March 31: International Women’s Day of Invisibility?

T oday, March 31, marks the International Transgender Day of Visibility. According to the Human Rights Campaign — the largest LGBTQ+ political lobbying organization in the United States — this day celebrates the “joy and resilience of trans and nonbinary people everywhere by elevating voices and experiences from these communities.” The trans community has grown significantly larger within the past few years, with a staggering 5 percent of under-30s in the U.S. now identifying as trans or nonbinary, according to the Pew Research Center. Trans advocates are louder and more visible than ever, while President Joe Biden is vocal in his support of transgender rights, including medical interventions such as puberty blockers, breast amputation, and genital surgeries for trans-identifying children.

But as the visibility of the trans community increases, does it overshadow other groups who have fought hard for equal rights and recognition?

It is telling that the Transgender Day of Visibility falls on the final day of Women’s History Month. Pride Month, in June, already exists to honor the LGBTQ+ community. Why must one of the days of Women’s History Month also be devoted to the acknowledgment of trans-identifying people?

This question can perhaps be answered by considering how the advancement of “trans rights” has threatened women’s protections in other contexts. It is deeply troubling when “inclusion” takes precedence over women’s safety and dignity, such as the inclusion of males in women’s private spaces, sports teams, and prisons. Thankfully, World Athletics recently stepped in to prohibit male athletes from competing with women at the international level, with the new rules taking effect today, but the United States still has a long way to go to ensure fair competition for female athletes, or safety for women and girls. As witnessed in a recent viral video of a “trans woman” masturbating in a women’s restroom [Editor’s note: video contains graphic content], gender ideology provides a cover for sexual predators to enter private spaces from which they would otherwise be prohibited.

While including men in women’s single-sex spaces clearly poses a threat to women, the quiet redefinition of words such as “woman,” “female,” and “mother” is equally insidious. Women are told that males have just as much right to be called women as they do, and activists demand that females refer to themselves as “cis women.”

“I learned to be suspicious of the word ‘inclusivity’ when my daughter identified as trans. . . . Under the guise of inclusivity, there is an effort to take our descriptive words from us and instead describe us by our bodily functions. This is degrading and dehumanizing,” Jennifer Dellasega, a mother and the co-founder of Partners for Ethical Care, a nonprofit that safeguards children from the harmful impacts of “gender-identity affirmation,” told me.

Democratic politicians such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Francesca Hong, and Cori Bush helped popularize terms such as “menstruating people” and “birthing bodies,” while Biden’s 2022 budget proposal replaced “mothers” with “birthing people.” Though touted as progressive, this newspeak carefully sidesteps the reality that the only people capable of menstruating or giving birth are female. Meanwhile, there have been no attempts to redefine the word “man” or refer to men with dehumanizing terms such as “sperm producers” or “prostate owners.”

“Being a mother is a sacred role,” Dellasega said.

There is no bond like the one a mother has with her child. This role can’t be usurped, and it can’t be simulated. It’s exclusive to women. Mother is a word I will never relinquish. They can try to pervert it by including those who don’t fit its definition, but we all know what a woman and a mother is. We all came from one.

This brazen corruption of language, appropriation of motherhood, and infiltration of women’s private spaces are a result of governing bodies’ kowtowing to the whims of radical trans activists without properly considering the consequences. Women have been made to feel as if our boundaries, rights, and very existence are being erased, yet upon expressing our concerns, we have been condemned as transphobic bigots and silenced on social media.

If there is peace to be made between trans and women’s-rights advocates, both sides must be allowed to speak freely, and lawmakers must be willing to admit when well-intentioned policies are proven to do more harm than good.