transphobia & the left
the left & transphobia bogus science & bogus marxism The question of fighting Transphobia, like all forms of oppression, is a crucial part in the struggle to end the rule of capitalism by a united movement of the working class. In recent years sections of the Left globally have unfortunately perpetuated transphobic attitudes and prejudices using pseudo-Marxist arguments to do so. CONOR PAyNE debunks these arguments and myths. Trans People face oppression all around the world. In the US, trans women are more than four times more likely than cisgender women to be victims of murder and black trans women are seven times more likely to be murdered than the general population. In the UK, 2018-19 saw a 37% increase in hate crimes against trans people.1 A study by UK-based LGBTQ+ group Stonewall found that one in four trans people had experienced homelessness at some point in their lives, while 12% of trans workers reported physical violence or harassment in the workplace in the last year.2 In Ireland, a Transgender Equality Network Ireland survey found that 80% of respondents avoided at least some public places or situations due to fear of harassment 18 l SocialiSt altErNativE l SuMMEr 2020
and 78% had thought about suicide at some point in their lives, with 40% having made at least one attempt.3 Violence, harassment and discrimination have been experienced by trans people for many years. But part of the context of these figures is a rise in the use of transphobic rhetoric and anti-trans legislation in a whole number of countries, in particular emanating from the resurgent populist right as well as sections of the establishment. Far right and right populist parties around the world rail against ‘’gender ideology;’ against the social recognition of the validity of Trans identities and lives. In the US, the Trump administration has moved to ban trans people from the military, to remove protections from discrimination for trans people in healthcare and to make it legal to discriminate against trans people in homeless shelters, among a raft of other measures. The US right has also pushed a series of ‘’bathroom bills’’ at state or local level which seek to prevent trans people from using the bathroom which corresponds best to their gender. In Hungary, the increasingly authoritarian regime of Orban recently introduced a measure to erase the legal recognition of trans people as part of a bill allegedly aimed at fighting the Coronavirus!
transphobic propaganda In Britain, a widespread campaign of transphobic propaganda has emanated from the press and sections of the political establishment, particularly in response
