Thread by Sonia Sodha

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An important new report from @Moreincommon_ on British attitudes to gender identity & sex. Confirms my hunch that while the public are kind & compassionate/ live & let live, they’re on average moderately gender critical. (Like the gender-critical people on the left that I know!)
Most important take away is that while most approach these issues with compassion and empathy, most people don’t think gender identity should replace biological sex in law/society, and don’t ascribe to the gender ideology worldview that trans women are literally women.
(This is important research on what the public think about these issues that draws on qualitative as well as quant polling and fills a v important gap. I think there are some significant issues in the way it is framed though which I’ll come onto.)
Most obviously (unsurprisingly) people recognise the importance of single-sex categories in sport, but people were keen to find other ways of achieving inclusion for trans people
Many people also have concerns about irreversible medical transition for under 18s, believing there should be proper medical safeguards.
(These views need to be read in context of what High Court has said about the irreversibility of puberty/hormone blockers, and what the expert independent Cass review has said about social transition not being a neutral intervention.)
On single-sex spaces, many take the similar view as gender-critical left. Ie - unisex third spaces a good thing but should not necessarily replace single-sex toilets and changing facilities, and acceptance of trans people using opposite-sex services relates to passing/surgery.
While a significant minority of public say they think trans women are women (and trans men men) they don’t literally believe this, as evidenced by views above. And many people have those who’ve undergone surgery in mind, or who’ve lived as other gender for years (not self-ID).
Where I think the report falls down somewhat is in its framing of the issue. In its keenness to portray both sides of online debate as hardline as each other, it fails to recognise that the view of the public is also the view of many many gender-critical women.
Ie live and let live, good on people breaking gender norms, but we shouldn’t replace biological sex with gender identity for all purposes in law and in society because it would erode important sex-based rights.
The report fails to acknowledge that many women have lost jobs, livelihoods and faced terrible abuse and violent threats because they have expressed precisely the moderate views expressed by the public in the report.
This is extremely important context, as the Observer noted here. You can’t understand this debate without understanding that women have been hounded for expressing compassionate and moderate views while maintaining sex still matters

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/27/the-observer-view-on-the-right-to-free-expression?CMP=S...
But overall this report confirms my view that there are kind & compassionate ways to promote trans inclusion that don’t require us to pretend sex doesn’t matter in some important areas (sport, single sex spaces and data). And that the public, reassuringly, would support them.
Here is link to full report

www.moreincommon.org.uk/media/giljcopo/britons-and-gender-identity-navigating-common-ground-and-divis...
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