Transphobic Stickers ARE a Serious Crime

"IT'S POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE MAD!"

Except, as ever, it's not.

Oxford, England, is being plagued by people leaving transphobic stickers all over the city. The police response has been to consider it a "serious" crime, and the reaction to that from the right - oh, and of course, the transphobes (usually but not always the same people) - has been predictable.

Some are questioning why it is being treated as a serious crime.  Well, it is. Because it starts with hateful messages on stickers, and it ends with people suffering prejudice, and their very identity being denied. 

Some of the stickers use of the dictionary definition of women;  “Woman: noun. Adult human female".

The use of this trope by transphobes is becoming increasingly common, to the point some are claiming it is the "scientific" definition, which of course it is nothing of the sort.  And actually, using dictionary definitions of common English are seldom useful in extremely nuanced and complicated issues.

For example, let's see the dictionary definition of a Scot:

"Scot: noun. A native or inhabitant of Scotland."

Now, that definition, if taken purely, would mean that only those native to or living in Scotland are Scots. Well, I have many online friends all over the world who come from Scots descent, and do consider themselves to be Scots. And likewise, I recognise their identity as such. By equal measure, not all inhabitants of Scotland are Scots, and some do not wish to be identified as such.

See how silly relying upon dictionary definitions of common English can be?

Saying that a woman is always an "adult human female", is about as useful as Baldrick's definition of a dog in Blackadder the Third: "Not a cat."

But if the transphobes really want to  insist that a woman is an “Adult human female”, then fair enough, let them have that.  For after all, that indeed is what all women are – including transgender women.

And this is where the transphobes throw in their other claims, which have been seen on some stickers in Oxford, including “Transwomen are men, and most have penises”, and “Women don’t have penises”.

Except of course, some women do indeed have penises – and / or testes; they are born with them.  Just as some boys are born with ‘female’ genito-urinary tracts and/or wombs, and a small proportion are born with the genitals of both sexes.  Some babies are born with XX chromosomes, some are born with XY – and some are born XXY, some born XYY, some born with any variation of the above.  If the transphobes want to use the dictionary definition of women as the only viable description, then they must deny the very existence of intersex people.

These transphobes are the people who claim to have science on their side, folks.

The facts are that they do not have one iota of science upon their side.  Decades of reams upon reams of peer-reviewed scientific research have confirmed gender diversity and gender dysphoria to be 100% factual.  Frankly, if anyone wants to deny the existence of transgender and non-binary – as well as intersex – people, then they may as well go and join the young earth creationists, the evolution deniers, the climate change deniers, the anti-vaxxers, and the fucking flat earthers, because they are demonstrating exactly the same level of scientific ignorance.

And worse still, they get others believing them.  Most of the public do not understand the nuances of gender, or how a woman can indeed have a penis, or for that matter that a man can have a vagina.  I have heard one radio show host trying to argue that the stickers are just “telling the truth”.

Except they do anything but tell the truth.  The stickers try to equate biological sex with gender, which are not one and the same thing.   We all start essentially female in the womb – which is why men have nipples (and some can actually lactate).  Then in the first few weeks, the genitalia forms to either ‘male’ or ‘female’ in most cases – see above about variations.  The genitalia we are born with determines biological sex.  It does not however determine gender, which is decided in the mind.  To use a much used saying, “Sex occurs between the legs.  Gender occurs between the ears.”

But does it matter so much for these stickers to be considered a serious crime?

Well, consider this; these stickers seek to deny the very existence of transgender and non-binary people.

If someone put up stickers calling Jews subhuman, that would be a serious crime.  If anyone put up stickers calling black people animals, that would be a serious crime.

So, likewise, when someone equally denies the existence of transgender and non-binary people, that too is a serious crime, and Oxford police are right to treat it as such.

It starts with stickers.  It ends with a transgender woman being targeted and killed.  And the police are only doing the right thing in nipping that in the bud.