April 18, 2023
I recently came across this tweet by Vaishnavi Sundar, WDI’s country contact in India.
I decided to dig a little deeper into the matter and write a post about the global tyranny of identity (“gender identity” in particular).
Vaishnavi’s tweet refers to this story, where the Indian Supreme Court appears to be considering the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, and the Chief Judge appears to deny that sex is real or immutable. Hearings in that matter are ongoing, and I certainly hope both that same-sex couples in India are given the same rights as opposite-sex couples and that the Chief Judge figures out what the word “sex” means.
Digging even deeper into that, I came across India’s “Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act of 2019.” That law defines “a transgender person” as “one whose gender does not match the gender assigned at birth” and states that the category includes “trans-men and trans-women, persons with intersex variations, gender-queers, and persons with socio-cultural identities, such as kinnar and hijra.” It establishes a system for obtaining a “certificate of identity,” whereby “a transgender person may make an application to the District Magistrate for a certificate of identity, indicating the gender as ‘transgender’” and “a revised certificate may be obtained only if the individual undergoes surgery to change their gender either as a male or female.”
I have no idea why the Indian Parliament thinks it makes sense to include “gender-queers” in the list of protected categories, and it didn’t bother to define that term.
I have talked with Vaishnavi before about how India had been captured by the cult of gender woo, but I was not aware of this law until today.
I don’t know the ins and outs of cultural issues around gender in India, but I have read this 2020 article in The Feminist Current by L. Beatrice called “The sex binary is not a ‘Western construct,’ gender identity is,” where Beatrice says:
Among the many incoherent or indefensible arguments made to support the concept of “gender identity” and associated demands for legislative and policy changes, the coopting and misrepresentation of sexual minorities and gender non-conforming people in Eastern and Southern cultures may be one of the most egregious.
Arguments in favour of gender identity ideology often include assertions that the sex binary is a “white supremacist colonialist construct” and that ancient/indigenous/colonized cultures acknowledge and recognize “transgender people.” This is generally accompanied by the claim that this proves “transgender people have existed for thousands of years,” followed by throw away citations of the Indian subcontinent’s Hijras, two-spirit people in Native American cultures, the Fa’afafine of Samoa, or the “ladyboys” of Thailand. According to trans activists, these examples demonstrate that sex is a Western/white supremacist construct, that older cultures recognized the authenticity of “transgender people” and that, therefore, categorizing people only as either male or female is wrong and should be junked (along with legal systems built on such identities).
Unfortunately (but unsurprisingly), Western progressives who make these claims do not bother with accuracy nor do they attempt to really understand the people or cultures they use to advance their arguments — these identities and cultural complexities are just convenient tools that serve their political narrative. Their attempts to dump various cultures, identities, and concepts into one postmodern umbrella and force non-Western cultures into a Western context result in cultural identities being erased and misunderstood, while simultaneously accusing others of doing just that.
She then goes on to explain that although the matter is a bit complicated culturally, there is never any question that Hijras (sometimes referred to as Kinnars) are male.
I noted above that the Indian government issues a “certificate of identity” to people who either self-identify as “transgender” or (having had the required surgery) wish to “change their gender either as a male or female.” Readers know that male and female are words that pertain to sex, not identity, so I won’t bore you by going on a rant about that.
At the moment, I’m more irritated at the idea of a government issued “certificate of identity.” I am unable to think of a single context in which that would be appropriate. I have a voter registration card issued by the DC Board of Elections stating that I am a registered Democrat, but the purpose for that is not so I can claim to have a special identity; it’s so that I can be permitted to vote in Democratic primary elections and not Republican ones. I also have a piece of paper issued by the DC Bar stating that I am licensed to practice law in DC. But that’s not because being a member of the DC Bar is an identity; it’s because I graduated from law school, passed a bar exam, applied to waive into the DC Bar and paid the applicable fees. It’s so that I have a bar number so that if I appear in court I can list the bar number on pleadings and other court documents (it’s also so that the Bar knows how to track me down to demand that I pay my annual membership dues).
The idea that any government should issue a certificate to document any person’s identity (as a unicorn? butterfly? cat?) is preposterous.
A lot of people think that the abolition of sex in favor of the tyranny of identity is limited to the anglo-speaking world, but it is global.
Argentina adopted a law permitting self-identification back in 2012. Self-ID has been in place in Brazil since 2018, and although surgery is not required to obtain a legal recognition of “gender identity,” if you want to get it, Brazil’s public health service will provide it.
I don’t know anything about the laws in African countries, but I do know that a woman once reached out to me via email in distress about the topic. She is the executive director of a US nonprofit whose job it is to help improve health outcomes among children in sub-Saharan African countries. Because of the nature of her job, she is familiar with the Center for Global Development - the think tank that canceled Maya Forstater’s contract for saying that a man in a dress is a man. This woman had never heard of Maya until she came across the case and wondered why CGD was being sued. She read the court opinions in astonishment, did her research, and found me. We had a conversation that lasted about an hour and went something like this:
Her: Why would CGD fire Maya for saying that a man in a dress is a man?
Me: That’s just how things are these days.
Her: I don’t understand. How did this happen?
Me: Long story. How much time have you got?
Her: Well, our organization tracks and reports health outcomes for kids in sub-Saharan Africa, including things like the percentage of boys who get vaccines and the percentage of girls who get vaccines. Doesn’t sex matter for that purpose?
Me: You’d think so, wouldn’t you?
Her: My organization cannot measure health outcomes for children in sub-Saharan Africa if we cannot distinguish between girls and boys.
Me: Right, sorry, no can do.
Her: So, am I not supposed to be tracking these kinds of health outcomes by sex?
Me: Well, okay, you can do that, but if you want to keep your job, you probably shouldn’t mention that you think it’s important to track these things by sex rather than “gender identity.”
Her: But kids in sub-Saharan African countries don’t HAVE “gender identities.”
Me: Oh boy.
Her: Are you telling me that kids in sub-Saharan Africa have “gender identities??”
Me: No, I’m telling you that if you say that they don’t have gender identities you will be called a racist.
Her: WHAT??
Me: Yeah, sorry.
Her: I’m going to have to tell my board about this. I want to make a public statement to the effect that sex matters and that it’s important for the purpose of engaging in public health research and advocacy.
Me: Okay, but are you prepared to lose your job over it?
Her: WHAT???
Me: Yeah, sorry, it’s a thing.
Her: Am I just supposed to stay silent in the face of all of this?
Me: I can’t tell you what to do; I can only tell you what I know about what it’s like to speak out about stuff like this.
Her: How can you stay so CALM when talking about this stuff?
Me: I have been doing this since 2015. I think it’s one of the worst things to have happened in the course of human history and I’m doing my best to stop it, but none of this stuff surprises me anymore.
By the end of our conversation, she was furious. On behalf of herself, me, and Maya, but mostly on behalf of the African kids her organization is meant to serve and who did nothing to deserve to have this nonsense imposed on them. She asked me for some advice about what she might do at her organization and I gave her some. She eventually told me that she was willing to lose her job over this if necessary.
This woman is not particularly a radical feminist, and she doesn’t have to be. She just understands that sex is real and that it matters for certain purposes, such as tracking health outcomes among girls and boys in sub-Saharan Africa. I haven’t been in touch with her in a while, so I’m not sure how her efforts are progressing.
USAID, the federal agency that hands out billions of dollars to developing countries all over the world says that it is “committed to advancing the human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) people around the world and meaningfully including them in development planning” (emphasis added).
It has a handy “LGBTQI Vision for Action,” which explains its goals of
Increasing capacity for inclusive development within USAID;
Applying selectivity and focus to integration efforts;
Building capacity of local LGBT organizations in developing countries;
Holding itself accountable for upholding non-discrimination requirements; and
Expanding a learning agenda.
In my view, this is all code for “every country that receives our development dollars must agree to our agenda of queering the world as a condition of doing so. You will comply.”
But if the tyranny of identity is global, so is the resistance. That’s why I’m so proud to be part of Women’s Declaration International. Shortly after the Dr. Phil episode aired last week, some woman in Australia named Shannon tracked me down and sent me the following message via my website:
Subject: You are my new hero
Message: Wow!!!! You are brilliant. I have listened to a lot of wonderful women on this crazy journey, BUT I’ve never seen anyone like you!!! I’d never heard of you before the Dr Phil erasure episode. Thank you so much for speaking up, you’re going to have a huge impact and I’m so grateful. And inspired. My name is Shannon, I live in Perth, Western Australia with my daughter and dog. Please let me know if I can ever do anything to support you and our resistance!
I forwarded that message to the WDI Australia country contact and asked if she wanted to reach out. She said she would, and then forwarded me the message she sent to her:
Hi Shannon
Kara Dansky was delighted with the message of support you sent her and has passed me your details as I am the Australian country contact for the Women's Declaration International (WDI).
If you are keen to support WDI, please consider signing the Declaration on Women's Sex-Based Rights here, as this will add you to the mailing list to hear about the weekly webinars with speakers from around the world and also the monthly webinars that are hosted by women here in Australia on the last Saturday of each month at 7pm. There are many other events and activities, including an Australian working group. If you want to learn more about local activities, please reply to this email or call me on [REDACTED].
I look forward to hearing more from you.
Regards
Being part of this global network of resistance to gender woo is awesome.
I was all set to wrap up and send this post when I came across this tweet of a clip of hearings that are taking place in Congress today regarding the Protect Women in Sports Act (if you want to know what WDI USA thinks about that bill you can read our statement in support of it here). In this clip, a member of the House (I can’t quite tell who) asks Education Department Secretary Cardona to define the word woman and his response is “Our folks at the Department is [sic] to provide equal access to students, including students who are LGBTQ - access free from discrimination.” The clip goes on, but that’s the gist.
My takeaway from that clip is that the administration has learned since the embarrassing moment when Biden Supreme Court nominee Judge Jackson was asked to define the word woman and was unable to do so. The answer that Secretary Cardona gave was almost verbatim what the Department quoted him as saying when it announced its new proposed Title IX rules last week. I think he was ready for the “What is a Woman?” question. I assume that he sat down with the people in the Communications office and they said something along the lines of:
When they ask you to define the word woman, just tell them that your job at the Department is to protect all students. We know that’s a bullshit answer, but from a PR perspective, it’s a lot better ‘some women have penises.’ We know that it’s totally evasive, but at least it’s true.
Cheers.
The tyranny of "identity" may be global, but so is your activism.
There are now a number of countries around the world that have fallen to gender ideology, a number of countries that now allow for "gender certificates." Spain, for example has passed a horrific law that not only allows for gender certificates, but also allows minors to "transition" without parental consent. Let's not forget the train wreck in Scotland leading to Sturgeon's political demise.
And, of course, the elites who push this nonsense conjure up the often mythical creatures from history -" kinnar," "three-spirited" that evoke gender fluidity, and hijack these themes to create the delusion that "transgenderism" is a real thing in the modern world. People fall for this mythology trap, as it appeals to a human wish to connect with some ancient past, a religious or spiritual connection that is often sadly missing in many peoples' lives. I noticed a few weeks back an attempt to make the same connections with Judaism. Recently, there was an essay in the NYT titled, "Ancient Judaism Recognized a Range of Genders. It's Time We Did, Too." I did not read this, as I did not have access to it.
I know that African nations are pushing back against the America's attempt to infect that continent with such rubbish.
We need to expect this to continue happening and be vigilant, always ready to push back and push back hard.