Heather makes herself useful:
But, one can't resist asking, has there really been a 98% reduction of troons (instead of the normal 41%)? Rowling is talking about something clear and present and Zach thinks he can rebuke it with wild hypotheticals!
There are two new
genderanalysis articles about spironolactone. I'm skipping them in favor of --
Book 3!
A much-discussed part of Rowling's essay was how she, for the first time, revealed that she has been a victim of domestic violence. She brought up her story in solidarity of other women who have suffered abuse in the hands of men, including of course gender-confused, deceptive men. Zach interprets her motivation as "women who suffered under men are more likely to be transphobic", and he treats it as a thesis to be disproved. As usual, his evidence falls far short. He presents surveys that show, separately, that 1) women are more likely than men to suffer domestic or sexual abuse and 2) women are less likely than men to be transphobic. Zach expects us to relate the two completely separate, completely unrelated bodies of research and draw the conclusion he has in mind, namely "being a victim of abuse has no correlation with transphobia". We, needless to say, have no justification to do so.
There is some talk about "Salazar Slytherin’s basilisk", about this passage by Rowling:
At the same time, I do not want to make natal girls and women less safe. When you throw open the doors of bathrooms and changing rooms to any man who believes or feels he’s a woman – and, as I’ve said, gender confirmation certificates may now be granted without any need for surgery or hormones – then you open the door to any and all men who wish to come inside.
Zach then point out that numerous jurisdictions have allowed woman-identified men to access women-only facilities, and that various NGOs have reassured people that they have no problem accomodating woman-identified men. Rowling, I presume, knows about all these -- indeed they are exactly why Rowling is protesting!
Rowling then tackles the common scare tactics of trans-rights activists: "if you don't let your children transition, they will kill themselves!". Zach of course subscribes this narrative fully, and this belief entitles him to accuse Rowling for her "indifference to the lives and well-being of trans youth" and "a stunning degree of callousness". But Rowling wants us to reassess the situation -- Do these kids really want to kill themselves? Indeed, Rowling, citing Marcus Evans of Tavistock, believes that the supposed increased suicidality of "trans kids" is without support. To me at least, there is some truth that trans-identified kids are more likely to kill themselves, but you cannot blame it solely on "transphobia": suicidality might be the course of the underlying mental illness, while the "encouraging" words of egg-hatchers, not to mention "role models" like Joshua "Leelah" Alcorn are at least partly to blame.
Zach notes, in bold, that Rowling is guilty of "
dismissing suicidality and suicide attempts as unimportant and irrelevant." This is of course a figment of his own imagination, not supported by what Rowling writes.
Rowling also disclosed she has suffered from mental problems as a teenager, and she wonders if, were she born 30 years later, she might have been persuaded to transition. Zach questions her "lived experience" -- not a very good feminist or queer theorist our boy! -- dismisses her hypotheticals as "mainstay of anti-trans rhetoric", yet insinuates that a life as a "trans man" isn't that bad. This part is a confused mess as Zach wants to have his cake (you can't be trans unless you are born this way) and eats it (being trans is great!).
The main impetetus of Rowling in writing her essay is that she is keen to safeguard and protect kids. Zach has a different take on "protection", centered on the supposed rights of "trans kids". The two interpretation of "protection" are incommensurable, and I leave you to decide which interpretation should take precedence (Hint: normal children are common while "trans kids", if they really exist, are rare).
"Rowling", Zach notes, "has aligned herself with unqualified organizations that call for actively endangering the safety of trans children, in contravention of all safeguarding guidance, while Rowling herself
threatens legal action against a Twitter user who said that she “can no longer be trusted around children”. I cannot comprehend how threatening an adult for his libelous behavior has anything to do with safeguarding children. As for "unqualified organizations that call for actively endangering the safety of trans children ", we can level the same charge towards such entitles as Mermaids UK.
+ + + +
Now this is the fun part, which deserves to be quoted in full. Responding to Rowling's charity on Multiple Sclerosis, a disease with a clear female preponderance, Zach writes:
I’m mentioning these things now not in an attempt to garner sympathy, but I’ve just spent the past week in the hospital with my wife Heather after she had multiple strokes and procedures to treat this. The particular kind of stroke she had is an uncommon one, and is noted to occur with a markedly greater frequency among AFABs than AMABs, with a potential connection to hormonal states such as oral contraceptive use, hormone replacement therapy use, and pregnancy. As a trans woman, the fact of health conditions with variable predispositions and presentations according to aspects of biological sex is neither unfamiliar nor objectionable to me. As Heather’s partner of nine years, I spent 11 hours a day with her in the ICU, only having to leave at nights because of restrictions due to coronavirus in the state of Florida. I stayed mere feet away from her for as much of those days as possible, taking timestamped notes of every test, result, and medication. I wrote down everything we were told by the dozens of medical professionals caring for her. I asked them countless questions, double- and triple-checking that she was receiving the appropriate care, and making sure that every person was up to speed on her case history. I did this because I did not want there to be even a chance that anything would be missed, or that we would fail to catch something that might make a difference. My wife is home and alive now because of their lifesaving care.
I'm not denying Zach's "lived experience" as the caretaker of Heather, still I wonder if he can be briefer and more on point. The point seems to be that Zach acknowledges some diseases (such as Heather's variety of stroke, whatever it is) has a preponderance in one sex. Mentioning how long he stayed with her in ICU and charting everything does nothing to further his argument.
This is as good a time as any to remind you that Z
ach has, in response to Rowling's "transphobia", rang up centers of Multiple Sclerosis research to enquire their policy about trans people.
I'll stop here. There is still about one-third of Book 3 left, mainly about Maya Forestater and Magdalen Berns. I have to shore up my mental fortitude, recharge my shock-proof shit detector, because I expect some really horrible takes.