WHAT’S THE NEXT big thing for transgender rights? You. Yes, you dear. We’re recruiting for allies. I thought I’d try gay people first, what with you, me and the trans community being best fucking friends and all, these days. Are you up for it? You don’t have to do much. We just need to know you’ve got our back.
The welcoming in of trans people by the gay community is, in my opinion, one of the most exciting things to happen for trans progress since the Internet. Nowhere was this more apparent than at Student Pride, where I took part in a panel on media representation chaired by a certain Mr Matthew Todd. On my right sat Dustin Lance Black, the Oscar winning director of Milk, and, to my left, Dominic Treadwell Collins, executive producer at Eastenders. Dustin revealed that he was working on a film with Laverne Cox. Dominic revealed that Eastenders are looking to create a trans character. The fact is that the gay community is a lot further ahead than the trans community, and many of you have the power to help us catch up.
While there is still rampant homophobia across much of Britain – try being ‘effeminate’ and gay on a council estate in Manchester, for example – when it comes to accepting people’s sexuality, we are getting there, aren’t we? There are still inequalities like the discriminatory policy on donating blood, and there will always be individual bigots. The difference now, however, is that those bullies don’t include the British state, or, on the whole, the British media.