The first article of The Declaration reads: “Reaffirming that the rights of women are based upon the category of sex. States should maintain the centrality of the category of sex, and not ‘gender identity’, in relation to women’s and girls’ right to be free from discrimination.”
As the sex that is capable of gestating babies, women are uniquely oppressed and discriminated against around the world.
Women are not oppressed because they identify with some sort of stereotypical female gender role. For example, women in developing countries where “gender identity” is not an established idea in societal discourse aren’t oppressed because they are “identifying” as women, based off of gender stereotypes. They are oppressed because of their biology, because men often want to control our sexual and reproductive labor.
These women aren’t simply able to “identify” as men to escape their oppression, because our oppression is sex-based.
Protecting Sex-Based Rights
But what exactly does it mean to say that women’s rights are based on their sex? And why must women work to preserve the category of sex?
The idea that our rights as women are sex-based stems from the fact that our oppression as women is sex-based. That is, we experience oppression because of the fact that we are the female sex.
In The Declaration, sex is defined as, “the physical and biological characteristics that distinguish males from females.”
Based on these physical and biological characteristics, women have been oppressed by men all throughout history. Due to our sex, women weren’t permitted to get an education, vote, own property, play sports, work in any profession, or receive equal pay. In many parts of the world these things are still true.
In addition, due to our sex, women are raped, murdered, trafficked, exploited, objectified, and hyper-sexualized by men every day around the world.
How do these men know which ones women are? In a society where trans rights activists want to redefine sex to include “gender identity,” which would ultimately give “gender identity” precedence over sex, how do men continue to know which ones women are?
The answer is our female biology. Women are oppressed because we are the female sex. As a result, it follows that our hard-won rights need to be protected on the basis of sex if we wish to protect women from sex-based oppression. Our laws and our institutions must maintain sex in its strictest definition as a protected category at all costs.
The Right to Single-Sex Spaces
Article 1 of The Declaration says that, “States should understand that the inclusion of men who claim to have a female ‘gender identity’ into the category of women in law, policies and practice constitutes discrimination against women by impairing the recognition of women’s sex-based human rights.”
Men are men, no matter how they identify. The inclusion of even one male in a female-only space means that that space is no longer female-only. This denies women their right to single-sex spaces, which they are entitled to for their privacy, dignity, and safety. It also allows men to take away employment opportunities, scholarships, awards, and other career recognition away from women, which is another form of discrimination against women.
In addition, men who claim a female “gender identity” can also enter into the category of lesbian and therefore occupy lesbian-only spaces. This constitutes a form of discrimination against lesbians because they are no longer able to gather in their own spaces.
If the definition of sex were to be changed to include “gender identity,” “gender identity” would supersede sex in nearly every instance. For example, if a serial rapist “identifies” as female it will be discriminatory to deny him housing in a women’s prison. If he claims a female “gender identity,” and “gender identity” falls under the definition of sex, the serial killer is seen in the eyes of the law as effectively the same as a woman.
Disregarding “the physical and biological characteristics that distinguish males from females,” and depending only on one’s internal feeling and self-identity opens the door to situations where vulnerable women will be put at risk and could possibly get hurt.
We need lawmakers and politicians across the U.S. to commit to protecting women’s sex-based rights and single-sex spaces by recognizing that the category of sex is distinct and specific, and that its definition cannot be changed.
