not feel safe there. But, apparently, by law, I am no longer permitted to use the men's, and, indeed, should the need arise, I would not be welcome in the women's either. Where would you suggest I relieve myself?

I hear so often talks of a "third space", and I can do little but laugh at the irony. A third space? Not a third and fourth space? A "trans" bathroom, for all trans people. A gender-neutral toilet? You mean the very thing trans people have been advocating for and which anti-trans groups have been actively arguing against? I wonder, if you believe that gender is based on biology, and such biology provides immutable differences between is, but argue that you are not transphobic, how you can justify putting different biological sexes in these spaces, but not having them in the ones you use?

In the end, the most terrifying part for me, and I'm sure many other trans people, is this: The people who fought to take this access from me and every other trans person, may have felt uncomfortable using facilities but the fact remains, they were free to choose either way. We no longer have that right. We, undeniably, by ruling of our country's legal system, do not have equality. I do not have the same access to public life as other people. I am now a second class citizen. It is no longer a feeling, one which, as a trans, disabled person living in this country, I have long possessed (much like these women's uncomfortable feelings surrounding who they share space with), it is now law. Their discomfort, however real they believed any threat to be, was not backed by the law of this land (or, indeed, any sound evidence), but my own fear and discomfort is now forced upon me by it. Do you feel safe, and happy to live in a country that feels so comfortable taking rights away from you? Do you feel pride in our nation? Or are you scared? Because you should be. I am. I live in fear every single day. And in a country with a so-called equalities minister, and indeed a Prime Minister, who is so quick to celebrate and welcome these events, that fear grows greater every day. I am not proud to be British. I am not happy, or safe. In fact, I fear this country might just do its best to kill me. And worse still, I fear you would welcome that too.

But do not be mistaken, I will not allow it to. I will fight as hard and for as long as I can. I will love, and laugh, and create. I will live. I will join hands with my fellow trans people, and all those that welcome and celebrate us. I will raise my children to be kind and intelligent. To claim what is theirs and to fight alongside me for their right to live and exist openly, honestly, and proudly. To be stronger than I was raised to be, so that they do not have to feel the fear I do. So they will not fight for as long as they can, but for as long as it takes, no matter what.

And I will remain in hope that this system was fall before I lose my strength, and feel comforted by the knowledge that I am far enough outside of it that when it does tumble down I won't be buried beneath it. And I will climb, and I will smoke cigars and pop champagne and take selfies from the top of the rubble, happy that you will all be buried too far beneath it to ever know. I won't want to rub my victory in your face, I simply want to share it with the people who shared my fears and lived long enough to have them relieved.

I will piss where I choose, and if you arrest me, so be it. At least I will be provided with a toilet in prison.

Perhaps the fear I feel the most isn't even for me, or trans people - certainly not for this reason anyway - but for those who think this makes them safer, who believe this government cares for them, and believe this is a victory. You are not safe. Not from future rulings that limit what it means to be a woman, and not right now. They do not actually care. If they did there wouldn't have been guidance telling judges to allow rapists to walk free. More of them would make it in front of a judge in the first place. Your doctors would believe you. You wouldn't be prescribed anti-depressants whilst your husbands, brothers, fathers, sons are tested further and given the treatments they actually need. You simply feel for the patriarchy's tricks. And worse still, you joined it in playing them.

I may be a second class citizen, but at least I am not a puppet.

#trans rights #trans rights uk #uk supreme court #trans rights are human rights #open letter

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