Last week, a British employment tribunal found that Maya Forstater was discriminated against when she was fired from her job in 2019 for tweeting that men cannot become women.
Forstater’s win is a victory for free speech and biological reality. It also serves to rein in the excesses of transgender activism by restoring a sense of balance to the current debate. Transgender people deserve respect and legal protections, but trans women are not identical to women. Contrary to what activists would have you believe, many transgender women agree — biology matters, and these associated differences have important implications for women’s rights and safety.
The tribunal ruling also underscored the importance of allowing different perspectives to coexist in society, particularly when a given opinion, no matter how controversial, is based in truth. As time wears on and gender ideology continues to reduce women to their bodily functions while eroding their personal boundaries and rightful opportunities, I don’t doubt that more women will feel emboldened to speak up about what they really think.
As we also saw last week, on separate occasions, both Bette Midler and Macy Gray came out swinging against trans ideology. In response, opinion articles questioned whether Midler and Gray are transphobic “TERFs” (anti-transgender), while activists on social media criticized the women for not being “inclusive.”
What were their transgressions? Midler tweeted, “Women of the world! […] They don’t call us ‘women’ anymore; they call us ‘birthing people’ or ‘menstruators,’ and even ‘people with vaginas’! Don’t let them erase you!”
As for Gray, during an appearance on Piers Morgan Uncensored, she told Morgan, “[It] doesn’t make you a woman, just because I call you a ‘her’ and just because you got a surgery.” In response to the harassment she subsequently experienced, Gray followed up with a tweet saying, “All of you coming on my page, threatening me and calling me names […] be whatever you wana [sic] be, and fk [sic] off.”
I must admit, there is nothing more satisfying than watching someone stand firm against activist bullies instead of doing the online equivalent of an audible gasp and delivering a predictable performance of apologizing profusely. When I began writing about this issue years ago, I thought countering activism in a carefully considered, rational way would allow us to find a healthy compromise on these issues.
Not anymore. It’s only a matter of time before activists run their own movement into the ground.
Dr. Debra Soh is a sex neuroscientist, the host of The Dr. Debra Soh Podcast, and the author of The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society.
