Permitting people to change their gender by self-declaration opens the door to similar challenges to the law by people who would like to alter their age or race, a columnist has warned.
Writing in The Times, Janice Turner highlighted the logical progression of identity politics if self-declaration becomes the accepted norm.
It follows the case of Emile Ratelband, a Dutch man who wants a court to change his birth date to make him 20 years younger.
Ratelband and Dolezal
Ratelband argued that if a man who identifies as a woman can obtain a new birth certificate which declares he was born female, he should be able to amend his birth certificate.
Turner wrote: “A court has argued it would mean deleting part of Ratelband’s life, but is this different to trans people who request no further mention of their birth name and childhood?”
She also proposed that if society follows the transgender slogan “I am who I say I am”, then there should be no objections to those like Rachel Dolezal, who claim to be of a different race.
She said that while “Dolezal was hounded for purporting to be black”, “there is no logical, coherent argument why racial identity is fixed while gender is fluid”.
‘Unqualified, unchecked’
Turner added that when “identity is reduced to subjective inner feelings, who is to say Rachel Dolezal feels her blackness less profoundly than Caitlyn Jenner feels her womanhood?”
The journalist pointed out that when the Gender Recognition Act was introduced, “No one thought a trans person could literally change sex”.
This understanding, she said, had now been lost, with postmodern identity politics taking over.
She concluded: “An unqualified, unchecked policy of ‘I am who I say I am’ should apply to everyone or no one at all.”