TL;DR: Rishi Sunak returned to one of his favourite transphobic dog whistles during PMQs this week. For once, it was almost universally rebuked, contrasted by the media with sympathetic portrayals of the mother of murdered trans teenager Brianna Ghey. When transphobia is shown to have devastating real-world impacts on good people, it undermines the entire project of transphobic hate.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made a jibe about trans women during Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). This is not the first time he has made such comments.
However, this time, Sunak has faced significant backlash over his ‘joke’. This is because the mother of the murdered trans teenager, Brianna Ghey, was expected in the public gallery when the comment was made. Esther Ghey was in Parliament following the sentencing of Brianna’s killers the previous week - ITV
Messages between the killers, heard during the trial, clearly demonstrated the role of transphobia in Brianna’s murder - Trans Writes
In her sentencing remarks, judge Mrs Justice Yip held that Brianna’s murder had been motivated in part by anti-trans hostility. The Crown Prosecution Service stated that they considered the murder a transphobic hate crime - QueerAF
Esther Ghey, in a statement read out to the court, noted that one of the killers was motivated to murder Brianna because he “hated trans people”.
Why did Rishi Sunak’s anti-trans dog-whistle ‘joke’ get condemned this time?
The political mistake made here by Rishi Sunak was not to make a joke about trans people; he has done so previously with far less backlash.
Rather, by making the comment in front of Brianna’s mother, he inadvertently drew a connection between transphobic rhetoric, and the real, sympathetic lives of a murdered trans child and her grieving family.
At least for those presenting themselves as having ‘reasonable concerns’, transphobic rhetoric is only effective when it attacks fictionalised caricatures of trans people - frightening potential rapists who want to invade women’s bathrooms.
This narrative does not work when it confronts the reality - that trans people are regular, though often vulnerable people, who simply want to be able to get on with their lives.
It would seem that many anti-trans commentators and publications are aware of this. This is why we saw repeated attempts to deny the role of transphobia in Brianna’s murder.
It was vital to separate the horrifying reality of a dead trans child and her grieving family from the invented political enemy that trans people represent, and who anti-trans rhetoric is weaponised against.
Recognising that transphobia has real-world impacts on sympathetic people undermines the entire project.
What does this moment expose about the anti-trans machine?
Despite the horror in response to Sunak’s comments, some ‘gender critical’ figures seem unaffected by such concerns.
Kellie Jay Keen (aka Posie Parker) is a prominent anti-trans activist. Many ‘gender critical’ activists attend her ‘Let Women Speak’ events, and purchase her popular ‘Adult Human Female’ merchandise.
On Friday, following the sentencing of Brianna Ghey’s murderers, Keen took the opportunity to publicly attack Brianna’s mother, calling her “evil” for supporting her daughter’s transition before she was killed.
Analysis: This isn’t about the etiquette of grief, it’s about the violence transphobia is inciting
These attacks aren’t conceptual, uncommon, or confined to online spaces - they’re real. I see them first-hand. Just for reporting on the role of transphobia in Brianna’s murder, I have been baselessly called a ‘groomer’ and subjected to death threats. I was physically attacked whilst reporting at an anti-trans protest last year - QueerAF
The Prime Minister’s widely-condemned remark has added to the atmosphere that puts trans lives like Brianna Ghey’s in jeopardy - The Independent
The murder of Brianna Ghey and the response to it has shone a light on the operation of transphobia and the very real consequences of its normalisation.
It is vital that we address this - and not simply as a matter of etiquette in front of a grieving mother.
Rather, we must resist continued attempts to depict us as monsters rather than a very real and vulnerable community which is actively harmed by these narratives.
Let's invest in Trans+ journalists
Jess O'Thomson, who wrote this week's explainer and top-story of our newsletter, was perhaps the only Trans+ journalist in court to cover what might be the biggest queer story of both 2023 and 2024.
Given the media's extensive, voyeuristic, and dehumanising approach to the Ghey murder trial, that's a travesty.
Media organisations should have funded people with lived experience to go to this trial, not leaving journalists like O'Thomson to crowdfund for doing an incredible public service for our community.
That's exactly the kind of approach to journalism we want to take.
We might be a small not-for-profit publisher with limited budgets, but what O'Thomson's work shows is the power that we as a community have. Our ability to fundraise for Trans+ journalists, creatives and communicators to do what they do best.
That’s why we’re an audience-funded outlet, where you are our most important editor.
We want to continue to punch above our weight by investing the vast majority of our budget towards gender-diverse journalists - as you can see in our annual transparency report.
That’s what we’ve done this week, too, in a crucial week for transgender news. But imagine if we had the funds to do it more often? To focus on original investigations the trans community deserves, but the rest of the media ignores?
If you think our unique approach to journalism is the way forward, please give to our crowdfunded. You're already a member of QueerAF - which means your support makes a huge difference year round, but if you can spare an extra fiver, a tenner, or anything you can spare, we'll raise it in no time.
