Transphobia in the UK

 Transphobia, or "discrimination against transgender or transsexual people" in the UK is getting worse. Especially online with the popularity of social media like Twitter and Facebook. It to me seems a lot worse on Twitter than anywhere else.

What makes it worse, a lot of people don't seem to realise that they are saying transphobic things. Not everyone who says transphobic things are inherently transphobic.

The worst thing a trans person can do is fight back. I did try this on Facebook and I got reported and now have a mark on my account after someone said "I should say I am a dog and live like one" and I replied "enjoy yourself and stop being transphobic".  I appealed the decision and it got rejected.

The best thing you can do in most cases as a Trans Person is report and block people like that. That is also the police advise on what to do.

As for real life, I have been lucky, very lucky. Where I live, in Lancashire, England, 99% of people are tolerant. They either totally ignore me, which I am fine with, or are totally fine with me being a trans woman. I do however wear headphones while out as I have PTSD and music helps me shut off when out and about, so if someone was for instance wolf whistled or laughing at me I wouldn't hear it.

I personally have only experienced transphobia once in RL. I was walking on the street in broad daylight and a taxi driver pulled up asked me for sex. I was on a main road walking home. Luckily there was a police car near by and I told him where to go and pointed to the police car. He sped off.

I have noticed a lot of my trans brothers and sisters do get treated like sex objects. This is NOT ok. Yes there are sex workers in the trans community, there is in any community but we are also human and have feelings. All we ask is to be treated as such.

There is also a discussion about prisoner's pretending to be transgender so they can get to be transferred to a woman's prison. It is not as simple as that, they need a GRC to even be considered, then pass a board to get transferred. Even for real trans people outside prison getting a GRC is a distant dream as they are very hard to get and there are many roadblocks in the way. there are only 70 transgender prisoners in the UK prison population (2016 census). Out of those, only 3 are in the prison the same as the gender they identify as. This is out of a prison population of 66,000. (report can be found here).

Politically we are in a bad place. Most political parties use us to gain points in the public view. Out of the 2 big parties in England (I don't know about Wales, NI and Scotland), the Tories seem to be Anti Trans. They have been in power for over 10 years now and the waiting lists for a first appointment for the GIC clinics has grown from 18 months to 4 year.  Also they have appointed an "Equalities" minister that in the past has been very transphobic.

Labour on the other hand seems to be very Trans friendly. Anneliese Dodd's speech at the recent Labour Conference was the first thing that picked up my ears when she said "Trans Rights are Human Rights". Then Angela Raynor, the deputy leader of the party, also said the same thing. She has also been a stead fast ally of us Trans people.

For these 2 reason alone I am now a paid up member of the Labour Party. All other matters to be are nothing compared to having basic human rights as a transgender individual.