Opinion

To me, the trans community is like a big bag of pick n’ mix – some are sweet, some are sour, some are soft, some are crunchy. We are strawberry laces and chocolate nougat and caramel buttons. Fruity gummy bears and rainbow Skittles. On days like Trans Pride London, surrounded by my family of trans candy; I felt as happy as a kid in a sweet shop.

This is important because if its true that women are more likely to be gender critical then it would support the claim of indirect discrimination based on sex and sexuality, which is what Bailey alleges happened. However the barristers supporting the defendants, Garden Court Chambers and Stonewall UK, were very quick to shut this idea down. Not only citing polls which disprove that anti-trans views are more common amongst women, such as one by YouGov, which aren't hampered by the selection bias of dedicated anti-trans groups. But also with a thorough cross-examination of supporting evidence too.

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. 

Taking to Twitter JK Rowling wrote: "I'm afraid I can't give a shout out to everyone promising to murder me - there are so many of you, and I'm a busy woman - but this one deserves a mention for the nineties rave vibe, @TrustFundOzu". I for one just wish she would post one that is a legitimate threat of violence and not like... some random child posting a bugs bunny meme.

Many have also remarked on the fact that the list describes itself as being there to promote books that "readers might not have read before". That includes Susheila Nasta, who worked on the project and spoke to BBC Radio 4 on the subject. She adds that the Philosopher's Stone was on the longlist of 153 books, but didn't make the final cut. With the reasoning for that being that "its a children's book".

If you are transgender and despaired at reading all this, I can only apologise. However, as a community, we will get through it. We are being made the focus of the tory leadership race to distract from the real societal problems such as the cost of living crisis because they have no solutions. The Conservatives have been in power for over a decade, these issues are of their own making. Transgender people existed long before they were elected, and we’ll be around after they leave government. We will win.

Dylan Tippetts for Compton in Plymouth, Kira Lewis for Higham Hill in Waltham Forest, Isla Wrathmell for Vauxhall in London's Lambeth, and Elaine Gallagher in Glasgow were all successful in the vote, earning their place on their local councils.

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. 

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.

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!