Zoe Williams on Ghey case

[theDudesmummy]

I find this article really offensive, especially the breathtakingly simplistic (wilfully deaf/blind) tone of "A child* *having to use a toilet cubicle previously occupied by a trans woman is apparently the right-thinking parent’s most pressing fear". Co-opting this tragedy in this dogwhistle way is not OK. Nuanced debate and analysis would be welcome.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/02/brianna-ghey-name-killers-transphobia-children?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

Gender Reassignment is a protected characteristic.

I won’t read it but it’s The Guardian

A TRA rag and to be expected

For the purposes of sentencing, hate crime law under the Sentencing Act 2020 isn't tied to protected characteristics as defined in the Equality Act; sex, for example is missing and "presumed transgender identity" is the characteristic relevant here.

Transgender identity is described:

"references to being transgender include references to being transsexual, or
undergoing, proposing to undergo or having undergone a process or part of a
process of gender reassignment"

And "presumed" means presumed by the assailant.

So while it is superficially similar to the Equality Act, it is subtly different and much broader.

Careful! Several posters on this forum have called that word a misogynistic slur, but only when a trans woman uses it (even when mentioning its past use by other women in relation to her own discussion style).

You aren't a trans woman, are you? Probably safe then.

What agenda is Zoe Williams pushing with this article? I see a journalist talking about the way that the existing demonisation of trans people in mainstream media has recently ratcheted up to feverish levels, and how a pair of children murdered a trans girl last year and transphobia was found to be a secondary factor in the crime.

There’s a reason the better writers left

I always thought there was a distinction between gender reassignment and gender identity, but guess not.

There is, but any part of a process towards "transitioning" as the opposite "gender" counts as "gender reassignment".

...like getting the name changed on your gas bill.

Absolutely. And people like Daniel Radvliffe and Rupert Grint who know that their daughters will never be in a womens refuge or in a mixed NHS ward- because JK Rowling, who they casually threw under the bus made them multi millionnaires. People like this will, when the shit hits the fan walk away pretending it was nothing to do with them.

Ah, the old “transphobia is at feverish levels but somehow it’s a more open and accepting time for thousands of teenage girls to come out as trans compared to previous years” paradox.

It's hardly a paradox - this is a textbook moral panic. That's how they work.

While baseline acceptance has improved, the visibility of trans people in society and increased general awareness of trans issues has created an environment where more people than ever feel the need to say the quiet part out loud with ever greater desperation.

Yes, I agree it’s moral panic to declare that transphobia is at “feverish levels”. Telling young people the world is out to get them because people don’t accept this particular ideology or belief system is egregious.

Baseline acceptance has improved? But transphobia is at feverish levels? Desperate stuff.

“Saying the quiet part out loud” is transphobia. Saying:

Humans can’t change sex
Men can’t be women
Men should not be in women’s prisons
Men should not be in women’s sport
Children should not have their puberty stopped
Detransitioners matter
There is no medical evidence for medical treatments
No

These things are being said out loud a great deal more. We know this is seen as transphobia. People have been told to “educate” themselves. They did.

Well, they're all facts, so that helps a lot!

I listened to the File on 4 podcast about this case and thought along similar lines. There were lots of elements of all 3s histories that are quite far from mainstream teenage experience and behaviour.

SJ had poor attendance, a history of harming others (younger) to the point police were involved, a fixed exclusion from school, managed school move, worrying internet usage and drug usage. She was educated in an inclusion unit when she did attend.

ER was a socially awkward loner, whose WhatsApp messages are really chilling. Clearly not everything is ok at home if the rumours are true.

BGs history of social anxiety, eating disorders, self harm, hospitalisation for mental health issues, reduced timetable at school, arrangements for eating separately, and attending the inclusion unit were all openly discussed on the podcast by parents and teachers. BG had been estranged from her father and had had tentative phone type contact in the time leading up to the horrific crime. But it was also mentioned on the podcast that this 16 year old had 30k followers on tiktok. I don't have tiktok but that can't be average followings for a young teen? It seems so intrusive for someone grappling with such severe mental health issues, but it seems all the adults around BG were comfortable with this. SJ was described as being obsessed with BG and I wondered whether her celebrity was a factor? Knowing someone irl that others follow on a screen has kudos etc. Brianna was without doubt a very vulnerable young person. Hearing her mother talking about how pleased she was that she had made a friend in SJ and how supportive she was of BG getting a bus and meeting up with friends is just beyond heart breaking. Her mother is very articulate and makes some very difficult but thought provoking points in the podcast.

I don't think any of the above factors are in anyway an explanation or necessarily linked to what happened, but I did find it really shocking that much of what went on was described as typical teen stuff. Many of us are maybe completely out of touch as to what is genuinely typical?

This crime is different to other teen stabbings, not so much necessarily due to the victim, but due to the extensive levels of premeditation, planning, discussion and fixation of the perpetrators. Many of the sad teen stabbing deaths we usually hear about are more spur of the moment, fight goes wrong type scenarios or linked to gang and turf wars. Every single one a devastating loss. It does feel that the work needing to be done to prevent those deaths, and what potentially could or should have happened to prevent this hideous event are different maybe?

2 other children were murdered that weekend…no mention of them or the court cases…

This. It is an unimaginable tragedy that a very unhappy,anxious and distressed child came into contact with another unhappy and very angry child, who then involved another anxious and lonely child in an act of violence.

It's been a horrific story from start to finish and I agree the coverage has been disproportionate compared with other, equally horrific, teen murders - the only reason for the grim fascination is that the murder of trans teens is (and hopefully will remain) thankfully rare. The agenda-pushing has been particularly unpleasant to watch - I think we all knew it would be. I also can't give any time to Zoe Williams - I'd far rather have read an analysis piece by Helen Pidd, the Guardian journalist who seems to have been deployed to pretty much every day of the court case. I suspect Zoe didn't bother to read her colleague's work but I do find it interesting that SJ's defence against the transphobic allegations was that she herself had questioned her own gender identity and had communicated with people online pretending to be a boy. https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2023/dec/08/brianna-ghey-trial-accused-denies-anti-transgender-views The prosecution questioned this and it's not mentioned in any other article I've read on the case but it might explain why BG was one of several people she had in her sights.

This.