Worrying Increase in Transphobia

[PorcelinaV]

https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/09/09/transphobia-uk-press-media-negative-coverage/

An increase in transphobic sentiment among the British public has been fuelled by hostile coverage of trans people from the right-wing press, argues data journalist Ell Folan....

Unfortunately, newspapers still have a great deal of influence on the public and political agenda in Britain, and nowhere is this more obvious than in how perceptions of trans rights have changed.

As recently as Feburary 2021, an absolute majority of British voters (51 per cent) agreed with the statement “a transgender woman is a woman”, including 6 in 10 women. Just 34 per cent disagreed. But after years of negative coverage from the press, those numbers have changed.

In April this year, only 33 per cent of voters agreed that trans women are women, with 47 per cent disagreeing....

It is clear that the media plays an important role in shaping public perceptions, and unless their negative coverage is corrected and refuted, public opinion will continue to worsen.

I think TRAs have no one to blame but themselves. People wanted to be nice/ kind despite biological reality. Then there was endless piss taking. #no debate.

If you truly believe twaw then you have to accept these unpalatable situations which never (hardly) ever happen anyway # transphobic dog whistle.

Lesbians are sexual racists #cotton ceiling

At some point people realise you can’t have trans rights in a bubble and this effects others.

Unfortunately there’s a huge amount of transphobia among the mumsnet community as a lot of responses here show.
I agree with you OP- it is awful. And the worst of it is that women are being taught to fear transgender women, to believe they are some sort of threat to their own female identity and rights, and to their safety (uproar about bathrooms etc) This is how it starts- those in power get you to fear, hate and alienate a group of people. I really fear for the future for the transgender people.
Sex and gender are two separate things. If society can construct gender identities why can’t individuals? How does someone changing their gender identity to suit their feelings about themselves better affect anyone? Or harm anyone? My life has never been affected by a transgender person yet everyday it has been by violent men, sexual predators, politicians, huge corporate companies with massive profits, casual everyday sexism….
Just let people live their life and live your own.

Deflection from those pesky biological facts!

If sex and gender are two separate things then why do people say they were born in the wrong body?

It surely can’t be bigoted to not believe something that is not factually correct? With the best will in the world I simply can’t make that leap - same way I don’t believe in god.

They are asking too much of the general population then calling us names for not going along with their ideas. Not a great way to win support really - most adults don’t like being shouted at and called names.

I am not transphobic; any individual can do what they want to their body, can wear the clothes they like and call themselves what they like. However no one changes sex , trans women are still male and don't magically become this; XX. That is what matters. The people who have caused the issues are those who think that this;XY becomes this XX. They are the ones who think that 'feelings' matter more than biology. I've met many trans people ,professionally, over the years and 40 years ago they knew they hadn't become female , now they pretend and the rest of the world is supposed to follow. I used to deal with a lady who had serious and enduring psychiatric issues and thought she was married to the Belgian King, she signed her letters to me as though she was the Queen of Belgium. I was respectful but didn't go along with it. It's the same for people who are trans; we can be respectful while maintaining a sense of reality.

@Anniessong if sex and gender are w different things then why do trans women want access to womens single sex spaces?
If trans women aren't a risk in these spaces (not all tw are like this, I'm sure most are lovely) then how do you explain Isla Bryson, Karen White, Katie Dolotowski?

Because we tie the two together- I.e female anatomy and being feminine. Some people say they feel like they have been born in the wrong body because they feel like they should have different bodies to suit their gender identity. I’m not transgender myself so you are better off listening to those who are so they can explain it much better than I can

All this doesn’t change a biological fact. Biology isn’t something people will unlearn.

Beyond that people can wear what they want etc

Nice to wake up on a Sunday morning to have such a positive article in Pink News. And as usual the article is all about men. Trans women are men and most people are no longer willing to lie and pretend they are woman.

Just like the Brexit vote then !!!

The difference is because the general public didn't understand the question before. As more people understand that transwoman means biological male then they see the emperor has no clothes.

The 'denying existence' line is such trash. Humans are not Tinkerbell. The only people 'denying existence' is PN which regularly denies female exists as a biological and political sex class.

Just a reminder two women are murdered every week - men try to deny our right to exist with violent and frequent regularity.

Sorry... that's a huge assumption there

You may tie a female body and being feminine together but I certainly don't.

I hugely resent being told that having a female body means I have to be feminine.

How rude and sexist!

What do you mean!? I have to wear pink, dresses and make up or I am not a real woman? What exactly is this femininity you demand 'we' all have?

“Just let people live their life and live your own.”

@Anniessong How about you get in touch with the male person who self describes as a member of the opposite sex and is proactively campaigning to prevent a group of female survivors of rape from hiring a venue to meet with each other to support each other with their recovery and say “just let people live their life and live your own” to that individual?

You can prove anything with facts can't you !

So do I tell my disabled child she was born in the wrong body as her anatomy does not match her minds version of herself?

This is where it is unbelievable to me.

@Anniessong I agree sex and gender are different.

Women fear 'unknown men' because of their sex not their gender. Which is why transwomen are included in that.

Women need sex segregated sport because our physical bodies, because of our sex, are different from those of men, which is why transwomen need to be excluded from women's sport.

We have sex segregated toilets and prisons, not gender segregated, because having an unknown male body (ie a man) in with women feels unsafe, and not dignified etc. Which is why transwomen need to be excluded.

I struggle to think of anything where one needs gender separation, but I can think of various situations where sex separation is needed.

As you agree they are different, why do you seem to think that gender (a made up concept) trumps sex (a real bodily difference).

Let TW live their lives, as a subset of men, and we'll all get along fine.

I think most people are happy to live and let live. I genuinely don’t care how you dress, act, identify.

However how do you deal with it when a violent male, sex offender, shimmies into a pair of pink leggings and declares themselves a woman?

There has to be a middle ground in there where people can live how they choose without infringing other peoples rights.

No @PosterBoy that’s exactly what I’m not saying! I 100 % agree with you- female body does not mean feminine identity and male body does not mean masculine identity. That was the point I was trying to make. Society makes those ties. I do not agree with them

No one denies that trans people exist.
What is being denied is that a person with a penis is a woman.

Unfortunately, newspapers still have a great deal of influence on the public and political agenda in Britain, and nowhere is this more obvious than in how perceptions of trans rights have changed.

Do they? Who reads newspapers still? I don’t know anyone who reads a paper.

Live and let live.
In your own spaces.

In April this year, only 33 per cent of voters agreed that trans women are women, with 47 per cent disagreeing

and in my opinion that doesn’t equate to transphobia. Though I’m sure the writer of the article would disagree. But this is the problem, they take people expressing a sensible and scientifically correct fact and say it’s transphobia. Which imo weakens their argument and makes me not take anything they say seriously.

I'm gender critical but I agree - the right wing press have taken legitimate concerns to bully a minority group (trans people).
I have no problem with trans people - I wish them nothing but health and happiness. But I do have a problem with men in women's prisons and other female only spaces.
I find some of the posts on mumsnet mean and cruel about trans people.

The phrase “unless their negative coverage is corrected” in the PN article seems to be calling for press censorship. How authoritarian.

it’s the crazy overreach (women are cervix havers but TW are women, TW in women’s sports, prisons, rape centres etc) that will have caused the change in attitude.

Just how many positive articles have appeared in Pink News about women. Or about women’s rights. How many positive stories do they run on lesbian women. I see they have an article attacking leading lesbian Kathleen Stock. She’s not the right type of ‘gay’