Minority view should not define what ‘woman’ is

Transgender people should be protected by law against discrimination and should certainly be as free as anyone to serve in the U.S. military. But, some in the transgender movement make demands of society that go well beyond bringing an end to discrimination. Over the past 10 to 20 years a small minority of the population has begun to insist that a woman is anyone who claims to be one. The Transgender Law Center in San Francisco says only 15 percent of transgender people reported having any kind of surgery, so apparently anatomy is becoming altogether irrelevant to being a woman.

Where is the public discussion over who is a woman? My 1991 dictionary defines woman as “the female human being.” Does the public really want to abandon that definition? Laws that change our understanding about who is a woman are already being considered and passed in some states, but there has been very little free and open public discussion among Americans about this question. I certainly want transgender people to live their lives free from discrimination and free to express their femininity or masculinity. But, I’m not ready to change the definition of who is and isn’t a woman on the say so of this small minority.

What do women want? Can there be a public discussion about who is a woman? Is the public going to allow a minority of transgender people to prevent women from discussing important questions like this one, as happened when transgender activists de-platformed speakers at the Goddess Festival and OMNI Center in Fayetteville last March? This silencing of women is happening all across the U.S.!

Where is the public discussion over who is a woman? Who is a woman? What do you think? What do women want?

JEANNE NEATH St. Paul