TransActual
The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions is the queerest thing I’ve seen in a while, and I’ve seen some very queer things. It was unconventional – I’ve never seen someone play a wine glass live on stage before, nor will I look at paper the same way again – but that’s only part of what made it so queer.
ncreasing numbers of LGBTQ+ people have fled to seek refuge in Kenya, looking for a place they can be themselves without fearing for their lives or for their families’ lives. But things are getting harder.
PrEP (Pre Exposure Prophylaxis) is a drug designed to reduce the chances of getting HIV for people who are at a higher risk of exposure, including men who have sex with men (MSM), injection drug users, and sex workers. Thanks to the efforts of HIV activist groups, over the past few years, PrEP has become available on the NHS in the UK. Those who meet certain criteria can access it through a sexual health clinic. As a queer trans man, I felt that it was important for my health and peace of mind to get on PrEP. Moreover, studies have shown that the drug is safe for transgender people to take, and does not interfere with HRT.
Harassment on the street, discrimination that prevents you from getting a job, and a transphobic landlord. All things that could easily affect a UK based trans person. For those of us with secure housing, we do at least have a place of safety to retreat to. Those of experiencing housing discrimination can, in theory, seek support to challenge the discrimination that the Equality Act protects us from.
In Kenya there isn’t a law to protect trans people from discrimination, in fact trans people are impacted by the homophobic, biphobic and transphobic laws that were originally imposed under colonial rule.
This is a particularly important anniversary because it reveals one of the most pernicious lies about trans people, a lie spread widely by both the anti-trans hate groups as well as by the media. That lie is that cis women will be less safe in women’s spaces if trans women are allowed to use them.
They will never understand the sense of grief I have for the body I should have been born with, the childhood I should have had, the adolescence I should have had. That life in my mid-20s that I’m doing over again in my mid-30s. That first operation that I needed because my body changed in puberty in ways it shouldn’t have.