Shon Faye is a man who believes he is a woman. He is wholly convinced that, while he might have reached ‘womanhood’ via a different method to, say, my mother, he is as much a woman as she is. I think he is mistaken. In fact, I think he is deluded. In my view, as sincerely held as Faye’s, a male who undergoes castrative surgery or hormonal treatment no more becomes a woman than a man who chops off his ear becomes Vincent van Gogh. I say this not to be insulting but rather to draw attention to one of the key moral dilemmas of the transgender issue – the question of whose beliefs should enjoy precedence at the social and legal level.
