What’s Going On In Britain?

There is a lot of anti-trans media going on in Britain lately to stir up hate against us in the last six months. One some of that hate is coming from the lesbian and gay community members.

The truth about Stonewall – the LGBT group that won'tsupport London Pride
The spat between the largest LGBTQ organisation and Pride shows a courageous new era for Stonewall, under the leadership of Ruth Hunt. But there’s still room for more radical voices
The Guardian
By Owen Jones
4 Jul 2018
  From the outside, the spat between Britain’s biggest Pride festival and the country’s main LGBT organisation may look a bit Queer Front of Judea. Earlier this year, Stonewall pulled out of this Saturday’s Pride in London festival, citing a lack of diversity and committing to back Black Pride instead. UK Pride has hit back with a survey showing that Pride organisers rate Stonewall poorly. Ouch.
  Without wishing to intervene too much in this internecine grief, Stonewall does not deserve to be disparaged. Until relatively recently, the organisation seemed as though it catered for white, gay, middle-class, cis men, who dominate the LGBT world. Its focus was on securing legal rights, often via a softly-softly, “cups of tea with powerful people” approach. Even then, it refused for a long time to support equal marriage. One of its biggest letdowns was to fail to include trans people in its campaign for equality.
  This has changed radically under Ruth Hunt, who has run the organisation for four years. There are still clear limits to Stonewall’s radicalism – it is, after all, dependent on corporate donations – but Hunt has addressed many of its failings. It apologised for “harm that we have caused” for failing to campaign for trans rights and has proved an invaluable ally to trans people, not least during the recent anti-trans media moral panic. Hunt has been inundated with abuse for taking a brave stance, including from anti-trans activists infuriated that a cis, self-described “butch lesbian” is a leading trans ally (their narrative has been that trans rights is brocialist and anti-women).

In an opinion piece in the Guardian from last November…

Trans people already face a hostile world. Now the media ismaking it worse
By Paris Lees
November 17, 2017
  Trans children are at high risk of self-harm and bullying. What they need is understanding and support; what they receive is vilification and ridicule

Where is the anti-trans rhetoric coming from?

Yet religious extremists are invited on to morning television to argue that trans kids should be “helped” by forcing conversion therapy on them. The presenters Holly Willoughby and Phillip Schofield did a superb job of holding them to account, but why are we hearing from people with such extreme views in the first place? Nor do I understand how these bigots can claim to care about gender-diverse kids, yet fail to mention how vulnerable they are without proper family and medical support.
[…]
We need an urgent public debate on what is causing trans kids to feel so desperate, and who and what is causing it – things such as stigma, discrimination and lack of acceptance. Religious bigots and rightwing trolls don’t know what “help” these kids need, but I do. I’ve lived it.

We are exporting our hate!