Maya Forstater: a champion of democracy
by Jon Holbrook, spiked:
It is unacceptable for the law to denounce Forstater’s views on sex as ‘not worthy of respect’.
Political debate is good. It should be encouraged, and it should be free. In a healthy democracy, political debate will be vigorous and challenging. It will be premised on enquiring into the truth and its objective will be to persuade. Democracy is essentially a system of decision-making that treats every citizen as having an equal right to express an opinion. Only those who advocate violence, and hence who reject the democratic process, should be treated as holding opinions that democracy will not respect.
The desire of an increasing number of men and women, and boys and girls, to ‘change sex’ and to require society to adapt to their desires is an issue for political debate. It is, like most political issues, capable of engendering strong and passionately held beliefs on both sides. It is the sort of issue that demonstrates the need for free and vigorous debate. Indeed, it is an issue that highlights the need for democracy. Only a democracy – with the respect it necessarily affords to each citizen’s right to express an opinion – can guide society to decisions that are capable of being accepted by the wider public.
On trans issues, society has been moving in a direction that stokes considerable unease among many people. In the latest controversy, there are some who believe that men should be allowed to self-declare as women and to be treated as women (likewise for women desiring to be men) and there are many who strongly oppose such a development. Changing rooms, prisons, school uniforms, sports, swimming pools, toilets, women-only shortlists and women’s refugees have all been the focus of recent trans controversies. Underlining the dispute is the view held by many that sex is a biological fact that cannot be changed, and that society is harmed by accommodating to those who claim to have changed sex.
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