This piece will cover the way trans activists have appropriated people with disorders of sexual development and anthropologist’s work on the way other societies recognise people as “third genders”. In both cases the intent is to undermine facts about sexual dimorphism (there are only two sexes) and to claim “trans” people have always been with us. As is often the case the claims have a factual basis but, once appropriated by trans activists the facts are re-purposed to serve the agenda of men trapped in men’s bodies.
Third Genders
It starts off reasonably enough by accepting that labelling historical figures as “transgender” is a dangerous business. The term was only invented in the twentieth century. However, it is imperative that people believe that “trans people” have always been with us so DSDs and cultures who accept “third gender” are pressed into service. After a promising start, Burns soon veers off into magical thinking.

What people like Burns need is a script to explain who they are and, naturally enough, the labels of transvestic fetishist /autogynephile are shunned. For those who are afflicted with these paraphilia the shame causes narcissistic injury should anyone use accurate labels. More palatable explanations are, arguably, a psychological necessity and this is where “third genders” and people with DSDs come in. The different ways other cultures accommodated, mainly homosexual, men are seized upon.

The examples are real enough.

It is true that many societies found a way to accommodate homosexual men by introducing the concept of a different kind of man (it was mainly men). In some cases this may have been a more benign way of recognising gay men; though this is not to ignore the subtext that gay men are “not real men”. The story of the hjjra seems, however, to have a somewhat darker underbelly as covered by Vaishnavi Sundar in this piece.
and this one 👇
It seems that, in this instance, this may have always been, or has become, a way to press boys into sexual slavery to accommodate the peccadilloes (perversions) of men with an appetite for young boys.
It is noticeable that there are less examples of accommodations for females who don’t fit the sex stereotypes of their age/culture. The examples I have found allowed widows, or only daughters, to become the “man” of the house and therefore be socially sanctioned to work to support their families/inherit land. One example is the Albanian Burrneshas or “sworn virgins”.

Females have long been barred from inheritance or certain occupations and to, publicly, embark on relationships with other women. This would seem to explain the examples of women, masquerading as men, put forward by Burns. In fact he does acknowledge that, in the examples from the U.K, there were more women than men, identifying out of their sex. Burns found this “interesting”. He cannot probe further or it will topple the house of cards he is building.

There does not appear to have been negative coverage of these women, when discovered and this is surely because it is a tale of two sexes. Just as in 2022 there is less concern about females “invading” male spaces because they simple have less propensity for sexual violence and less able to overpower a man.
Burns acknowledges that in claiming women who disguised themselves to access male professions, like “James Barry”, the trans activists are appropriating women’s, often Lesbian heroines. (James Barry was female and adopted a male persona to gain access to the medical profession. Something not possible, as a woman).

Disorders of Sexual Development (DSDs).
It is often claimed that people who have a DSD, undermine the fact that we are a sexually dimorphic species. This is one of the more shameful of appropriations, because some of these conditions are life-threatening and many come with an inability to reproduce. Not only that but some of them are girls who would have had an oestrogen fuelled puberty, and have no idea they are chromosomally male until their teenage years. Having a condition called CAIS ( Complete androgen insensitivity syndrome) means a total inability to process testosterone. They will mainly be socialised as females and may only discover their predicament when menstruation doesn’t occur.
Most children with CAIS are raised as females. They usually have their testes surgically removed because undescended testes can become cancerous later on. They may need treatment to develop the vagina. They develop breasts but do not have menstrual periods and may have very little pubic and/or underarm hair. They may also need to take estrogen, a female hormone, for the rest of their lives.
Since gender identity ideology is essentially a parasitic movement the experiences of “intersex” people have been weaponised to advance the argument that trans-identified males are another kind of “intersex”. Some TRAs publicly claim to be intersex, with little evidence, and Burn’s covers the most egregious imposter, Roberta Cowell.
Cowell was an ex spitfire pilot, a motor racing, heterosexual, father of two. To access medical treatment he claimed to be “intersex”. In order to persuade his doctor he had to repudiate his children and, publicly, accuse his wife of infidelity. Something which must have earned her opprobrium in the aftermath of World War 2. He walked out on his daughters in 1948 and would never see them again. He died alone and impoverished, at the age of 93, his daughters would not find out about his death until two years later.
Burns makes some acknowledgment of this when describing the Jewish acknowledgment of 6 genders and concedes this was likely a description of DSDs:

A woman who was born with a condition called MRKH wrote about a “transsexual” who encourage the “trans” community to identify as intersex. Unfortunately the linked article appears to have been removed.
Why do TRAs claim to be intersex?
Here are the alleged contents of O’Keefe’s essay.

Lies, half truths and obfuscation
In conclusion the attempts to claim a long history of “trans people” are based on half truths and outright lies. William Shakespeare said it best:

Where there’s smoke there’s mirrors.
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Researching the history and the present of the “transgender” movement and the harm it is wreaking on our society.
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