Munroe Bergdorf is a former GLAMOUR Woman of the Year and one of the UK's most progressive activists – campaigning for Black, trans and queer rights. She is also a UN Women UK Changemaker and sits on the Diversity and Inclusion Board of L'Oréal Paris. For Transgender Awareness Week 2023, which takes place from 13-19 November, we revisit Munroe's powerful essay on the misconceptions that urgently need changing about the trans community…
Misinformation is a huge issue for the trans community right now. It's rife. When you're hearing about a topic about trans lives, there's so much noise, panic and sensationalism, and it's not coming from our community. There's pushback, which is coming from our community – we want to be seen and heard and are fighting for our rights – but the misinformation about who trans people are is coming from people in fairly privileged, powerful positions who often have significantly influential and impactful jobs in the media or in government.
Take the issue of conversion therapy, for example. When the most powerful minister in government, our Prime Minister, ignores public consultations in favour of transgender people being able to self-identify, then announces a future ban on conversion therapy for gay and bisexual people, but not us – it not only then puts out misinformation, but it reinstates the moral panic that is currently threatening transgender people.
That's not only our rights, but our state of mind, our physical wellbeing. Our access to safe spaces. The snowball effect that can have.
Transphobia has made its way into parliament. It's made its way into mainstream media. It's made its way into schools and workplaces – it's kind of unavoidable, and constant exposure to such sensationalist misinformation and condemnation takes its toll. When we're talking about trans rights, it's really important that we bear in mind that misinformation in this time is rife.
Misconception 1: Trans people do not have rights
Many people aren't aware of the protections that trans people already have. It seems that a lot of the general public think that we don't actually already have access to certain spaces, that we don’t already use such spaces without people being aware, without anything bad happening.
Under the gender recognition act, the law says that trans women are women. And the law says that we do have access to the spaces that align with our gender identity. Exclusion on the basis of someone being transgender is discrimination.
The danger is that the Prime Minister and this government are reframing their own personal bigotries and qualms with the community as the standard that other people should adhere to. When really, people should be adhering to the law and to empathy, and the wellbeing and safety of a marginalized community.
Misconception 2: Trans people are an imminent threat
There are no statistics to suggest that we are rapists by nature, that we are abusers by nature. That letting transgender women into women-only spaces causes violence of any kind.
Yet it is being framed as if this is going to be an imminent threat, especially to cisgender women. When the reality is that we have been in these spaces without anything happening. There's always going to be a bad egg in any demographic. But do we say that every cisgender woman is a Myra Hindley? Absolutely not. Do we say that every single cisgender white male is a school shooter? No, we don't. There's always going to be these people that uphold these stereotypes and dangers, but they certainly do not reflect the will, actions or mindsets of the community that they are a part of.
We are seeing people in privileged positions take the minority and run with it; labelling a whole demographic as wholly violent, because of that small minority. That's what we are seeing happen. All the while the same government who are stoking this culture war directed at the trans community, are themselves facing multiple allegations of ministers being accuse of rape, sexual assault, abuse of minors and watching pornography in the house of commons, no less.
If there were elevated levels of sexual violence coming out from the trans community, then I would be on the front lines condemning my own community by working to find out the reason of why that is the case. But there's nothing to weed out. There's nothing for me to be speaking out against. That's the most frustrating thing – is that an issue is being made out of a situation where there really is no issue to speak of.
And if any cisgender woman is reading this article, and feels that transgender women aren't fighting for them also – know that we experience the same violence from the same people. It's just because our bodies are different that the violence looks different. But it's the same misogyny. Unfortunately, the patriarchy always needs a target. Conservative governments need a scapegoat. The sisterhood is infinitely stronger together.
Misconception 3: Transitioning is the same process for everybody
There's a lot of assumptions as to what a transition actually consists of. But the whole crux of a transition is a transition of identity. It doesn't need to mean that person has to have surgery, or has to be undergoing hormone replacement therapy, or has to present in what society deems to be women's clothing.
That person is trans whether or not they're presenting or not. Depending on how safe they feel, how ready they feel, it's down to that person. Because being trans isn't all about your body – there's all these assumptions that we want to look a certain way or that we have to look a certain way to be believed that we are who we say we are.
Misconception 4: Trans people don't belong in sports
The problem is, as soon as the topic of trans people in sports is discussed, the idea of a ‘big burly man who came out two minutes ago’ comes up. It goes back to the stereotypes of who people think trans people are.
When we're talking about sports, we're not just talking about athletes. We're talking about trans people's access to being able to move their bodies in public and feel safe. Being able to participate in school sports and feel safe and supported to thrive.
If you enjoy sport, it's a really important outlet. We're talking about people's ability to go for a swim and feel free in their own body. We're talking about charity endeavours that are linked to sport. It doesn't just begin and end with athletes.
But we need to also bear in mind that transphobia doesn't only affect trans people within sport. We've seen how Caster Semenya's womanhood has been routinely thrown into question, because she doesn't fit the brackets of what is deemed womanhood by Western European standards. She's having to actively change her body chemistry as a Black woman to make it more of a fair fight or a fair competition. Because the voices at the top are Western European and the idea of gender is surrounding a Western European ideal.
It's a massive stereotype to suggest that all men are bigger than women and all women are tiny and helpless. There's women that outperform men all the time. Look at Venus and Serena Williams. 'Manhood' doesn't mean that you're inherently better at sport. There's such thing as technique. There's such thing as talent.
Misconception 5: Trans people are always straight
There's so many assumptions that we must be straight. Or that we must be transitioning into heteronormativity. But there's so much crossover within the LGBT community, between the LGB and the T.
A lot of trans people are queer as well. A lot of trans people are gay, bi, pan or lesbians. You can't pull apart someone's identity like that. You can't separate their sexuality from their race, from their gender. There’s intersectional overlap.
If intersectionality has taught us anything, it's that the experience of a Black trans woman is a holistic experience. The different parts of her identity will impact on each other. You can't just say, "We're only addressing race today," because a big part of her experience with race is dependent on her gender identity and her sexuality.
Misconception 6: Trans people are always the victim
We only really see trans people on television when we are being interviewed about our trans-ness. Or talking about marginalisation, or how bad things are. Or what we've been through. And that's a problem. We need to make sure that's not the only narrative that people are seeing.
Because it plays into an act of dehumanisation. And the wonderful thing about being human is that we are individuals with unique interests. When do we ever see trans people on television talking about our unique interests? I want to see trans people being given opportunities to talk about what they are good at.
In TV and film, across the LGBT community, unfortunately, there's so many storylines of characters dying or being killed off. The aspect of tragedy that is attached to the LGBT community from all angles is something that definitely needs to change – though we are seeing it with shows like Euphoria, Pose and Heartstopper.
Even though we have all of this communal trauma and oppression that we face on a daily basis, the joy and the talent and the resilience and the innovation that comes out of our community is second to none.
Mark my words, we will see a turnaround when it comes to the trans community. Look at the rise of drag – straight, cis societies only just started realising that drag is actually something joyful and not something seedy.
In ten years time, people are going to be like, what were we doing? We were putting kids in harm's way. We were driving people into survival sex work and violent situations. We were denying people housing. We were stopping people from getting jobs. We were running their healthcare services into the ground. We were ostracising them from society. For what?
Misconception 7: Trans existence is a new concept
Just because it's a new thing to you, doesn't mean it's new, period. The way that we talk about gender within the Western world is through the lens of a Western eye. When you go into indigenous communities and ancient cultures, gender is not discussed in this binary, biological way.
It's about spirit. It's about soul. It's about the essence of human character. In indigenous American cultures, Two-Spirit existed and still exists. In Southeast Asia there's evidence of trans identities. In Aboriginal Australia, there's evidence of trans identities. In the Philippines to Africa. All of this culture has been erased over time through colonialism, but many still exist today – we are a global community.
Misconception 8: Trans people are targets for personal and intrusive questions
For the amount of noise that is going on with regards to people talking about us, there's not many people actually talking to us. So many people have opinions about trans people yet haven’t actually had a conversation with us. So when people do have that opportunity, it becomes a dump of everything that they've ever wanted to ask a trans person. That includes very personal questions that most wouldn't consider appropriate.
It's usually at the beginning of your transition, when people are in peak dehumanisation mode. I would get a lot of people at asking to feel my breasts. Because they wanted to know what transition boobs felt like. Or asking me about how I had sex or who I have sex with, or whether I’ve had or want to have sexual reassignment surgery.
As you slowly become 'yourself' and people start to see your humanity – as you start to represent something that is visually more in line with their idea of binary gender norms – they stop asking you these dehumanising questions. And that's not okay.
Unfortunately, it's a sliding scale. At its best, it's intrusive questions. At its worst, it's being thrown out of literal physical spaces because you are trans.
Misconception 9: LGBTQ+ rights are all and one the same
The rights of trans people are significantly different to the rights of what is considered to be LGB.
Whilst trans people were on the front lines of the LGBT movement (the gay rights movement, which turned into the LGBT movement); whilst we were paramount in the sparking of the Stonewall Riots; whilst we are consistently on the front lines fighting for our entire community; whilst we are active in the Black Lives Matter movement; whilst we are always fighting for all of these other causes... trans people are always on the bottom of the totem pole of rights and of respect within society in how we are treated and how we are seen.
Yes, things have come very far for the LGBT movement as a whole. But it doesn't mean that everybody is at the same point.
But they have come this far because we are together. How were our rights gained? It was trans women and drag queens and sex workers. That's why all marginalised communities should be fighting together.
Trans people should be fighting with Black people, should be fighting with cisgender women, should be fighting with sex workers, should be fighting with refugees. Identifying that you can be all of those things at the same time. More often than not, we often see that people are. It's really important to bear in mind that they are different, but they're often existing at the same time within the same person.
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