Trans Awareness Week means upholding The Independent’s values

On Voices, we are proud to regularly platform trans writers, writes Harriet Williamson

Trans individuals need their voices heard more than ever (AFP/Getty)

From 13-19 November, we mark Trans Awareness Week, leading up to the Transgender Day of Remembrance, which memorialises the victims of transphobic violence around the world.

On Voices, we are proud to regularly platform trans writers – read the comic Jordan Gray’s recent piece about why she stripped off on Friday Night Live – and are not afraid to stand with trans folks in a media landscape where the personhood and human rights of trans folks are regularly put up for debate.

Sadly, the arguments used to demonise and dehumanise trans individuals are very similar to those used against gay, lesbian and bisexual people in the 1980s. When we look back on this period in history, we may wonder why lessons weren’t learnt from the days of Section 28, the Aids crisis and the way gay people were positioned as dangerous – to children, families and the institution of marriage.

According to the charity Stop Hate UK, transgender people are the most targeted group in the LGBT+ community as a whole when it comes to serious hate crimes. In 2020-2021, the police recorded a 16 per cent increase in reported hate crimes against trans people – an indication that we still have not achieved a society that is tolerant of and safe for LGBT+ citizens.

On Sunday, Kylie MacFarquharson wrote movingly about how the best part of being trans for her is… not having to think about being trans.

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She explores the benefits of visibility and invisibility against a backdrop of a “media firestorm around trans rights” and the public harassment she has faced, and how the most valuable “awareness” is when trans people “get talked to, rather than talked about”.

This is why it is so important that trans folks are able to tell their stories, rather than be spoken about in the abstract by cisgender people with zero lived experience who would make the right of trans and non-binary individuals to live with dignity a “culture war” issue – as we saw so clearly during the Tory leadership contest.

At The Independent, our guiding principles include providing courageous witness to causes of equality, global human rights and progressive, liberal values. This Trans Awareness Week – and every week – we strive to uphold those values.

Yours,

Harriet Williamson

Voices commissioning editor