I wasn't aware that he built a time machine to hate on trans people in 1996. It was a humanist of the year 1996 award, not humanist for life. Taking back something granted at the time honoring his achievements of that time is just showing how worthless this organization's awards are. Even if there was something seriously wrong with the tweet, it does not undo the good done decades before it.
It's the smallest of a problem though, stuff like this is bullshit. If you suddenly can't discuss trans people in any light but stellar, especially making a logically reasonable thesis (phrased respectfully and encouraging discourse at that), you know you have a big societal problem going on. It also sends conservatives to further distance themselves from bullshit like this, and the only way for them to go is further to the right. Honestly, I'm typically on the other end of the political spectrum, but stuff like this pushes me to high five a bunch of rednecks as the more sane counterbalance of the two.
And what is "anti-ethical" about the "outrageous" example they used from the book? They quoted: "Is trans woman a woman? Purely semantic. If you define by chromosomes, no. If by self-identification, yes. I call her “she” out of courtesy.” as if writing this was a crime against humanity. Isn't what Dawkins wrote literally what folk do to respectfully acknowledge transgender people?
Yeah, agreed. It's a big debate in the US, but still doesn't really make the news. It just stirs underneath the sea that is the news cycle. Some states, typically more conservative ones, are passing laws preventing males from competing against females, regardless of what they identify as. And that's receiving backlash. Weird thing is that women who don't identify as women don't seem to want to compete against males. The main place I read about it being an issue is in high school sports but I think it's spreading to the collegiate level too now.
The real kicker is I just recently saw some social media post where WNBA players were vouching for transwomen to be allowed to play women's sports. That was so odd to me. Instead of offering an alternative for trans people and calling out the bad intentions behind the bills being passed to prevent them from playing sports, they either
genuinely think one can identify as one gender or the other, or they're too scared to say that maybe this ain't it, chief.
As great as professional women athletes are, I don't think most WNBA women want to be playing a physical sport against a 6-7 foot male that now wants to play in the NBA.
But....that's their issue to worry about. If the women in the sport say they're ok with it, then I'm not going to be a "social referee" and say yes or no. But I think at the amateur level, or high school level, there are women that are missing out on holding women's records for events, like track and field, because there are transwomen competing on the same field and winning them instead. I'm a loser and have never won anything in my life, but if I lost out on something for a reason other than self-sabotaging myself mentally, I'd want to know that it was at least a fair fight.