Rhetoric and violence against transgender people have become widespread. This increase has been accompanied by debates in mainstream academic spaces that undermine the lived experiences of transgender people and erroneously pit transgender people against cisgender women’s safety and rights. Psychology has not been exempt from this.
The Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science Executive Committee (SIPS EC) condemns anti-transgender bigotry and violence and denounces attempts to invalidate transgender people’s gender identity under the guise of putative scientific facts. This pseudoscientific rhetoric goes against scientific consensus and empowers behaviors that threaten the dignity, well-being, and human rights of transgender people.
The SIPS EC also affirms its commitment to inclusivity; the Society cannot realize its mission of achieving a broad and diverse research community without being inclusive. Making the field of psychology better requires enabling people with different identities and perspectives to come together to share ideas and knowledge. That members of transgender and gender diverse communities must worry about being harassed, threatened, and assaulted is unacceptable; the egregious harm caused to transgender people is compounded by the loss of their contributions to their scholarly communities.
Feminism and gender equality are not threatened by accurate and respectful attention to the rights of the transgender community—they are incomplete without it. The SIPS EC, therefore, calls on its members and the larger psychological science community to support transgender scholars and communities by reporting anti-transgender behavior everywhere it occurs, including SIPS events (see our Code of Conduct). We also ask that you read and consider signing this open letter about a high court decision earlier this month that limited self-report of legal sex on the 2021 census in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
A scientific community that does not provide psychological safety to all scientists perpetuates harm to those who are targeted and alienates researchers who strengthen the science.
If you wish to signal your support for this statement by the SIPS EC, please complete this form. We will add you to a list of signatories on our website.
Resources:
Fatal Violence Against the Transgender and Gender Non-Conforming Community in 2021
SIPS Twitter Thread re: SAGE Methods, February 18, 2021
Open Letter on Collecting High Quality Census Data on Sex and Gender
Signed,
SIPS Executive Committee
The following individuals co-sign this statement:
Heather Urry, PhD, Professor, Psychology, Tufts University
Siobhan Thomas, MS, PhD Researcher, School of Applied Psychology, University College Cork
Lisa DeBruine, PhD, Professor, Institute of Neuroscience and Psychology, University of Glasgow
Tomiko Yoneda, MS, Graduate Student, Department of Psychology, University of Victoria
Rodrigo de Almeida, MA, Psychologist, Psychology, University of the Basque Country
Esther Maassen, MS, Tilburg University
Jamie Cummins, PhD, Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University
Madeline Harms, PhD, Visiting Assistant Professor, Psychology, Macalester College
Crystal Steltenpohl, PhD, Assistant professor, Psychology, University of Southern Indiana
Marco Schauer
Jens Fuenderich, MA, University of Erfurt
David Bauer, PhD, Professor, Psychology, Viterbo University
Benjamin Le, PhD, Professor of Psychology, Psychology, Haverford College
Yurik Yang, BA, Crisis Center Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Indonesia
Gwen van der Wijk, MA, PhD candidate, Psychology, University of Calgary