TransActual
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.
I’ve known some online forms to literally only give 2 options for gender. It’s paralysing. Hovering over those two alien concepts. It’s almost worse when they add a third, ‘prefer not to say’ choice. As though anyone who doesn’t fit neatly into one of the binary options should be embarrassed about it; as if it’s something we must want to hide. No, I DON’T ‘prefer not to say’; I prefer to have my enbyness recognised.
Local Radio broadcasting is a perfect venue to share that knowledge and experience. My programme, ‘The Rachel Oliver Show’, on Sonder Radio Manchester is firmly aimed at the transgender community and specifically with our allies and friends in mind. It’s a station essentially for the mature population of over 50s and is enjoyed by people of all ages.
Any change in the law would affect everyone, not just trans people. What about women who have facial hair due to polycystic ovary syndrome? What about women who don’t conform to stereotypes of what a woman “should” look like? These stereotypes, by the way, often have racist undertones. They’re stereotypes of what a white “woman” should look like. Lots of women already experience issues from other women when they use the toilets, but a change in the law could see them being excluded from public toilets along with trans people.
This is not a personal sob story. These are experiences shared by many people out there in the world, maybe less, maybe more, but all experiences as valid as each other. Many LGBT (and trans people in particular) face much of this, and over recent times this has increased. Despite living in a country where the laws that view being trans as a protected characteristic, there has been a dark element set out to demonise trans people, painting us as something we simply are not.