Guest blog: A list of all things transphobic
Claire Graham, who currently tweets as @intersexfacts, is helpfully compiling a list and I thank her for allowing me to reproduce it here – or rather, the first dozen items on it. (Quotes from articles linked to were selected by me.)
From Claire:
1. Gender neutral toilets – transphobic.
Students voice concerns about bathroom policy, security camera monitoring
“Chelsea Dyapa, a third-year philosophy student, said she thought the policy was discriminatory because it could potentially be too costly to implement, limiting the number of gender-inclusive facilities campuswide.”
2. Related to number one, other people wanting privacy – transphobic.
Me having fun on Snapchat
From the same article as linked to above: “This basically comes out of a want for privacy and an all-gender restroom, and that want for privacy comes from a fear of trans and nonbinary people,”
3. Having fun on Snapchat – transphobic
Snapchat gender swap filter is damaging to trans and non-binary people
“Yes, it may seem like a bit of a laugh, but if we want to be truly social responsible online, we need to treat people of all genders with respect and empathy.”
4. Having a sexual orientation – transphobic.
“Gender is determined by how one wants to identify and nothing else. So when you have a “genital preference,” you’re just reducing gender down to reproductive organs.” (Source no longer available.)
5. Doctors and the NHS – transphobic.
Uneducated doctors are ‘killing the transgender community’
6. Prison reform – transphobic.
Open University forced to cancel conference following threats from the transgender lobby
“They were effectively being threatened with demonstrations and disruptive activity, possibly in the conference hall itself, and some kind of picket line or protest outside the conference.”
7. Women’s rights – transphobic.
8. The dictionary – transphobic.
Woman billboard removed after transphobia row
“A billboard poster bearing the Google definition of the word “woman” has been removed after it was accused of being part of a transphobic campaign.”
9. Reproductive biology and development – transphobic.
“Two sexes have never been enough to describe human variety. Not in biblical times and not now. Before we knew much about biology, we made social rules to administer sexual diversity.”
(If you’d like to read the whole article but don’t have access, I’ve c&p’d it here.)
10. A trans woman teacher writing about best practice for trans kids in education – transphobic.
Education magazine TES loses star columnist over transphobia row
“The feature, written by teacher and ‘gender critical’ campaigner Debbie Hayton, evaluated a number of resources for schools and added: “In my view, it is the Transgender Trend guide that is most consistent with [safeguarding law].”
11. Liking tweets – transphobic.
Imperial College London vice-provost apologises for anti-trans content
“Buitendijk first offered her apologies to the university’s student newspaper Felix last Friday (May 10) in response to a letter by 86 members of the university’s staff and student body raising concerns about her “engagement with transphobic material and social media accounts.”
The letter referred specifically to Buitendijk following and ‘liking’ content from Twitter accounts belonging to anti-trans groups such as Transgender Trend…”
12. RTing poetry – transphobic.
Man investigated by police for retweeting transgender limerick
“After Mr Miller questioned why the complainant was being described as a “victim” if no crime had been committed, the officer told him: “We need to check your thinking”.”
Update: The complete list has now been upload is being beautifully maintained on this blog.
Published 31.05.19
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5 Responses to Guest blog: A list of all things transphobic
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If you feel you have to cut off your penis or breasts and take hormones to become another gender, you need a psychiatrist, not a surgeon. This is called reality. Yes, you need serious help. You are mentally ill. It’s okay to seek help. Do not believe the lies you are told that it’s normal behavior. It is aberrant behavior. It is against nature. Against all that is logical and sane, because you are insane. And again, it’s okay. You need help. You are suffering from a mental disorder if you want to become another gender. This is different than being a lesbian or gay man. Being a lesbian or gay man is not a mental disorder. But when you are a man who wants to cut off his penis and be a woman, you have serious psychiatric issues. You hate yourself. You hate yourself so much that you want to escape into the opposite gender. A trans person is suffering from a form of DISSOCIATIVE DISORDER. And they need help. But instead, people who are using this vulnerable population for political purposes are is clapping as they clap and dance the Trans community right off a cliff. Cruel.
This is not helpful.
For example, number 5 “Doctors and the NHS – transphobic” links to an article about trans people feeling frustrated that their GPs do not understand their needs. It is not saying they are transphobic and I find it difficult to understand why anyone would think trans people shouldn’t feel frustrated if their needs aren’t understood, the same as any other patient group. Is it now part of gender critical thinking that trans people should not get adequate care from their GP?
The broader list you link to is just ridiculous. I clicked through some at random and found examples like 86 “ships are transphobic” that links to a Guardian article considering whether giving objects female names enforces patriarchy – it’s not about trans people at all!
Or articles misrepresented in a way that serious subtracts credibility from the list, e.g. 47 “climate change is transphobic”
Some of the others just link to comments made by random people on the internet – For example 96 “frankie borle is transphobic” simply links to a mumsnet thread where somebody calls him transphobic – why is what somebody once said on mumsnet of any relevance?
Worse, it contains examples like 74 “Ace Ventura Pet Detective is transphobic” – well yes, I think it’s entirely reasonable to say it is. I think most regular people these days would say it’s actually rather nasty towards trans people. Are we now at the point where we are saying transphobia does not in fact exist at all and/or that we are endorsing any highly negative portrayal of trans people? It is also quite old and its relevance to contemporary debates is highly questionable.
I cannot believe are endorsing this rubbish that comes across as more than a little weirdly obsessive. If I wanted to subtract credibility from the more serious gender critical concerns (that are there), this is how I would go about it.
Umm…I don’t think you’re quite getting the spirit in which this list is presented, Rachel. It’s not really intended to be helpful but to satirise the overuse of the accusation of transphobia by trans activists.
The article linked to in No 5 may be not be saying doctors are transphobic but it offers an even more hyperbolic claim, which is that doctors are “killing the transgender community”. I can’t imagine what labyrinthine thought process brought you to the suggestion that it might be “part of gender critical thinking that trans people should not get adequate care from their GP”.
If you wanted to divert attention from gender critical concerns by pointing to a list that I think most people would recognise as satire, you would risk making yourself look a bit thick.
And here’s all the things you MUST do to not be transphobic.
You won’t believe #15. Or #17. Or #77…
100 Easy Ways to Make the World Better for Trans People
Alan, the easiest way to deal with a self absorbed infant with no social skills having an all-out tantrum is to gently correct them and ignore any following bad behaviour. Repeat and rinse.
“Let’s cut the shit – there’s no positive way a transwoman can dictate or speak on a life that you do not live and a world you do not have to navigate as a woman.”
There now, I’ve corrected the initial paragraph. Wait for the fallout ?