The Oxford English Dictionary defines ‘gender-critical’ as: critical of or opposed to the belief that gender identity is more important or significant than biological sex (typically used in contexts relating to the rights of transgender people).

I don’t actually understand what the benefit of arguing which two completely different things are better than the other any more than arguing to the death over whether apples are better than pears but it seems to matter very much to an alarming number of very loud people. I do believe that people are entitled to their opinions but not entitled to present them as facts, or share them if they harm others. 

So I’m going to talk entirely about fact. 

Gender-critical people most often talk about protecting women and children. Absolutely right. So should we all. But let’s use facts to shape our views on what the risks are…

Let’s start with Women and, for argument’s sake, I’m going to begin with women who were assigned female at birth (AFAB)…

It is argued that Women need safe spaces such as toilets to be safe from sexual assault. I am not a Woman but I absolutely understand how being as safe as possible from sexual assault is important. The gender-critical argument is that Women who were AFAB should have toilets, changing rooms, prisons, etc, etc that exclude everyone else to protect them from sexual assault. The more outspoken gender-critical people state that this protects them from ‘men who identify as transgender’. 

Okay, let’s rationally explore this fear and examine the statistics of sexual assault in existing Women’s spaces…

We can all agree that the majority of reported assaults on women come from men.  We don’t need to look that up but you can if you need to. It’s 99%. Fair enough. Let’s also consider the following:

How many assaults on AFAB women have been committed in the most recent crime statistics published by the Office of National Statistics by:- transgender women? (2)- non-binary people? (0) - women assigned female at birth? (approx 230,000)

Let’s further dismantle the absurdities… Is a man going to choose to dress as a woman in order to gain access to women’s spaces ‘in disguise’ so that he can assault a woman or is he going to just walk through the door?    

Are gender neutral toilets safe? Given that they are stalls rather than urinals, they are private spaces that offer the same protection as any other stall. Oh, and the prison thing? Yes, you’ve guessed it, trans women in women’s prisons are no more likely to assault AFAB women than other women. Currently, the UK has a system where anyone (including those identifying as a trans woman) is assessed for risk related to previous crimes and aimed to be placed accordingly.  Properly funded public services would make this safer and easier to do. 

So how safe are Transgender Women from men? Because they can access women’s safe spaces, the statistics are only as horrific as those for women AFAB. Exclude trans women from those spaces and force them into male only spaces and, well assault statistics speak for themselves. Such a thing would be unimaginably cruel. 

Without wishing to also state the obvious but do the gender-critical AFAB (cisgendered) women really want trans men to be in their ‘women only’ spaces?  Oddly enough, their prejudice unravels rather at this point. 

So, what about non-binary people?  There are no statistics as we aren’t yet recognised officially. We can self-identify but we can’t get a GRC (gender recognition certificate).  Speak to non-binary people, though, and you will hear similar accounts of assault and prejudice as binary trans people, and the highest risk still comes from attacks from cishet men. 

In the interest of keeping this article shorter than a novel, I’ll just briefly point out that many countries in the world recognise not only binary trans people but also other genders. And it’s not a new ‘woke’ thing. Look back in history and you will find that trans and non-binary people have been recognised as equal (and sometimes revered - quite right!) members of society since the dawn of civilisation. 

It also seems ‘sex’ isn’t even as binary as gender-critical people think… 

Also, science shows that visual external ‘sex’ assigned at birth is only a crude indicator of ‘gender’ as it is currently estimated that one in fifty people are intersex and most don’t even know it. Add to that the research into physical developments of the brain and we have lots of biology that doesn’t agree with a definition of gender based on a cursory glance at birth. 

And I haven’t even discussed the children yet. “Please won’t somebody think of the children!”

This is even easier to do as there are absolutely no gender-critical views based on any facts. - No child is put through surgical procedures to change their gender because they identify as a different gender to the sex they were assigned at birth. - No school persuades children to change their gender. - Blocking puberty is not irreversible. Puberty starts when you stop taking the meds. All this does is give a child time to make an adult decision about their own bodies. - Outing pupils to their families if they begin to question their gender takes away that safe space and independent care that gives them critical time to reflect on their feelings and make more assured decisions. Many children question their gender identity as part of growing up and immediately labelling them and outing them against their will is not only against their human rights but could easily push them down a path that they wouldn’t otherwise go down, seriously endangering their mental health. 
It’s not about whether trans women are ‘real women’. It’s about keeping people safe from harm. And that includes keeping trans and non-binary people safe from gender-critical people because they are not about protection; they are about harm.