IOF doesn’t often find itself agreeing with author J.K. Rowling, the creator of the hugely popular Harry Potter series, the multibillion-dollar franchise based on witchcraft, wizardry and magic. Rowling, like most of those who make their living in entertainment, considers herself to be a feminist and a progressive who’s in tune with today’s liberal political elite. But the other day she tweeted something about which we agree – if transgender ideology is accepted as real, it will erase the reality of women. “If sex isn’t real, the lived reality of women globally is erased…[E]rasing the concept of sex removes the ability of many to meaningfully discuss their lives. It isn’t hate to speak the truth.”
The perverse ideology of transgenderism posits that sex is not real. Sex, the ideology proclaims, is really about identity, not biology. If a man identifies as a woman, he is a real woman and must be accepted as such by law and culture. Anyone who refuses to do so is transphobic, bigoted and hateful.
When the inevitable howling from the left erupted, Rowling was quick to add that she knows and loves “trans people” and would march with them if they were being discriminated against. But this does not change her underlying belief as a feminist that declaring biological sex to not be real is to declare that women do not exist.
Rowling is absolutely correct in this view. If sex is based on identity and not biology, then women do not exist as a unique half of humanity. Nor do men for that matter. Sex is thus obliterated and we are left with subjective feelings to define reality.
If feelings and not biology rule the day, there is no reason to be focused on things like pay equity. There is no reason to maintain female sports as a separate competition from male sports. There is no reason to be concerned about opening doors so women have access to male-dominated career paths. We wouldn’t need shelters for battered and abused women, or rape crisis centers either.
The LGBT crowd has given women like J.K. Rowling a name to shame and embarrass them – they are called a “TERF” – “transgender exclusionary radical feminist.” Rowling has heard it before. She responded to the haters as follows: ‘Feminazi,’ ‘TERF,’ ‘*itch,’ ‘witch.’ Times change. Women hate is eternal.”
It would seem that Rowling is determined to engage the progressive left in a discussion of the biological nature of sex – which she correctly describes as “immutable” – since she didn’t accidentally fall into this issue. In fact, she raised the issue of sex and transgenderism in a series of tweets late last year, and was roundly attacked by many of her fellow leftists back then. It would thus seem that she purposely is poking the LGBT beast to keep the issue front and center.
This would all be an interesting side show – a glimpse of the left attacking its own – were it not for the real world, dangerous efforts to actually impose transgender ideology in law, in addition to culture. The grossly-misnamed Human Rights Campaign, the leading extremist LGBT lobby group in America, intends to do just that. They are sponsoring the similarly grossly-misnamed “Equality Act” to, among other things, impose transgender ideology in law.
IOF is certainly used to the attacks from LGBT extremists for speaking the truth about gender and its basis in biology. Our view is that sex is indeed immutable. A person can no more change his or her sex than they can utter “expecto patronum” and cast an awesome spell. A person’s sex is a gift from God, something that uniquely contributes to the fullness and richness of human flourishing. Gender is not based on emotions or feelings. It is a biological reality. As J.K. Rowling says, it is not hate to speak the truth.
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