“I wanted to do ballet as a kid. My parents refused. I cheered briefly in high school. My parents made me quit. I was a high school theatre geek who had potential to study seriously. My parents didn’t support.
I’m still gay. Denying me joy and expression didn’t change that.”
I read a thread on twitter recently (written by someone who is/was a teacher incidentally) about how the tories are positioning trans people as the new “enemy within” to replace immigrants at the next general election (I’m not explaining it very well, can link the thread if anyone is interested).
So I think we will see more of this.
FWIW I agree it’s not safeguarding, but by making it a “safeguarding issue” it makes it VERY hard for schools to hold their own line on this unfortunately.
I can believe that completely, the intensity of anti-trans rhetoric has been increasing like mad the last couple years, it’s clearly becoming the controversial issue of the hour. It’s scary even more so how many people are buying into it - and from both sides of the political spectrum too.
Surely they’ll have to justify how exactly it is keeping children safe before it gets implemented?
Actually, I’m not sure they will. Teachers (and schools) can suffer very serious consequences if they are felt not to have safeguarded children effectively- sometimes the fear is enough to make teachers or pastoral staff uncomfortable when having these conversations and shut them down in awkward ways OR to make schools come up with bizarre policies around these things.
Section 28 technically only prohibited the “promotion of homosexuality”- but in practice it meant schools/teachers were very reluctant to discuss LGBT issues, many LGBT support groups in school got closed down etc. All the pre-section 28 sex-ed I remember was solely focused on “one man/one woman” couples. It also meant that teachers received no training on these issues, and things could be extremely difficult for teachers in same-sex relationships.
I also think that actually there’s very few cases where children are totally out at school with their parents having no knowledge (that’s hell of a risk for a kid to take, after all). But it feeds into this fear of “Lefty teachers are making your kids trans” which helps demonise both trans people and teachers.
The secondary I went to was already doing this. Including outing a non-binary student to parents who would throw them out if they came out, literally saying “tell them or we will”
The trans contingent stopped coming out pretty fast.
I’m not there any more, but it’s not getting better.
What the hell is happening in the UK? You guys were doing so much better than the USians and now it’s getting close to the other way around.
I don’t know how much depth you would like here, but after WW2 in the UK there was a level of consensus around state support, nationalised industries, social housing, free at the point of use health care etc…
In the 1970s, capitalist interests started to undermine that, the ultimate result being Thatcher’s neo-conservative/neo-liberal government, who aimed to destroy as many of these things as possible, as well as destroying the class consciousness of the working classes (or attempting to) and breaking the power of the unions- thus significantly reducing the ability of the working classes to advocate for themselves.
Despite making many people’s lives significantly worse, the Tory party managed to keep power until 1997. One of the ways they did this was by creating enemies both outside the UK, and also within UK society, and convincing the people that they were the only party to keep them safe, and other parties were not to be trusted.
In the 1990s, this was all starting to fall apart a bit, see, for example, the poll tax riots, and eventually a Labour government got in. This Labour government wasn’t the democratic socialist government of old- it was very much committed to a liberal ideology. That said, things were done to genuinely improve the standard of living of people, and to improve equality for marginalised groups, and to improve standards in the workplace. I’ve recently characterised these things as “crumbs from the table”, and they are, but nonetheless, they were things that the very wealthy did not like.
So, the right wing started casting around for enemies and settled at the time on a few main targets A) “foreigners” and B) “benefit scroungers”. Ideally, if they could, they combined these into one group, hence “horror stories” of large families coming over from Eastern Europe to claim benefits in the UK etc. etc. This fed/created/revived a reactionary right wing faction in UK politics, including parties like UKIP (which might be seen as similar to the farthest rights of the US republican party, with a specific hatred of the UK and “foreigners”) and the BNP (literal Nazis).
When the financial crisis happened in 2008, that spelled the end of the Labour government, but there was still suspicion of the Tories, and so they entered government in 2010 in coalition with the Lib Dems. Whilst the Tories immediately set about making people’s lives worse in order to serve capital, the Lib Dems did arguably act as somewhat of a break on some of their very worst ideas. So, the right wing press became more reactionary, more money was funnelled into positions that UK politics considered “the far right”, a lot of energy was expended on making people fear these manufactured enemies.
In 2015, this strategy paid off, and the Conservatives got majority- however there was huge pressure on them as a party to hold a referendum on leaving the EU. At the time, I don’t think this is what all Tory MPs wanted- there are a lot of business benefits to being in the EU. But the pressures were there, and the referendum happened, and various big players wanted the UK out of Europe, either for tax reasons or for the political destabilisation of Europe, or probably both, and thus the UK voted to leave.
Cameron resigned and May took leadership, and called an election in 2017. In 2017, some interesting things happened, not least that Corbyn was leader of the Labour party, and offered people what felt like a real alternative and hope. He was hugely attacked by the right wing press and, well, everybody, but the Conservative majority was still cut by a large amount, leaving them as a minority government that was at war with itself.
In 2019, the Tories are running scared, to an extent- in February, several MPs left the party to form a new Pro-European party, further weakening their position. For the people who are hanging everything on Brexit going ahead, the whole project feels in jeopardy. Eventually, Boris Johnson becomes leader, does things that undermine democracy, and then calls a general election.
This election was very much fought on the basis that the Tories would “get brexit done” and no-one else would- and arguably was fought on fairly racist lines. The Tories won a huge majority.
So, what does any of this have to do with trans people, you’re asking (if you’ve kept reading to this stage, in which case, well done). Well, the Tory party is once again in crisis- covid has been a disaster for them. Brexit is starting to bite. A lot of people in the country are really suffering and will start to suffer even more. There’s got to be an election in 2024 at the latest, and it’s likely things will be very bad/worse by then.
Their traditional enemies of benefits scroungers and foreigners are increasingly difficult to use right now for various reasons which I won’t go into because this has been long winded enough already. So, they’re casting around for a new issue, and unfortunately, it seems like trans people have become the new “enemy within” - particularly as it’s a “difficult” issue for Labour right now. For this to work, they a) have to whip up fear against trans people, and b) have to persuade the general public that they are the only party who will “keep people safe” from the “enemy within”.
tl;dr: To keep capitalists in power, trans people are a convenient enemy.
The American Right is providing the playbook here, when it comes to using trans kids as political bait. There’s also already plenty of nervousness in schools around LGBTQ+ issues. Schools are VERY nervous about keeping anything from parents for any length of time, and that can already look like calling parents about sensitive issues without first consulting with the student. I was told in a previous school that a child coming out to me MUST be recorded as a safeguarding incident. I was also told I MUST NOT allow that child to have a conversation with me about such issues: “tell them that you will be making a record of the conversation and that they should speak to the designated safeguarding lead about it if they require further guidance”. I was given to understand that conversation around gender and sexuality could be construed as grooming—a full year before I heard that line dominating politics over in the US. My current school is a lot better, but, yeah, we are further down this road than we should be.
I mainly drew this so I could print it out and stick it on my classroom door. My students and I have a running thing where they draw me lots of shark pictures on post it notes, which adorn the wall behind my desk in a vast and ever-shifting gallery. They love to look at it to appreciate new additions. I’ve got a scrap book full of older ones which had to be cleared to make room for new submissions.
Today (02/14/21) is Beloved Arise’s anniversary. In celebration, we want to thank you all for the support you’ve given us. Whether that’s been through volunteering, sharing our social media, donating, or just helping us grow. Thank you for showing support for queer youth of faith. And to queer youth of faith, thank you for showing up as your authentic selves. You are BeLOVED Here is to many more years to come!
Today (02/14/21) is Beloved Arise’s anniversary. In celebration, we want to thank you all for the support you’ve given us. Whether that’s been through volunteering, sharing our social media, donating, or just helping us grow. Thank you for showing support for queer youth of faith. And to queer youth of faith, thank you for showing up as your authentic selves. You are BeLOVED Here is to many more years to come!
The recent legislative attacks on LGBTQ+ youth have felt…overwhelming.
From Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill to families of trans kids being under fire in Texas, to multiple other states attempting to bar trans kids from playing sports.
OurYouth Voices shared their initial reactions to these attacks on teens like them, but also how they’re taking action!
“When I first came out at my high school, I was asked to use a single-stall bathroom reserved for those with chronic illness and complications that needed to be taken care of in private. And I am here to tell Alabama legislators this — I am not a disease. My transgender identity is not an illness, it is not debilitating, and the rhetoric you are spewing to paint myself and other trans youth as predators is disgusting. That is the disease — your dangerous, close-minded, and unruly ability to paint transgender youth as monsters” –
The action:
“I am getting involved by contacting my local representatives! To be frank, the most I can do right now to take care of myself is just to exist. To be trans, to be hurt, and to process it. To be me.”
-Hailey (she/her), age 17, Alabama
Read what all the Youth Voices have to say on the blog!
‘‘Currently in the UK, the Equalities Minister, Liz Truss, plans on reviewing the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) with the intention of removing all trans related support from the NHS for Under 18s. This is simply ridiculous, misinformed, and frankly life-threatening. If you live in the UK, please contact your local MP; if you don’t, please consider sharing to other people or signing petitions like this one http://chng.it/RTPKYjNB4M. Thanks for your support for us UK trans folk! ‘’
This was an annoucement in a discord server I’m in and I’m copy/past-ing it for visibility. This is important.
I can’t believe one mistake has caused this—I am so done.”
A 15-year-old in Saudi Arabia took his own life after his family threatened to kill him. The teen unable to flee to Dubai after his father took his passport sent out an urgent plead on Reddit. “I honestly have no clue what to do. No friends I can to talk to about this,” said in part of his plead for help.
Read up on the full story and state of LGBT rights in Saudi Arabia http://logo.to/2HOr5kb
FIERCE sends a huge amount of gratitude to every single person who helped make our Pink & Black Bowl-a-thon a success. Together, we raised over $40,000 for FIERCE! It’s been unbelievable!
To our fabulous teams, we can’t thank you enough for working so hard for months reaching out to your networks, spreading the word, and collecting donations to meet your fundraising goals. To our sponsors, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Your support helped to boost us way beyond our fundraising goal. To the all the fabulous prize donors, thank you for helping us show love to our amazing fundraisers and bowlers! To all the bowlathon donors, supporters and allies, thank you for every dollar you gave, for every facebook post you wrote, for every tweet you tweeted, for every second you volunteered your time, and for every ounce of energy and good vibes you sent FIERCE’s way. Last but not least: to the BAT Squad who made has been working tirelessly to organize all the behind-the-scene pieces of this huge bowl-a-thon event, we congratulate and thank you!
The 2013 Pink & Black Bowl-a-thon was truly incredible—just like each of you! We are filled with gratitude and joy to be part of your FIERCE communities! Thanks again! FIERCE!
