Ruling

The UK Supreme Court ruled yesterday that the definition of "woman" does not include those of the transgender variety. A woman, according to the court, is someone who is born biologically female.  What they do with androgen insensitivity syndrome remains to be seen.

Outside the court Helen Joyce and other gender criticals were jubilant because they see this victory as a crack in the transgender rights movement. Presumably the next step would see people arrested for impersonation as once was the case in the not too distant past. 

This ruling doesn't make transgender people disappear or negate their existence and I have argued for not getting lost in definitions and rely on the basic rights of humans to live as they choose. This should not affect the right to hold a job or marry. In other words, this obstacle for someone transgender in the UK should change little starting today despite the region's almost vitriolic resistance to progress on this particular cultural front.

Gender criticals want eradication or at least returning people to their closets which will not happen because youth is overwhelmingly supportive of transgender rights. This means that the climate should only improve over time as millenials and GenZ increasingly gain political power. 

Joyce and others in this group are mostly older and form part of a generation which cannot get past this cultural hurdle. They focus on participation in sports or bathrooms to drive wedges into public opinion as everyday transgender people work in legal, engineering offices and banks without issue. My own former office is a prime example of this where a young transgender woman and transgender man work freely and happily. My former company's policy is that of complete accommodation of diversity and inclusion.

If there is an overarching theme to my writing these days is that common sense, justice and empathy should prevail over prejudice from small minded people. Thus I see this as another temporary setback within the overall arc of societal progress.

Progress which will still take time.