As the debate over JK Rowling’s support for Maya Forstater continues and more celebrities have weighed in, more evidence has changed the story of Maya Forstater.
Earlier this week when the British court ruled against Maya Forstater, the press and others wrote about her firing as a result of transphobic tweets. However, as we have learned, she didn’t just write tweets and she wasn’t really fired. Her contract had expired with the employer choosing not to renew it. That’s a far cry from being fired.
Even more, it wasn’t a transphobic tweet, but rather a series of statements that I will not link to, including on medium, that spoke the same talking points that anti-trans activists have been saying to anyone that will give them a platform (which is most media if we’re being honest).
The common statement of “we’re just trying to have a conversation,” is invoked to elicit sympathy. Why won’t these “radical trans activists” just let her have her opinion? Which if the roles were reversed and I had written manifestos of why Maya wasn’t a woman, you’d think that maybe I wasn’t being honest but rather had a bias.
Today, Ricky Gervais, a comic who has been riding the coattails of creating a show that let him be an asshole to everyone under the guise of being a bad boss, weighed in on twitter.
His statements in support aren’t surprising. I’ve seen others who have written about this call his wording confusing though as he also says “trans women are women” and that we’re not talking about “trans women but men.” This is on purpose. It’s designed to make it seem like it’s just the “weirdos and extremists” that are asking for things like public protections, access to healthcare, etc. That the “real transwomen” are ok with things as they are.
This couldn’t be farther from how things really are. At the end of the day, standing with Maya and JK Rowling, Ricky Gervais, et al. is a stand for discrimination. It’s a stand for reducing sex to just genitals. It’s a stand for exclusionary policies that probably won’t stop at just the transgender population.