Why is the ultra-right targeting trans kids? Opportunistic neo-Nazis are using transphobia as their PR exercise. Like abortion, trans issues, and in particular issues around schools and the rights of trans kids, are emotionally charged. For those who have chosen bigotry and fear over acceptance and inclusion, polarised viewpoints create ignition points for hate and violence.
It’s painful to watch the conversation around trans rights coerced and manipulated by the right wing agenda. To see the private struggles and pain of members of our wider community played out on the streets of our cities as an ugly protest meant to hurt and marginalise. This is not who we are. Just a few weeks ago Sydney was the host city for World Pride. It is a festival that celebrates Queer communities around the globe. One minute we were hugging each other draped in the Rainbow flag, the next minute there’s masked men in black giving a Nazi salute.
It’s never been more important to understand what the word ‘ally’ means. This is when we, the community of family, friends and supporters of LGBTQI+ people stand up to the ugly transphobic bullies. Is the gender identity of the ultra right so fragile that they must assert dominance over children? What kind of movement needs to do that? What kind of person aligns with values that permit and encourage such unevolved behaviour? These are not smart people. So is it an education issue?
Many trans-phobic people identify as having Christian values – although it tends to be less the Christian God of love and more the evangelical Christian God of hate. Although it seems none of them have read the good book. Theologians affirm the Bible’s full inclusion of trans and non-binary people. Creation stories may have been told with a bias towards the binary, but we all know that the binary doesn’t exist. Day/night? Well what about dawn and dusk? We exist in spectrums. We are gender expansive people. I have always thought God was non-binary. It explains the mystery of the holy trinity. That God was three things; God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. No gender, or body, defines the Holy Spirit. Jesus was a man, but not some macho chick-pulling dude on a donkey. He was no Andrew Tate. He was gentle, loving, forgiving, and he was celibate. Some may even say ‘asexual’. I think, when you start a religion and you tell people you are the father, the son and the holy spirit, you are textbook ‘fluid’. I don’t think the right wing evangelists of hate have even read the Bible they are so passionate to defend. Their ‘righteous’ God is a big man in a dress. I wonder what toilet they’d make God use?
We need to stop amplifying the conversations that seek to hurt the trans community. Is someone in my family transgender? Yes, of course. I would think that every person has someone in their close circle who is trans. I had one family member who lived a secret life because of their desire to dress as a woman. That was a long time ago. It was seen as a shameful secret. But if it happened now it could have been expressed, could have been in the open.
Humans are nuanced, we aren’t one thing or the other. Binaries kill people. Nearly half of the transgender community have attempted suicide. Around 82 per cent have had suicidal thoughts. Transgender people are among the most marginalised and socioeconomically disadvantage groups in our community. In a peer-reviewed study on the health and wellbeing of transgender adult Australians, 73 per cent reported a lifetime diagnosis of depression. Around one third had reported discrimination from employment as a result of being trans. Being trans is hard enough. Inclusion is the only way forward. To do that, we have to reduce discrimination. It’s not hard to do. It doesn’t cost money. It’s about acceptance by family, friends, schools and workplaces. It’s about sharing our spaces. It’s about finding out who we are when we move beyond the hard – line gender binary. Hate is the anthem of the binary.
Choose love, not hate. Love is beautiful and inclusive. Because love, like life, and like God, is fluid.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
