While most writers will totally avoid this topic, I believe it’s very important to reach some kind of consensus on the definition of a woman. Is a transgender woman, a “real woman?” In order to address this, one must decide that he can’t be concerned about negative feedback or ridicule, either way. The truth, such as Donald Trump lost the election, may garner harsh feedback, but he lost. That’s the truth and no one should have to fear speaking or writing the truth. It isn’t dependent on opinion but rather facts. No one can change or dispute it.

Is a transgender woman, a person born with male sex characteristics, a woman, once she takes puberty blockers or hormones? When someone has gender dysphoria, that’s very different from someone who chooses to be a different gender than the one assigned at birth. When a baby is born, 99.5% have either a penis or vagina. It’s estimated that 0.5% are intersex. Gender cannot be determined, but the overwhelming majority of babies will identify as male or female. I am not a believer in gender fluidity, nor do I accept or recognize the more than 100 genders that have somehow been identified.

I have not been able to find any Scientific research or studies, that contradicts that statement. Of course, there will always be the fringe doctors, and psychologists, who will make claims, but I haven’t seen anything from JAMA or any other legitimate medical organization that has shown scientific evidence. Anecdotal information is not science. In fact, the only way we know that gender dysphoria exists is that people who suffer from it, tell us. There’s no blood test or any genetic test whatsoever, that can validate what it is or why it occurs.

We of course believe someone who feels as if they were born in the wrong body because why would someone make that claim if it wasn’t true? It certainly doesn’t make one’s life easier or improve it in any way. It makes life more difficult. Science, meaning doctors and psychiatrists, need to discover ways of treating someone who suffers from this affliction. One could only imagine how horrible it would be to feel differently than their gender assigned at birth, based on biology. No one should ridicule someone who seeks help. Nor should anyone be discriminated against or face harsh treatment because they’re trans. I’m not sure when empathy ended but clearly there is too little to go around presently.

I did recently write in this blog that I don’t believe transgender female athletes should be allowed to compete against biologically female athletes, because it gives too much of advantage to the competitor. I used Aspen Hoffman, a very average male runner as an example. Aspen became an elite runner when competing against girls and no one can dispute that, since times don’t lie. I also am against anyone male or female using bathrooms and locker rooms that don’t correspond to their sexuality. Straight men will always look at a woman changing in a locker-room given the opportunity and a transgender female, if still attracted to females, is no different. And to make the argument that people have dirty minds or are over sexed is nonsense. People are sexual and that cannot be willed away in order to validate an argument.

In terms of whether transgender women are women, I would say, it’s only right or fair, to call anyone by whatever name or gender they wish to be called. However, as a married man of 33-years, and part of a nuclear family, I would say this. No one has the right to take away or delegitimize the experience of being a woman. In our marriage, I have watched my wife, each month, suffer through menstrual cramps and bloating without so much as a complaint or missing a step. She twice carried sons for 9 long months, insisting on natural childbirth, no epidural. I listened helplessly on the phone, as she breastfed our youngest son, and tended to our oldest son, all while making dinner and doing laundry, while I was traveling on business.

As she got older, I listened as she explained what it’s like to have Pap smears and Mammograms. I stood by as I helplessly watched her experience the most horrible night sweats, and discomfort as she approached menopause, not being able to regulate her temperature for days at a time. Medications only provide so much relief. Does anyone really expect me to simply say that people born with a male sex organ and who will never experience any of that, are somehow equal to the extraordinary and unique life that my wife and women around the world have experienced as women?! That’s too much to ask!!! Being a woman means experiencing all that it means to be a woman. It’s not simply a claim or feeling, no matter how legitimate.

This was forced on me as a writer because there comes a point that someone needs to stand for what’s right and for justice. That’s not transphobic, but rather A Statement in Support of Women and all it means to be a woman!!! No one can simply claim “womanhood” without having experienced any of what I listed above and that was a seriously abbreviated list. If Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson needs assistance in defining a woman, she could start here.

We must continue to support as I always have, the LGBTQ+ community and ensure that no one is discriminated against. But when pushing an agenda that attempts to create a false narrative, and to change definitions common to the vast majority of human beings on the planet, that’s where I draw the line! Transgender women need to be supported and categorized separately, but the narrative that they are no different from women like my wife, can no longer be tolerated.