Open conversation about such fraught issues is the only realistic path forward, and Joyce’s book offers a good, impassioned start. It is the demand for self-identification, which undergirds the insistence that trans people really do become complete members of the sex to which they transition (“trans women are women; trans men are men”), that has kept left-centrists like me from embracing the entire transactivist agenda. Trans women, for instance, are not identical to biological women, who can get pregnant, have periods, and are usually fertile. Nor, if they’ve gone through male puberty before transitioning, are trans women equivalent to biological women in athletic ability, which is why in most sports they shouldn’t be allowed to compete with biological women. In all other ways trans rights should be guaranteed, and, in my view, trans people should be addressed in the manner they wish.

Source: New York Times August 27, 2023 19:52 UTC