Trans Writes Contributors

The Office for National Statistics has released data from the 2021 census which for the first time ever includes statistics about the numbers of trans and non-binary living in England and Wales. Here Tom Pashby takes a look at the transgender and non-binary census data;

"As I led the first ever all trans masc football team in Europe onto that pitch to thunderous applause, all my worries melted away. It didn’t matter what the score was; it didn’t matter if I left the field covered in mud and smelling like the Year 9 boys PE changing room. We made history here."

A document from 2020 obtained by Trans Writes reveals that the Government Equalities Offices were completely aware of LGB Alliance's anti-trans lobbying before meeting with them. Jess O'Thomson writes;

We all know this scenario, you are down to clown and the mood is set. You pull out your well curated collection of toys like a wine connoisseur of orgasms. You click that bad boy into your harness, ready to ruin this lovely person who is ready to be jack hammered into the afterlife. But alas you are fat and the harness isn’t big enough, even worse the fabric cuts into your skin like paper cuts and the jackhammering has ended with a weird plop as the toy has abandoned all hope and unceremoniously falls out of the o-ring of your harness. No worries though, the days of horny fat suffering have come to an end.

As a Black trans person and long-time resident of San Francisco, I was excited for the opportunity to review Miss Major Speaks. While I haven’t had the honor of meeting Miss Major Griffin-Gracy in person, I have met and worked with many trans folks whose lives she has touched, several of whom are named in the book’s Acknowledgements.

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.

For Women Scotland case has been lost. This was an appeal in which they argued that women with a GRC should not be considered of the female sex for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010. The judgment of the Inner House of the Court of Session - Scotland’s highest court - held that a trans woman with a GRC falls within the definition of ‘woman’ for the purposes of section 11 of the Equality Act 2010, which protects against discrimination on the basis of sex.

Between striking nurses and ambulance workers, twelve or more hour waits in A&E, and patients getting passed from service to service with no actual care provided, a lot of people are seeing what a non-functioning National Health Service can look like. A sight we are all to familiar with when trying to access trans healthcare on the NHS.

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. 

It’s not often that I experience a piece of art that feels as tailored to my own lived experiences as Goodbye Volcano High, a game about dinosaur teens trying to chase their dreams and been seen for who they are, as they endure the slow burn trauma of living through the possible incoming extinction of their species.