Rex Kerr
2 min readJul 6, 2023

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This sounds good to start. I guess fundamentally there will be some unresolvable tensions, but we can push on it until that core tension is exquisitely clear, and establish with reasonable evidence what seems to be objectively the case and what the fundamental issues are or at least potentially could be.

One fundamental tension is that queer theory denies a biological basis to gender in a way that is supportable only by ideology, not evidence, at this point. On the other hand, many religion-based viewpoints are gender-absolutists ("man and woman he made them"-type stuff) in a way that is supportable only by ideology, not evidence, at this point.

In terms of the type of iteratively applied reactionary feedback that I illustrate in my article, you find cases all over the place where people are unwilling to think seriously about them. That might be worth a try. For instance, I've heard passionate arguments or accounts from trans people or advocates both that (1) gender policing in restrooms is not a thing anyway so there's no risk of changing norms, and (2) gender policing is horrible and widespread and keeping trans people who don't pass from using the restroom (along with first-person accounts of it having happened to the poster). It actually is possible for both to be true not-quite-as-stated but close: it could be rare enough to be essentially useless as a protective measure, but unpleasant enough that, even though rare, it is a major impediment to trans people. But even if that is the case, you still need to think through all of the consequences: even if policing wasn't actually extensive enough to catch male predators, was the belief that one might be caught a substantial deterrent? Is the belief that it was but is no longer--or the belief that the change is an opportunity--enough to change predatory behavior in a legitimately concerning way? What about copycat crimes, where a social awareness that you-can-actually-get-away-with-this arises? Given the extremely low rate of reporting for sexual crimes, and a widespread awareness of the need to not be transphobic, is it or is it not reasonable to expect to get data of sufficient quality to address these issues one way or the other? Or is there a scheme whereby the whole set of concerns can be circumvented, where you needn't worry about reactions and reactions to reactions and so on and so forth (which quickly get very difficult to predict)?

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Rex Kerr
Rex Kerr

Written by Rex Kerr

One who rejoices when everything is made as simple as possible, but no simpler. Sayer of things that may be wrong, but not so bad that they're not even wrong.

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