Gary L. Francione is an American animal rights activist and anti-transgender activist. Francione claims transgender people hold “metaphysical spiritual beliefs,” so “it is not ‘transphobic’ to refuse to embrace trans belief claims.”
Background
Gary Lawrence Francione was born in May 1954. Francione earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Rochester, followed by master’s and law degrees from University of Virginia.
After clerking for judge Albert Tate, Jr., and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Francione practiced at Cravath, Swaine & Moore.
In 1984, Francione joined the faculty of University of Pennsylvania Law School, earning tenure in 1987. While there, Francione began teaching animal rights jurisprudence. In 1989, Francione took an appointment at Rutgers. In 1990, Francione co-founded the Rutgers Animal Rights Law Project with Anna Charlton, and it ran for about a decade. Francione developed the abolitionist theory of animal rights, which holds that the foundational right of animals is not to be property.
Anti-transgender activism
Francione is a sex segregationist who opposes restructuring social institutions to eliminate the remaining vestiges of sex segregation. Francione’s litany of anti-transgender complaints reveal a deep involvement in the anti-trans movement. Most of Francione’s complaints come down to “protection for women.”
In 2023, Francione posted an anti-trans manifesto on Medium, which promptly removed it it for being “content that may undermine the dignity and rights of transgender and/or non-binary individuals.” According to Francione, “I apparently violated the rules because I stated the fact that trans women are biological males.” Francione then reposted it on a personal blog.
Francione cites the work of other anti-trans activists, including Kathleen Stock, Holly Lawford-Smith, Helen Joyce, Colin Wright, Kenneth Zucker, Jo Bartosch, JK Rowling, Sonia Sodha, and Andrew Doyle. Francione also cites conservative trans people like Debbie Hayton.
Francione’s primary point is that the categories of “male” and “female” represent “biological reality.” Like many anti-trans people, Francione blames postmodernism for the current advances and refinements in thinking among biologists. Francione is especially anxious about advances in reproductive technology that threaten the sex segregationist worldview: “If you want to have offspring, you must find a member of the opposite sex.” Tell that to Dolly the Sheep. By the end of this century, the way people like Francione currently think about reproduction will be irrelevant.
Francione seems to be more annoyed and offended by transfeminine people than transmasculine people, attacking transgender athletes, transgender prisoners, “academic freedom,” and other anti-trans chestnuts. Francione finds the existence of same-gender loving trans people to be vexing and argues that refusing to date an entire group of people is not biased or prejudiced.
Francione is correct that single-occupancy toilets, changing rooms, and showering facilities for everyone are part of our movement’s goals.
References
Francione, Gary L. (August 2, 2023). The Trans Rights Issue: Equality Claims and Belief Claims. Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach https://www.abolitionistapproach.com/the-trans-rights-issue-equality-claims-and-belief-claims/
- Original banned post: https://gary-francione.medium.com/the-trans-rights-issue-equality-claims-and-belief-claims-6511da0c843c [archive]
Francione, Gary L. (August 2, 2023). The Six Principles of the Abolitionist Approach to Animal Rights. Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach https://www.abolitionistapproach.com/about/the-six-principles-of-the-abolitionist-approach-to-animal-rights/
Resources
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)