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Dealing with transphobic abuse
Since I launched a trans inclusive fund raiser — https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-trans-inclusive-sport — this week I have been inundated with transphobic abuse across social media. It is telling that the abuse is pretty much of the same flavour and texture, along with the occasional stalker who steals my work and hockey photos to attack me. Sucks to be me I suppose. No. I refuse to feel sorry for myself because I am not the problem here, it is the bullies and abusers who feel they have nothing better with their time than to spam my posts with abuse and hate. I do not have rhino hide for skin, but it is a lesson I learnt in earlier trans activism that if you put yourself in the firing line you either become a martyr, a firebrand, or disillusioned. This time I am changing my approach, and rather than internalising the abuse seeing it as a symptom of their inadequacy and desperation for relevance.
This does not change the fact that some of their attacks sting, especially when they attack my looks. Going after me personally has made me hyper cautious about posting any images of myself online. A recent picture of me in a pink Christmas top was weaponised, despite the post being an explicit call out to those who attack my looks. Bullies seek any scrap of power to make themselves feel more powerful, and thus when they smell or perceive weakness they attack. Only on this occasion it is they who are the weak ones, not me.
Online transphobic abuse is as old as the internet, so nothing the current crop of bullies’ spout is new, simply stale bromides which they think are witty and clever. Indeed, the dog piling becomes a blood sport many appear desperate to engage with. Of course they ignore any personal history I may have or what my current circumstances are, they simply project their own values onto me irrespective of what the facts about me are. This is the stale nature of gender critical bullying, especially for the bottom feeders who chase after the crumbs left out for them by the bigger gender critical fish.
Trans people of all stripes will regale you with similar tales, that if you want to be trans inclusive and lead your life in the open you face withering abuse the moment you advocate for trans rights. The crazy thing is that in person no-one in my life is gender critical, it is always a hushed up secret thing that…
