Transgender ‘scientific’ examination off target

Posted

Editor,

In his letter to the editor last week, Tom Regan wrote, “The science is that if you are born male, with male genitalia, then you are male.” 

In fact, Regan’s statement contradicts science.

Recent studies of transgender people strongly suggest that gender identity has little or nothing to do with sex organs, and much to do with the brain. It’s not a matter of someone thinking, “I’d like to be a boy,” or “I want to be a woman.” It is someone knowing “I am a boy,” or “I am a woman.” Transgender men are men, and transgender women are women.

Regan also said, “I don’t want men in a women’s restroom or locker rooms because 99 percent of sex predators are male. … It would be a legal avenue for them to prey upon young girls and women.” 

I see several problems with this statement. There has not been a single documented case of a transgender person assaulting another person in a public place. In fact, people who are transgendered are the most likely to be physically attacked.

Sex predators have not been waiting for a “legal avenue” to prey upon others; they make their own avenues and will continue to do so.



Studies have shown that transgender youth are three times more likely to have suicidal thoughts, and four times more likely to have attempted suicide than nontransgender (also called cisgender) youth, because of the distress of living in a culture that doesn’t accept them.

We can’t look into people’s brains as they enter a bathroom or locker room, and we sure shouldn’t be looking in their pants. We need to allow people to be who they are and we need to protect those who don’t fit rigid gender roles.

You don’t have to take my word for it. You can look up the science for yourself.

Shirley Clukey

Woodland