At a time of unprecedented awareness of the Trans+ community, we have never been more misunderstood. The week following the Supreme Court ruling has made that painfully clear. We have always been here. We’ve tried so hard to be treated with just a modicum of respect. And we’ve been failed.
The ruling has left me seriously questioning why I do what I do, and I have at times felt incredibly disheartened and helpless.
Yet I continue to work so hard in my chosen field, under the belief that if I tell my story of being trans with creativity, humour and relatability, it can be part of shifting the narrative. I hold onto the understanding, even though so much of my hope for change has been stolen away from me since the ruling.
In a moment of executive dysfunction the evening after the Supreme Court ruling, I spent hours researching the companies who’d signed Stonewall’s campaign for Trans Rights in 2020.
Had they shared anything on their socials or their websites in support of the community they pledged to back? It felt like a helpful distraction. Of the 131 I checked, only 22 had shared a message of support, and they were either LGBTQIA+ or inclusion-specific. That bears repeating: not a single message of support for Trans+ people from over 131 globally recognised brands.
I felt pretty stupid after that. Did I really think Admiral Insurance was going to stand up for Trans+ rights? Did any of us really think that signing a pledge would be enough?
It used to be. Those were the conditions of visibility. Show people that we exist, that we deserve to take up space in society.
As of this moment, we have never been more visible. Yet that visibility is hurting us, because it has not evolved - or been complemented by the kind of actions that inspire understanding.
As musician SuIThink emotively observed on the StraightDiva podcast, many women who spout anti-trans views do so because they’re rightfully angry at sexist, patriarchal attitudes. However, because of a lack of understanding about trans women and the Trans+ community at large, they’re directing that anger at a marginalised powerless group. And that’s because fighting the real enemy is monumentally hard.
We’ve not adequately made the case for why visibility matters. We’ve been forced to answer too many ‘what’ questions, and ‘what is a woman?’ is the most contentious of them all.
But there’s a question behind that which we should be asking: why do trans people deserve to be treated the same as cis people? This instantly changes the conversation. It’s a more inspiring social problem to address. It also crucially centres us in the territory of morality.
As I was reminded listening to Gillian Russell, an amazing elder Trans+ community member and chair of the Beyond Reflections charity, phoning into James O’Brien’s LBC show last week, the statistics show that when somebody knows a trans person, they are twice as likely to be supportive of Trans+ people’s rights. We cease to be this scary, supposedly new-fangled thing on their phone screen or in a newspaper headline, and we become human to them.
This ruling is an opportunity, a chance for a re-introduction. It’s hard to see it that way. But we’ve never had so much attention - so let’s use it.
We haven’t been winning the argument. And we never will when others dictate that the question to answer is whether we even exist. Telling people why we exist, why we are demanding our rights, why this is important - that’s how we will inspire people to support us.
Awareness days and weeks are fantastic, but they don’t always ask anything of the average person. They do not demand further understanding from people or promote action.
That’s why campaigns like Trans+ History Week are so vital, as they bring people together to learn about the community and call them to take action in a meaningful way. Why the #TransYouthAreLoved campaign had such a big reach, with allies using their platform to shout about values we can all understand. Why trans comedian Chris McCallister’s “I Can Tell” viral posts, which encouraged positive comments about Trans+ lives in the comments, have had such an impact. We need more initiatives and work like this.
Writing to you as a trans lesbian during Lesbian Visibility Week, after all the events of the last week, I feel very vulnerable right now. But I also feel more accepted and loved by my community and allies than ever.
The outpouring of love and support has been overwhelming, and I’ve been so encouraged by the visible demonstrations of support from people, organisations, local businesses. I have been reminded not of what I do, but why I do it. Because I believe the vast majority of people have been grossly misinformed about Trans+ people, and that at their core they believe in fairness for all.
This moment may bring up understandable feelings of hopelessness. But it also asks us to better amplify the answer to the direct question of why are trans rights so important: Because we deserve them, because we need them to live safely, to be loved and thrive in happy lives - just like everybody else.
🔵 Contact your local Pride team and ask them to question their financial supporters on their support of Trans+ rights. They should be asking their sponsors what meaningful and visibly supportive actions they are taking.
🔵 Get involved in a national or local cause. Trans+ Solidarity Alliance this week launched Unite4TransRights, a movement for taking action on trans rights worldwide.
🔵 If you feel comfortable, speak to your employer or place of work, ask them to express their solidarity visibly, and to sign Consortium’s statement expressing open support of the Trans+ community.
🔵 Get to know more Trans+ people! Having someone like us to meet up with or chat with on the phone is one of the biggest actions we can take. We will get through this in community and in solidarity.
We deserve good news too.
When there is so much hate out there, it's easy to get swept up in the doom.
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And in the newsletter where this was first published, there was actually a bunch of positive news to celebrate. It shows me that despite the headlines knocking us down, we're getting right back up again and using our anger to fuel our fight.
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