Shona Craven makes several very important points. Misrepresentation by pro-reform activists of the arguments offered by those expressing concerns about the proposed GRA reforms is largely responsible for the toxicity of the debate. This toxicity has been quite purposefully contrived because it helps the pro-reform side dodge the kind of questions Shona refers to. Questions … Continue reading Real-life issues
The Sunday National today presents its "exclusive analysis" under the headline Scotland's councils: The gender balance of each local authority. But how can that be? If gender is malleable how can there possibly be "gender balance"? Sex balance is achievable. Because sex is binary and immutable. There are two sexes so, to state the obvious, … Continue reading Good sense prevails
The introduction to Parliament of the Scottish Government's proposed GRA reforms has given new impetus to what is ironically or facetiously referred to as the 'debate' around this contentious topic. It shouldn't be contentious, of course. If the 'reforms' were, as proponents claim, merely righting a long-standing wrong and rescuing a downtrodden minority from wanton … Continue reading Sex is real
At present, an individual's claim to either of the two sexes - with attendant sex-based rights - is founded on scientific criteria - including, but not limited to, the presence of the Y chromosome. The SNP+SGP/Scottish Government propose to dispense with all scientific criteria and make sex a matter of personal choice. We know, because … Continue reading I choose science
Male and female are exclusive categories. It may soon become illegal for me to say this. So I'll say it again. Male and female are exclusive categories. Exclusive categories are very useful things. They are useful quite apart from being essential. Even if they weren't an absolute necessity of existence, they would still be useful. … Continue reading Exclusive categories
I have come late to what is euphemistically called the 'debate' around GRA reform and the Hate Crime Bill. I regret that.
What we don't do. What people have never even attempted whilst retaining some vestige of what we choose to regard as sanity, is to expect and demand specific constitutional and legal protection for every aspect of our psyche and our physical being.
In the first part of this essay I attempted to justify binary sexual designation on the grounds of practicality. If we imagine society as an evolving organism, we would say that binary sexual designation is an adaptive compromise. In social evolution as in biological evolution, nothing totally novel is ever created. Everything is adapted from … Continue reading His and hers – Part 2
The only self-imposed rule I recognise in debate is that I should never make a statement or take a position that I am not prepared to defend. The strict application of this rule helps ensure veracity and cogency in one's arguments, however robust one's style.
Peter A Bell 