Their letter is here. Among the philosophers who signed are Sophie Allen (Keele), John Collins (East Anglia), John Gardner (Oxford), Mary Leng (York), and Kathleen Stock (Sussex). I commend them for taking a public stand. Only vocal, public support like this is going to make rational discussion of these issues possible.
Prior to being exposed to Professor Stock's essays (and then those by Professors Jensen and Coleman, among others) I held the knee-jerk view common in my circles, namely, that transgender people should be accepted and recognized as the gender they identify with in all contexts and for all purposes. I still think that they should be so recognized in almost all contexts and for almost all purposes, but what the cogent arguments have brought out is that there may be some important exceptions, including, for example, competitive sports and domestic violence shelters. (I was also amused to learn that I had always held, it turns out, the "radical feminist" view of gender, without knowing that's what it was (though it seems to me almost obviously correct).)
One thing that is also blazingly clear, and that A Women's Place UK has been emphasizing, is that the proposed change to the law about gender identification in the UK is insane: if the law makes it ridiculously easy to become a "woman" or a "man" simply by self-identification (and without medical consultation, waiting period, etc.) then of course people who are not really transgender or otherwise suffering from gender dysphoria will take advantage of such laws to make mischief and cause harm. And those risks have to be discussed.
Despite the usual predictable abuse and outbursts from the usual mindless suspects, what strikes me over the last couple of weeks is that Professor Stock's essays, which I am proud to have "signal-boosted" here a several weeks ago, have really changed already the boundaries of the discussion among academics and maybe even the public. Yesterday's IHE article is partial proof.
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