Metro Opinion piece:
"ITV’s Butterfly will do for trans kids today what Anna Friel’s Brookside kiss did for me in the ’90s"
Ruth Hunt CEO of LGBT rights charity Stonewall
Sunday 14 Oct 2018 12:00 pm
That is, until that fateful episode of Brookside in 1994. To finally feel like I was seeing myself reflected in what I was watching was nothing short of transformative. I know I’m not alone in sharing these feelings. The celebrities, TV, movie, and sport stars we see in the media and online can help many of us develop our sense of self. But especially for communities who exist on the margins of society, like lesbian, gay, bi and trans people, seeing people like us on-screen can be incredibly important. Our stories, voices and experiences are still rarely seen and heard in an authentic way in the media. That’s what makes moments like the Brookside kiss so important. Of course, there has been tremendous progress in the representation of LGBT people in film and TV since 1994. Just last year Moonlight, with its all-black cast, became the first LGBT film to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. But we’re certainly still not mainstream. Gay, white, cis men still dominate the representations of our community in the media. It’s rare that even in 2018 you find a lesbian or bi character who doesn’t portray a lazy stereotype, let alone manage to survive a full TV season. And getting the roughest end of the deal are trans people. It’s hard to find representations of trans people who have any kind of a rounded personality or background, who aren’t there simply to act as victims of crime or villains themselves. (continues)
Airing Sunday, Butterfly is set to break ground with a story centred on the life of a transgender child and their family. The three-part series takes a thoughtful, sensitive approach to depicting the experience of a trans child and their transitioning process. For trans young people and their loved ones, watching Butterfly might just have the same impact on them as the Brookside kiss had on me and so many other lesbians. Butterfly also comes at a crucial time for trans people and equality. Right now, we’re seeing daily articles questioning trans people’s identities and misleading headlines about young people being ‘turned trans’. It reminds me of the way lesbian, gay and bi people were talked about in the ‘80s and ‘90s – that LGB teachers were ‘turning’ kids like me gay, that a mystical and powerful lobby group was pulling strings behind it all to influence and corrupt young people. This hostility and misinformation in the media and online towards trans communities is heart-breaking and only causing further harm to an already vulnerable minority. Stonewall 2017 research found that nearly two thirds of trans students (64%) are bullied for who they are at school, while four in five (84%) have self-harmed. Butterfly offers trans children a chance to finally see themselves reflected on TV in a positive way. In the current media climate, I know this will be life-changing for so many young people."
metro.co.uk/2018/10/14/itvs-butterfly-will-do-for-trans-kids-today-what-anna-friels-brookside-kiss-did-for-me-in-the-90s-8032405/