Transphobia Isn't Going Away

The Equality Act was, sadly, a mess. In the hopes of getting everything "Equality" into one bill, things were missed and odd things were allowed through. I knew this because of my "interest" in Lord Alli's amendment to allow civil partnerships to have a religious character. But it would see, sadly, there were even more unsettling things lying in the Act.

A.E.Brain reports something rather unsettling has been introduced to the Equality Act, and perhaps more unsettling is that no one seems to have mentioned it before. Questioning Transphobia has more on this here.

It exposes something in our system that seems completely unfair. In this country one can legally change their gender. But, as we see here, whilst their gender may now be legally changed they are still treated as somebody "different" and "scary". That's disgusting.

Transphobia seems to be the prejudice that's not just legally sanctioned but socially acceptable. Nowadays someone in the media spotlight can't even suggest that they'd made a homophobic comment in the past (let alone make a new one) without an internet uproar and probably worse.

However, just the other day Julie Bindel was "honoured" with a position on the Independent's Pink List. But let's look at what she ideologically believes about transsexual people. And here. This is hardly surprising given her views on marriage and her inability to understand civil partnerships are not marriage.

So instead of being put on the naughty list that the Pink List has got this year, she is lauded as a leading light within the LGB "community"... obviously they didn't mention the T, so there was no need to bring up her meanness.

And the issues go on. In consulting on religious civil partnerships, did the Government consult with any transgender campaigners? Not to my knowledge. Why? If Parliament cared so little for transsexuals in April, is it really going to start caring now? Just as I have concerns on the current civil partnership consultation, my concerns about the proposed consultation on transgender/transsexual rights are growing. Can we trust them to be thorough? Or will they just throw out another sop to keep people quiet whilst not really doing much?

The LGB "community" has been quick to dump our trans brothers and sisters (and those of us who still want equality) at the merest sniff of legal rights. It feels like we've given up the fight and have begun a cleaning up operation (fighting homophobia at work and in schools through education and training). Well the fight isn't over for me. I'm not stopping until we ALL (straight, gay, trans, queer, etc.) have the freedom to be the individuals that we wish to be, without persecution or impediment.

If you feel benevolent and particularly generous, this writer always appreciates things bought for him from his wishlist