The tide is turning when it comes to transgender-related issues, laws, and debate. And not a minute too soon. But I also still see remnants of the tug-of-war between right and left, between transgender activism and truth-tellers.
I was alarmed to see the news on Dec. 2 that Emanuel Brünisholz, a Swiss musical instrument maker, started a 10-day prison sentence for posting a comment on Facebook in 2022 that male and female skeletons differ. Officials said his comment denigrated transgender people and first charged him with a fine, which he refused to pay.
Yet there have still been significant shifts in the U.S. and UK on this topic.
As good as it is for a shift in transgender ideology in the U.S., for women, girls, and society at large, it's important not to forget how we got here and what it took to pivot back to reality, truth, and common sense. Some parts of the world seem to be struggling with this, thanks to government officials co-opted by leftist ideology.
Over the course of the last year, large organizations have changed their official stances and reverted to supporting female spaces, signaling a growing shift in public perception and debate over women and transgender topics. But watching this happen in real time has revealed just how flawed, yet deeply rooted, the trend to favor transgender people over women has been.
In November, The Times reported that the International Olympic Committee was moving toward a ban on transgender athletes, "after findings of a scientific review about the permanent physical advantages of being born male." Though the organization has not officially moved to ban transgender athletes yet, it's an encouraging step for female athletes.
But even this good news was a bit jarring to women, and shows how unfair it has been to allow men to compete against women in sports.
"There was no scientific review needed if you just used basic reasoning and … your eyes," former pro gymnast Jennifer Sey posted on X. "But we got there."
In the UK, where transgender ideology has been widely accepted, the tide is shifting there a bit, too. The Guardian reported that the Women's Institute will no longer accept transgender women as members. This follows the April UK Supreme Court ruling on the legal definition of a woman. The fact that a legal ruling was needed on this issue highlights just how far the UK has strayed from reality.
But not everyone was happy about it either, demonstrating the fissure that still exists. "Incredibly, sadly, we will have to restrict our membership on the basis of biological sex from April next year," Melissa Green, the chief executive of the National Federation of Women's Institutes, said. "But the message we really want to get across is that it remains our firm belief that transgender women are women, and that doesn't change."
Despite a legal ruling on this, Green — head of a women's organization — refuses to honor and protect women. I'm not completely surprised. In October, Glamour UK named nine transgender and non-binary people as part of the Glamour Women of the Year Awards 2025, sparking backlash.
The growing legal and cultural shifts here and abroad are positive, but the reluctant, slow shift — especially abroad — shows how much the ideas stuck, and stuck hard. For years, the left dominated the nebulous space in cultural linguistics, first advocating that men were women, just like women were. Anyone who pushed back with truth, reality, or common sense, was deemed a bigot or just plain mean.
Author and outspoken advocate of women's spaces J.K. Rowling addressed this in a viral post on X on Dec. 1.
"As the vibe shifts, and a lot of people in the elite professions start trying to reposition themselves, the obvious place to start is, 'it's not that I couldn't see your point, but did you have to say it that way?' We, dissenters, were supposed to find a way of questioning the chemical castration of children while calling it 'gender affirming care.' We were meant to defend the rights of vulnerable women while also using female pronouns for male rapists. We should have found a way to discuss fairness for women and girls in sport, while pretending that the ineradicable physical advantage men have over women doesn't exist."
Rowling is correct that language became a key cornerstone in the debate. One of the fastest ways the left "won" this issue in the sports, medical, and legal arenas — at least for a while — is that they refused to let anyone else who believed differently articulate it as such. This is still happening, as Brünisholz, the Swiss man enduring a brief jail sentence for declaring that there are only female and male skeletons, has learned.
However, at the same time, the tide would not have begun to shift if outspoken truth-tellers like Rowling and others in the U.S. did not continually stand firm on the truth, not as a means of cruelty or bigotry, but as an honest articulation of reality and common sense.
Author George Orwell said, "During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." Our culture has become upside down, trying to twist itself around linguistics meant to obfuscate and deceive, hurting women and girls in the process, to perpetuate inclusivity.
In one corner of the world, a Swiss man sits in jail for saying skeletons could only be one of two genders, and in another the International Olympic Committee admits male physiology has vast advantages over females when it comes to sports. The tide is still turning, but we must not forget where we were. We have only just begun to realize the importance of standing firm in truth.
