Where Philosophy Bear stands on Transgender issues

What catalyzed this article was learning that the BBC recently interviewed a woman named Lily Cade. Ms Cade was presented to the audience as having an important opinion on transgender issues due to negative experiences of hers in the porn industry. This very same woman, had previously written about transgender women:

“If you left it up to me, I’d execute every last one of them personally.”

But the point of this article is not to refute Lily Cade. Cade was just the catalyst for writing something on the issue of trans people generally.

I haven’t previously written about trans issues because I don’t have a novel take on it. Now I feel it is important that I say something nonetheless, because awful things are happening, and which side we take is important. It is no melodrama to say that, on this question, we’re standing before the eyes of history. I felt it was necessary to say something because I’m worried things could go really bad, and I would never forgive myself if I had been silent.

We need more people to speak up on this issue in a kind, calm, but firm spirit. That’s the goal I’ve set myself here. If I fail, I apologize. My intention, at least, is to be warm but very clear.

Some people, including people acting in good faith not coming from a place of hatred, have become confused about transgender issues. This is understandable, there are philosophical and social subtleties here. Let me lay out a couple of points that I think the discourse has tragically worked to muddle:

1.) The question of transgender people is a question of how you treat a vulnerable group of people, whose lives are obsessed over in media and popular culture

Transgender people are more likely to be poor, more likely to be physically assaulted and more likely to attempt suicide. Despite attempts to create a panic about isolated cases of violence by trans people, trans people are vastly more likely to face violence than to do violence, in light of that, attempts to make moral panics about trans people are obscene.

The question of ethics is the question of how you treat the vulnerable people who won’t retaliate or pay back the good or evil you do them. This is the most fundamental question, always.

2.) The question of transgender people and their lives is not primarily a question of metaphysics or semantics

Whether you think transgender people are “really” of their preferred gender matters little. My personal view is that words have multiple meanings, and there is no magic to their meaning, meaning is use. There is nothing semantically illegitimate about choosing to mean by the word “woman” that such and such person sees themselves in a particular way. It’s just another way of using the word.

However, if you disagree with the above, and intelligent people can disagree on metaphysics, your obligations to respect transgender people do not change. This is because questions of ethics can’t be decided with debates about metaphysics or semantics.

3.) The question of transgender people is not a question of whose supporters you find most annoying

Certainly some supporters of transgender people are annoying, have you seen the pic crew avi people on Twitter? Certainly also many opponents of transgender people are annoying “how many genders are there, why identify attack helicopter apache, why are generation Z confused about which bathroom use, haha v. funny”.

None of this should mean anything about transgender people. Transgender people are made of flesh and blood, not internet memes or buzzfeed headlines.

4.) The question of transgender people is not a question of whether you think all transgender people are “real”

It is sometimes suggested that a certain portion of trans people might be faking it for attention. Most often this is suggested of people who make relatively minimal changes to appearance and lifestyle and identify as non-binary.

I have no idea whether this is true on any significant scale, though human nature being what it is, I’m sure at least one person has tried it at some point. I really don’t care. There are far more harmful ways to seek attention. I would rather respect someone who doesn’t really need it than have disrespected someone who needed it desperately.

5.) The question of transgender people is not a question of the psychological origins of transgender people

Personally, I don’t find Blanchard’s hypotheses on the origin of transgender people very convincing. But if he’s right? If some or all transgender people are autogynephilic and on some deep level, unknown even to themselves this is what drives them to be transgender? That doesn’t matter. Let people live their lives.

6.) Right now, the most pressing transgender question is how did we get to the point where the BBC is interviewing this woman as a respected voice on trans issues, and how can we step back from this precipice. The image below is a larger part of the rant excerpted. Though interviewing someone like Cade is among the most extreme cases as regards the mainstream media, this is not an isolated incident:

‘