Anti-Trans Activism Is Not Protecting Anyone

The anti-trans activism of J.K. Rowling has brought transgender rights to the international stage once again, but her sentiments are nothing new. Anti-trans scientists campaign against transgender and non-binary identities both in biology and higher education.

Biologists using scientific data to argue against transgender and non-binary identities are forgetting the limits of science. Biological evidence is not required to support transgender and non-binary experiences because current biological research is incapable of proving human experiences.

Still, anti-trans scientists in higher education may refuse to use a students’ gender-neutral pronouns or insist on using legal names. To challenge this rhetoric, transgender activists historically relied on petitions and protests that were largely ignored by academics.

As the fight for transgender rights and inclusion has gained momentum, more allies and (to a lesser extent) trans folk are reaching positions of power within higher education. Now, those professors that would have only experienced protests before may be facing real consequences for their behavior and the harm they cause transgender and gender diverse folks.

Anti-trans activists claim researchers are being oppressed and these actions deny academic freedoms or free speech. Others feel transgender and non-binary experiences automatically condemn sex difference research and institutions/resources built for women. However, is there evidence to support these assertions?

The Genderqueer Pride Flag (Image description: A rectangular flag with three horizontal stripes of purple, white and green).

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Equality feels like oppression to those with privilege.

Scientists have held the power to shape our understanding of sex and gender for a long time. Our position in society automatically gives us power. The work from one scientist can inform medical and mental health providers across the world. In comparison, transgender and non-binary activists were typically only listened to by those within hearing distance. As universities create policies to protect transgender individuals, they are attempting to address this systemic power imbalance.

Anti-trans scientists claim efforts to include all transgender and non-binary voices in research and academia are oppressive. However, oppression is prejudice with power. It is more likely that these researchers have been experiencing the privilege of controlling the gender conversation for so long that equality feels like oppression. Anyone who would suggest the transgender community holds great power now likely benefited significantly from the previous power dynamic. Rather than protecting academic freedoms, anti-trans views simply reinforce the oppression of the gender diverse community and the barriers they already face in STEM (Yoder and Mattheis 2016).

(Image description: A non-binary pride flag with the pronouns "he," "she," which are striked through, and "they.")

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Speech is not free if it costs lives.

New policies regarding pronoun and name use within classrooms may make anti-trans scientists feel their free speech is being limited for the sake of political correctness. But acceptable topics have always been limited in academia. That evolution exists and the position of the sun in our solar system are no longer up for debate in academic circles. What is more, harmful, racist, and ableist scientific concepts like eugenics are similarly condemned. The same should be true for anti-trans rhetoric.

Scientists have died supporting evolution or arguing our place in the solar system and while anti-trans scientists may martyr themselves as similar champions of free speech, they are not being killed because they hold transphobic views. However, transgender people are dying because of transphobia (Williams 2017) and using the proper name and pronouns have been found to be lifesaving interventions (Russell, Pollitt et al. 2018). If research suggests expressing your views can come at the cost of trans and non-binary lives, then calling it “free speech” may be an indicator that you feel trans and non-binary lives are worthless.

Advancing our understanding of gender is not harming sex research or women.

Those who put forth anti-trans rhetoric, including J.K. Rowling, often claim transgender identities harm cis women. They suggest universities supporting the transgender community are taking a stance against sex as a variable in research and women as an important minority.

However, when we look at institutions that have fired individuals for holding anti-trans views, we still find labs engaging in fascinating and important sex difference research. After firing a professor for anti-trans activism, the University of Alberta continues to support and work with the Lois Hole Hospital for Women and researchers who examine sex differences (like Dr. Rhonda Rosychuck, Dr. Janis Miyasaki, and Dr. Bradley Kerr). Thus, supporting sex difference research is not mutually exclusive with affirming transgender and non-binary experiences or advocating for the gender diverse community.

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Backing the transgender community is not an attack on women either. Scholarships at the University of Alberta, like the Isabel Munroe Smith Memorial Scholarship, are still available to women while new awards specifically for the LGBTQIA+ community are being created (which may still support a woman). Perhaps the biggest nail in the coffin for this notion is evidence showing that being accepting of transgender and non-binary identities actually increases the salience of not just the LGBTQIA+ community but all women as well (Tavits and Pérez 2019). So, not only does gender diversity not harm women, it actively supports them.

Anti-trans activism does nothing to improve science or the lived experiences of women, it only serves to oppress the gender diverse community and reinforce the barriers they experience. Like other oppressive theories, anti-trans activism must be eliminated from science and academia.