I've been on a journey on trans issues - and I have ended up a long way from some or even many in my tribe - and I wanted to set out some things I've learned along the way. THREAD
If you find yourself constantly at odds with younger generations (who as a rule are totally cool with being trans) the thing you swore would never happen probably has. Perhaps the process of becoming your parents - out-of-touch know-it-alls - is subtler than once you credited?
If you are a man and the reality of your engagement with equality issues is that you do little more than default to the views of a significant woman in your life that doesn't make you woke it makes you lazy.
If the people you find yourself agreeing with are overwhelmingly comfortably off and from an empowered class you should ask yourself whether your analysis of the problem is intersectional enough. Is it good enough for you to proceed from how you experience the establishment?
If the first thing you think of when you think of trans people is their genitals you're like the homophobe who once debated whether gay sex was natural. Why does your mind fly to that? Their genitals are not really any of your business.
If you won't contemplate that good people can do bad things you are complacent. It's easy to be complacent when you are of my tribe - we have it all, or most of it anyway - but it is also wrong.
If you are driven to anger by revolting things said - and goodness knows much is - to people you agree with there is a good chance you are being manipulated by bots. Don't allow them to drive you to hate - and don't weaponise them in hate against your opponents.
If you experience these issues as simple you almost certainly don't understand them. Take the time to do so before you participate. When it comes to false narratives about the treatment trans kids get there is no better place to start than here. gids.nhs.uk/puberty-and-ph…
These are my thoughts - but really this thread is about listening and learning. So I'd love to hear what else those in my tribe - privileged, white, middle class, in our forties or fifties - should do...
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"How I was cancelled": read all about it in the Mail, the Telegraph, UnHerd, the Times, the Spectator...
What is indisputable fact is that the Guardian - which repeatedly covered the case brought by the anti-abortionist's and homophobe's lawyer of choice, Paul Conrathe - has not given one inch to @GoodLawProject's attempt to secure trans kids can secure a therapeutic assessment.
Moreover, it appears as though Comment is Free was blocked from carrying a piece in support of the Good Law Project litigation. This is not a comment on its younger staff, but I would say the editorial line of the Guardian is more transphobic than that of the Mail.
When the future history of the rise in England of hatecrime, antiscience and lietelling comes to be written the finger will be pointed squarely at the BBC for its failure to engage in a thoughtful way with what "impartiality" requires.
The BBC's intellectually flabby conflation of that which is properly contestable with that which is contested by marginal interests both confers legitimacy on the illegitimate and is antithetical to its charter obligation to "act in the public interest."
It shouldn't matter, right? We should be tackling the illegitimate ideas rather than the media that promotes them. However, the BBC's monopolistic voice makes it the only arbiter that matters of legitimacy. And it consistently arbitrates wrongly.
On a case about the lawfulness of waiting lists approaching four years to access *triaging* for a time-sensitive treatment, the BBC chose to go, not to an expert doctor, but to the LGB Alliance. Goodness knows why, but here is some stuff you need to know about the LGB Alliance.
One of its founders says LGBT+ clubs – a safe space for many LGBT+ schoolchildren to accept their sexuality – shouldn’t exist because of “predatory gay teachers”. pinknews.co.uk/2020/01/23/lgb…
Another of its founder/activists - Gary Powell - has links with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative, anti-abortion think-tank in the US that opposes same-sex marriage. pinknews.co.uk/2020/06/03/lgb…
"Doctors and experts all over the world agree on the healthcare that I and other trans people need. But in this country, it is impossible to get access to this care." goodlawproject.org/update/nhs-dut…
I was really moved by this conversation I had with Susie, about how different her life would have been had she been able to access treatment that is available throughout the progressive world (except the United Kingdom). nam02.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%…
Here is the interview with Reece - but without the dark money funded political hate groups the BBC chose to legitimate. bbc.co.uk/news/av/health…