This post by the Scottish newspaper The National gets right to the point with its title: “Gender debate used as ‘proxy’ for transgender discrimination.”
Embedded in the article, though, there seems to be a clash of experts. Reem Alsalem, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women and girls, claimed violent men could abuse the system of self-ID. But Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the United Nations independent expert on protection against violence and discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, said:
“he said that he felt compelled to restate his support of the bill after growing concerned with the general tone of the debate in Scotland.”
“He said: ‘As I monitored the public and parliamentary debate in relation to the bill, I have become increasingly concerned about the misrepresentation of the United Nations long-standing position in relation to legal recognition of gender identity based on self-identification.’”
“I’m also concerned about narratives that appear to be utilising the discussion around the bill as a proxy for reigniting exclusionary discussions on the very existence and rights of trans people.”
But what was telling was Reem Alsalem’s comments about the lack of proof of self-ID being dangerous:
“Later on in the evidence session, Reem Alsalem said that just because data is not ‘consolidated’ on the violence faced by women at the hands of men utilising self-identification to gain access to women’s spaces, does not mean that it doesn’t exist.”
“She told MSPs: ‘The fact that data doesn’t exist – or isn’t consolidated, I think it exists – but isn’t consolidated or isn’t sought for is not a reflection that we don’t have a problem.'”
“It’s a reflection on the fact that nobody is looking for it because we have victims and organisations telling us, they’ve been telling us for many years now, that it is a problem.”
By her logic, cisgender women shouldn’t be teachers. A look at the Twitter hashtag #stillnottrans:
And on and on and on. In fact, here’s 50. By Alsalem’s logic, cisgender women are predators and shouldn’t be teachers. There’s much more “consolidated data” showing it’s a problem.
This isn’t a debate about predators or the safety of “women and girls” but about some cisgender women’s discomfort with visibly trans women.
