To My Dear Friend: Yes, Their Daughter Has Always Been Their Daughter

This is in response to the anti-trans echo chamber pittparents.com article1

Dear Friend,

Your lunch yesterday sounds exhausting - for everyone involved. I couldn't help but notice how you tiptoed around dropping your "biological reality" bombs like they were casual conversation starters. That must have been quite the performance - sort of like announcing you don't believe in gravity while passing the salt, then claiming it is just an ideology.

I find it fascinating how you claim to "care about and feel compassion" while systematically denying someone's existence over breadsticks. That's quite the party trick. It's rather like saying "I care about you deeply" while repeatedly stepping on someone's foot and insisting their pain isn't real.

You know what's actually instinctual? Compassion. Empathy. The ability to listen when someone tells you who they are. What's not instinctual is writing lengthy letters justifying why you think it's okay to make spaces unsafe for your friends' daughter.

Your argument about bathroom segregation being "instinctual" across "far-flung societies" is particularly interesting, considering public bathrooms as we know them only became common in the late 19th century2. Sex segregated bathrooms came about as a means to, get this, integrate women into the social public sector as we women were so graciously allowed out of the home and into the workforce that staffed new factories being built. That’s right, it was to keep women segregated yet integrated. Sound familiar?3 The Victorian era called - they'd like their moral panic back.

You mention "traditions in this country" - interesting choice of words. You know what else was tradition? Bloodletting, believing women couldn't vote, and thinking left-handed people were possessed by demons. Tradition isn't a moral compass; it's often just peer pressure from dead people. You say that “we don't … have a tradition of coercing people to act according to beliefs they don't share,” yet that is precisely what you are doing. You don’t want to believe science and facts, and you demand that others live according to your definitions and your rules. You believe that laws must be passed to deny people their right to equality, care, and even their own identity.

But equality is not pie, equal rights for trans folks does not mean less equal rights for others.

The real "biological reality" here is that gender identity is supported by decades of medical research and professional consensus. Trans people have existed throughout human history, across cultures and continents. But I suppose that's less convenient than your bathroom theories and "every cell in the body" argument, which, by the way, would fail a modern biology exam.

I agree that we need to protect women's rights and spaces. That's exactly why we need to protect ALL women, including your friend's daughter. Trans women are women, and excluding them doesn't make spaces safer, it puts gender non-conforming cis women and girls under increased scrutiny, and increases the risk of harassment and assault to trans people.4 It just makes things crueler. Trans people are not responsible for your feelings of fear, prejudice, or anxiety.

You're right about one thing: this isn't about "beliefs." This is about respect, dignity, and the basic human decency to acknowledge someone's identity. Your friends aren't asking you to change your chromosomes - they're asking you to show their daughter the basic respect all humans deserve. To be treated and accepted for who they are, not what you want them to be.

Maybe before your next lunch date, consider that true friendship isn't about tolerating people despite who they are - it's about accepting them because of who and what they are today, and not for what they had to overcome and survive to get to today. People with minds, hearts, hopes and dreams, and feelings too. You know, human beings. Just like you.

Then maybe you will value your friends and fellow human beings just as much as you value your sensibilities and entitlement.

With all due respect (and the appropriate amount of side-eye),
A Friend Who Actually Understands What Friendship Means