A response to @jk_rowling’s essay on transgender issues. Let me preface this by saying that I do not personally identify as trans, and although I have questioned my own gender identity at times, I do not think I am an authority on this topic at all. These are just my thoughts.

I won’t be going through the essay systematically because I think that Brie Hanrahan does a great job in this article ( https://medium.com/@briehanrahan/a-reasonable-persons-guide-to-the-j-k-rowling-essay-6bd9e2d638ad) but it feels like JKR’s main argument is that it takes away safe spaces for women, so let’s talk about that.

Regardless of whether there is a threat of being assaulted in bathroom for now, my first thoughts are: yes, we should have safe spaces, but also, it is fucked up for women to feel scared of being assaulted in bathrooms and the onus lies on our society to reform men’s behaviour.

The problem we need to solve here is men’s behaviour. Women shouldn’t have to be scared of this, and it doesn’t make sense that trans women should be discriminated against because of a mindset that society has encouraged in men that trans women have not personally subscribed to.

Okay, so the next issue that JKR raises is that a risk of sexual assault is posed by men pretending to be trans women who will take advantage of the gender recognition plans to assault women in bathrooms. A few responses to this:

1. According to the National Crime Victimisation Survey (2010-2016), approximately 80.5% of sexual violence is committed by someone the survivor knows, and a third of sexual violence (33%) is committed by a current/former significant other.

The scenario that a cis man would claim to be trans and go into bathrooms to assault women probably isn’t super applicable to at least 33% and likely 80% of sexual assaults, as those assaults would happen regardless of place due to the survivor’s relationship with the assaulter.

2. JKR claims that she acknowledges that trans women are also vulnerable, but what she doesn’t say is that trans women are more vulnerable than cis women in a few ways: a) trans women of colour are more likely to be assaulted by a stranger outside the home than cis women.

b) they are less likely to receive support from family and police after being sexually assaulted. This, along with the fact that they’re more likely to be assaulted, makes it clear that forcing any trans women, to use male bathrooms is not the solution.

3. Let’s talk about the logistics of a cis man applying for a gender recognition certificate (GRC), which to me at least is the biggest kicker. From what I have read, it seems there has been a move towards the self-declaration of gender that JKR disavows, and this is a good thing

Honestly, what a victory for trans people, yay! Anyways, what JKR leaves out is that it is still a criminal offence to make a false declaration and that when applying for the GRC you declare your intention to live in that gender for the rest of your life.

Also, obtaining a GRC also forces you to get new legal documents, notify various governmental departments, and it may change your marital status. Even with the changes, it requires a minimum of 6 months of living in that gender to be successful, which isn’t a short amount of time

Changing back to your natal gender forces you to go through the same process, and I couldn’t find much information on any repercussions for this but it feels like surely there would be questions asked about the application if it were not completely denied.

On top of all this bureaucracy, I am sure that transgender discrimination exists in Scotland, so that would probably be an additional disincentive. To me, this seems like a lot of effort and work for a cis man to go through to violate a female bathroom or changing room.

Honestly, if a cis man were to put that much thought into ways of sexually assaulting women when they were most vulnerable, then he would probably just do it in other ways that didn’t require changing gender in the first place and have possibly irreversible consequences.

Moving on to other things! Obviously the abuse JKR has received is reprehensible. The outrage towards her actions is understandable though, when you consider that she defends and supports people (Magdalen Berns) who compare being transgender to blackface and call it a fetish.

This is a community of people who have been told they are mentally ill, categorically denied rights and recognition throughout history and in the present day and still face discrimination in many parts of society, they have every right to be upset at JKR for supporting this.

JKR’s claims that ‘none of the gender critical women I’ve talked to hate trans people’ is simply untrue, because people who feel, as she puts it, ‘hugely sympathetic towards trans adults who simply want to live their lives’ don’t say that being transgender is a perversion.

Also, JKR included a Simone de Beauvoir quote which I thought was ironic given how De Beauvoir differentiates between the biological sex people are born as and the social construction of gender so here is her most famous quote: “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”.

If you made it to the end, yay! My intention was not to offend/mislead anyone with this thread, so please let me know if I’ve said anything incorrect/offensive and I’ll do my best to educate myself on it. I tried my best to keep track of where I got stats from but it was hard

Statistics and facts from:
~ https://www.rainn.org/statistics/perpetrators-sexual-violence
~ https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5ec22305dc6caa06d376e009/t/5ee7705a27fc162ae13e9725/1592225951311/RP.17.03-Experiences+of+trans_women+and+DV_RR.PDF
~ https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2004/7/contents

Also I would love if @jk_rowling wanted to engage with any of this. Obviously the most effective form of communication is civil debate and discussion, so I would be more than keen to have a conversation any time!