This post is likely to upset some gransnetters. I’m sorry but I have a bee in my bonnet. For me, the transgender issues raise many questions and some concerns. I think younger generations are much more relaxed about transgender issues and that is grand. But I do think we may be sleepwalking into some tricky situations in an effort to seem politically correct and modern.
The Girl Guide policy is just one of many changes that have the potential to change our entire way of thinking, inch by inch. I know that many people are concerned about who uses which toilet and the use of changing rooms. In a sense this is trivial stuff. The big stuff is yet to hit us.
I understand that about 80% of men who identify as women do not go on and have the full surgery. So 80% still have a fully functioning penis. This means that whatever that individual looks like when dressed, they have not fully committed to “being a woman”. That’s OK, their choice after all.
The old school transgender individual is probably the type we all recognise and support. The person who has undergone gruelling surgery, physiological assessment, medical treatment etc to fit in as a woman. We probably can all recognise the struggle and can empathise.
The new school transgender individual can be very different. They may or may not seek treatment; they may or may not choose to live as a woman full time. They may choose to be more fluid and dress as a woman today but a man tomorrow. Again, that is their choice and I am OK with that. But it also leads me to ask two questions.Is it enough for an individual to self identify as a woman and be treated accordingly. And what is the definition of a transgender woman.
So, the Tony of yesterday identifies as Fifi today and now....
Tony as Fifi can Access all female areas
Tony as Fifi can ask to go to an all girl’s school
Tony as Fifi can access female hospital wards
Tony as Fifi asks to be transferred to a female prison (apparently Ian Huntley has decided that he is a woman and has requested a transfer I believe).
Tony as Fifi can, if a sportsman, with all the physical and muscular advantages that testosterone brings, can now enter as a female
Tony as Fifi can enter sex specific occupations
Tony as Fifi can get onto female only short lists
Tony as Fifi can enter female refuges
Tony as Fifi can undertake intimate procedures as a female health professional even if the woman involved has specifically asked for a woman doctor/nurse/radiographer etc to perform the smear or mammogram.
There are other scenarios, but you might get my point
Back to the definition of what is a transgender woman? When should the hard won rights of woman should be granted to Tony. On the day he tells his work colleagues to “call me Fifi”? On the first day he puts a dress on? When he has been living as a woman for a week, a month, a year? When he starts the hormone treatment? When he finally has a vagina constructed?
The answer at the moment seems to be whenever the transgender woman wishes. But who is asking the women what they think?