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Dealing with transphobia
Over the last three months my inbox on social media has blown up with transphobic abuse simply because I stand up for myself and other trans people. None of this is new, and any trans person will readily share the levels of abuse they receive the moment they come out as trans on certain platforms. What is new is the fact most of this abuse is being fed through bots and hate farmers whose apparent sole purpose is to harass trans people. Yet, these hate mongers are drawing from older forms of hate, with all their flag bearers using the same exclusionary language that previous hateful generations used. How we deal with transphobia in this age of bot farms and megaphonic trolls is a matter of much debate, especially as the trans community is currently fracturing into small pockets out of fear and a desire to cling onto whatever rights they currently have.
Dealing with transphobia ought to be easy: call it out each and every time and do not concede an inch. Yet, due to the personal fear of losing whatever rights they have accumulated trans people in the public eye often swerve and demure to prevent those attacks becoming centred on them. This is a lesson that virtually all prominent trans people have ingested, to tamp down their own identities to placate those who abuse them, concede, negotiate, and often end up siding with the very people previously attacking. None of this results in any tangible…
