The Tolerance Trap: Why Identifying As Trans Does Not Change Biological Fact
A gender recognition certificate that provides the ability to change your sex on paper, does nothing more than mainstream a fantasy that the public and institutions are forced to accept.
Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, has suggested double rapist Isla Bryson is ‘almost certainly’ faking his trans status. Speaking at First Minister’s Question, Sturgeon claimed she did not have enough information to say whether Bryson was a man or woman, but rather what mattered, is that Bryson was a rapist. Sturgeon refused to say whether Bryson was a man or a woman and there are two reasons for this. The first is that we have, as a society, tolerated so much unscientific nonsense that eventually, it has become acceptable because our challenge of it has been repackaged as bigotry. The second reason is that legislation has turbo boosted unscientific facts because the rights of an individual matter more.
As I have argued before, the risk posed by men - particularly rapists and those guilty of domestic violence - is one aspect that should be a defining reason why a male should not be placed in an all female prison, but it is not the only one. What should also be considered, is the refusal to tolerate unscientific claims that allow an individual to gain an advantage that they are not entitled to.
We live in a world where difference is inevitable and it is a fact of life we face everyday. Some people are born into wealthy families and others are not. Some people work hard to get to the top, whereas for others, it is a matter of luck. The same is true for men and women. By design, we are not the same. On the most basic and scientific level, the difference between men and women rests on our chromosomes. Men have an XY chromosome whereas women have an XX chromosome. However this scientific fact seems to be under attack in the name of tolerance.
The Gender Recognition Act 2004 was introduced to make provision for and in connection with a change of gender. However, it dangerously allows individuals to change their legally recognised sex by obtaining a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). What this means is that the XY and XX chromosomes are irrelevant, but what is, is whether someone has the right to be able to change their gender and their sex, if they feel like it. Privileging the rights of an individual to self-identify over biological realities leads us into a world of fantasy where men can become women simply by wishing for it. But now, we have laws that can be used to achieve this.
Nicola Sturgeon found herself in knots over the issue over Isla Bryson. Last year the First Minister claimed she was a “feminist to my fingertips” but refused to define what a woman is. Today, she doesn’t believe what is relevant is whether Isla Bryson is a man or a woman but rather that Bryson is a rapist. What Sturgeon seems to be doing is covering her eyes to biological reality and is instead promoting someone’s right to identify as the opposite sex because it is their right to do so.
We are given rights as individual citizens in liberal democracies. It is a way to promote our individuality and it is also a way to manage society. When individual rights come into conflict with each other, it is for the law to step in and manage that. The Equality Act 2010 was designed for this very purpose to protect people against discrimination based on their protected characteristics. These include: age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnerships, race, religion or belief, sex and finally, sexual orientation.
The ability to change your sex is not the same as the ability to adopt a different religion or to leave a religion. The latter are simply what people believe in whereas the former has nothing to do with belief, but in fact has everything to do with science. An individual may believe they are the wrong sex, but there is nothing in this world that can change their sex. A gender recognition certificate that provides the ability to change your sex on paper, does nothing more than mainstream a fantasy that the public and institutions are forced to accept. We would not expect to be told Santa Claus exists or doesn’t exist, so why are we expected to believe a man can be a woman?
Our toleration for the bizarre has led us towards a path of make believe. We’ve come so far in promoting individuality that now, the rights of an individual are treated as more important than biology. The latter is no longer relevant because the rights of the former matter more. We’ve tolerated so much nonsense that we have mainstreamed a myth into legislation and endorsed it against science. This I call the tolerance trap. It is perhaps why Nicola Sturgeon cannot confidently say whether Isla Bryson is a man or a woman, because no matter how clear cut science is, the ability to change your sex on paper means that science no longer matters.