The journal Scientific American published an article from OpenMind explaining that it is “scientific misinformation” to engage in anti-trans efforts.
The article, titled “How Anti-Trans Efforts Misuse and Distort Science,” explained that support for the “more than 500 anti-trans bills” that have been proposed or adopted in almost every U.S. state were “enabled and propelled by scientific misinformation.”
Law professor Florence Ashley and scientist Simón(e) Sun were interviewed by OpenMind Magazine to discuss the “deceptions in science” presented by the anti-transgender movement.
According to the Ashley and Sun, biology is a “dynamic system.”
The interviewers asked the academics, “Many of the arguments against trans rights center on the idea that transness itself is not legitimate—that there are just two sexes, period. You describe this idea as ‘sex essentialism.’ Can you explain that term, and talk about how it shapes the debate?”
“The target is always moving, because if you want to make something binary, then you need to find the most binary characteristic,” Sun said. “Today, sex essentialism boils all of sex down to the gametes that a person produces. Then you draw a line from gametes to all of these other characteristics—to sex roles, even to the personality of an entire individual.”
Sun noted that the binary reality of biology and sex is “just not that simple,” adding that “biology is a dynamic system where an organism starts in a particular state and grows through life and through development with multiple systems interacting. That is, more precisely, how sex works.”
Ashley said that “[b]iology at its core can’t tell you what matters to human organizations.”
“We should really be asking what we care about, and then look to see if biology has anything to say about it,” Ashley declared. “If you go through that exercise, then you realize that biology really has very little, if not virtually nothing, to say about things like trans rights.”
Ashley added that the “problem of epistemological violence” has contributed to “misinformation.”
Seth Dillon, CEO of The Babylon Bee, responded to the article on X, writing, “Modern science — in the name of progress — has gone from trying to understand reality to denying it altogether.”
“Scientific progressivism is a religion,” he continued. “Don’t be fooled by the fact that its priests wear lab coats.”
Modern science — in the name of progress — has gone from trying to understand reality to denying it altogether.
Scientific progressivism is a religion. Don’t be fooled by the fact that its priests wear lab coats. https://t.co/7VQnvuW2JQ
— Seth Dillon (@SethDillon) April 20, 2024