Are trans people sick and need medical care? The debate on that question is what got this video canceled on YouTube. At least that's my theory. The only problem is that the trans community has already answered that question with a yes when they demand that they get coverage for sex reassignment drugs and surgery. The question then isn't do they require medical care, its what is the best medical care? Is it medical care to affirm their beliefs about themselves, or would they be better off if they received care that changed their beliefs to match their biological sex. (Increased sex hormones that match their biological sex instead of against it, psychiatric care to accept being attracted to the same sex, or that its okay to be a man that likes to dress in women's clothing, or ...) That is a complicated question. It is a question I don't know the answer to. It is a question that should be debated and can be investigated objectively. We should all want everybody to happy and to feel good within their own skin, the debate on how to achieve that shouldn't be shutdown because some people don't want to have that discussion.
Time: 47:58. To answer John's question, yes we should see these people as needing help. The problem in society is that we never want to believe we need help. We are hyper-individualistic and therefore lack a self-awareness of our own needs for help. It's no different than if a friend of yours is putting on a "happy face" yet deep down their spirits are in turmoil and they are dealing with crippling depression. We need to be more open to real help, not affirming help, but real help. I know a lot of transgender individuals and when I look at them or have conversations with them, I see nothing but pain in their eyes. Absolutely we should think these people need help because these people objectively need help. As fellow humans it's not our jobs to ignore the issue, it's our job to get them help. Just like we would a drug addict (or at least should) or a schizophrenic.
Woke can be defined as this: "My subjective ideas must be taken objectively." Meaning, what I claim to be, you must accept because it is ME that feels and believes and YOU are nothing more than an object of my playhouse. The great argument against postmodernism is indeed that our own realities are the true reality and if you don't fit my reality then you are objectively wrong. But again, this is circular...because what if YOU don't fit MY reality. The nature of subjectivity is easily falsifiable.
(Time 8:40); McWhorter steel-man’s woke argument “My experience has value” (paraphrase). Denied an in-person discussion for three calendar years, I emailed superiors at work to inform “Woke statement is fine, not a problem. But, it is step one - after which the scientist methodically explores the concept.”
Two thoughts…I think wokeism grew out of the propensity of Trump to embellish and sensationalize fact’s during his Presidency. I believe it spoke more to the “showman” in him rather than his actual belief in what he would misrepresent. As far as the claims of Trump actually winning the election by his supporters, I contend that the true outcome was not readily apparent due to the tactics of ballot harvesting, and what the actual numbers were. While I cannot claim that the election was stolen by Democrats, I certainly believe that the tactic of ballot harvesting, placed its thumb on the scale and may have altered the outcome.
I heard a groupnofvtrans teens talking about why they.thought they were the opposite sex, they each gave any answer. indicating their interests or likes were not the typical.idea of what girls or boys like to do, i.e. "I didn't like to wear dresses" or for a boyvl.who udentified as a girl, "I didn't like to rough house like boys. They had gotten the idea, often from social media, that if they didn't conform to certain gender stereotypes, they were in the wrong bodies. These gender stereotypes were fought against by b the women's movement -- but now these stereotypes are thriving in.transgender ideology. Books are being read to young children -- for example a girl about 5 years old in this book read to kids decides she is really a boy because.she didn't want to wear the pink dress her mother bought for her. These stereotypes are being used to push puberty blockers and gender dysphoria. There are many v ways of being a girl.or boy.
Also if a he can declare themselves to be a she, and "a transwomen is a woman" as is chanted, why shouldn't transwomen enter women's locker rooms, etc or compete in women's sports? Notice no transman has won a trophy or award in competitions with other men. No men feel threatened by a transman ( biological woman) come to undress in their locker room. They may actually like it. Taking away the right of privacy anyhe right of competitions that are separated by biological sex HURTS women. And that is the truth. What biological woman has won an award as a transman? None.
if there's a your truth and a my truth and a his truth and a her truth, there is no meaning to tell THE truth. There would be no meaning of swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth as a witness. It completely undermines our whole system of justice!
I did not hear “hate speech” but I did hear a lot of ignorant and naïve speech. There is much that is true in Goldblatt’s discussion of wokeism prioritizing subjective feelings over empirical facts but when he applies this theme to his views of transgenderism, Goldblatt’s argument falls apart. Initially he contends that, by dismissing the idea of soul, spirit, inner knowing, etc. over the existence physical characteristics of male and female bodies, he is saying that human beings are only their bodies, a view with which I disagree. Whether it be referred to as soul, spirit, or consciousness that part of a human being is the driver of its life: our thoughts, our feelings, our ability to discern, make decisions and take action all come from consciousness – whether you are transgender or not. Further, Goldblatt repeatedly asserts that transgender people merely believe they are something they are not, and that what they claim is demonstrably not true – that trans people are simply denying the empirical fact of the bodies into which they were born. Professor Goldblatt, this is not what they are saying. Have you ever had a discussion with a transgendered person? I assure you that there is no transgendered person anywhere who denies the empirical evidence of the body into which they were born. That’s why they refer to themselves as trans-gender.
To me, the fundamental problem is the statement "Trans women ARE women". I could support the statement "We should treat trans women AS women"* as it doesn't require me to deny reality. Trans women are not biologically women and there are a lot of significant physical differences between the two biological sexes that are not erased or changed by drugs and surgery.
*Except where biological sex cannot be ignored - the doctor's office, sports, dating and prisons.
The statement "trans women are women" could mean any number of things within different contexts. What it certainly doesn't mean is that trans people don't know they're trans. Of course they know. They gone through a transition to match what their consciousness tells them is so with the body into which they were born. There's a distinction now in popular discourse between people who are trans and those who are cis-gendered (people who are not trans). That would hardly work if all trans people did not know they were trans.
Do you know anyone who is trans? Have you talked with any trans person, even online? I suggest that you do.
Why assume that someone with a different viewpoint than yours has failed to reach out beyond their bubble to enlighten themselves? (I'm sure you didn't mean it to seem patronizing.)
Yes, I have talked with trans people online. Many over the last 5 years, as my concern has steadily increased about what I see happening to women’s and girls’ rights, privacy, safety, sports, and language for ourselves.
Yes, I have talked with trans people in real life. I have worked in live theater for 20 years, which is an environment with a self-selecting, higher-than-average population of non-gender-conforming people of all stripes. (And I’m not even counting “non-binary”-identifying people as “trans,” or the numbers would be much higher.)
I have talked with adult “trans women” who have had feminizing surgeries and vaginoplasties -- but only 2 of those, and probably 10 or 15 years ago. The vast majority of "trans women" I meet now are fully intact, heterosexual men with no intention of having surgery. In the last 5 years, I have interacted with an increasing number of these -- and with fully intact “gender-fluid” men (typically 25 – 55) -- who presume that I should be happy to find them in the women's restroom if they say they’re having a “girl day," even though they make no effort to look like anything but men. (It's always humiliating and unpleasant. They pee with the stall doors open, don't clean up the pee they leave on the toilet seats, and come out of the stall still not having tucked themselves back into their clothes. It feels like bullying to me -- like they're determined to make a point about how they can break women's boundaries anytime they like.)
I've had multiple conversations with two teenaged “trans men” (14 and 15, both autistic and neither having given any previous sign to their parents at any point in their lives that they were unhappy to be girls).
There is no single "trans point of view." The older trans women I've met didn't view themselves as actual women, even though they've put in the most effort and time and money and pain to present as women. The trans women I've met in recent years (online and in person) are infinitely more likely to insist that they ARE women -- even though many have done very little, and intend to do very little, in the way of surgery or even hormones.
But it doesn't matter. Yes, of course, I assume in the privacy of their own minds, all trans people "know" they are trans rather than actually members of the opposite sex.
The issue isn’t whether trans people actually believe they are the opposite sex. It is that they -- or activists claiming to speak for them -- are trying to bully the rest of us (particularly women and girls) to behave as if WE believe it – and telling us that any expression of legitimate concern about what this means to women’s rights is nothing more than “transphobia” and “debating their right to exist.”
In both online and real-life environments, I, like many women, have found it increasingly difficult to have productive conversations on this topic. By “productive,” I don’t mean conversations intended to convince the other person of my point of view, but conversations in which genuine and legitimate concerns on both sides (women's rights and trans rights) can be expressed, and heard, and addressed.
Instead, even the mildest expression of a thought that suggests one isn’t fully on board with the idea that women should just shut up about having their boundaries and opportunities steamrollered by fully intact, male-bodied people now gets you called a “transphobe” or a “bigot” and is used to justify shutting down any exchange of perspectives or expression of legitimate concerns.
What do YOU think is the purpose of the mantra "Trans women are women"?
In my experience, it seems to be mostly to try to silence women by telling them they have no legitimate grounds for protesting the imposition of fully intact male bodies in their same-sex spaces, their same-sex sports, their same-sex prison cells, their same-sex domestic violence shelters, and their ringfenced educational and professional opportunities.
It is gaslighting of the highest order, and it does nothing to contribute to a productive conversation about how to move forward in a way that is respectful to the needs of both trans people and women.
In Matt Walsh's recently released video "What is a Woman?'" surgeon Marci Bowers, M.D., told Mr. Walsh, "I AM a woman. I function as a woman in my daily life."
I know trans-identified males who expect other people to "affirm" that these men have "women's bodies." They mean in how they look, not anything else involved in being female. Some of them will say to close friends, "I wish I had a more feminine body," and if the other person says anything but, "you DO have a feminine body," they get angry at the other person for "withholding affirmation" or being a "transphobe."
I have also talked to post-transition "trans women" whose families will say something like, "I accept now that you really are a woman."
In my experience, the original trans people (not Gen Z or younger) were/are concrete thinkers when it comes to sexual identity and gender. They often will offer as evidence for being a woman the fact that as a child they preferred to play fantasy games like the girls, especially admired female actors rather than male stars, that they didn't like rough games and so on. The postmodern nonsense about being nonbinary is a recent introduction.
In the past, gender dysphoria meant simply that a person of one sex wanted to be living as a member of the opposite sex, and to be treated as if he/she was a member of that sex. But, that second part does mean that even in the 1990's, people who transitioned hoped that strangers would not be able to discern their actual sex. Most of the surgeries are undertaken so as to look more like a member of the other sex, and therefore "pass" in public or even under prolonged scrutiny.
It is very important that we continue to push for the common ground of objective reality be respected. I'd like to see some academics involved in Elementary education interviewed on this topic because that is currently a battle ground for how, and who gets to define reality.
Re: redefining what a woman/man is. What I am curious about is what prompted this whole discussion in the first place. We always had terms to describe people who felt like they were born in the wrong body and how they presented themselves in society (transsexual and transvestism.) So why the change and why now? I think there might be a clue in the other phrases that have been redefined which have been thrown around with this discussion such as transgender healthcare. Transgender healthcare now seems to mean “medical transitioning” aka - affirming healthcare. At the federal government level, there were changes made to anti discrimination laws pertaining to transgenders, et all, that mandate medical transition coverage for all healthcare insurance companies that receive federal funding. Basically requiring insurance companies to pay for medical transition. However, private insurance companies and self funded plans that do not receive federal funding are not required to cover medical transitions. I wonder if the push to redefine what a man/woman is, has something to do with getting the rest of the insurance companies to pay for transgender transitioning? If they redefine woman to mean anyone who feels like a woman, then maybe that changes what “medically necessary” means, and therefore make all insurance plans cover all medical treatments to support becoming a women.?
If that is the case, is this entire movement just a tactic to get medical transitioning paid for by insurance companies? Is it really all about the money?
Or is there another reason I’m just not aware of? Why change the meaning of man/woman and why now?
Would love to get thoughts from the hosts and group.
Some states also mandate coverage of "gender affirmative care."
The main thing I see are media presentations and self-presentations of trans-identified male activists who exhibit very narcissistic behaviors on a continuous basis. I think these people probably want the things that narcissists always want, which includes everything, but especially the things that the narcissists were denied when they demanded to have them. Heterosexual men with narcissistic personality disorder have been shown by research to be misogynistic, and the research subjects admitted to feeling the most hatred for heterosexual women, above all other demographics. I think their hatred comes from envy, which is a dominant feeling among narcissists. They feel cheated if there is anything they can't have.
Not all trans people are exhibitionistic or histrionic. They don't all try to look and act like cartoons of the opposite sex, but it certainly appears to be the case that many of the trans-identified activists have these characteristics. And I don't hear many other trans-identified people speaking out against the aggressive narcissistic behaviors we see in trans activists and athletes featured on media.
I have observed the same types of things and can see your point but I really think there is something more coordinated going on.
There is big money supporting the trans movement and I think they have managed to change a lot of laws to include transgender people but they seem to have fallen short in some areas. An EASY way to get everything they want is to just redefine the words “women and men” to include trans-women and trans-men. If they can do that, than all laws that women have worked so hard to get over the years will also apply to trans-women. They won’t have to go through the trouble of trying to get a bunch of new laws passed. (And all trans women will have the same rights as men, although I’m not sure of special laws that apply to only men, except maybe for insurance purposes.)
I was listening to a discussion the other day about why they decided to redefine marriage to include same sex partners instead of just legalizing Civil Union for same sex couples. It was because of all of the legal rights that go along with the word marriage. I think it would have been much easier to get Civil Unions passed but they wanted all the other privileges.
I am a bit surprised that in your discussion of transgenderism you did not explore the similarities with religions. People are certainly entitled to have their own truths, such as a belief in Jesus Christ, but they are not entitled to force others to have those beliefs.
As for the question of why can’t we change the meaning of the word woman it begs the question of what word to use to describe biological reality. Birthing person is now often used. Aside from the offensive objectification aspect of that phrase the real issue is that it is tantamount to linguistic colonisation. It totally disregards that women have their own truths as well.
I also believe that I have something to say about what words I use to describe myself. Trans activists don't get to steal words that name and describe women. Those words are my name and the name of all women.
This is a well thought out incredible debate, thank you so much for bringing your wisdom together and talking about such a very flammable subject.
Is there a transcript of the video anywhere?
Are trans people sick and need medical care? The debate on that question is what got this video canceled on YouTube. At least that's my theory. The only problem is that the trans community has already answered that question with a yes when they demand that they get coverage for sex reassignment drugs and surgery. The question then isn't do they require medical care, its what is the best medical care? Is it medical care to affirm their beliefs about themselves, or would they be better off if they received care that changed their beliefs to match their biological sex. (Increased sex hormones that match their biological sex instead of against it, psychiatric care to accept being attracted to the same sex, or that its okay to be a man that likes to dress in women's clothing, or ...) That is a complicated question. It is a question I don't know the answer to. It is a question that should be debated and can be investigated objectively. We should all want everybody to happy and to feel good within their own skin, the debate on how to achieve that shouldn't be shutdown because some people don't want to have that discussion.
Time: 47:58. To answer John's question, yes we should see these people as needing help. The problem in society is that we never want to believe we need help. We are hyper-individualistic and therefore lack a self-awareness of our own needs for help. It's no different than if a friend of yours is putting on a "happy face" yet deep down their spirits are in turmoil and they are dealing with crippling depression. We need to be more open to real help, not affirming help, but real help. I know a lot of transgender individuals and when I look at them or have conversations with them, I see nothing but pain in their eyes. Absolutely we should think these people need help because these people objectively need help. As fellow humans it's not our jobs to ignore the issue, it's our job to get them help. Just like we would a drug addict (or at least should) or a schizophrenic.
Woke can be defined as this: "My subjective ideas must be taken objectively." Meaning, what I claim to be, you must accept because it is ME that feels and believes and YOU are nothing more than an object of my playhouse. The great argument against postmodernism is indeed that our own realities are the true reality and if you don't fit my reality then you are objectively wrong. But again, this is circular...because what if YOU don't fit MY reality. The nature of subjectivity is easily falsifiable.
(Time 8:40); McWhorter steel-man’s woke argument “My experience has value” (paraphrase). Denied an in-person discussion for three calendar years, I emailed superiors at work to inform “Woke statement is fine, not a problem. But, it is step one - after which the scientist methodically explores the concept.”
Two thoughts…I think wokeism grew out of the propensity of Trump to embellish and sensationalize fact’s during his Presidency. I believe it spoke more to the “showman” in him rather than his actual belief in what he would misrepresent. As far as the claims of Trump actually winning the election by his supporters, I contend that the true outcome was not readily apparent due to the tactics of ballot harvesting, and what the actual numbers were. While I cannot claim that the election was stolen by Democrats, I certainly believe that the tactic of ballot harvesting, placed its thumb on the scale and may have altered the outcome.
I heard a groupnofvtrans teens talking about why they.thought they were the opposite sex, they each gave any answer. indicating their interests or likes were not the typical.idea of what girls or boys like to do, i.e. "I didn't like to wear dresses" or for a boyvl.who udentified as a girl, "I didn't like to rough house like boys. They had gotten the idea, often from social media, that if they didn't conform to certain gender stereotypes, they were in the wrong bodies. These gender stereotypes were fought against by b the women's movement -- but now these stereotypes are thriving in.transgender ideology. Books are being read to young children -- for example a girl about 5 years old in this book read to kids decides she is really a boy because.she didn't want to wear the pink dress her mother bought for her. These stereotypes are being used to push puberty blockers and gender dysphoria. There are many v ways of being a girl.or boy.
Also if a he can declare themselves to be a she, and "a transwomen is a woman" as is chanted, why shouldn't transwomen enter women's locker rooms, etc or compete in women's sports? Notice no transman has won a trophy or award in competitions with other men. No men feel threatened by a transman ( biological woman) come to undress in their locker room. They may actually like it. Taking away the right of privacy anyhe right of competitions that are separated by biological sex HURTS women. And that is the truth. What biological woman has won an award as a transman? None.
if there's a your truth and a my truth and a his truth and a her truth, there is no meaning to tell THE truth. There would be no meaning of swearing to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth as a witness. It completely undermines our whole system of justice!
I did not hear “hate speech” but I did hear a lot of ignorant and naïve speech. There is much that is true in Goldblatt’s discussion of wokeism prioritizing subjective feelings over empirical facts but when he applies this theme to his views of transgenderism, Goldblatt’s argument falls apart. Initially he contends that, by dismissing the idea of soul, spirit, inner knowing, etc. over the existence physical characteristics of male and female bodies, he is saying that human beings are only their bodies, a view with which I disagree. Whether it be referred to as soul, spirit, or consciousness that part of a human being is the driver of its life: our thoughts, our feelings, our ability to discern, make decisions and take action all come from consciousness – whether you are transgender or not. Further, Goldblatt repeatedly asserts that transgender people merely believe they are something they are not, and that what they claim is demonstrably not true – that trans people are simply denying the empirical fact of the bodies into which they were born. Professor Goldblatt, this is not what they are saying. Have you ever had a discussion with a transgendered person? I assure you that there is no transgendered person anywhere who denies the empirical evidence of the body into which they were born. That’s why they refer to themselves as trans-gender.
To me, the fundamental problem is the statement "Trans women ARE women". I could support the statement "We should treat trans women AS women"* as it doesn't require me to deny reality. Trans women are not biologically women and there are a lot of significant physical differences between the two biological sexes that are not erased or changed by drugs and surgery.
*Except where biological sex cannot be ignored - the doctor's office, sports, dating and prisons.
But we are not constantly being reprimanded that "Trans women are trans women."
The insistence is "Trans women are women."
How does this support your contention? Does this mantra not deny the empirical fact of the body into which a transwoman was born?
The statement "trans women are women" could mean any number of things within different contexts. What it certainly doesn't mean is that trans people don't know they're trans. Of course they know. They gone through a transition to match what their consciousness tells them is so with the body into which they were born. There's a distinction now in popular discourse between people who are trans and those who are cis-gendered (people who are not trans). That would hardly work if all trans people did not know they were trans.
Do you know anyone who is trans? Have you talked with any trans person, even online? I suggest that you do.
Why assume that someone with a different viewpoint than yours has failed to reach out beyond their bubble to enlighten themselves? (I'm sure you didn't mean it to seem patronizing.)
Yes, I have talked with trans people online. Many over the last 5 years, as my concern has steadily increased about what I see happening to women’s and girls’ rights, privacy, safety, sports, and language for ourselves.
Yes, I have talked with trans people in real life. I have worked in live theater for 20 years, which is an environment with a self-selecting, higher-than-average population of non-gender-conforming people of all stripes. (And I’m not even counting “non-binary”-identifying people as “trans,” or the numbers would be much higher.)
I have talked with adult “trans women” who have had feminizing surgeries and vaginoplasties -- but only 2 of those, and probably 10 or 15 years ago. The vast majority of "trans women" I meet now are fully intact, heterosexual men with no intention of having surgery. In the last 5 years, I have interacted with an increasing number of these -- and with fully intact “gender-fluid” men (typically 25 – 55) -- who presume that I should be happy to find them in the women's restroom if they say they’re having a “girl day," even though they make no effort to look like anything but men. (It's always humiliating and unpleasant. They pee with the stall doors open, don't clean up the pee they leave on the toilet seats, and come out of the stall still not having tucked themselves back into their clothes. It feels like bullying to me -- like they're determined to make a point about how they can break women's boundaries anytime they like.)
I've had multiple conversations with two teenaged “trans men” (14 and 15, both autistic and neither having given any previous sign to their parents at any point in their lives that they were unhappy to be girls).
There is no single "trans point of view." The older trans women I've met didn't view themselves as actual women, even though they've put in the most effort and time and money and pain to present as women. The trans women I've met in recent years (online and in person) are infinitely more likely to insist that they ARE women -- even though many have done very little, and intend to do very little, in the way of surgery or even hormones.
But it doesn't matter. Yes, of course, I assume in the privacy of their own minds, all trans people "know" they are trans rather than actually members of the opposite sex.
The issue isn’t whether trans people actually believe they are the opposite sex. It is that they -- or activists claiming to speak for them -- are trying to bully the rest of us (particularly women and girls) to behave as if WE believe it – and telling us that any expression of legitimate concern about what this means to women’s rights is nothing more than “transphobia” and “debating their right to exist.”
In both online and real-life environments, I, like many women, have found it increasingly difficult to have productive conversations on this topic. By “productive,” I don’t mean conversations intended to convince the other person of my point of view, but conversations in which genuine and legitimate concerns on both sides (women's rights and trans rights) can be expressed, and heard, and addressed.
Instead, even the mildest expression of a thought that suggests one isn’t fully on board with the idea that women should just shut up about having their boundaries and opportunities steamrollered by fully intact, male-bodied people now gets you called a “transphobe” or a “bigot” and is used to justify shutting down any exchange of perspectives or expression of legitimate concerns.
What do YOU think is the purpose of the mantra "Trans women are women"?
In my experience, it seems to be mostly to try to silence women by telling them they have no legitimate grounds for protesting the imposition of fully intact male bodies in their same-sex spaces, their same-sex sports, their same-sex prison cells, their same-sex domestic violence shelters, and their ringfenced educational and professional opportunities.
It is gaslighting of the highest order, and it does nothing to contribute to a productive conversation about how to move forward in a way that is respectful to the needs of both trans people and women.
In Matt Walsh's recently released video "What is a Woman?'" surgeon Marci Bowers, M.D., told Mr. Walsh, "I AM a woman. I function as a woman in my daily life."
I know trans-identified males who expect other people to "affirm" that these men have "women's bodies." They mean in how they look, not anything else involved in being female. Some of them will say to close friends, "I wish I had a more feminine body," and if the other person says anything but, "you DO have a feminine body," they get angry at the other person for "withholding affirmation" or being a "transphobe."
I have also talked to post-transition "trans women" whose families will say something like, "I accept now that you really are a woman."
In my experience, the original trans people (not Gen Z or younger) were/are concrete thinkers when it comes to sexual identity and gender. They often will offer as evidence for being a woman the fact that as a child they preferred to play fantasy games like the girls, especially admired female actors rather than male stars, that they didn't like rough games and so on. The postmodern nonsense about being nonbinary is a recent introduction.
In the past, gender dysphoria meant simply that a person of one sex wanted to be living as a member of the opposite sex, and to be treated as if he/she was a member of that sex. But, that second part does mean that even in the 1990's, people who transitioned hoped that strangers would not be able to discern their actual sex. Most of the surgeries are undertaken so as to look more like a member of the other sex, and therefore "pass" in public or even under prolonged scrutiny.
It is very important that we continue to push for the common ground of objective reality be respected. I'd like to see some academics involved in Elementary education interviewed on this topic because that is currently a battle ground for how, and who gets to define reality.
Great discussion.
Re: redefining what a woman/man is. What I am curious about is what prompted this whole discussion in the first place. We always had terms to describe people who felt like they were born in the wrong body and how they presented themselves in society (transsexual and transvestism.) So why the change and why now? I think there might be a clue in the other phrases that have been redefined which have been thrown around with this discussion such as transgender healthcare. Transgender healthcare now seems to mean “medical transitioning” aka - affirming healthcare. At the federal government level, there were changes made to anti discrimination laws pertaining to transgenders, et all, that mandate medical transition coverage for all healthcare insurance companies that receive federal funding. Basically requiring insurance companies to pay for medical transition. However, private insurance companies and self funded plans that do not receive federal funding are not required to cover medical transitions. I wonder if the push to redefine what a man/woman is, has something to do with getting the rest of the insurance companies to pay for transgender transitioning? If they redefine woman to mean anyone who feels like a woman, then maybe that changes what “medically necessary” means, and therefore make all insurance plans cover all medical treatments to support becoming a women.?
If that is the case, is this entire movement just a tactic to get medical transitioning paid for by insurance companies? Is it really all about the money?
Or is there another reason I’m just not aware of? Why change the meaning of man/woman and why now?
Would love to get thoughts from the hosts and group.
Some states also mandate coverage of "gender affirmative care."
The main thing I see are media presentations and self-presentations of trans-identified male activists who exhibit very narcissistic behaviors on a continuous basis. I think these people probably want the things that narcissists always want, which includes everything, but especially the things that the narcissists were denied when they demanded to have them. Heterosexual men with narcissistic personality disorder have been shown by research to be misogynistic, and the research subjects admitted to feeling the most hatred for heterosexual women, above all other demographics. I think their hatred comes from envy, which is a dominant feeling among narcissists. They feel cheated if there is anything they can't have.
Not all trans people are exhibitionistic or histrionic. They don't all try to look and act like cartoons of the opposite sex, but it certainly appears to be the case that many of the trans-identified activists have these characteristics. And I don't hear many other trans-identified people speaking out against the aggressive narcissistic behaviors we see in trans activists and athletes featured on media.
I have observed the same types of things and can see your point but I really think there is something more coordinated going on.
There is big money supporting the trans movement and I think they have managed to change a lot of laws to include transgender people but they seem to have fallen short in some areas. An EASY way to get everything they want is to just redefine the words “women and men” to include trans-women and trans-men. If they can do that, than all laws that women have worked so hard to get over the years will also apply to trans-women. They won’t have to go through the trouble of trying to get a bunch of new laws passed. (And all trans women will have the same rights as men, although I’m not sure of special laws that apply to only men, except maybe for insurance purposes.)
I was listening to a discussion the other day about why they decided to redefine marriage to include same sex partners instead of just legalizing Civil Union for same sex couples. It was because of all of the legal rights that go along with the word marriage. I think it would have been much easier to get Civil Unions passed but they wanted all the other privileges.
Anyway, that is what I suspect is going on.
Thank you Uncle Glenn!
I am a bit surprised that in your discussion of transgenderism you did not explore the similarities with religions. People are certainly entitled to have their own truths, such as a belief in Jesus Christ, but they are not entitled to force others to have those beliefs.
As for the question of why can’t we change the meaning of the word woman it begs the question of what word to use to describe biological reality. Birthing person is now often used. Aside from the offensive objectification aspect of that phrase the real issue is that it is tantamount to linguistic colonisation. It totally disregards that women have their own truths as well.
I also believe that I have something to say about what words I use to describe myself. Trans activists don't get to steal words that name and describe women. Those words are my name and the name of all women.