LGBT History Month - No, it's not 'getting better'

So, it's LGBT History Month, usually my favourite one as it combines two things I love. And it's been lovely to see some of your posts. But I want to do something a bit long form, to explain why while picking out a hero from the past, or saying you are a supporter in a closed social media post unfortunately isn't enough.

?I am Transgender (sorry to drop that revelation so early on - take as long as you need ;-) ). Which means two things. All of my life I have been female, and all of my life I have been Transgender. All that changed in 2019 (see history!) was that I let people in on the fact. In that short time I have been assaulted, abused online (including threats of murder and rape), I have had someone attempt to get me fired - that person incidentally is spreading their hate on the front page of one of today's newspapers here in the UK. But two things for me personally remain true. I am a woman, and I am transgender. Nothing can change that; they are objective and scientific facts.

?But how does history meld into the world we are in now? I meet people who are decent, supportive and inclusive who tell me that 'things are so much better now', and they mean it, and in some ways I know why. We do have some legal protections previously unavailable - the Equality act and Gender Recognition acts in the UK for example, and equal marriage in many parts of the US, Title IX and sanctuary city declarations in some US cities and states. But they have become meaningless, because the rule of law for trans people on both sides of the Atlantic has been torn up - thanks to well funded campaigns from groups with a stated aim of splitting the LGBTQIA community (see the 'voters values conference, 2017' for the open facts on that one)

What we are seeing has eerie parallels of other shameful points in recent history.

The legal erosion of Trans People in the UK to form relationships was eroded in November of last year with new CPS advice that stated that should I meet someone, and (it is Valentines day - and I live in vain hope) kiss them - consensually, even if they initiate the kiss; then I am now liable to be prosecuted for 'deception by sex' - mirroring the 'Gay panic' defence which was phased out in the UK, but still remains in swathes of the US. Simply put, this means that if I were to be assaulted or killed, my killer could advance a defence that they acted in panic at discovering my status.

We saw also last year the first piece of anti LGBTQIA legislation since the passing of Section 28 with the banning of provision of inclusive medical care to young people, based on a now widely discredited report - which has been debunked by many of the worlds major Medical journals and professional associations, with the prospect of an adult ban to follow as a similar review is set underway. This means that for me to remain healthy, I may be forced to self medicate from the black market. Not because of scientific or medical evidence, but because of politics.

We have seen this in more recent memory, and inevitably we look to Central Europe in the 1930s and 1940s.

In 1933, the very first Nazi book burning was at the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft in Berlin. I guarantee that you have seen the pictures, but you didn't get given the context. The library was almost the sole source of medical research for the Transgender community, and it was destroyed in one night of violence and vandalism. In the US over the last 3 weeks, all mentions of Transgender people have been deleted from US government controlled libraries of research, the CDC and other US medical organisations have overnight deleted all mentions of Transgender people and removed the research - there was no photogenic bonfire, but the intention is the same.

Also in the US, the wider erasure of Trans people continues - in an echo of the authoritarianism of Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia (where LGBT people were referred to as 'golden boys' and sent to Siberia routinely) we see a wholesale removal. State department travel advice simply removed the 'T' from its pages, and deleted specific advice for travellers (some countries retaining in many cases colonial era British penal codes (section 377 - still in force in many places)). So Trans people traveliing have no source of guidance on their safety. That is assuming they can travel. The executive order which denies the existence of Trans and non binary people has led to some Trans people in the US having passports confiscated and invalidated - a chilling throwback to the 1936 removal of passports from Jewish and 'anti-social persons' (often queer, communist, roma or religious non conformists) in Germany.

The same executive order means I cannot now travel to any part of the US. Texas was already very difficult as a State - last year, the city of Odessa instituted a 'bathroom bounty' whereby a citizen could report a trans person using the bathroom. The trans person would be arrested, potentially imprisoned - for me, in the male estate, and fined $20k - which would be payable to the person who made the tipoff. This mirrors post war East Germany, where the Ministerium für Staatssicherheit or Stasi used a network of informers, paid and unpaid to imprison those they deemed undesirable. The US government has deemed that my Passports are fraudulent, and that should I use them to acquire a visa or ESTA, that I would be prosecuted for fraud on entry. I had cause to think about this as I watched until 4am on Monday my beloved Eagles win the superbowl - No Philly for me.

The Lemkin Institute, which studies historical genocides stated more than 2 years ago that the seeds of genocide against the Trans community had been sown - that was our warning from history, people didn't believe it, people avoided it - and here we are; fighting an existential threat in two of the world's most developed countries; erasing our history (The US Park Service removed the 'T' from the pages on the Stonewall Inn this week - where Trans people literally started the riots seen as the start of the modern Queer liberation movement)

The sports bans (pioneered right here in the UK, and started with Rugby - which I fought and continue to fight) were never about fairness in sport - they were a classic 'wedge issue' - many people said 'I support trans people, but not in sport' - I am a woman whether I am at work, in bed, on the loo, or pulling on shorts and trainers. Bans simply don't have the scientific evidence that the media would have you believe. In the US the impact of this rhetoric has meant the defunding of all women's sport in colleges - where only 5 people participating are trans. You should be angry before cis people become collateral damage, not after.

So no, It's not 'getting better', and we need more than historical pictures culled from Wikipedia - I don't say that to be mean, I say it because I believe that people want to know how to do better.

History is to be learned from. So many people ask 'how did it happen?' about authoritarian regimes of the past. Well don't ask. It's happening, and you have a chance to consider not what you would have done, but what you will do. It means action, it means being uncomfortable, it means risk, it means taking the blows alongside us. So as for LGBTQIA+ heroes. I have loads, and most of them are still alive and still fighting. I am trying to be my own hero. Surviving, advocating, demonstrating my value to society and just trying to live - because survival is such a low bar.

I leave you with an image, a 'Stolperstein' - a small brass plate you can see in pavements in Europe marking the residence of someone deported to their death during the holocaust. A prominent anti trans activist, who also happens to be an author of very popular childrens books stated that Trans people were not killed in the holocaust. Kate Rogalli begs to differ. Please speak up now. before future generations see names like mine on the pavement