Transitioning?

This is Ken. Ken is chilling on the teeny weeny towel I've been given while I stay in halls of residence prior to the start of the conference I've helped organise.

Ken is a skeleton pendant gifted to me by my lovely pal Rachel, who used to share a room (and once, a house) with me when we were undergraduates.

Ken would invite you to consider gender. How many genders do you think there are? Male/female? Neuter? Inter-gender? A whole spectrum? Have you ever stopped and considered what it is about us humans that actually gives rise to our gender identity? Is it our biology? Our mentality? Our society?

I would put it to you that our biology does not dictate our gender. Sometimes, people are born with three sex chromosomes and it is not always predictable what the biological outcome will be. Sometimes, you will find babies born with both sets of genitalia. So our traditional idea of a male/female dichotomy obviously isn't suitable in these cases.

I would also put it to you that our sense of gender identity is far more than our biology or how we were raised. I would say it is intrinsic to our sense of self, which is surely something far more unique and unpredictable.

In light of this, how can someone who claims to be feminist be against trans* women? 41% of transgender people attempt to commit suicide in America alone. 41%. They are marginalised, traumatised and persecuted. They are so marginalised that even the term "transgender" comes up as a spelling mistake in my browser.

I would invite you to stand alongside our trans* brothers and sisters and say: enough is enough. I would suggest that if you see or hear or witness a trans* misogynist "joke" that you LOUDLY challenge it. I would urge you to read more about the issue, because it matters.

It matters when individuals are persecuted by our national press to the point of suicide. It matters when children are too afraid to disclose their innermost secrets to the adults they should trust. It matters because we are all people, and nobody has a monopoly on defining gender.

Here is some further reading:

A beginner's guide to trans misogyny.

The Wiki page on trans misogyny.

A summary of the bullying Lucy Meadows endured from the media before she took her own life.