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The UK Supreme Court ruled today that women is based off biological sex and made a distinction about trans women, calling them “men who identify as women”. Labour have of course supported this, and the ramifications are far reaching in their impact. I said I wouldn’t be on the internet much today, and that is true, but at the same time, I need to open up my text editor and write this because I need to get my thoughts out there.
Firstly, I know for a lot of transgender people, you are consuming a lot of this right now. You might want to consider if reading this is appropriate for you. If you are struggling, there are hotlines in the UK for LGBT specific people, services like Switchboard are around to make sure you’re heard. There is a future for us, maybe it isn’t in the UK, but trust me your life will work out.
I just want to live in a more tolerant world, but apparently there’s a group of people that see my sheer existence as so controversial that they need to try and stamp on me to win a little Twitter victory. It hurts, a lot.
How trans people were treated before
It isn’t like transgender people were treated well before this. Many have decades long waits for the healthcare they might be able to get, obtaining a GRC is very complex, and we were always gatekept based on other disabilities we may have. Additionally, both Labour and Tory governments have constantly vowed to do blatant transphobic dogwhistles and then have restricted more of our protections.
One heated example that comes to mind is the idea that transgender children exist and should be able to get healthcare. For some reason this has turned into a heated debate, even though to deny the existence of transgender children, you have to deny the existence of transgender people in general. These people want to do that, make no mistake.
It is interesting to me how the “transgender debate” on TV in the UK went from people needing to preface that they do have deep respect for transgender people before being transphobic (I would link this GMB interview, but I am relatively certain the transgender person in it would disavow their own views now), to instead the argument that transgender people are just men. Constantly on social media I am told to kill myself, told I’m not a real woman, and generally treated as a left wing political tool (yes my takes are left-wing, but even before then) just because I was born into the wrong body.
The ruling
The ruling today was long in the making, with wild arguments being made for months. I honestly thought the arguments were so wild they might lose, but they weren’t. They won with an extremely transphobic ruling trying to bring many irrelevant factors into it such as how well we pass (the act of how much we look like the gender we identify as, which is HIGHLY subjective, I “pass” pretty well, but would a court decide that?) and actively calling us “men who identify as women”. No, we are women who were born into the wrong bodies (most of the time, life is complex). They have essentially banned us from single-sex spaces and utilities and deemed us as not women legally. It’s a tragic hurt to transgender people in the UK.
The reaction
Transphobes have reacted with glee. The BBC live page had people celebrating as the cover photo for the article, and on Twitter right now in the UK, India Willoughby (a UK news presenter who came out as transgender decades ago) is trending with TV presenters all taking turns to mock her for her gender. Additionally, Labour has said the ruling brings confirmation to them, which means they agree with the ruling in its transphobic writing. Absolutely no condemnation from the 2 main political parties, and gut wrenchingly right now, not even the Liberal Democrats have came out to say anything. I feel incredibly betrayed by a society I have contributed to.
By contrast, transgender people are reacting in horror. Upset that we are now being treated sub-human by the state. Scared what this means for everything: access to toilets, healthcaare, support, employment, our passports. Everything is unknown and up in the air now, just because our existence is seen as controversial by some people.
I worry for transgender peoples lives with the dehumanising, and I have had to deal with multiple transgender people who are really doing badly today. It’s been a horrible day for us, and I hope things will get better.