Anti-trans activists are trotting out old, discredited arguments, but using them against trans people instead of gays.

They say they’re protecting women, but it doesn’t take much scrutiny to see how weak their case is. If trans women shouldn’t be allowed in female locker rooms, then shouldn’t lesbians be prohibited too? And gay men from male locker rooms?

Some trans-exclusionary radical feminists (TERFs) will counter that trans women pose a unique threat, but there hasn’t been a single documented assault by a trans woman in the 21 U.S. states that have enacted nondiscrimination protections for restrooms and dressing rooms. We should be shaking our heads at trans bathroom panic like old fears about gay teachers and Scout leaders.

As for asserting that science is on their side, anti-trans arguments are again to be found lacking. They claim that sex is determined at birth, and that no one can alter it. Yet scientific research has failed to identity a single trait that determines sex. There are people with penises who have XY chromosomes and people with vaginas who have XX chromosomes. There are people born intersex with ambiguous genitalia. There are homosexuals. So, what’s the logic in asserting that sex and gender are so rigid and inflexible that no one can change it later in life?

Transphobia and homophobia both derive from a basic unease with gender fluidity, with the fact that many people do not fit into binary categories of male and female. That anti-trans arguments currently resonate with more people than homophobic ones doesn’t show that anti-trans reasoning is any better. It’s just that popular opinion has recently, and arbitrarily, moved to admit gays and exclude trans people.

It needs to move more.

Trent Diamanti
PORT TOWNSEND