In a wonderful article published in Canada’s National Post in Feb. of 2023, Pamela Paul of the N.Y. Times cited the results of her investigation into the possibility that J. K. Rowling might indeed be “transphobic.” Opening her article with several quotes from Rowling suggesting she is wholly sympathetic to those struggling with gender ambiguity, Paul maintains her demonization by trans activists is based solely on her refusal to support their conviction that transgender women should be treated as utterly indistinguishable from biological females.
Simple, incontestable Fact: Individuals born with penises and the musculature of Males who declare themselves to be Females, do not thereby become so, whatever hormonal or surgical procedures they undergo. They remain, that is to say, Transgenders whose status as such complicates their relationship with biologically born Males and Females in a myriad of ways. The insistence of Trans Activists that the rest of society mindlessly accept their newly declared Identity while ignoring the impact it may have on others, entails an utterly self-centered refusal to admit the deviancy of their condition. I use the word “deviant” here not as a term of approbation, but to assert a simple biological fact. With J.K. Rowling, I am sympathetic to those born into gender ambiguity but am appalled by the insistence of many of those so challenged that merely saying they have changed Genders actually alters the Reality of their condition.
Rowling laments the distress felt by Women whose formerly private spaces have now thoughtlessly been made available to any Male claiming to be Female. I have a young friend who said she had become afraid to use her high school’s washroom after authorities there had made that “woke” decision. The school in question has since established a third, gender-neutral washroom which would seem to be the sort of rational solution necessary, given the complexities of the issue at hand. Among those complexities, sadly, is the fact that a small percent of Males would without question consider pretending to come out as Females should it give them access to women in their most intimate of moments.
As Paul reports in her article, journalist E. J. Rosetta, who had initially been inclined to condemn Rowling for her views, engaged in a 12 week examination of her works and public statements and found no evidence whatsoever of her supposed transphobia. And yet, Paul asserts, Rowling has been assailed with threats of violence and even the suggestion that book stores ought to remove her works from their shelves.
The issue here is quite simple. Are the beliefs of so-called oppressed minorities validated by the simple fact of their status as such, or are they in fact guilty of brazenly self-centered agendas which any sane society would automatically repudiate? Is it acceptable that Women in various athletic competitions are being pommeled by individuals born Male who now claim to be Female, or do the facts of Human Biology transcend the wishful thinking of those who would deny them? Is J. K. Rowling worthy of the scorn to which she has been submitted, or is her persecution but another example of the pervasive sickness of our “woke” society?