One of the bands I play in has a transgender drummer. It was a pretty tough transition for her in her day job in the jokey-blokey world of telecommunications.
The human rights of transgender people are routinely abused everywhere. Transphobia and prejudice have a heavy toll.
Globally the suicide rate is 16 per 100,000 people. But for transgender adults it is around 800 per 100,000.
The latest edition of the New Internationalist magazine on transgender lists “9 seriously easy things” non-trans people can do to help instead of hinder. They may involve letting go of some deep-set prejudices and fixed ideas about gender. And they’re also a “seriously easy” measuring-stick for keeping transphobia at bay.
It’s a serious issue that demands our attention. As Vanessa Baird – editor of our special Transgender edition – writes:
“A couple of years ago, at a National Union of Journalists event in London, I heard a speaker from Trans Media Watch talking about the way in which the tabloid papers had ‘outed’ and hounded Lucy Meadows, a transgender schoolteacher who subsequently committed suicide. The incident was an example of the gutter press at its most despicable – and ignorant. Trans Media Watch condemned it, of course. But they also set about working with even the most bigoted and offensive sections of the media to try to change the way in which transgender people and their issues were reported.”
Please do all you can to spread the word about this important magazine: bit.ly/transgender-mag.
Thank you.