The decision, which again we still don't fully know the truth of as both The Times and The Daily Mail have a record of fudging things for the express purpose of hurting our community, has been widely criticised within said community. Lots of people are scared, upset and angry - many have even called it an abuse of power and others still are looking into their legal options.
I would go on and dissect more of this but its really all just the same. A complete disregard for transgender lives and an attempt to make transphobia easier to practice in the media for bigots. The point isn't fairness, equality, accuracy or balance. Its simply to create a double standard wherein the actual identity of a transgender person becomes part of the story - something that is literally never on the table when cisgender people commit crimes.
Its my view that these rules won't stand up to legal scrutiny and will amount to discrimination despite their best efforts not to. Not only that, but it will also put pressure on healthcare organisations to allow younger transitions to happen - something which the anti-trans forces behind campaigns such as "protecting women's sports" also campaign against.
The evidence is clear, UK transphobia is ramping up its efforts in targeting trans youth in particular. I spoke with numerous children's charities month ago who told me they were "not prepared" to give comment on these issues because its a sensitive area which they need to get it right on.
The debate was attended by so many, from different parties and nations. Yet all came to the same conclusion: conversion “therapy” is abuse. The overrepresentation of LGB+ MPs (the only openly trans MP, Jamie Wallis, was not present) shows that as much as the media attempt to divide us, we are a united community.
I would prefer to centre desire and will when talking about transition. To me, transition is more than meeting a medical need, just like crossing the Rubicon was more than Caesar getting his feet wet. It’s taking your life in your hands and shaping it yourself. I think that’s beautiful. I didn’t transition to “alleviate my dysphoria,” I transitioned because I fucking wanted to. Who is the state, or a doctor, to tell me I can’t?
When you take away someone’s name, you take away their right to live their life peacefully: their right to work, to study, to interact with others, and even to consume products and services without having to share their personal (and medical!) history with complete strangers.
Trans Action Warwick regard this protest as a success. They say they achieved their aim of disrupting the event, using it to make a statement that we need to oppose transphobia and those who weaponise it against us. They believe we can’t gain liberation by attending and asking "difficult questions" alone and that doing so risks legitimising the answers and normalising the negative way transphobes talk about trans people.
The untold damage to the psyche of those of us in the Section 28 Generation has yet to be genuinely explored; but it might explain why many of us in the 35-50 age bracket who now understand ourselves to be nonbinary watched in horror as the parliamentary “debate” on nonbinary recognition unfolded. A ghostly recreation of the ignorance, dismissiveness, whataboutery and speculative fiction that led so many of us to be left without any guidance or support in the 80s; let alone reassurances that there was nothing wrong with us.
I do not care to weigh in on the discourse surrounding single-sex schools in general, but I am telling you that in my experience at an all-girlls school I was not protected from sexism, gender conformity, or transness (even before this became the boogeyman in the UK). Teaching LGBTQIA+ topics is an absolute must in helping equip students to understand and protect themselves from the experiences such as mine.
At first there was mixed feelings due to concerns about safety, not least as many of us faced harassment when we joined the ‘end SARS’ protest in 2020. Eventually we agreed. We are so tired of hiding, running away and living in fear; we had to do something and so we planned a protest for May 1st 2022. The first ever protest of its kind to be held in Nigeria!
The decision, which again we still don't fully know the truth of as both The Times and The Daily Mail have a record of fudging things for the express purpose of hurting our community, has been widely criticised within said community. Lots of people are scared, upset and angry - many have even called it an abuse of power and others still are looking into their legal options.
I would go on and dissect more of this but its really all just the same. A complete disregard for transgender lives and an attempt to make transphobia easier to practice in the media for bigots. The point isn't fairness, equality, accuracy or balance. Its simply to create a double standard wherein the actual identity of a transgender person becomes part of the story - something that is literally never on the table when cisgender people commit crimes.
