Ask HN: As a white cis-gender male you can't comment on [woke cause]?

Is this a reasonable rule or just a disguised attempt to silence critics?

I had this pulled on me recently in the form of "what right does J.K. Rowling have to comment on trans issues as cis-gender female". It caught me off guard and it didn't sound unreasonable.

But then she's a woman, and she was talking about if trans people should be able to use women's restrooms - an issue specific to both trans people and women. So she has standing even by this rule.

Going deeper. Does that mean as a man I can't have an opinion on abortion? Many women would say that's true. I'm not so sure it is. It's also an issue about human life, so just by expanding the category to all humans, I would have standing even by this rule.

Let's take it further. As a non-Jewish man, I can't have an opinion on the Holocaust? As a non-Chinese I can't have an opinion of the torture, indoctrination, and sterilization of the Uighurs? As a non-US citizen I can't have an opinion on President Trump?

I think that's nonsense to put it politely.