When equalities minister Penny Mordaunt launched the consultation on reforming the Gender Recognition Act she declared that “trans women are women”. Whether anyone really believes this remains to be seen. Yet our political leaders are willing to endorse this Orwellian thinking, and when it comes to the transgender debate, objective truth plays second fiddle to political expediency.
For me, the discussion about gender identification is personal. Not only as someone who firmly believes in the concept of birth-sex as a fact of nature (as a science teacher, I have no choice there) but as a transsexual myself, having undergone a meaningful gender transition supported by medical interventions.
Despite what some might think, being transsexual doesn’t mean I was born in “the wrong body”; I was born in my body. There was nothing wrong with me – the problem lay with a society that forced me into gendered roles because of my sex. The restrictions and expectations became an ever-increasing burden that eventually crushed me.
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