Misconception and reality

Loud opposition does not equal majority opinion

Dr Helen Webberley on Heretics: the gender debate, with Andrew Gold, Heretics

What people think

The public debate reflects public opinion. If the anti-trans voices are the loudest in the room, most people must agree with them.

What is actually true

Loud is not the same as many. What I see, when I look past the noise, is that most people are not animated by hostility towards trans people at all. They are quietly puzzled by the fuss. They look at a trans person living their life and think: why wouldn't we just let them? The cruelty has volume, but it does not have the numbers. That distinction matters, because it means the ground we are standing on is more solid than the noise suggests.