A Pluralism of Engagement
- Mar 13
- 8 min read
By Charlotte Revely
I was recently in an on-line discussion with a few hundred largely progressive left environmental campaigners and activists from across the world. Some of the UK cohort were celebrating the recent Green party win in Gorton and Denton. I shared my concerns about the Green Party with regard to their stance on women’s rights and pointed them to this excellent analysis by Paul Knaggs. https://labourheartlands.com/the-green-partys-war-on-reality/
After a bit of to and fro in the discussion, I was told that a feature of the trans debate is that both ends feel they can define womanhood on behalf of everyone, and impose that on everyone. What was required was a ‘pluralism of engagement’ that would accept that there are different people with different definitions of being a woman. The question becomes one of how we deliberate and listen together, and find a way of living forward.
I had a very strong reaction to this even though I knew it was written from a place of good intent. Fury would not be an exaggeration but I knew that wouldn’t help. There are many good people in this group and I am at least grateful that they are open to debate and haven’t silenced or cancelled me.
I responded with a thought experiment. I’ve expanded on my initial thoughts but I asked the question whether, in the scenario below, a pluralism of engagement should accept that different people have different definitions of being disabled? Or would it be reasonable to protect the legal and social accommodations provided to enable wheelchair users to function in society for those with an inability to walk?
If the latter, why are the legal accommodations for women not equally worthy of protection? To date I’ve had no response.
A Thought Experiment on Disability
Let’s take a specific disabled category of wheelchair user. Imagine you are someone unable to walk who needs a wheelchair, an adapted vehicle and accommodation to enable you to participate in society. You get a special parking permit and your employer ensures your workplace is accessible and gives you time off for essential medical appointments.
Let’s say there is another category of people who have fully functioning legs but identify as disabled. They feel their healthy bodies are wrong and they long to be wheelchair users. Let’s call them transdisabled.
The transdisabled group declare they are no different to you. ‘Transdisabled people are disabled’ becomes the new mantra. Politicians across the spectrum start repeating it with monotonous regularity when asked about the impact on things like escalating levels of disability benefits. Students chant it at demos, schoolchildren are taught it as a basic truth. You feel a bit confused but get on with your life.
You write a novel and enter a competition specifically for disabled writers only to find that the winner is someone transdisabled. They write about the hardships of their life as a disabled person, and how much tougher it is for them than for ‘cis’ disabled people because people accuse them of faking it.
The Equalities Minister says in a TV interview that it is offensive to say transdisabled people are not disabled. No-one would ever pretend to be disabled for nefarious purposes.
You turn on the radio to hear that crimes committed by disabled people are soaring, suddenly wheelchair users are committing serious sex crimes and even murders at percentages much higher than previous years. The presenter is puzzled, what possible explanation could there be for this?
When the Paralympic medals are handed out, many of the gold medallists turn out to have functioning legs and run a victory lap around the stadium. When disabled people and others protest they are told not to be so hateful. Disability can be fluid.
You get thrown off Facebook for using the term ‘able bodied.’ This is now classified as hate speech if referring to transdisabled people.
Your local council gives out disability parking permits to anyone who identifies as disabled.
The International Olympic Committee says that possession of a disability parking permit is now the qualifying criteria for the Paralympics.
The Government Statistical Service decides it is transdisphobic to differentiate between disabled and transdisabled so government data on disability becomes meaningless.
The NHS announces new data saying that there has been an increase in the number of wheelchair users but celebrates that there have been significantly improved health outcomes for disabled people as a result of far fewer co-morbidities within that category.
The disability pay gap closes as more employees at senior level choose to identify as disabled.
Some transdisabled people decide it is not enough to simply use a wheelchair, they insist the NHS should remove or surgically damage their functional limbs. The NHS sets up a series of clinics to perform such surgeries.
There is a sudden increase of children who identify as transdisabled. NHS policy is that they should be affirmed and given drugs to stop their bones forming properly to ensure they will grow into disabled adults. No data is kept on the long term impact of this.
Parents who resist their children being given these drugs have their children taken into care.
When disabled people decide they’ve had enough of this and start protesting about able bodied people trampling on their rights, they are accused of being far right or fascist. They are labelled Trans Exclusionary Radically Disabled or TERDs.
Transdisabled people and their allies start carrying signs saying things like ‘Decapitate TERDs’ and ‘The only good TERD is a dead one.’ Speakers at Transdisabled Pride, attended by thousands, tell the crowd that if they see a TERD they should punch them in the f**king face. Politicians and commentators wring their hands about the toxicity on both sides.
You seek help from your Disability Rights group only to find your membership terminated because of your hateful views. You look elsewhere and find that only disability organisations that support the transdisabled community are given public funding.
A plethora of transdisability charities and lobby groups are set up across the world. It is lauded as the new frontier in disability rights. A charity called Walking Wounded is established for those who identify as transdisabled but don’t want to use a wheelchair because it is inconvenient when going about their daily lives.
You find other disabled people who feel as angry as you and join a voluntary network with no funding. You spend your evenings and weekends writing, talking, organising events, lobbying politicians, raising FOI requests, poring over policy documents, reading in depth consultations. Your contributions are unwelcome or ignored by politicians and you have to keep your involvement secret from your employer.
A disabled person is sacked from their job at a disability support charity for saying that the transdisabled movement is actively harming disabled people.’ You donate to her legal costs. She loses.
You get arrested and held in a police cell for 12 hours because you put stickers on a lamp post saying ‘No such thing as transdisabled’ and ‘Wheelz not Feelz.’ The police release you and send you home in your wheelchair alone at 3am.
You rely on social media for information because the mainstream media channels do not report on the issue and when they do it is generally hostile to the ‘TERDs’.
You realise the general public are largely unaware of what has been happening to disability rights so you organise street stalls and protests. Transdisabled people and their allies like Antifa turn up to silence you. They drown out disabled voices and sometimes even assault them. The police say there is nothing to be done and politicians wring their hands again about the toxicity on both sides.
You watch aghast on a livestream as a brave disability rights activist travels the world talking about this global social contagion. She is violently attacked, tipped out of her wheelchair and almost crushed underfoot in New Zealand. Antipodean politicians call her a Nazi.
Your neighbour’s child starts identifying as transdisabled and demands surgery to remove her legs. The NHS won’t provide this surgery for those under eighteen but a private doctor in Spain agrees to go ahead on her 16th birthday.
Her parents are interviewed about their journey by Lorraine on national TV and an award winning TV drama called Salamander is made about the difficulties she faced in her quest to be her true self.
Libraries are full of books about transdisability for children with advice on different types of limb surgery and growth blocking drugs.
Schools start encouraging children to consider whether or not they might be transdisabled. They are taught that they are probably transdisabled if they’ve ever felt any discomfort about their bodies, if they enjoy being on wheels such as cycling, skateboarding or go karting, or if they have ever thought about skiving off PE.
There is a 3000% increase in the number of children identifying as transdisabled.
Following concerns about the impact of NHS interventions, a medical trial is set up to see if children who are given drugs to stunt their bone growth are happier than those who are not.
The CEO of the Walking Wounded charity is appointed as Disability Tsar by the government.
Welfare spending on disability benefits and support more than trebles. The government cuts back on health spending saying that hip and knee replacements are transdisphobic interventions and no longer necessary.
You give as much as you can afford to a group taking the government to court to protect disability rights. Disabled people raise millions in crowdfunding despite being one of the most economically disadvantaged demographics in society.
You celebrate when, after many years of legal wrangling, the Supreme Court says that it makes no sense for able bodied people to claim disability rights and that it is perfectly lawful to refer to transdisabled people as able bodied and healthy.
The government, and most of the opposition parties, ignore the Supreme Court ruling and bemoan the impact of the judgment on the transdisabled community.
The government proposes to shut down selected social media sites, including X, for spreading hate speech on transdisability and votes through an amendment to the Equality Act to include a new protected characteristic of Disability Reassignment.
You are still unable to walk.
This is not an entirely imaginary scenario. The charity Inclusion Scotland facilitates internship opportunities specifically for disabled people, often using the phrase "self-define" to encourage applicants who might not have a formal diagnosis but experience barriers. Is transdisability going to become the new frontier in trans rights?
Here is a notable example of a man who identifies as a disabled woman. https://www.heraldscotland.com/opinion/23101806.issue-day-able-bodied-norwegian-identifies-disabled-woman/
If there is a sexual component involved e.g an amputation fetish it is known as apotemnophilia.There have been numerous cases in the press of people (usually men) practising self amputation so strong is their desire. Here are some fairly recent examples.
Everything imagined here for disabled wheelchair users has a direct parallel with what women and children have experienced. However this doesn’t even touch on issues like privacy and dignity in single sex spaces and services. The cruel and unusual punishment of housing violent sex offenders and murderers with vulnerable women or forcing women to undress in front of male colleagues as a condition of employment. It doesn’t cover the impact on children of trans parents, the hell endured by so many transwidows or the shock of seeing BBC News informing the nation that the galactorrhea produced by male lactation fetishists is even better for babies than their mother’s breastmilk. Although it touches on compelled speech it doesn’t go as far as the reality of women being forced to refer to their male attackers or rapists as she/her in court.
We are living through insane times and must never ever lose sight of just quite how insane this ideology is.
