What rights do trans people not have?

May 5, 2023May 8, 2023 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

This question has been coming up more and more online in public spaces and 9/10 its not in good faith. Cis people who lean towards anti-trans rhetoric or are out and out transphobes seem to think trans people are equal to them, or indeed that we have more rights socially and legally.

In this blog I aim to address this and add to the community knowledge base. I will try to stay emotionally uninvolved, even though these issues affect me personally.

Marriage
Gender Affirming Care
Anti-discrimination Law
Prison
Gender Recognition
Passports
Domestic Violence & Sexual Assault
Homelessness
Trans Broken Leg
Toilets and Changing Rooms
Dress Codes

Marriage

When cis people get married, they provide identification and then give notice of intent to marry. This is regardless of sexuality.

For trans people to get married in a gender other than the one assigned at birth, we require a Gender Recognition Certificate. This requires months of work, medical transition which can and does take years and then approval by a panel of cis people who have not and will never meet you.

Nonbinary people aren’t legally recognised in the UK, so they aren’t able to get married as a gender other than the one assigned to them at birth.

If the person officiating the marriage believes you are trans and you haven’t jumped through enough hoops, or if you are in a religious establishment that doesn’t support marriage equality and/or trans people, they can refuse to marry you and you will be removed from the premises.

If you are already married and then medically transition, to remain married you will also have to jump through hoops if you are transgender.

Gender Affirming Care

Cis people can access gender affirming care whenever and however they like. For example a cis man can access viagra and a cis woman can also access HRT (eg oestrogen for menopause) at the chemist. Not to mention puberty blockers for precocious puberty in cis children, breast reduction or enlargement for cis women. (The list for gender affirming care that cis people can access is immense by the way.)

Trans children in the UK can’t currently access any gender affirming care due to the closure of the the only NHS clinic that would prescribe puberty blockers. This is under review and may change. However, before it’s closure the waiting time for getting on puberty blockers was three to five years, meaning that quite a lot of teenagers would age out of the service having had the trauma of going through the wrong puberty. Some don’t make it.

Trans adults in England and Wales have to convince a cis doctor that they are trans. Then you go onto a waiting list of three to seven years to get in front of another cis doctor who you have to convince you’re trans. Then you may or may not get various forms of gender affirming care, for example HRT. Sometimes they then take that away if there’s a change in your circumstances or a transphobic practice manager starts at your surgery.

No trans person can legally access gender affirming care without going down a gate-kept, medical pathway.

Stethoscope and LGBT rainbow ribbon pride tape symbol. Medical support after sex reassignment surgery. Grey background.

Anti-discrimination Law

Nonbinary people aren’t recognised in UK law so technically aren’t covered by any anti-discrimination protections.

(I will cover the recent discussions on the Equality Act later.)

Prison

If you happen to be sentenced to time in prison as a cis person, you will automatically go to the prison with the facilities that match your gender without question.

If you are nonbinary, you will go to the prison dictated by the assigned sex on your birth certificate because UK law does not recognise your existence.

If you are transgender and have managed to acquire a Gender Recognition Certificate, you will not automatically be sent to the prison that matches your now legal gender. Each prisoner is assessed on a case by case basis. This includes risk assessments relating to other members of the prison population. If you don’t have a GRC, even if you have medically and socially transitioned, you will sent to the prison dictated by the assigned sex on your birth certificate.

Transgender people as a % of the UK prison population: 0.28% ( 230 declared trans prisoners out of a prison population of 79,514.)

Gender Recognition Certificate

When cis people say who they are, society automatically believes them.

Trans people on the other hand have to acquire a GRC. This requires months of work, medical transition which can and does take years and then approval by a panel of cis people who have not and will never meet you.

You can then mostly access the services you need as the gender you are. (There are exceptions under the Equality Act and are likely to be more going forward.)

Nonbinary people aren’t able to acquire a GRC.

Some things are quite strangely not covered by a GRC. For example, if you are transmasculine and have a GRC stating you are a man, you are still not able to inherit your father’s estate or any hereditary titles as a cis man would.

Passport

Cis people apply for a passport by filling in an application form and providing identification.

Trans people can only apply for a passport in the gender that they are, if they have medically transitioned and if a medical professional approves of the transition and will write a letter to the passport office stating that we are who we say we are.

Nonbinary people can’t have a passport stating they are nonbinary.

Domestic violence & Sexual assault

The majority of domestic violence and sexual assault services in the UK are still gendered, with the vast majority of funding going to women who are victims/survivors, and men who are perpetrators.

Amongst these services, there is a divide in which some services will welcome and be prepared for trans women, some services have banned trans women, and some services mean well but are not prepared at all.

For nonbinary and trans masc folks, this information is even less clear. Some services have moved to be gender neutral, but a huge amount are still aimed at women.

In the event of needing to flee a situation, emergency services are focused on cis women who have been abused by men, and struggle to understand anything else. Emergency placements are, a huge majority of the time, only available to women.

Trans men are often excluded from women’s refuges due to being masculine and therefore triggering other residents – trans women’s placements are often reduced to how well they ‘pass’.

Trans people are more likely to be victims of domestic violence and sexual assault and yet, the services available to us limited and sometimes put us in another dangerous situation. (LGBT in Britain, Page 14)

(Please note that I agree that these services are also lacking for cis men but that falls under societies patriarchal structure and toxic masculinity and not something I’ll be addressing here.)

Homelessness

25% of trans people have experienced homelessness in their lives.

Homelessness services and hostels also contain a lot of gendering, with different pathways and services being available to women or men.

In a lot of ways, being ‘stealth’ will save you in these situations – as long as nobody ever finds out – but if you are anything but a passing binary trans person, you are in trouble. Nothing exists for you and you will often have to take your chances.

Trans Broken Leg

Mostly when cis people go to the doctor with a problem they aren’t treated as if their “decision” to be the the gender they are, is the cause of all their problems.

Trans people on the other hand are often told it’s because they are on oestrogen/testosterone or have had particular surgeries. For example I could go the doctor with a bad back and the doctor will say it’s because I’m taking testosterone and ignore anything else, esesentially telling me I have to detransition if I want to be taken seriously. We call this, “trans broken leg syndrome.” It’s similar to what fat cis people experience with everything being blamed on them being fat. Goodness forbid you’re fat and trans…..

Doctor and patient closeup, holding hands and consultation support, healthcare services and sad news, test results or help. Clinic, medical professional or black people consulting, helping and advice.

Toilets and Changing Rooms

Under the Equality Act 2010, trans people can use the facilities that match their gender. You don’t need a GRC or to have undergone any medical transition.

The current government is looking at removing this protection for trans people, essentially meaning we will only be able to leave the house for as long as our bladders can hold out, or use the wrong toilets and risk physical assault. (You of course also risk physical assault if you don’t “pass” as the gender of toilets you are in.)

Nonbinary people have to make difficult decisions and are only truly safe with gender neutral toilets.

Cis people can mostly use whatever facilities they like without fear and without the government legislating them out of public life. The exception to this is gender nonconforming cis people who continue to be the victims of gender stereotypes. For example butch women being chased out of the female toilets because they look too masculine. (Transphobia hurts everyone it seems.)

Dress Codes & Safety Wear

Work uniforms can be needlessly gendered, which hurts everyone, but especially hurts trans people who aren’t catered to. For example my work requires me to wear safety gloves. All the people who do my job are cis men so therefore they tend to have bigger hands. All my safety gloves are too big for me, putting me at risk.

No one should have to wear things they don’t want to wear, but trans people shouldn’t have to wear clothes which dehumanise them and often this is the case if you want to continue your employment. For example all male employees get to wear a shirt and all female employees are given a blouse. Now imagine telling your boss you’re a man and he insists you wear the blouse or you’re sacked. It’s nonsense, but it’s dehumanising none the less.

If the current government decide to strip trans people from the Equality Act, the list of rights we don’t have legally will grow quite considerably and therefore our social rights will also diminish.

Having spoken to other members of my community and from a personal perspective, trans people want gender to stop becoming an issue in social situations, to stop constantly being in the news for made up culture wars sticking points, to stop being the victims of violence, have our mental health taken seriously and have the right to exist peacefully.

Trans rights are human rights!

Queer Vegan

Where Have All The Lesbians Gone?

January 23, 2021January 23, 2021 / Frankie Mouche / Leave a comment

I came out as a lesbian sometime around 1999. My mother was horrified and her exact response was, “you’re not are you?” Which was delightful and made me feel amazing . 😒

(That’s me in the black System of a Down hoodie with my arms around my girlfriend in 2001.)

I grew up in a vibrant queer community. When my mother finally kicked me out at 17 (2003) I moved in with my then girlfriend and met her extended network of lesbians too. It felt really good to be around people like me, even if I was by and far the baby dyke. I hadn’t even been to a gay bar at this point because I was underage.

I renounced my lesbianism after 27 years, when I broke up with my girlfriend in 2012. It was particularly messy and traumatic, but it allowed me to discover who I was: not a woman and not attracted solely to women.

My lesbian history seems a distant memory now, but having spent such a big chunk of my life in that community, I was shocked to see The Spectator and other British media asking where all the lesbians had gone. (I’m not linking to those articles. Those papers don’t need traffic from our community.)

I put a shout out on my Facebook page and a few lesbians came forward to answer where they had been.

Kirsty Rowles

Why do you think the press don’t know where lesbians are?

It’s a little known fact that lesbians have for a long time been developing technology which means that we cannot be seen by dickheads trying to use us to excuse their transphobia. Following a successful pilot, this has now been rolled out to all non-transphobic lesbians, hence the apparently diminishing numbers.
So, where have you actually been?

I’ve been in my house, wearing a onesie and writing about fictional girls kissing, as is my lesbian birthright and based on responses on the All Lesbian WhatsApp group, this is a common experience.
How do lesbians and the trans community move forward together?

Support each other and recognise that we have more in common than different.
Do you have anything to promote?

I talk about being a gay fangirl in my zines. Check them out here: http://www.etsy.co.uk/shop/foreverincomplete

Kirsty Sarah Miller (Apparently lots of lesbians are called Kirsty! 🤣😂)

1. Why do you think the press don’t know where lesbians are?

Probably because the press are typically homophobic and don’t make it their mission to learn about the depths of lesbian culture.

2. So where have you actually been?

I have been staying at home like everyone else has since March last year. In general, I’m a performing cellist and cello teacher and I love engaging in the arty side of lesbian culture – music, literature, film etc. Incidentally in the future, I’m interested in putting on a concert of classical music written by LGBT+ composers.

3. How do lesbians and the trans community move forward together?

For me, there is no issue or clash between lesbian rights and trans rights or indeed women’s rights in general. It is heartening to personally know lots of lesbians who are fully supportive of their trans siblings, but I feel sad that some lesbians have a hostile view of trans people.

Trans people and their lesbian, gay, bi and queer siblings have always come together in the same spaces and we are better for it. I’m sure this will continue into the future.

4. Do you have anything to promote?

I’m a cellist, cello teacher and Alexander Technique teacher. You can find me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram under @kirstenmillercello. Also throughout February I’m going to be posting about classical music written by women composers.

I offer cello lesson (currently online) if anyone is interested. I can also record cello for albums, films and virtual concerts.

Sadly I have no live concerts to promote currently due to lockdown.

Molly Brereton

1. Why do you think the press don’t know where lesbians have gone?

They don’t know where lesbians are because we have been hiding from them. Most self-respecting lesbians don’t buy newspapers that have historically voted against our best interests, which is why I’m still outraged that Joan Armatrading, a black working class lesbian from Birmingham is supposedly a Conservative.

2. So, where have you actually been?

I’ve been in Pontypridd playing Dungeons and Dragons with my cats.

3) How do lesbians and the trans community move forward together?

The only way forward that I can see is mutual support, understanding that our co-existence and happiness is not a zero sum game and a genuine curiosity in what has divided us.

Worldwide we’re seeing a great shift towards far right politics and authoritarian ways of leading. Propaganda is doing a number on civility so that those of us at the bottom, i.e. normal working people, are being routinely pitted against one another, believing that one person’s gain must mean their loss. I don’t believe in such reductionist and curmudgeonly personal politic.

4) Do you have anything to promote?

My band, Trigger Warnings and the Safe Spaces. We practice rarely and have no merch. Please support us.
https://triggerwarningandthesafespaces.bandcamp.com/album/everything-is-problematic

As you can see, lesbians haven’t gone anywhere. They are here and their community is thriving. It is a wonder that institutions that have always hated the LGBT+ community are even bothering to pretend to care about lesbians, but it is their bigotry of choice at the moment to pit marginalised groups against one another.

Famous lesbian musician Grace Petrie put it perfectly:
https://twitter.com/gracepetrie/status/1343572473833533440?s=20

Worried about lesbians? Why does the Times not start a lesbian culture column? Why does JK Rowling not use her gargantuan platform to write a world best seller series about a lesbian kid? Why does your concern for lesbian visibility never involve making any lesbians visible?

In closing: long live lesbians and lesbian culture.

12 Most Common Transphobic Dog Whistles

June 25, 2020June 25, 2020 / Frankie Mouche / 14 Comments

Since the Brexit vote of 2016 and the GRA consultation of 2018, things have been getting increasingly hostile for trans people in the UK.

Stonewall reported an 81% increase in transgender hate crimes by June 2019 as a result.

When engaging with people about trans issues, especially online, transphobic dog whistling is common place. Whether you are trans or nonbinary yourself or an ally, it is important to recognise these words and phrases.

Here are the 12 most common:

“I’m an actual woman.”
“I’m a real lesbian.”
What they are conveying to you is that they believe that trans women are not real women, which of course they are!
“You can identify as anything you like.”

This sounds like tolerance but at the core of this statement is the belief that trans people are living a fantasy that should not be indulged.
Talks about a natal or biological man or woman.

They are referring to the gender they were assigned at birth and that they still identify with. They are cisgender. They will often refuse to use the term cis because they believe they are normal and trans people are abnormal.
Reference to the number 41.

41% is the number of trans people who attempt to end their own lives. Obviously transphobic people like the idea of trans people dying. Some give 41% discount in their stores for example.
“Sex is real.”

Yes it is, but like gender it is highly socially constructed and definitely not binary. People say this because they think trans people want to erase the realities of biological sex, when it is trans men and AFAB nonbinary people who are fighting for gyno care for example.Sex is really irrelevant when talking about trans rights. The only person who needs to know my sex is my doctor.
“We have to protect women’s spaces.”
“We are protecting women and girls.”

What this means is that they believe trans women don’t belong in women’s spaces. It’s a convincing one for a lot of people. I too believe in protecting women, girls and safe spaces, but unlike the majority AKA the cis, I know this is a transphobic dog whistle. Trans women are women and not predatory men.
“Are you intact?”
“It’s an intact male.”

What they mean is have you had bottom surgery and if you haven’t, then you can’t possibly be trans and you must be faking it to gain access to vulnerable people. Even if you’ve had bottom surgery, they still won’t accept you as a man or a woman.An important side note here: having surgery or not doesn’t make you any less trans or nonbinary.
TIM & TIF

These translate to:Trans Identified Male (trans woman) & Trans Identified Female (trans man.)

Don’t worry, they don’t have an horrendous acronym for people under the nonbinary umbrella……..yet.

You can see the glaring transphobia in the names that the acronym spells but also continually denying that we are who we say we are.
Gender Critical

This doesn’t mean that the person is critical of oppressive genders like cis men, far from it. Nor does it mean they are critical of the suffocating patriarchal gender binary. No. It means they are a trans exclusionary reactionary transphobe.On social media this is often accompanied by a black and white racing flag in the username or bio. This indicates that they believe there are only 2 sexes/genders.
Follows all the big transphobes on twitter.

Some names you may be familiar with:JK Rowling
Graham Lineham
Women’s Place UK (WPUK)
“Children are being forced to transition.”

What this means is they don’t know anything about medical transition pathways and are using misinformation to demonise the trans community. Medical transition is not available to children.Another word they may use in this context is, “transing.” You can’t make someone trans, just as you can’t make someone gay.
“Trans cabal.”
“Trans agenda.”

They believe we have an agenda funded by big pharma to trans the world. The Cabal thing is also rooted in antisemitism.Thanks to all my very unimpressed trans and cis friends for their selfies and the local trans community for helping me research these dog whistles.

Stay safe out there folks and never stop fighting for what is right.

Black Lives Matter
Black Trans Lives Matter
Black Disabled Lives Matter

Frankie X

My Emerging Male Privilege

March 2, 2018March 14, 2018 / Frankie Mouche / 1 Comment

I finally admitted to myself around a year ago that I needed to medically transition. What this means for me is that I’ll be masculinising myself with the addition of testosterone and eventually having top surgery.

I’m doing this because the dysphoria of being called she/her/woman/girl everyday is destroying me. I’m not a man either and I never will be. I’m non-binary and I’m transmasculine. However in the masculinising process I expect that I’ll get misgendered from the other side with he/him/boy/man. That doesn’t hurt me nearly as much and it comes with it’s own set of privileges that people who are seen as women do not get.

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So what is male privilege?

I took this straight from Wikipedia:

“Special privileges and status are granted to men in patriarchal societies. These are societies defined by male supremacy, in which males hold primary power and predominate in roles of political leadership, moral authority, social privilege and control of property. With systemic subordination of other genders, men gain economic, political, social, educational, and practical advantages that are more or less unavailable to other genders. The long-standing and unquestioned nature of such patriarchal systems, reinforced over generations, tends to make privilege invisible to holders; it can lead men who benefit from such privilege to ascribe their special status to their owned individual merits and achievements, rather than to unearned advantages.”

(Obviously I edited it slightly to erase their binary nonsense, but you get the standard textbook definition.)

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What this means is that anyone who “passes” as a man in our society gets certain privileges. This includes cis men, trans men and transmasculine nonbinary folks. This manifests in the way people treat you at work, how people value your opinions, opportunities open to you, how people greet you etc etc.

(Please note that passing is cis normative term that many trans people reject and that trans folks have their own set of challenges regardless of any male privilege bestowed on them by society.)

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At this present moment before I start testosterone, I have what I call “fleeting male privilege.” It’s given to me and taken away at a rate of knots when people realise I have boobs or that my voice is too high to be considered masculine.

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Until recently I’ve never had a sustained period of male privilege bestowed on me. My best friend is a nonbinary trans man and happens to do that weird thing the cis defined as “passing.” We were walking with another friend (who’s also trans) through Cardiff city centre and I guess all three of us looked like young white cis men because people got out of our way. People avoided eye contact. No one bothered us at all. This struck me because neither of them noticed and I noticed with every inch of my being. It made me really uncomfortable.

I think everyone deserves a high level of respect, dignity and opportunity but I guess that’s why I’m a feminist. I’ll be documenting my emerging male privilege as I transition.

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My thoughts on Vegan Pride.

January 9, 2018 / Frankie Mouche / 14 Comments

In June 1969 the movement for LGBTQIA+ equality and liberation began. A series of riots took place centring around the Stonewall Inn in New York. These riots were instigated by transgender women of colour and the next year, the first Pride Parade was held. (You can read more about the history of Pride HERE.)

In recent years Pride has been the victim of commercialisation, police acceptance and the perpetrator of documented trans and bisexual erasure. We are fighting a battle within our own movement to reclaim our heritage and our purpose. We forget that trans women of colour started our journey to liberation because of police aggression and centre our celebrations around cis gay men.

All is not lost however. Various Pride’s around the world now incorporate political blocs. I was part of one that was removed from Pride by the police in the summer of 2017. Those who are fed up of Pride being taken from us, have splintered and created their own after parade parties, much of them political in nature and centring around queer and trans people especially those of BAME origin.

In the world outside of Pride and our little queer families we tend to make for ourselves, the struggle for LGBTQIA+ rights continues. Transphobia and homophobia are rife in schools, workplaces and the media. There’s a moral panic about trans children in the UK media which is damaging communities already on the edge of society. We’ve already had one trans woman murdered in 2018. How many more are we going to lose?

Then there’s the intersex babies that no one talks about. The babies who’s sex and gender are decided for them at birth and surgery undertaken to change their ambiguous genitals so they match the sex the parents have decided for them. There are many documented of cases of ongoing psychological damage in intersex adults.

So with all of that to contend with, I was surprised to see an event in London calling itself, “Vegan Pride.” It takes after various events around the world, including one in Toronto which after it’s first year had to rename itself due to uproar from the LGBTQIA+ community.

So why “Vegan Pride?” Why not any other number of names it could have been that doesn’t have any LGBTQIA+ association? London Vegan Parade? March for Veganism? Vegans United Parade? Nope. They HAD to appropriate queer culture and use it for themselves.

Some people have mistaken it as a parade for LGBTQIA+ vegans, but it’s anything but. If you go onto the Facebook event you’ll see a big group of privileged cis white vegans claiming they are oppressed for an ethical choice they have chosen to make, “all lives matter” rhetoric and certain people who have known Nazi affiliations. I even saw a cis friend of mine silence queer people’s objections to them stealing our culture. I was shocked and suddenly felt really unsafe. I’ve yet to confront him about it. Maybe he’ll see this and realise what he’s done. 😦 The event organisers are banning any LGBTQIA+ people who comment objecting, thus silencing our objection.

The whole event is really off putting for vegans and non-vegans alike. It waters down everyone’s message. The message for queer liberation, the ongoing struggles of queer POC and it screams of human centricity. What about the animals?

The worst part? It clashes with one of the biggest and most prolific Pride events in theUK: Brighton Pride.

Please remember that vegans are not oppressed. Oppression needs a power structure to uphold it. Your uncle making bacon jokes or you not being able to get a decent sandwich for lunch is not oppression. It’s just difficulties from a life choice that you have made, a choice which so many other people do not have, putting you in a position of privilege not misfortune. Queer and trans people did not choose and cannot unchoose who they are, like you can with your veganism.

In closing I would like to ask you to boycott this event and tell people why you are doing it, especially if you are an ally. We need you more now than ever.

A Letter To My Friends & Family

November 26, 2017 / Frankie Mouche / 5 Comments

In June 2012, I came out to my friends and family as genderqueer. I asked everyone to use gender neutral pronouns and never refer to me as female/she/her again. I explained that this means I am not male or female and never have been.

In October 2012 I dressed up as a zombie police officer for Halloween. I gave the character a beard. In fact the beard was so affirming that I wore it the whole of the next day and really didn’t want to wash it off. I remember telling my best friend at the time that I thought I might need to transition. She was supportive, but I was too scared and buried it deep inside me like I had done my whole life.

Over time I watched my trans friends transition and I was secretly jealous of their ability to be who they were. I kept telling myself that I didn’t need to transition. That who I was, was perfectly valid. The dysphoria was eating me alive nonetheless.

Around 2014 I redefined my gender identity as nonbinary. It means basically the same thing as genderqueer and sits as an umbrella term for people for don’t conform to binary gender norms. I liked it better. Enby is also an epic colloquial term. I also decided that this identity was a transgender identity. I now told people I was trans as part of my nonbinary identity.

Frankie came to be in April 2016. I needed to move away from my overly feminine name given to me when I was born. This was tough at work and initially with my friends. My family, never really having got the hang of my gender neutral pronouns, have still not got the hang of my new name as of November 2017.

From April 2016 to April 2017 I was happy just to be Frankie. My gender identity was still nonbinary, but instead of presenting in a fluid way where I would drift between feminine and masculine, I presented as entirely masculine.

At the end of April 2017 I was drunk in Cardiff. I was sat on my own outside of Brewdog enjoying the spring sunshine and everything I had been suppressing about my gender identity came to the surface. I needed to transition. I needed to masculinise physically. I text my mum and then told Facebook.

How I identify now is Transmasculine Nonbinary and I will be beginning my physical transition in April/May 2018. Here are some things you need to know:

The NHS has made this process very difficult. They have been messing around sending me to mental health units and demeaning my experience for the past seven months, when I should have been referred to the gender clinic and been on their two year waiting list by now. I am still pursuing this route because there is no way I can afford my whole transition privately. However, I was able to afford two private consultations which will allow me to begin transitioning in Spring next year.
My transition will start with regular injections of testosterone. This will push my body into what is essentially “male” puberty. My shoulders will broaden. My muscle and fat distribution will change. My voice will deepen and hopefully I’ll get a decent amount of body hair, especially on my face. (There are other changes too but you don’t really need to know about them. :P) I will appear to society as a “man”, but I will still have boobs. They will be flattened by a binder, when I find one that doesn’t cause me sensory issues.
Somewhere down the line I will have what is know as top surgery. I will have my boobs surgically removed and replaced with pecs. My boobs are a massive source of dysphoria. If I could have them taken off first, I would. People use my boobs to gender me and I hate it.
I will not be having bottom surgery. My cunt does not cause me any dysphoria at all.
This does not mean I am a man. I will never be a man. I am nonbinary. I do not fit in any binary boxes of gender nonsense. I will continue to use gender neutral pronouns.

I need you all to know that I have gone through a lot of emotional pain to get to this point. I NEED you to respect my pronouns and my name. Making mistakes was fine to start with, but it’s been a year and a half and mistakes are starting to look more and more like they are deliberate. If you continue to dead name and misgender me, I will have to remove you from my life.

This has been your final warning.

Frankie

Trans Liberation Now

October 23, 2017 / Frankie Mouche / 1 Comment

In June 1969 the movement for LGBTQIA+ equality and liberation began. A series of riots took place centering around the Stonewall Inn in New York. These riots were instigated by transgender women of colour and the next year, the first Pride Parade was held.

Let me just say that again for the people who may have missed it:

The LGBTQIA+ rights movement was started by TRANS WOMEN OF COLOUR.

Why then for almost two generations did we refer to Pride colloquially as, “Gay Pride” and the LGBTQIA+ rights movement as the “Gay Rights Movement?”

The western world revolves around cisgender white males. It has done so for thousands of years. White cis men invented the patriarchy and white supremacy to keep the rest of us in our place and subservient to them. Don’t think we as queer or trans people are exempt from that, because we aren’t.

Every movie or documentary ever made about the Stonewall riots has been filled with cis white gay men. The most recent, “Stonewall” movie had a white gay guy throw the first brick that started the riots. Martha P Johnson will be rolling in her grave.

Even the famous UK charity Stonewall spent years fighting for the rights of lesbians, gays and bisexuals without giving a single thought about the trans women who started the whole damned thing.

The Stonewall charity are now fighting for trans rights too, but like many gay centered pages such as Pink News, they are allowing rampant transphobia to go unchecked in their comments sections.

It makes you wonder why 48 years ago trans people even bothered. Our rights have come along at a snail’s pace whilst the “gay charities” gain popular opinion, legal recognition and specifically in the UK almost entirely full equality with heterosexuals.

Are we content to be shut off like this? Well we have been I suppose. Waiting for our gay comrades to turn around and help us, the way we have helped them.

Now is our time. Lets fight for our rights and for inclusivity for the most vulnerable in our community. Lets call out the LGB bigots who make jokes about gender neutrality and dismantle the online spaces rife with transmisogyny. Lets support and help raise up our trans siblings of colour.

Fuck racism. Fuck cissexism. Fuck transmisogyny. Fuck transphobia. Fuck the LGB community out for themselves without a second thought for the TQIA.

Let’s make 2018 our year!