A week after the Victorian government introduced new legislation that would make it illegal to help an individual change their gender identity or sexual orientation, lesbian actress Ellen Page announced on social media that she now identifies as a “he.”
Page, who has described herself as a lesbian since “coming out” in 2014, said on Wednesday that she is now “trans,” and will be changing her pronoun to “he” and her name to Elliot.
The question is, how would anti-conversion legislation deal with an individual in a similar situation? If a woman with an orientation towards other women can become a male with an orientation toward women, then doesn’t that suggest, in some sense, that orientation is not fixed?
If a transgender male is to be regarded as a male in every meaningful sense, then in what sense can that individual be regarded as a lesbian? That’s a title reserved for non-males.
Some might try to resolve this by saying the trans-male was never truly a lesbian, to begin with, but that only suggests that people can be profoundly confused and mistaken when it comes to their orientation.
There was a time when Page described herself as a lesbian. If that can change, to any degree, then shouldn’t laws about such matters also reflect that reality?
