The end of the UK’s Pride month of July should be a time in which we can all look back at a time of inclusivity and a community coming together to fight oppression, however it saddens me to say that the issue of transphobia within the feminist and LGBTQ+ communities has reared its ugly head. Whilst one would think that the month of Pride, as well as the whole nature of the LGBTQ+ community, would mean that the community would band together against the shared oppression faced, but the idea of oppression within the community, whether that be with racism, misogyny and transphobia, is nothing new. However, it has seemed that this most recent Pride month has exemplified the transphobic elements in the community, and just how much work there is left to do in order to eliminate this transphobic element from not only the LGBTQ+ community, but also from society as a whole.
This transphobia is not just a simple hatred of trans people, it delves into the realms of the erasure of non-binary identities, the vilification of trans people (especially in regard to bathroom laws), the idea that trans men or trans women are somehow less than cis people, and many others. This hatred/discrimination has been specifically been directed towards trans women, mainly due to the trans-misogyny that trans women have to inherently face in society. In fact, one of the worst things about the insidious nature of this transphobia and trans-misogyny is that is often disguised under the disguise of feminism. These people who use a narrative of violence against women, a strict and outdated view of gender and sex, and the problem of lesbian erasure in order to somehow justify their transphobia.
Feminism is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as: ‘the advocacy of women’s rights on the ground of the equality of the sexes.’ The language used here may be seen as outdated simply due to the fact that it makes remarks to the sexes and not gender equality as a whole, as well as the lack of mentioning of intersectionality, but it still does not fit in with a transphobic narrative which it is being used in order to perpetuate said narrative. This group has been labelled as TERFs (Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminists) and have been largely estranged from mainstream feminism due to their discriminatory nature. Whilst feminism has evolved and changed over the years, this sect within the feminist movement can be seen as extremely regressive and actually harmful to the perceptions society put onto the feminist movement. In fact, due to this transphobic group, certain trans people feel that they are not welcome in feminist spaces, which is incredibly problematic for a group of people that already feel massively ostracised by mainstream society due to prejudice and discrimination.
So why has this all become a big talking point during this current year’s Pride month? Well, London Pride was ‘hijacked’ by TERFs in order to make some transphobic point against what they saw as a harmful pro-trans narrative and lesbian erasure. This is especially sad as the parade was meant to be fronted by staff from the National Health Service (NHS) as a celebration of the UK health service’s birthday, however these staff’s place were hijacked by the anti-trans activists, which meant that the NHS and all it has done to help the LGBTQ+ community could not be celebrated due to the hijacking of the Pride parade.
Trans writer Juno Roche told the Independent: ‘I think it was an opportunity missed when people could have very visually said no, we are not going to let you commandeer this space with your lies and misinformation.’ This statement makes the point that the organisers of London Pride did not act quickly enough to stop and condemn these anti-trans activists, which can be perceived as a true sentiment as the harmful rhetoric that these activists were putting out was already out there when Pride’s organisers finally responded to the controversy. Therefore, I believe that it is imperative for the Pride in London’s organisers to ensure that future Pride events are very trans inclusive in order to ensure that trans people feel safe and included in the parades and celebrations in future years.
The BBC reported that Pride had issued the following statement: ‘The protest group showed a level of bigotry, ignorance and hate that is unacceptable. We reject what this group stands for. They do not share our values, which are about inclusion and respect and support for the most marginalised parts of our community.’ This shows that the official Pride organisers are indeed trying to foster an atmosphere of inclusivity and progressive intersectional feminist thinking, which directly opposes the trans-exclusionary narrative that the activists and TERFs are trying to put out. This can be seen as commendable as Pride needed to really put out a statement condemning this behaviour in order for trans people to feel safe at future pride events, however measures also need to be taken in order for this to be prevented from happening again in future.
Therefore, to conclude, the transphobia within our community needs to be dealt with in order for our community to move forward together. This is because whilst certain LGBTQ+ people are being discriminated against by other LGBTQ+ people, then the community as a whole will struggle to focus on a shared goal of acceptance and progressive social change. Also, the fact that certain sects of these transphobic groups use feminism as their outlet to voice their concerns can be said to be extremely problematic as it can be damaging for the public perception of the feminist movement as well the comfort of trans people within the feminist movement. Therefore it is imperative for both the LGBTQ+ community and society as a whole to try and pursue a more progressive agenda and work to get rid of this transphobia with education and raising the voices of trans people.
I understand that I am a very privileged cis white male and that the best way for this issue to be progressed is to raise the voices of trans individuals. Therefore I will now link a few trans creators and commentators in order to continue the dialogue and use my privilege to raise up trans and voices:
Roly: https://www.youtube.com/user/RolyUnGashaaHD/featured
Ash Hardell: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXwXB7a3cq9AERiWF4-dK9g
Shon Faye: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/shon-faye
Mykki Blanco: http://mykkiblancoworld.com/
Janet Mock:
https://twitter.com/janetmock?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
And a couple of my friends:
Max Rowan: https://maxrowanell.wordpress.com/
Joey French: https://view.publitas.com/other-2/zine-by-joey-french/page/1
Left of the Tracks 
Leave a comment