THE latest elaboration of the perennial trans rights debate occupying parliamentary time, copious newspaper copy and the wider collective conscious and unconscious of our nation once more occupied a prominent space in the National Conversation pages of The National on Monday.
Ron Lumiere (Letters, Jan 5) once again weaponises his formidable command of the English language to weave a web of semantic gymnastics to make his contribution on the membership admission policy of the Girlguiding association.
I do not pretend to know what is the kindest response from a female-based organisation is to a transgender young boy who, in addition to the other vicissitudes of growing up, is probably carrying the burden of a degree of gender dysphoria and distress.
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Knowing the propensity for bullying and ostracising of both young brotherhoods and sisterhoods, I fear that young biological males may be scapegoated by militant mini feminists! Who really kens what’s best for each individual in this dysfunctional society, where ideologies often supplant fundamental common sense and the milk of human kindness.
I personally would love to hear the honest and authentic reflections of devoted Girl Guide and Scout leaders, ex-Girl Guides and parent groups to inform this vexed question.
One thing is for sure: we must as a nation continue to assess whether gender ideology has has added to or ameliorated the suffering of our people, and continue to explore the origin of the accelerating drive to identify with separate collective identities demanding “special status” at the expense of belonging, social cohesion and personal happiness.
What forces are underlying our inequalities, poverty and various expressions of dysphoria across the Western world? What can we do in Scotland to rescue our bairns from further fragmentation of society? At a deep level we all know the answer to that intuitively, and we do not need political and social ideologues forcing their versions of “truth” on us conjured up by self-serving elites at Westminster or Holyrood. A popular democracy, sovereignty and philosophy must arise, and Scotland can be in the vanguard of this movement by first taking responsibility for it own in May. Men,women and everybody in between must make that the pre-eminent subject of discussion for a few months. Does anyone agree?
Dr Andrew Docherty
Selkirk
BRIAN Forsyth (Letters, Jan 5) writes that the Equality Network works, amongst its other aims, for equality for same-gender relationships, which he distinguishes from same-sex relationships. He appears to consider that a bad thing.
The fundamental tenet of sexual orientation equality work is that consenting adults should be free to choose each other as partners, without discrimination, regardless of their sexes/genders. It’s about freedom of their choice.
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And although organisations may use the term LGBT as a shorthand for their work on sexual orientation and gender identity equality, they would also recognise that it is inappropriate to assign any particular label to another individual’s sexual orientation. A person in a same-gender relationship might identify as lesbian or gay, or as bi, or queer, or indeed straight, or with some other label, or may eschew such labels altogether. That’s a matter for their own choice.
These facts are why Mr Forsyth’s claim that LGBT organisations like the Equality Network tell lesbians and gay men that “they must be open to dating people who are not of the same sex” is so clearly false. The coercion he implies simply does not exist.
Tim Hopkins
Edinburgh
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