【雅思课外精读】变性人士的性别认同到底由谁来决定？

　　【雅思课外精读】变性人士的性别认同到底由谁来决定？  更多课外精读文章，可以关注网站阅读，原文译文  *注：本文摘自9月26日《经济学人》

　　Trans rights

　　变性人权利

　　Britain’s Gender Recognition Act won’t change

　　英国的性别认同法案不会改变

　　The government goes back on a plan to allow self-ID

　　政府允许自识别

　　1. IN THE BATTLE over trans rights, no prisoners are taken. On September 15th J.K.Rowling, the author of the “Harry Potter” books and a critic of gender ideology, published a new book (under a pseudonym) in which a character occasionally dresses as a woman to stalk his victims. Accusations of transphobia and an online punch-up ensued.

　　在争取变性人权利的斗争中，没有人会愿意自投罗网。9月15日，《哈利·波特》系列作者、性别意识形态批评家J.K.罗琳出版了一本新书(该书是用笔名写作的)，书中一个角色偶尔会装扮成女人跟踪受害者，这使得人们指控她有变性恐惧症，也在网上引起了热议。

　　2. On this issue Ms Rowling, who is also known for her left-of-centre political views, finds herself, along with many other lefty British women, on the same side as the Conservative prime minister, Boris Johnson.This week it was the winning side. On September 22nd the government announced it would not go ahead with a change to the Gender Recognition Act that had been proposed by Mr Johnson’s predecessor, Theresa May.

　　罗琳政治观点一向偏左，她发现，在这个问题上，她和许多其他左翼英国女性一样，站在了保守党首相鲍里斯·约翰逊这边。这周，左翼观点占据优势。9月22日，政府宣布将不会修改特蕾莎·梅提出的性别认同法案。

　　3. The act says that anyone can change the gender on their birth certificate, but they must have two medical opinions, including a diagnosis of gender dysphoria. Trans rights groups want to remove the medical gatekeepers and allow people to change their legal gender simply by declaration (known as “self-ID”), and Mrs May had proposed to do that. “Gender critical” women’s groups warn that such a move would allow any man to enter any women-only space whenever he wants. They have welcomed the government’s backtracking. Nancy Kelley, head of Stonewall, a gay and trans lobby group, retorted that the British government had “missed a key opportunity to progress LGBT equality”, calling it a “shocking failure in leadership”.

　　该法案规定，任何人都可以在其出生证明上更改性别，但必须具备两项医学意见书，其中包括被诊断为性别焦虑的医学意见。变性人群体希望可以取消这些医学诊断，让人们仅仅通过自我声明就可以合法地更改自己的性别（即自我识别），特蕾莎·梅之前就已经提议采用这样的方式了。性别批判女性组织警告称，这样一来，任何男性都能够随意进入女性空间，他们倒是很喜欢政府这样的倒退。同性恋及跨性别游说团体“石墙”(Stonewall)的负责人南希•凯利反驳称，英国政府“错过了推进LGBT平等进程的一个关键机会”，称这是“领导力上令人震惊的失败”。

　　4. James Johnson, a pollster with JL Partners, believes the government has concluded there is little political advantage to be gained by perpetuating a culture war. Gender issues “are right at the bottom of the agenda for most voters,” he says. “We’re not America.”

　　JL Partners的民调专家詹姆斯•约翰逊认为，政府已经明白继续这场文化斗争没有任何好处。他说，“性别问题不是大多数选民关注的点，我们毕竟不是美国。”

　　5. When ordinary people are asked for their views, they turn out to be rather cautious and conservative. A survey in June by YouGov found that 63% of the public believe a doctor’s approval should be required to change their legal gender. Some 46% say that trans women should not use women’s changing rooms if they have not undergone gender reassignment surgery, against 26% who believe they ought to be allowed.

　　普通人对这个问题是相当谨慎和保守的。YouGov今年6月的一项调查发现，63%的人认为，要改变自己的合法性别，必须得到医生的批准。约46%的人认为变性女性如果没有做过变性手术就不应该使用女性更衣室，而仅有26%的人变性女性可以进入女性空间。

　　6. Yet the government’s decision to abandon gender self-ID is unlikely to shut down the debate nor bring Ms Rowling respite from online attacks. That is because another piece of legislation, the Equality Act, already allows trans women into women’s spaces in some circumstances. “Self-ID won’t now happen in legislation, but it is already effectively public policy throughout British society,” says Stephanie Davies-Arai of Transgender Trend, a group campaigning against the medical transitioning of children.

　　然而，政府放弃性别身份认证的决定，不太可能阻止这场辩论，也不太可能让罗琳免受网络攻击。这是因为《平等法案》，已经允许跨性别女性在某些情况下进入女性空间。“自我识别不可能合法化，但它已经成为整个英国社会有效的公共政策，”跨性别趋势组织的Stephanie Davies-Arai说，该组织是一个反对对儿童实施变性手术的组织。

　　7. As well as protecting people on the basis of race and other characteristics, the Equality Act protects “gender reassignment”, a vague term. The law is “too open to interpretation”, says Rosa Freedman, a professor of law at Reading University. Under the act, trans women may enter some women’s spaces, although they can be excluded if the bar can be proved to be “aproportionate means to achieving a legitimate aim”. The lack of clarity leaves space for groups on both sides to lobby public bodies for their preferred interpretation. Ms Davies-Arai calls it “self-ID by the back door”.

　　《平等法案》除了保护基于种族和其他特征的人之外，也保护“性别重置，”这是一个很模糊的术语。雷丁大学(Reading University)法学教授罗莎•弗里德曼表示，这项法律“太过模糊，没法给出准确解释”。根据该法案，跨性别女性可以进入一些女性空间，但是，如果能够证明禁止她们进入女性空间是 “达到合法目的的适当手段”，那么，她们就会被排除在外。由于这一术语不够明确，双方团体都能够游说公共机构，让它们接受自己的解释。Davies-Arai女士称之为“走后门的自我识别”。

　　8. “We need a legal definition of four things: woman, female, sex and gender identity,” says Professor Freedman. Ms Rowling has some ideas on definition: “‘Woman’ is not a costume, ‘woman’ is not an idea in a man’s head, ‘woman’ is not a pink brain,” she wrote recently.

　　弗里德曼教授说:“我们需要对女人，女性，性别和性别认同进行定义。”罗琳称，“女人不是由一套衣服决定的，女人也不是男人脑海中的某一个概念，女人更不是所谓的粉色大脑。”