This article will be primarily be focusing on trans rights within the UK. This year the theme of IDAHOBIT (Together: Resisting, Supporting, Healing) brings up conflicting emotions; it has been so long since our communities have been able to connect in person and yet for some this is the most accessible events/community spaces have been due to a lack of accessible venues. I do not doubt that as things begin to reopen; we will come together as a community. As a community we’ve been through so much. We have learned to adapt, to show up for each other in times of need in beautiful, transformative ways. There is so much beauty to be found in the diversity of our experiences however to truly honour these experiences; we must look into ourselves and ask how we oppress others. We must make space for religious LGBT people to be their full, authentic selves without ridicule. We must make sure that we actively combat racism and transphobia in our spaces, and we must make sure we make them accessible.
It is clear that queer people will never be a priority of the state when after multiple consultations and countless years, conversion therapy is STILL legal in UK. This issue is magnified when we look to the state’s response to the outpouring of support for trans people during consultations about the reform to the Gender Recognition Act. It is no surprise that the UK has developed the nickname TERF Island when the only time progress is made, e.g. the reduction in cost for a Gender Recognition Certificate, is to distract media and public attention away from the horrific treatment of trans people. Throughout the UK, the seven Gender Identity Clinics are so overwhelmed that people are waiting years to simply receive a first appointment; Leeds GIC is only just seeing people referred in December 2017 for a first appointment.
Our history, and our present, is a tale of resistance. The state has always found ways to oppress and brutalise queer people, from both the Protestant reformation and the Catholic counter-reformation using scripture to influence and form laws that persecuted queer behaviour and sexual freedom, to colonial efforts to destroy cultures across the world and enforce a Eurocentric view of gender and sexuality upon the world, to the storming of queer spaces by agents of the state (police, military etc) that did not start, nor end with Stonewall. Queer subcultures have always existed and been spaces of rebellion.
There is a reason my focus is on community care and that is that the state does not look after us. It is an act of resistance, of rebellion and liberation to take care of our own communities and build a system that works for us and not for profit. For queer people to truly heal, we must be liberated. Liberation lies outside of the current system. I do not want acceptance if it comes from our assimilation into a brutal and unjust system. I want and demand liberation for us all. I do not want the state to have the final say on whether our existence and our identities are valid. I do not want an X on my passport, I want the removal gendered categorising from all of society and for everyone to be able to access ID, and not have to decide between being able to prove that they are who they claim to be or eating. I do not want to see western queers making memes about how they’re illegal in so many countries, I want to see global solidarity with our queer siblings.
I want to see people engaging in resistance and community building which will liberate us all.