Eight years ago? I hadn't realised that. Eight years ago I would probably have said "come in sister" myself. (I would have had some private reservations, but I'd been brainwashed into thinking that's what I ought to say.) It was September 2017 when the penny dropped for me with a resounding clang.
It's sometimes hard to find stats again that you posted before, but I did post the results of two almost identical opinion polls, I think from YouGov, that were only a couple of years apart, and both considerably more recent than 2017. The hardening in attitudes against trans-identifying men being allowed into women's spaces (asked about separately) in only two years was extremely marked. If I find these again I'll save them and post them again.
I also mentioned the single poll that started with some very bald questions about whether the respondents supported trans rights in general, and whether transwomen should use women's bathrooms. Results were around 75% in favour, more so among young women. The poll then led the respondents through a series of questions that gradually revealed just what these propositions really meant, that transwomen were male (not female), that most were heterosexual, that most retained their male genitalia, and that no body modifications or particular forms of dress were required to be a transwoman - only the person's say-so. By the end, when the "do you agree that transwomen should use women's bathrooms?" question was asked again, but in slightly different words, the young women's responses had flipped from 80% in favour to 80% against, as far as I recall.
Trans is the only supposed civil rights movement where the more the public find out about it, the less favourably they regard it. There's a reason for this. Other campaigns such as rights for same-sex attracted people (saying that is now transphobic of course) and rights for non-white people, were conducted in the daylight. Nobody was hiding anything, and the more people understood the more accepting they became. Legislation followed public opinion. The push for trans rights was conducted in darkness. The campaigners knew their aims were unpopular, and took advice. They were advised to shun publicity and to work behind the scenes piggybacking on more popular causes (such as gay rights) to slide legislation through, and to get their training and guidance into organisations. It worked. It was good advice. But it was never going to work long term. The hope seems to have been that by the time public opinion turned, the legislation would be entrenched and very difficult to roll back. We had a damn close call in Scotland I can tell you, and Canada, Australia and New Zealand are in deep doo-doo.
It will all be unravelled in the end though. This period is going to spawn books and PhD theses like nothing on earth. How could the entire western world have gone quite so mad? It makes the tulip bulb Ponzi scheme look positively sane. Even witch-burning panics were more rational. I think we're seeing the first tentative steps on the road.
robinmcalpine.org
