Do you ever felt every day you see more transphobic comments and articles, and you feel less safe? That's the case for lots of trans people in Britain. According to a survey with 47 respondents, 8 in 10 people experience or witness transphobia every week, half of which experience it daily. Most of them agree there is too much of it in the UK.
It is a dark time where the transgender community is one of the most marginalised in the world. The constant attacks from anti-trans groups and individuals are causing a rift between trans people and British society. Most of the respondents said the frequency of such attacks increased over the past five years, which worsened by Liz Truss' proposals on rolling back trans rights.
As reported this month, Liz Truss, Women and Equalities Minister, had her plans leaked to the Sunday Times. They mentioned restrictions on single-sex spaces by people's biological sex. It stacked on the procedures to restrict under-18 trans children from medical support for gender dysphoria. Since the publication of the newspaper report, Gendered Intelligence and Mermaids rallied campaigns to challenge her proposals, which gave pressure to the government office with over 40,000 letters to Boris Johnson PM.
Unfortunately, Truss' plot to limit trans children's support had already influenced the NHS to update their Gender Dysphoria page with more negative advice regarding puberty blockers. The BBC, regarded for their transphobic rhetoric, even hosted a Newsnight documentary that produced propaganda against the treatment of trans children. It ignored many vital facts regarding the Tavistock centre and focused on how they were forced to transition by homophobic parents. This report gave an alarming message to unaware viewers that Tavistock is a 'gay conversion' service, so it would be used as an excuse to ban the center from helping children with their identities.
As one commenter said: "The BBC specifically frames transphobic views as a valid 'debate', as do other mainstream media sources such as Murdoch newspapers."
Liz Truss' proposals, despite vague for many months, made a lot of trans people frightened and scared for their lives, with a small margin of them considering a move out of Britain. 64% of the respondents surveyed said their mental health deteriorated as the result of the proposals. The government claimed the GRA reform would be positive for the trans community, but most of the respondents doubted that would be the case. Should the government succeed in scrapping the GRA reform as the leaked reports said, then it would add another lie to their reputation.
"It has become overwhelming. One feels such a sense of powerlessness," one commenter said. "I am very pleased that charities, groups and individuals keep fighting the fight, but we are all so exhausted and fearful. Burnout is strong. Many are now seeking to leave the country. Terrible times. We make one step forward then three back."
There are other sources of transphobia in Britain, though most of it came from the written word. Social Media sites, New sites, and other websites are the hosts with the most amount of transphobia content published, as often backed by hate groups, including those with TERFs and Gender critical pundits.
Facebook is the more popular Social Media platform among survey respondents than Twitter, and their most usual action is to block or unfriend anyone who made or shared transphobic (or other offending) posts. But some or very few quite often respond to or quote such posts, mainly to educate or challenge the offenders in their views.
"Most of what I see is intentional hate," said one of the commenters. "I believe engaging with such people, whose minds wouldn't be changed because they are stuck in their ways, is pointless."
If there is hope in the future to improve society for trans people, then actions need to be taken. The police need to tackle more LGBT-related crimes as reports soared in recent years. Though it is the social media sites that must tackle more transphobia, for a lot of people are getting away with discriminatory posts.
Most of the respondents on the survey wished Graham Linehan should be banned on Twitter for his surge of transphobic posts. Many retweeted when he lost his blue tick on the service before it was brought back shortly after. The blue tick system filters the reports on verified profiles, which gave way to hate speech users, including Donald Trump and Baroness Nicholson. Katie Hopkins recently lost her blue tick, who then later got permanently banned on Twitter.
"It feels as though there has been a recent huge increase in transphobia on social media," said a commenter on the survey. "I carefully decide who to follow and where to look, only following close friends, family, and work colleagues. However, I find that even amongst these groups, there is so much hate, and it feels inescapable."
If you have any views regarding transphobia in Britain, then please feel free to leave a comment below or post with a hashtag #TooMuchTransphobia
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