Las Vegas Review-Journal columnist Victor Joecks has been accused of disparaging the transgender community as a result of an article published in the newspaper in early July.

André C. Wade, executive director of the Gay and Lesbian Community Center of Southern Nevada (The Center) is leading the charges against Joecks and the Review-Journal penned a response that has been published in the paper.

In a July 11 press release, The Center accused Joecks’ article, titled “Transgender debate about stopping left’s attempts to redefine reality” and published July 6, of having “disparaged the transgender community and made many false claims.”

The Center and other readers took issue with such lines as Joecks’ declaration that the fight for trans rights is a debate “as to whether feelings should be treated the same and even elevated above scientific realities” and that “the conflict has come because the left is demanding that society treat someone’s gender identity — aka their feelings — as being on par with the scientific and objective reality of gender.”

Rebutted Wade: “Unbeknownst to Mr. Joecks, we already demand that society treat someone’s gender identity as our ‘objective reality of gender.’”

“Over the past decades we’ve learned more and more about the difference between biological sex and gender, which is one of the fundamental pieces of information that helps to shape the discussion,” continued Wade. “In basic form, sex is the anatomy of one’s reproductive systems, whereas gender is based upon one’s concept of themselves or their role in society. For a small percentage of people, the biological sex they were assigned at birth does not match their gender identity.”

“When a news outlet makes statements of that in Mr. Joecks column, it does nothing but continue the cycles of misunderstanding and fear of the unknown in our community,” said Joseph Oddo, Jr., vice president of The Center’s board of directors. “Now is not the time to create a rhetoric that embodies intolerance, we are persistent in pushing forward because the LGBTQ community is intolerant of intolerance.”

Wade’s open letter to Joecks and the paper was published in the Review-Journal on July 15, but according to The Center’s press release, it “went unanswered.”

The press release finishes: “Mr. Joecks, if you are reading this, we invite you to join us to, as André Wade stated in his letter ‘join me and a few transgender identified people to engage in a meaningful dialogue about the needs of their community’”.