Gazing Into The Abyss

"There's an epidemic of transgender murders."  There's been a tendency in the trans community in recent times to cry this mantra.  Mainstream media have now begun to report the idea as hard fact too.  Just pop "trans murder" in Google and you're bombarded with reputable news sources proclaiming "Another trans woman of color was murdered today..." with a report proclaiming "that's the 27th transgender murder this year..."  It's like we don't even bother with journalism anymore.  There's even a website  trans murder monitoring  that collates the murders of trans people.  Unlike, say Iraq War Body Count or other sources that attempt to collate deaths within a set framework Transrespect merely collates data of people who self identify as a different gender who happen to be murdered.   Whilst the site is called "trans murder monitoring" they don't even make a pretence of linking the victim's murder to...

I'm really saddened (and embarrassed) to see Owen Jones, respected liberal journalist and gay rights activist, perform an extraordinary feat of cognitive dissonance in  The Guardian  today. He peddles an argument that society is riddled with "rampant transphobia," likens trans rights to gay rights, the supposed rampant transphobia as similar to Section 28, and portrays Munroe Bergdorf as an innocent woman bated by a baying crowd of, well, rampant transphobes who got her fired from the NSPCC because they hate all transgender women. Bergdorf is allowed to reel off Trumpisms about how people come up to her and ask her questions at talks she gives.  Naturally, they're transphobes. He allows Bergdorf to suggest that her role at the NSPCC was to let "kids know that there was a service the could contact if they needed it."  "That she "wasn't there to change any kids...to influence kids," without any challenge to these statements.   Really p...

What a confusing world we live in. High profile transgender model, Munroe Bergdorf has effectively been sacked as "Childline's "first LGBT+ campaigner".  That's not the confusing bit.   It's all the rest of it. The NSPCC haven't stated specifically why they've cut ties with Bergdorf but media reports initially suggested it's because she posed for an online version of Playboy and they felt it was inappropriate as a role model for a children's charity.  Remember that weird moment where Playboy merchandise was aimed at kids?  Well, the world got weirder... To Bergdorf this is a hate crime because the NSPCC are "bowing down to pressure from a transphobic lobby".   On the  BBC  it was reported that "...The BBC has been told that NSPCC trustees received "transphobic letters" after the appointment was announced on Wednesday." Ah, journalism.  What is a transphobic letter?   "I don't feel it is appro...

In a TedX Talk from January of this year journalist, Amelia Abraham, argues that "Feminists Should Support Transgender Rights." The video blurb states: "Can you call yourself a feminist if you don’t support the rights of transgender people? Amelia Abraham doesn’t think so. As someone who identifies as the ‘L’ in LGBT, Amelia has always felt empathetic towards the societal prejudice trans people face, but, on speaking with her friends, she was shocked to discover how many of them struggle to reconcile their feminism with transgender rights. Amelia addresses the common concerns listed by some about trans people - principally the risk to women’s safety. She demonstrates why conflating sexual violence with transgender rights denies the reality of rape culture and its actual perpetrators, whilst also unjustly demonising the trans community and increasing the prejudice, discrimination and hostility towards trans people." Amelia Abraham is a good speaker but unfortun...