Opinion

Several mainstream media publications have repeated the lie that the NHS has advised "most trans children are just going through a phase", including The Times, The Telegraph and Sky News.

So they sort-of debated the idea of non-binary representation, but mostly didn't. Instead opting to just do fearmongering and spread hateful rhetoric through parliament. Democracy! The whole thing wraps up with them patting themselves on the back for a job well done and deciding not to move forwards with any plans to include non-binary people in our legal system.

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. 

“everyone is talking on the scene” - What does the success of Kim Petras and Sam Smith say about the UK's attitude towards trans people? Oscar Rees writes;

So yeah, Rachel Reeves, if you have a problem with transgender women using the bathroom or changing areas? Then you can wait outside. As can any other transphobe. I am not asking for permission to use women's spaces, I am asserting my rights to not be discriminated against for being transgender.

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.

My personal, Gemma Stone, opinion on this is that we should escalate it as far as it will go; and then keep on complaining if we have to. It seems like a minor thing, one article about us portraying us as sexually violent - but its more than that. In my opinion a victory here is getting the article taken down and sending the message to the BBC that what they did was dangerous, harmful and will not be tolerated.

With all the talk of chest binders after mainstream media took aim at them and Mermaids UK we are seeing the same pattern. The voices of those actually affected by the issues are not being heard. Correcting that for Trans Writes is Keith Ramsted with his chest binding story about the need for harm reduction;

A bill aimed at making the lives of trans people marginally less obstructive has attracted widespread media attention, including with opposition from prominent media figures such as JK Rowling. However the Scottish Gender Recognition Reform has finally passed into law following today's vote.

The Conservative government in the UK are determined to push forwards on using transgender people as a wedge issue in order to distract from their incompetence. They are fanning the flames of the culture war so that you forget the thousands of our family members who died alone and in agony as they lapped up the luxuries in parties while paying their mates millions of your money to invariably do a terrible job of providing basics like PPE to hospitals.