In this video, I put forth some counter-arguments to common anti-trans points (Full transcript below)
Some resources:
WPATH standards of care:
Peer Reviewed Research articles (A.E.Brain):
Guidelines for Gender-Affirming Care:
Williams Institute Suicide Report on Transgender Adults:
National Consensus Statement of Anti-sexual Assault and Domestic Violence Organizations in Support of Full and Equal Access for the Transgender Community: http://endsexualviolence.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/STATEMENT-OF-ANTI-SEXUAL-ASSAULT-AND-DOMESTIC-VIOLENCE-ORGANIZATIONS-IN-SUPPORT-OF-EQUAL-ACCESS-FOR-THE-TRANSGENDER-COMMUNITY.pdf _____________________Full Transcript__________________________ {Introduction}
I wanted a video that centered around debunking the common talking point people use against people who are transgender and those who advocate for them. Watch the two previous videos if you want to have complete information. Some of these counter arguments rely on things said in those previous videos.
(1)
Transgender people are suffering a mental illness
I have a whole video on this topic, so I'd recommend you there.
This one really gets under my skin because the people that play this card likely have no experience in mental health. In the US, the american psychological association or APA, define mental illness and determine what constitutes it. Internationally, the World Health Organization, does the same. Both have come out and decided that being transgender does not constitute a mental illness.
Another subpoint that comes from this is that gender dysphoria, a term in the APA's diagnostic textbook that is technically a mental illness, equates to being transgender. Not all people who are transgender have gender dysphoria.
Lastly, people point out the suicide statistics of trans people are higher than the average population. But again, those who define mental illness have considered that. They found that the high rate of suicide is likely due to discrimination. Again, my previous videos have a more thorough look at this question.
(2)
It's not a solution to pretend that transgender people are the sex that they think they are in their head.
Anyone who thinks this is unaware of the distinction between gender and sex. If not, they are purposefully misrepreseting an argument in order to make it easier to attack. This is known as strawmanning.
Gender has to do more with masculinity and femininity, though its sometimes is interchanged with male and female. We can think of tomboys and tomgirls and we have no problem understanding what this means. There are guys who act more effeminite and girls who act more masculine. These adjectives are not based on what genitals you have or your chromosomes, but how you present yourself, how you behave, and how you feel.
Sometimes we present ourselves differently than we actually feel. Boys are told to "man" up when something tragic happens like watching their dog die. So they do. They keep their tears in. They are pretending to hold this gender role because society deem it so, yet, internally they are probably scared and sad. Yet, if they let this out they'd be called girly. Some boys totally reject this notion of holding in emotions and other masculine gender roles. They hold an effeminate demenor and besides their body, are as a girl. Sometimes they identify with their feminine gender identity so much, they wish others to call them by feminine pronouns and even a new feminine name.This is not quote-unquote pretending.
Alex, on your birth certificate it says "Alexander." Yet, you ask for everyone to call you Alex because "alexander sounds old-timey" and you identify with Alex better. But I'm not going to ignore your birth certificate because it threatens your subjective sense of who you are."
I'll admit this isnt a charitable comparison to what is normally said. But the point is the feeling you get from hearing it. It's likely similar to what pro-trans people hear when you say the actual phrase. When you say either variation you come accross as a jerk and people are less likely to hear your message.
I just come across as a jerk.
Lastly, on this point. If a transgender person has gender dysphoria, part of the solution might be to discuss with family members gender affirming behaviors and possibly sex reassignment surgery, or hormone treatment. This of course includes informing the client and parents, if involved, of the diversity of gender identity, types of medical interventions available, and the implications of any changes in gender role and use of medical interventions.
(3)
Gender-affirming approaches are child abuse
There are two main arguments here. One is that parents are ruining their children by permission the child's expression of the opposite gender. The second is that of using medical, hormonal, or surgical treatment is harmful to the child. I feel, of all the arguments here, this one is probably the most warranted. Nobody wants their kids hurt.
The first one is pretty easy to debunk. The idea is that because the parents are affirming the child's preferred gender, the child will get bullied or ostracized at school. This may happen, but to blame it on the child or the parent is unwarranted. We wouldn't say that a child being bullied for being gay was the child's fault. The problem is with society's treatment and understanding of them. Prejudice is the problem, not the parenting or the child's expression. The William's Institute suggested that suicide was a result of bullying and discrimination. And a report prepared by TransPulse suggested that anything less than strong support may have "deleterious effects" on a child's well being.
Before I get to the second point, I feel i need to elucidate the fact that there are two types of transitions: social and medical. Social transition involves dressing or playing as the affirmed gender. Social transition is safe but individuals who transition socially may face prejudice.
Medical transitions usually involve physical changes to match one's gender identity. Gender Spectrum suggests, as a parent, when unsure when a transition should be applied is to ask yourself "will my child be safe if I let them do this" and to evaluate if they currently feel safe and satisfied or if they are suffering. Children require support from their families. If you deem a medical transition is too much for their current state,age, or what-have-you, it can always wait till later. But love and support is necessary at all parts.
This topic is a bit more difficult. I don't feel I have the authority to suggest conclusively whether or not medical and hormonal treatments are safe, especially for teens. What I can say with fair certainty is that it is safe to have this conversation with your doctor or a doctor specializing in transgender issues. I'm including a research dump in the description someone shared on reddit having to do with hormones and transgender issues.
I want to briefly bring up two studies. One is a literature review on those receiving hormonal treatment that basically concludes that hormonal treatment is safe with medical provider supervision. However, for one, this study was done on adults, its results can't be accurately placed on kids as well. Secondly, there was a risk for transgender individuals to develop venous thromboembolism or polycythemia and an increased fasting glucose.
The second study, also done on adults suggests that there should be careful consideration for bone and heart health while people are on cross-sex hormone therapy. The main reason I brought up this study is that it does mention some special consideration for teens. It mentions: in some situations when delay of therapy may lead to psychological and cognitive trauma in a child, it may be appropriate to commence therapy earlier" That is hormonal therapy. It goes on to say "In such cases... it is important to have a multi-disciplinary approach to treatment and management, and parental support is imperative." Lastly, it emphasizes that "the care of this population should be left to specialists who are well versed in this type of care."
To sum this point up, gender-affirming parenting in itself is not child abuse. Remember, gender-affirmative parenting is not forcing the child into medical treatments, but letting them freely explore gender roles and how they express themselves without judgement and with support. In fact, providing support is more beneficial than not providing support. As far as medical treatments go however, it is best to talk with a doctor before making a decision.
(4)
I'm not going to ignore basic biology because it threatens your subjective sense of self.
Again, this person likely doesn't understand or is purposefully misrepresenting the difference between sex and gender.
Okay, just to be charitable, we'll take their argument to mean that there is no biological basis for being transgender. Against their point, there is a biological basis to becoming transgender. I'll admit this isn't something you'd learn in quote-unquote basic biology, but you might learn about this in college level bio-courses. First, we have those genetically who are male or female, that is XY or XX. However, their phenotype will be different; meaning, they will have the appearance of someone opposite of their genetic sex. Because their appearance is different, they will be raised differently than they would had their chromosomes and phenotypes matched. Than you have all of the other variations of intersex where the physical characteristics are both male and female.There's a more thorough description of this in my gender and sex video.
Secondly, I want to talk about the fact that the brain of transgender women has been found to more closely resemble that of cisgender women rather than cisgender men (sitn.harvard). They found that the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, or BSTc and the sexually dimorphic nucleus of a brain in a transgender person who was assigned male at birth resembles that of a woman who has a feminine gender identity than it does with a male with a masculine gender identity. Basically, there's an area in the brain that differs in men and women, yet those who are transgender have brains who's area is more similar to the gender they identify as not the biological sex they were born with.
I could go into the biology more, but it's still missing the point. Even if it was the case that there was no biological evidence, it doesn't follow that they should be targets of harassment and bullying. It shouldn't be that hard to say "he" instead of "she" or vice versa.
(5)
You can't identify as 60 since you're not, so you can't identify as a sex youre not
First, i'd like to say that this is a strawman. I really want to give Ben the benefit of a doubt that he wasn't misrepresenting it intentionally, but in all likelihood, he was. Gender is not akin to age. Likely, he was mixing up gender and sex. I say this because he could have said "you can't say you're 60 since you're not, so why say you have a this genitalia when you don't." Still it's not the best analogy, age is based on a whole lot of nested, abstract ideas whereas sex is more concrete and physical.
I'd like to introduce a better, though still imperfect metaphor. You can be 60 but still feel like you are 45, which i'm going to call vitality. There are 60 year olds who are healthier and more energetic than the average 60 year old and also express themselves more like the average 45 year old would. Saying their age is 45 would be incorrect, but saying they identify more with 45 year olds would be correct. Saying their vitality is 45 as i've defined it is correct.
Side note, I can see some people using this as a justification of pedophillia, it's not. Trans age is not a scientifically confirmed thing. Just because you feel youthful doesn't negate the power you have over others, nor does it negate the lack of informed consent minors can give.
To continue the analogy: Some people are born with male biological features such as male genitalia and XY chromosomes. However, they may express themselves in the way we've typically associated with women. It may be incorrect for them to say that they have female morphology, but it would be accurate for them to say they identify as a woman. Saying their gender is that of a woman would be correct.
(6) Allowing transgender people to use their preferred gender's bathrooms will lead to rape.
I feel I have to attack this one on several fronts.
For one, how will you know if someone is male or female, no not their gender, but sexually speaking. This is actually more of a grey area than you think. This section may get a little crass, just be warned.
So, you could look at their genitals. People with penises go in men's and those with vagina's into women's bathrooms. This would mean at every restroom we would have to assign designated genital checkers. There was a public outcry when the TSA started using scanners that show people basically nude. I don't think the public would go too much for this idea. Also, you have the problem of intersex individuals. These individuals have sex characteristics for both sexes. We'd have to come up with a way to decide which bathroom they'd go in. Maybe there's another way.
You might instead want to look at overall body structure. If they have an angular jawline, facial hair, an adams apple, they'd go men's room and if they didn't they'd go to the women's room. This would be less invasive, true. But still there are people who have a masculine body type but female genitalia. This also allows some trans people into the bathroom of their choosing, but only if they are passing. This is the thing you are trying to prevent from happening, so it's probably something you don't want. I will say that this is probably the middle ground between the right and the left's views on this issue, but it doesn't make it the correct view. The notion of passing is discriminatory in itself.
Lastly, you could go off of what people say they are. If they say they are men, they go to the mens. If they say they are women, they go to the women's. I'll concede that as a society, this will be weird and will take a little bit of adjusting because we've had a certain way of assuming how to segregate the bathrooms. But otherwise, the concern seems to be that it will lead to rape.
To quote gun rights advocates: "criminals don't care about laws." A rapist will rape no matter what the bathroom laws are.
Okay, so the National Task Force to End Sexual and Domestic Violence Against Women have a very specific goal. Obviously They want to end sexual assault and rape. They sent out a statement, signed by more than 20 organizations that basically said that they support people who are transgender "accessing facilities that match the gender they live every day." They also state that nondiscrimination laws do not allow men to go into women's restrooms. Keep in mind these are experts in sexual assault prevention.
There are already more than a dozen states that allow transgender people can use whichever bathrooms they want. And in those states that have these anti-discrimination laws, police and school officials say they haven't seen any increase in rape since the laws have been in effect (time.com).
In a survey of over 27000 us transgender adults, it found that nearly 60% avoided using a public restroom, 24% had their presence in the restroom challenged or questioned, 12% were verbally harassed while using the restroom, and 9% had restroom access denied. This suggest that many transgender individuals avoid the restroom to prevent being harassed or are in some way harassed when using the restrooms. To clarify, though there is no evidence of increased rape in these places with anti-discrimination bathroom bills, there is evidence of harassment and discrimination for transgender people.
{CONCLUSION}
Thanks for listening this long if you began in opposition to me. I hope I at least got you to have a better understanding on these issues as more gray than black and white. If you have any honest questions or comments, post them, and i'll try to answer them to the best of my ability.
Again, thanks for watching. Do me a favor and have a good day.