Trans rights are my hill to die on
At some point over the last 18 months I decided I had had enough with transphobia running rampant unchecked across the media and social media. Call me a sucker for a losing cause, but this one is extremely personal. I hate bullies with a passion, I also hate disinformation, lies, and half-truths that are slung at trans folk, all in the name of supposedly saving children from a fate worse than death: being trans. I am not one to readily climb to the top of a hill, plant my flag, and build a Verdun style complex to defend an idea to the death, because most things require compromise and bridge building. Not this. Trans rights have become my Maginot Line, my star fortress. Yes, of course no fortress will indefinitely survive a siege, but this hill, this flag, are mine to the death.
So why now, and why this particular issue? Being trans has been a part of my life since I was 8 or 9. I knew I was going to transition at that age, certain that I was this girl destined to become a woman. As soon as I could do something about it I started coming out at 16, and then at 17 legally changed my name. No doubts, no hesitation, no-one telling me this is who I was or should be, simply me knowing who I am at my core. I am me. What came before was a boyhood, what I have lived since is my womanhood in its totality. Nothing anyone else says to me alters that inherent core part of myself.
When folk attack me by calling me bloke, or mate, or biological male, or trans identified man they fail to understand that none of it matters. Nothing they say is going to be a Damascene moment where I repent my gender and come back to the flock of manhood. I was never indoctrinated, never taught to be this way, I simply am. No slurs or nasty Twitter comments will change that fact. Indeed, all I am going to do is lob memes at you to show how silly your reply really was. A bully only has power because you fear them, and engaging them on a level other than sarcasm and politeness only gives them further fuel. There is nothing radical about their position, nothing classy or smart, just rehashed talking points they barely understand. Willy Wonka going “really?” is the least they deserve.
And this cuts to the heart of the fight. For all the bullets they claim to be firing, they are all duds. Nothing they state is new or enlightened, and even those who trot out the original talking point are self-serving and ill-educated. Yet, to simply to dismiss them as ignorant fails to see the danger of their rhetoric. Anti-trans and homophobic violence has increased in the last five years, laws have passed that have decimated trans healthcare, and globally trans rights are being pushed back. Our Maginot Line has been breeched because enough people have bought into the rhetoric and hate. For every online dud a real world shell crashes in and takes another little chunk of our bastion.
I can sit here and lob smart bombs all I wish, but the reality is that the only way trans rights become buttressed and reinforced is if we all man the barricades and our allies fight alongside this. No siege survives without relief, or survives being undermined by those who have their own agendas that save themselves at the cost of the rest. Trans rights are inherent rights because those attacking us will not stop at trans folk, they will strip women’s rights, workers rights, indeed any rights that do not fit their own narrow view of the good life.
This is why I will die on this hill, my flag tattered but never lowered. This is a fight, and in some unfortunate cases a fight to the death. No-one asked me to take up this cause, I chose to do so because it is both the right thing to do and deeply personal. If I will not fight for my own rights what right have to expect others will do it for me. Yes, a hill will fall without relief, but ultimately this fight is a just cause worth fighting to the bitter end if needs be. Hopefully that relief will come soon, but if not I will man the digital trenches and continue defending trans rights as best I can.
