adam zivo: prominent trans activist calls for change
wu believes that the current problems in transgender ac...
4 minute read
the transgender community flag flying above city hall in calgary on thursday, march 31, 2022.
steven wilhelm/postmedia
with public support for the transgender movement steadily eroding, some centrist trans activists are begging their community to adopt a more diplomatic approach that respects the realities of biological sex. this new shift is best exemplified by the advocacy work of brianna wu, a high-profile transgender commentator who has faced crucifixion from extremists on both sides of the gender culture war.
wu was originally propelled into the public spotlight during the 2014 gamergate controversy, wherein she and several other women working in the gaming industry were subjected to a coordinated, anti-feminist harassment campaign, including numerous death threats, by disgruntled gamers who opposed “political correctness.” later, she became heavily involved with the u.s. democratic party, running unsuccessfully for congress and co-founding a political fund focussed on electing progressive candidates.
over the past few months, wu has made waves by passionately calling for reforms within the transgender movement. unless activists learn to be less abrasive and forgo unpopular positions, the trans community could risk losing everything, she argues.
in an unpublished interview with the national post in late december, wu explained that the trans community’s toxic behaviour, which includes sending death threats to critics, reminds her of the harassment she endured from alt-right trolls during gamergate. “i think we’ve become the very thing that we’re fighting. and i think we’re creating enemies a lot faster than we can create friends,” she said.
advertisement
wu agreed during the interview that, not only should trans activists be more conciliatory, they need to forgo “fringe positions” on topics like sports and prisons, and instead think “more about bread and butter civil rights,” such as access to proper healthcare and housing, which she believes are more popular. her hypothesis is consistent with available polling data – while an ipsos poll conducted this month indicates that 79 per cent of americans want to bar transgender women from female sports, a 2022 pew research poll shows that 64 per cent of americans support laws protecting trans people from housing and employment discrimination.
she said that “prisons are not meant to be gender-affirming” and that it is “not fair to biological women to put people with penises over in (women’s prisons), especially when they have a history of sex crimes.” conversely, she emphasized that transgender women are “raped at astonishing degrees” when placed in male prisons, (a 2007 study from the university of california suggests that transgender women are 13 times more likely to be sexually assaulted in male prisons than other inmates), so providing transgender-only wings would constitute a reasonable compromise that keeps everyone safe.
advertisement
wu believes that the current problems in transgender activism can be traced back to the fact that, since the early 2010s, there has been a dramatic change in what populations identify as trans.
when she transitioned twenty years ago, the majority of the transexuals she knew were natal males who understood, from their earliest memories, that they were born in the wrong body. natal females (transgender men) were a rarity: “we rarely saw those at all. they barely existed when i transitioned.” now, traditional transexuals like wu are being drowned out by a deluge of natal females, many of them autistic, identifying as transgender or non-binary despite having no history of early childhood gender dysphoria, she said. her experiences are consistent with recent journalistic and academic literature on the evolution of the transgender community.
transgenderism has historically been understood through a “transmedicalist” framework wherein people must experience gender dysphoria, and pursue medical transition, to be considered authentically trans. this changed over the past decade or so with the rise of the “self-id” model, wherein dysphoria and medical procedures are considered unnecessary and individuals can identify as transgender without any real buy-in or barriers to entry.
advertisement
wu believes that this has created an “open borders” problem that has allowed fetishistic crossdressers, men with beards and “non-binary” poseurs to flood into the transgender community. these cases make “actual transexuals,” who “follow an orderly process” to live unobtrusively as women, look “crazy,” she has said on x.
according to wu, medical protocols which were originally developed for traditional transexuals, such as herself, cannot be easily extrapolated to these newer populations. furthermore, as the evidence base behind pediatric gender transitions remains unclear, gender-distressed youth should be given space to explore themselves without being rushed into medical procedures.
by discussing children in a “reckless” manner and treating parents “like the enemy,” trans activists have alienated the public, including well-meaning progressive allies, she argued.
pivoting towards less contentious topics, such as access to healthcare, while emphasizing liberal values (i.e. individual liberty, personal autonomy, free speech), could be a winning strategy, said wu. however, she believes that major lgbtq-focussed organizations, such as glaad and the aclu, are dominated by fringe extremists who prioritize virtue signalling, which is good for fundraising and their own careers, over effective advocacy.
advertisement
conservative and heterodox media outlets have flocked to wu, creating a rare oasis of respectful, cross-partisan discussion on trans issues. she said that she receives hundreds of emails a week from fully-transitioned transsexuals, who have actually integrated and live normal lives, thanking her for standing up against extremists on both sides.
she wants critics to understand that her positions were considered radically progressive only a decade ago, and that, when responsible guardrails are in place, medical transitions can be profoundly beneficial to authentic transsexuals. before transitioning, wu’s dysphoria “broke (her) as a person,” fuelling addiction issues, she told me. now, she is a successful business owner and a proud taxpayer who has been happily married to a man for 16 years.
wu said she doesn’t need anyone to believe “some esoteric argument about me truly being a woman” and just wants people to “let me have autonomy over my own body and to make decisions with my healthcare provider.” not every trans activist needs to be like her, but if more adopted her approach, maybe the gender culture war could simmer down.
national post
share story
