Piers Akerman: Trans debate shows woke won’t talk real issues
Katherine Deves’ anti-trans views becoming a major election issue shows how so-called climate independents and the left are anxious to avoid discussing real concerns, writes Piers Akerman.
Opinion
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Prime Minister Scott Morrison has declared Australians are “fed up with walking on eggshells” and he’s correct.
Morrison made his remarks after Labor and the so-called independents launched attacks against Katherine Deves, the Liberal candidate in Warringah, won by the ineffectual Zali Steggall in 2019.
Deves, the mother of three daughters, tweeted some blunt and undoubtedly offensive remarks (for which she has apologised) about trans people and homosexuals but that doesn’t mean the thrust of her argument against trans women competing against biological women is wrong.
Her view is supported by a host of Australia’s greatest swimmers led by the Emma McKeon who says forcing women to swim against biological males is unfair.
The legendary Olympic champion Dawn Fraser weighed in on the issue, backing McKeon and calling for separate competitions to ensure fairness.
Fraser said our greatest Olympian was correct in saying it would be unfair for women to be forced to swim against a “biological” male. “I don’t think it’s fair to have transgender men competing against women,” said Fraser, who won gold at the 1956, 1960 and 1964 Olympics.
“Why don’t transgender people compete against each other? That would solve all the problems.”
The dynamic duo were joined in the debate on transgender athletes competing in elite sport by Olympic gold medallist Emily Seebohm who stated that opponents born biologically male will always be faster and stronger.
Their views were supported by Aussie track legend Raelene Boyle, who was robbed of Olympic gold by testosterone-fuelled East German drug cheats.
Saying it was “ridiculous’’ that transgender women were allowed to compete against biological women, Boyle expressed sympathy for transgender athletes who had been left “all at sea’’ over the issue, but argued they should not be competing at the elite level against women.
Most Australians would agree with the Olympians but the fear of treading on eggshells that Morrison warned about has kept most politicians muzzled because of the disproportionate amount of publicity protesters from the LGBTI communities generate.
NSW Premier Dom Perrottet is one of the few MPs with the guts to publicly back Morrison’s warning.
The view of the majority has been sneered at and ridiculed by the left, as exemplified by Crikey which baldly stated on Friday “that trans women are women”.
No disrespect to those who feel a psychological need to alter their physical appearance to conform with their personal sense of gender identity but it doesn’t alter their biological status which is based on the chromosomes they were born with – no more, no less.
To suggest that men with an X and a Y chromosome can, by dint of surgery and hormone treatment, transform themselves into women with two X chromosomes is a falsehood and an affront to women everywhere.
The Respect My Sex If You Want My Vote campaign was launched on Friday by respected former Girl Guides WA chief executive Karyn Lisignoli, and is backed by a number of senior professional women across the country. A similar movement in the UK – Respect My Sex If You Want My X – has received the backing of Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling ahead of the British local council elections on May 5, and has played a role advising its new Australian counterpart, according to The Australian.
The woke crowd, personified by the divisive NSW Treasurer Matt Kean, chooses to ignore many truths, not least the biological differences between men and women. This is politics at its worst and possibly hurtful to those whom the woke folk claim they are trying to protect, young men and women struggling with their sexual identities.
The left, with its barrackers at the ABC, Crikey, GetUp and the usual media propagandists at The Project and Nine Media, has chosen to open this front in the culture wars.
But as Perrottet said: “Girls should play against girls in competitive sport and boys against boys.”
This should not be in any way controversial or an expression of bigotry but that it has been projected as a major issue in this election demonstrates how the so-called climate independents and the left are anxious to avoid discussing real concerns like the economy, energy and national defence.
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