Letter on alternate words for woman is ‘transphobia’

This is a response to the letter from Rose Pritchett, who is on the wrong side of history (“Reader ‘infuriated’ by different names for women,” July 14).

Pritchett’s letter complains about some Fox News-imagined “woke” mob coming to remove the word “woman” from the common vernacular and replacing it with “menstruating people” or “chestfeeders.”

Who is doing this? Seriously, when was the last time you went out into the world and encountered someone using those terms? I have never once in my life encountered anyone, LGBTQ or otherwise, seriously making that case, and I sincerely doubt you have either.

What you do see is trans and nonbinary people asking for recognition, on an interpersonal level, that members of the trans and nonbinary community (who do not identify as women) often encounter issues commonly thought of as “women’s issues.” No one is advocating that you, Ms. Pritchett, stop identifying as a woman.

I encourage you to turn off the cable news, go outside and meet some people, so you can disabuse yourself of this imagined fear.

Semantics debate aside, Pritchett’s letter quickly descends into blatant and outright transphobia, which the editors of this publication should have never allowed to go into print. Ms. Pritchett shamefully reduces the lived experiences of trans individuals to “silly little dress-up games,” in which they are “pretending to be something they are not and will never be.”

The year is 2023, Ms. Pritchett. You ought to be ashamed of the bigotry and lack of understanding you demonstrate in your letter. Trans people know who they are, and despite what you say, they live real and fulfilling lives. The only people standing in the way of that are small-minded individuals like yourself, who would seek to persecute them for being who they are.

Such a bigoted letter should never have been printed to begin with.

Jack Heavner

Dover