Transgender activists have been accused by a Times columnist of spreading “pernicious” pseudoscience to drive their agenda.
In her article, Janice Turner highlighted some of the wildly unscientific statements presented by trans activists as fact.
She accused trans activist group Mermaids of reinforcing gender stereotypes and suggesting that if boys and girls do not conform to those stereotypes, they must be transgender.
Unscientific
Having listened to a 90-minute Mermaids training lecture “understood to be given to thousands of teachers, health workers, police and politicians”, Turner recounted the false science put forward by the charity, including the assertion “humans don’t come in two sexes”.
“Biological sex is on a spectrum, she says, like skin tone and (seriously) bra size.”
The trainer added that gender identity is “inside you at birth”.
Turner said such pseudoscience “would be laughable if it weren’t so pernicious”.
Reality
The columnist added that the Mermaids presentation, part-funded by the Department for Education, maintains that a child can be “‘born in the wrong body’ and that this is a physical defect which, like a hair lip, can be medically fixed”.
She points out that in reality this ‘fix’ involves “life-long patienthood, probable sterility and lack of sexual function”.
She concluded that it is not those who stand up for biological difference who are on the wrong side of history, but rather Mermaids which is “clearly on the wrong side of science”.
Navratilova
Late last year, tennis legend Martina Navratilova was hounded by trans activists for saying she did not think that men who identify as female should be allowed to compete against women in sports.
Navratilova, a vocal LGBT campaigner for many years, was asked about transgender people in sport.
She said: “Clearly that can’t be right. You can’t just proclaim yourself a female and be able to compete against women.”