I was offered information on an upcoming self defence workshop whilst attending a trans social group this week. Surely we’re not at high risk of attack, are we? “I see it as just a matter of time” claimed one of the group’s members.
Rachel Maton, a trans woman living in council accommodation, knows about fear. Her home is equipped with three 24-hour CCTV cameras (courtesy of Surrey Police), a camera for her door, and extra window protection. This is because, in the last two years, she has been subject to persistent and consistent bullying regarding her transsexualism. Youths in her local area of Pooley Green have carried out a campaign of abuse including insulting her in the street and pelting her home with stones and eggs. Her story may remind you of the Welsh rape victim that was forced out her hometown by a transphobic campaign against her. Or indeed any trans woman having to deal with being a minor minority within a hostile and hateful society.
Where is the uproar? Read the paragraph above and replace the word ‘trans’ with ‘black’ and ‘transsexualism’ with ‘ethnicity’ and how much more newsworthy, and shocking, does it become? I hope that Ms Maton gets the housing transfer she is arguing for, because those youths sure aren’t going to change anytime soon. I hope they all have trans children, the swine.
Guess what’s on at 8 O’clock, on Channel 4, on Monday? Tranny-documentary! How zeitgeisty: it’s all about American child transsexual, 12 year-old Josie Romero. I don’t find the sight of transsexual children even slightly shocking, but I’m nonetheless stunned by the upbeat feel of the programme’s trailer. I hope this isn’t the end of those ‘Ah, poor tranny’ documentaries I love. It’s not, is it, Channel 4? Either way you all need to watch it, as I’m going to write about it in next week’s blog.
Yes, some of those crazy Americans have let their kids run wild with the whole gender thing but that doesn’t mean they’re as liberal as us Europeans. In fact, they’re not. So it was with welcome ears this week that we heard Emperor Obama utter his support for transgender people. True, he didn’t say exactly what he was going to do, or when he was going to do it, but the very fact that the most powerful man in the world has registered we even exist can only be a positive. He’s actually the first President to say the T word in public – and it feels like Obama is the popular kid at school who just learned our name. Now we just need him to save us from the others flushing our pretty little heads down toilets. Please.
Does anyone know why it’s OK for women to cross-dress and, in fact, when they do, it’s not even really classed as cross-dressing? Have a look at the fabulous Annie Lennox performing ‘There Must Be An Angel’ live on Parkinson:
Lennox has short hair and wears a suit and tie, harking back to her gender-bending Eurythmics heyday. Yet I have never heard anyone refer to her as a cross-dresser. When a man puts on a frock, as did Grayson Perry when he collected The Turner Prize 6 years ago, it seems to define him forever. Perry’s return to the spotlight following the production of his latest piece, The Walthamstow Tapestry, proves he will always be ‘the transvestite artist’ to many.
Much how Alex Reid is permanently the ‘cross-dressing cage-fighter’ to the media. Yes, they’re still going on about that too. The Mirror is running an article entitled “He’s done it since he was a boy… his parents know” in which Reid’s ex-girlfriend reveals, in 1500 words, that he has done it since he was a boy, and that his parents know about it. In fairness, she is rather supportive of Alex, suggesting he has ‘nothing to be ashamed of’ and generally giving him her blessing after initially being terribly upset at the discovery of his tranvestic tendencies. Ah, such magnanimity.
Who really cares? And where is Britain’s fattest tranny?
Paris Lees
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