Left Now Insists: ‘Transwomen Are Women’

Left Now Insists: ‘Transwomen Are Women’
Pro-gender rights activist (L) face off against protesters rallying against Christynne Wood, a transgender woman who was criticized for using the female locker room at the YMCA, in Santee, a suburban city in San Diego County, Calif., on Jan. 21, 2023. Sandy Huffaker/AFP via Getty Images
James Breslo
Updated:
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Commentary

Former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines was accosted last week after her speech about transgender athletes at San Francisco State University. Gaines became an outspoken critic of transgender athletes competing in female sports after being forced to compete against and share a locker room with Lia Thomas, who was born male and identifies as female. After her speech, protestors repeatedly chanted, “transwomen are women.”

This is the next step in the transgender movement. The movement’s goals have shifted from non-discrimination and acceptance (reasonable), to promotion, normalization, and changing the laws of biology, psychiatry, and the English language (not reasonable).

Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines speaks at a rally outside of the NCAA Convention in San Antonio on Jan. 12, 2023. (Darren Abate/AP Photo)
Former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines speaks at a rally outside of the NCAA Convention in San Antonio on Jan. 12, 2023. Darren Abate/AP Photo

The changing of language is even now reflected in the common dictionary. The latest edition of the Cambridge Dictionary changed the definition of woman. The old definition of woman was straightforward: “an adult female human being.” The new definition expands the definition to also include, “an adult who lives and identifies as female though they may have been said to have a different sex at birth.” (It modified the definition of a man similarly.)

Leroy Thomas, the communications director at the National Center for Transgender Equality, said the new definition affirms that “transgender women are women.”

“Language shapes our understanding of the world,” Thomas told the Washington Post.

This is true, and precisely why the definition is so important. If transgender women are women, then what is a transwoman? While looking into the transgender movement on my Hidden Truth Show podcast, I interviewed transgender activist Sabrina Robinson, a transwoman. Unlike many activists, she was straightforward in stating, “A man cannot become a woman. He can become a transwoman, but not a woman.”

This is perfectly logical and something most people are willing to accept. What most people are not willing to accept is the idea that a biological male can become female, whether by simply “identifying” as female, or by taking drugs to change the composition of his hormones, or by going all the way and removing his genitals and creating the appearance of female genitalia through plastic surgery.

Stating that a man can become not just a transwoman, but an actual woman, creates unnecessary confusion on numerous levels. If true, it means that a man can become pregnant, which then leads to the term “birthing person” to describe pregnant women. It also means men who identify as women can compete in “women’s” sports.

A protester holds a sign outside the arena where transgender athlete Lia Thomas competed in the 500-yard freestyle final at the NCAA women's swimming and diving championships, at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Ga., on March 17, 2022. (John Bazemore/AP Photo)
A protester holds a sign outside the arena where transgender athlete Lia Thomas competed in the 500-yard freestyle final at the NCAA women's swimming and diving championships, at Georgia Tech in Atlanta, Ga., on March 17, 2022. John Bazemore/AP Photo

It also raises the obvious question of what else people are free to identify as. Can they “identify” as the race of their choice? Or the age of their choice? Or the height of their choice?

The Cambridge Dictionary definition refers to a person who “may have been said to have a different sex at birth,” as if the designation could simply have been a clerical error. It also provides how the newly defined word can be used in a sentence: “Mary is a woman who was assigned male at birth.” So, sex is not determined based upon X and Y chromosomes, but rather is something simply “assigned” by someone at birth.

The definition also adopts the convention of using the term “they” to refer to a single person in order to demonstrate gender neutrality. In so doing, the dictionary effectively has also changed the definition of “they.”

The movement to create more acceptance of the transgender community is damaged by nonsense like this. Most people want to be loving and accepting of others. Most believe that people should be free to live their lives however they wish. But a sincere movement to create understanding has been highjacked by leftists with a political agenda. This has sent the movement beyond acceptance into propaganda, promotion, and the denial of science.

No one is born transgender. Identical twin studies have shown that when one twin is transgender, the majority of the time the other is not, i.e., same DNA, different gender identity. Decades of science identified transgenderism as caused by gender dysphoria, a mental disorder.

This new movement is causing parents to believe that hormone blockers and surgery for their children is the loving choice. If science and common sense is allowed to prevail, children will receive the treatment they need for gender dysphoria (or no treatment, since it usually resolves itself without it). But thanks to the new radical movement, such treatment is illegal in many states, including California and New York. Treatment to reduce a child’s gender dysphoria is banned. Only treatment which embraces the dysphoria is allowed. These states call this “gender-affirming” care. By “gender-affirming” they really mean “gender-changing,” demonstrating their mastery of “doublethink.”

We know the objectives of this movement. Black Lives Matter, led by self-proclaimed “trained Marxists,” stated clearly on their website they opposed patriarchy and seek to “disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and ‘villages’ that collectively care for one another, especially our children.” Creating a world where men can be women advances those objectives.

The movement collides with the feminist movement, which, based upon its principles, would never accept that men can choose to become women. But the anti-capitalist, socialist movement is proving to be the stronger movement to which all other movements of the left are subservient.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
James Breslo
James Breslo
Author
James Breslo is an attorney and host of the “Hidden Truth Show” podcast. He is a former partner at the international law firm Seyfarth Shaw and public company president. He has appeared numerous times as a legal expert on Fox News and CNN, and serves on the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 Public Diplomacy committee.
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