By Kathryn Truscott

 

The arrival on our shores of Kellie-Jay Keen, a women’s rights activist, has generated much angst among the ‘transgender’ community. As a somewhat aged transsexual person myself, born in 1942, I find myself in the rather odd position of being a Conservative ‘tranny’ (a word of which the modern activists disapprove, for reasons that escape me) in that I am well-versed in the tribulations of being ‘different’, but nevertheless accepting of the fact that others find me somewhat odd.

Do I see myself as a woman? If the definition of that is a human female capable of bearing children, then no. In a recent hospital visit, for a minor liver issue, I was described in the doctor’s notes as “a 70 year old, healthy transsexual female”….. I am happy with that! It is accurate and respectful and I was treated very well by the staff, but hospital staff are always nice in my experience.

To many of the religious persuasion, I am seen as an ”abomination before God” that could consign us all to perdition, but thankfully that extreme view is rare.

There are folk of both the extreme political Left and Right that would ‘eliminate’ such as I, and a whole slew of others, from society if they could as being ‘sexual deviants’, ‘racial inferiors’ etc.. People like that pop up from time to time and are much akin to the religious sects (cults) that appear spontaneously in society.

Do I think that such folk should be silenced?

Certainly not, it only encourages them to feel ‘persecuted’ because of the ‘deviants’ in society and therefore more likely to amplify, and to act on, their beliefs. Open debate is the only way to expose truth over belief, and censoring, or silencing in other ways, those with whom we disagree illustrates a very worrying state of mind in my view.

Incidence of Transsex

Some real statistics will show that truly transsexual people are about one in thirty thousand births. In a population of about 5 million in NZ, that should give us a tad less than 170 of us. Given that some are old like myself, and some will be infants and children, a much lesser number should be sculling about in society as active adults.

However, what we see is some thousands of people claiming to be ‘transgender’ of one sort or another. This strikes me as more than somewhat anomalous, especially as a majority of them seem to be young women, and female to male transsexuality is a hundred times less common that male to female. There are sound genetic reasons for that, that are beyond the scope of this opinion piece, so I will not dwell on them here except to say that there are always outward physical signs of the condition, although they are frequently missed in infancy unless they are more extreme. Many children exhibit cross gender behaviours and 99% of them just grow out of it; after all the differences between the sexes are very minor in infancy.

Now let me make something quite clear. I have not changed my gender.

It’s the one with which I was born, and cannot be changed. If it were possible to change that piece of my brain that was hard wired to tell me that I am female, that would have been an easier solution to my position perhaps. Not possible because it is a physical thing not changeable, rather than a psychological one, so we alter the bits we can without killing the patient.

What I have done, at considerable trouble and expense and thanks to a lot of amazing support from friends (they know who they are), is change my secondary sex characteristics to match my gender a lot better. It’s not a perfect process by any means, but it’s better. The daily conflict between the inside and outside of me is largely eliminated.

Lucky me.

Female-Only Spaces

Society has granted me the boon of legal and social femininity, and access to women’s spaces, a female passport, citizenship certificate (I was born in the UK) and even birth certificate. Being someone who is well aware of her ‘different’ status, I am at pains in women-only places always to act with decorum and modesty; I have had no issues so far. If one wishes to be treated as a Lady one must, perforce, behave as one; is that not so?

Having said that, to encounter in such a female-only space someone with a penis on display I would find uncomfortable and objectionable. On that basis, before my ‘plumbing’ was altered, I stayed out of such places. Others, such as women’s toilets, had to be used as by that time my external presentation was female, but I had no issues at all with the women in there at the same time. After all the Ladies’ loo has stalls and what’s in your pants is not visible. Changing rooms are quite another matter.

Sadly of late the ‘transgender’ activist types have been “out loud and proud” in changing rooms, gymnasia etc. to the consternation of others, and I find such behaviour objectionable. The instances of this of which I have knowledge is always male to females, not the other way around. Make of that what you will.

Sport

Now we come to the vexing question of women’s sport. We have seen ‘trans’ athletes who were born male enter women’s sport and win by wide margins. Once through male puberty, transition only partly affects once strength and speed. I noticed a loss of upper body muscle mass, true, but it was a relatively small loss. Men are stronger and faster, it’s testosterone that does it and the effect is more or less permanent.

My personal view is that such ‘trans’ athletes should stay out of women’s sport as simply a matter of good ethics, no matter what a law may, or may not, say. It seems to me that forcing women to accept people in their category, especially in track and field, boxing, football etc. will destroy that section of sport, at least at the top level. After all, how many people are likely to be affected by a ban, such as that imposed by the International Athletic Federation the other day? I doubt it would be in double figures, so why all the fuss? Add to that that there are sports out there in which the sexes can and do compete on equal terms.. It would be the decent thing to take up one of those rather than seek an unearned advantage by force of law. Examples? Well shooting and Archery come to mind, but there are others.

Like it or not, humans have two genders, with only the very rarest of exceptions, and the vast majority of us are happy to be in one or the other, be they straight, gay, trans or intersexed.

Posie Parker’s Visit

Back to Kellie-Jay Keen.
Already the NZ trans-activists have organised and are threatening obstruction (a form of violence) and disruption (another form of the same) to prevent this woman from speaking her piece. That, it would seem to me, is the encouraging of violence against, and hatred of, an individual.

Is that not unlawful under our Human Rights Act?
It does say precisely that if one takes the trouble to read it; or is it that it’s OK to foment such things if it is against someone of whom one disapproves?

I think not.

The activists have used “security concerns” before. This is nothing but thuggery.

If the trans-activists are so all-fired sure of the righteousness of their cause, why are they never prepared to debate it freely? Always, with them, it is shout slogans, get physical and throw things. It’s all part of the new “woke” movement; a misnomer if ever I saw one as they appear to be asleep, or perhaps blind, to the feelings and needs of others, be they social or political. They behave, in fact, like petulant children.

Let me tell them that on this issue, and from the woman’s perspective, they are quite threatening, hence the likes of Ms. Keen who feel it incumbent upon them to put a counter argument to those that would ride roughshod over their rights and sensibilities.

Our activists would do themselves more favours by quietly demonstrating rather than making a spurious connection of women’s rights with Nazism, as they are doing and trying to cancel or de-platform her. The fact that such awful people as Neo-Nazis and white supremacists agree with Kellie’s view on this matter, does not make her one of them, and to claim such a link to get her expelled from NZ does them not credit at all.

The neo-Nazis hate homosexual people too, not to mention Jews, people of colour etc. etc. so painting Ms. Keen with that brush does them no credit whatever, and in fact undermines their position with all thinking people.