Yesterday Samer asked, Does Ted Cruz recognize transgender as an identity?.

Samer was concerned about a statement Cruz made:

The Education Department is suing a school to force them to let a teenage boy shower with teenage girls.

It appears to me that Sen. Cruz believes that transgender people are, effectively, confused people in drag or people with a mental illness.

I left a comment:

Of course he doesn’t. None of the religious right does. That’s why they want to legislate us out of existence.

In writing that I violated one of my own guiding principles: avoid speaking or thinking in universals. In reality, I know that there definitely are people from the religious right who are themselves transgender.

And those people know that there is no "sincerely held belief" more sincerely believed than who we believe we are. But because we transgender people have no historical book like the Talmud or the Bible to support that belief, we are just plain out of luck with that.

These people who habitually deny science in this case believe that the religion of science (as they call it) is on their side and that chromosomes are everything when it comes to gender...even though the percentage of people who have been karotyped is vanishingly small.

They believe that genes tell everything...rather than the way those genes are expressed.

And they believe that somehow what goes on in the human brain is not a physical process and should be ignored when it comes to identifying people.

On Tuesday Rev David Robertson claimed that transgender equality is progressing “without any debate”. This is nonsense. For years there has been protracted debate on this issue. The legitimacy of our gender identities is regularly debated by high profile figures, sometimes in a needlessly mocking manner. Transgender people have repeatedly had to justify our mere existence and human rights.

We don’t choose to be transgender people. We simply exist due to the natural diversity of humanity. Thankfully, we are gaining increased social acceptance. It is disappointing that Rev Robertson has decided to pretend the debate has not been happening just because his side is losing the argument.

--James Morton> for the Scotsman

Here in the states that debate is taking place in one of the places they can be sure that there are no transgender voices to express our side of it...which would be in state legislatures. There are no transgender people who are currently serving in any state legislature.

There is consensus amongst Scotland’s main political party leaders that the issue of gender recognition should be dealt with in the next session of the Scottish Parliament. The Parliament’s open process of considering legislation will mean plenty of scope for public engagement, discussion and debate. No doubt, Rev Robertson will have the opportunity if he wishes to appear before the parliament to give direct evidence about the legislation. That does not mean that the parliament will agree with him.

As for the claim that people who oppose equality will be abused, experience shows that the boot is usually on the other foot. Some opponents of transgender equality have slandered parents as child abusers just because they allow their transgender children self-expression. Transgender people are still regularly ridiculed, falsely accused of being perverted and delusional, and threatened with violence.

--Morton

One issue on which we agree wholeheartedly with Rev Robertson is that the inequalities between rich and poor need to be tackled. Setting the rights of those living in poverty against those of trans people is not a constructive way forward, especially since many transgender people live in poverty as a result of discrimination.

--Morton

Which side would Tom Joad be on?