Trans men get left out of the conversation, again
The UK general election is bringing to the fore a systemic issue endemic within the trans “debate”: trans men are no-where to be seen or heard. The entire framing of the single sex conversation embeds the notion that trans women are invaders and trans men are victims of a patriarchal power play. Trans men are inherent victims, their bodies mutilated, and their agency stripped all in the name of forcing society to demonise trans women. Rishi Sunak and Kier Starmer both ignored trans men in their recent debates, stating that of course men should not use women’s single sex spaces, the implication that it was trans women banned, not trans men.
This hawking of deeply patriarchal tropes is not news to anyone paying close attention. Chloe Cole’s recent law suit in the US against her medical practitioners was struck out, while trans male athletes get no coverage outside of Mack Beggs who was forced to compete with girls in high school. If gender critical voices are so insistent of rooting sex in biology they will need to face up to the fact trans men will be in their spaces, will inhabit their sports, their communes, their sacred spaces. It is utterly reductive and blows apart their entire platform, which is why they need to frame trans men and non-binary folk as victims of some trans cabal.
