There is a real basis for unity, but involves challenging the dominant, conservative elements of transgender thinking. We need to support people’s right to live as a member of the opposite sex, with security and dignity, but without endorsing the sexist redefinition of womanhood that is being mainstreamed by neoliberalism and its corporate media.

Puberty is in itself a diagnostic tool. If it doesn't not cause distress, then the likelihood is that the child is not transgender. If it does cause distress, then hormone blocking medication is given, which is completely reversible if needs be.

Jeanine Dear Miranda, Thank you for writing and publishing such an excellent essay. I have printed this as a .pdf and wish to ask the students in my Intro to Women and Gender Studies class to read it this week as part of our examination of “transgender.” You grapple with issues most avoid and do so eloquently and in a scholarly manner, and I am sure many call you a transphobe for your arguments. As a transwoman holding a doctorate who teaches women, gender and sexuality studies, an ardent feminist, the spouse of a feminist female attorney and a past advocate and activist for trans rights I have become quite disillusioned with the transgender trend/phenomenon over the past many years for all the reasons you identify. Please continue your much needed work! Best, Jeanine

I watch so many young transwomen dissolve, or lash out, at the notion that they aren’t female, that they haven’t always been female. The conflict arises because deep down they know they aren’t female. They know they cannot be. Any insistence they are male triggers an existential crisis. I wish I could show them how it doesn’t have to be this way. I want them to feel what I felt during Christmas: The joy and freedom the truth allows. I wish other transwomen would listen to that voice that knows what you really are. I want them to embrace it. To deny the truth, to insist otherwise, is internalized transphobia. To speak this truth is not self-hatred. It is self-love. It is self-care. I speak from experience. The truth will set you free.