Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre stepped into the debate over trans rights on Wednesday, saying “biological males” should be banned from women’s sports, change rooms and bathrooms.
“Female spaces should be exclusively for females, not for biological males,” Poilievre said in Kitchener, Ont.
The Conservative leader made the comments after being asked if, as prime minister, he would introduce legislation to prevent “transgender women” or “biological men” from participating in female sports or entering female prisons and shelters.
“A lot of the spaces … are provincially and municipally controlled, so it is unclear … what reach federal legislation would have to change them,” Poilievre said.
“But obviously female sports, female change rooms, female bathrooms should be for females, not for biological males,” he added.
I think that’s too convenient and loaded an explanation. I suspect a better one can be found in social identity theory, with positions like these being social markers that they use to establish firm boundaries around their in-group. Every group tends to develop social markers, things you’re expected to believe or otherwise exhibit to show that you’re “on their side.” There may be some particular reason why any given marker first shows up, but once it gets adopted it becomes essentially self-perpetuating.
I would believe that only if these people say/do horrible things while in their group.
The reality is, they are just as hateful in private as they are in public.
Social markers are usually not a conscious thing. Once it becomes part of the “this is the way a proper person behaves” ruleset it gets internalized.