News

The horrendous news that the memorial to transgender people was urinated on by multiple people before being irreparable damaged was not covered by any of the national newspapers in the UK

On Monday 12 June, MPs met in Westminster Hall for a three hour debate on the definition of sex in the Equality Act 2010. Last week we covered the debate in a general sense but left out the unbecoming behaviour that caused an uproar on social media as we felt it deserved its own article. Moss writes;

An employment tribunal has found that a trans woman was discriminated against when she was asked about her use of the changing areas. This discrimination was based on the protected characteristic of gender reassignment.

JK Rowling has begun trending on Twitter in the aftermath of the protest as trans people in particular remember that in June 2020 JK Rowling posted the following tweet; "I respect every trans person's right to live any way that feels authentic and comfortable to them. I'd march with you if you were discriminated against on the basis of being trans. At the same time, my life has been shaped by being female. I do not believe it's hateful to say so."

Last month, I had the privilege of performing in an original trans play called Real Boy - written by my talented friend (and director) Finn Evans and Ramonah Gibson - which follows a trans boy fighting for a Disney-like Pinocchio dream of ‘becoming a real boy’.

So what happened is that a few people on the internet saw Halifax make an inclusive gesture - during pride month, when brands tend to do that sort of stuff - and got upset about it online. The media then got involved to amp up the story and try to make it into a moment by writing about and sharing it widely via their platforms. Which they did entirely for the clicks because they don't really care one way or another what happens with regards to trans inclusion - they literally just want you to visit their site and share it with your friends for the ad revenue.