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In defence of Beth Upton
Regardless of the outcome of the Sandie Peggie tribunal Dr Beth Upton deserved her anonymity, deserves to be treated as the woman she is, and deserves to be treated as the highly trained doctor she is. Anyone standing up for her gets the vicarious abuse heaped on her, with all the attendant bots and trolls, which is why Beth’s narrative has moved from a Doctor being confronted by a transphobic nurse into a broader conversation about the very existence of trans women in public society. To defend Beth Upton is therefore to defend the right of trans women to exist in public, to be herself free from transphobic abuse.
To stand up for Beth Upton is to accept her womanhood on her own terms. She is a woman who understands herself to be a woman, a woman working in a busy A&E department doing her job. Gender critical transphobes ask that you deny her identity based on their beliefs, to accept that a nurse has the right to demand that any trans person leave just because she does not believe trans people have the right to exist in her space. Thus, when you defend Beth you are pushing back against abuse, intolerance, and transphobic rhetoric.
This is the stage we are at with respect to trans people in the UK and more broadly within the English speaking world. To stand up for trans people online whether you are trans or not means facing a torrent of abuse, much of which comes from bots…
