It's a common refrain when a public figure makes a transphobicstatement; "They wouldn't say that about any other minority." It oftencomes from a well meaning place, the people are outraged by bigotry andsince they could not imagine knowingly engaging in it they assume thatsomebody engaging in one sort of bigotry would see that it was wrong ifthey could only see it as bigotry. The reality is somewhat different.---- In this post, I'm going to show a number of examples of the "anyother minority" argument and demonstrate why the claims made are untrue.Where the examples are from individuals I will be anonymising them.* * * * *The liberal pressure group Stop Funding Hate, who seek to "mak[e]hateunprofitable by persuading advertisers to pull their support frompublications that spread hate and division" are a repeat offender onTwitter, with a search finding multiple examples over the last few years.We are led to suppose, by implication, that scaremongering about "anyother minority group" would be remarkable from the Mail On Sunday. Aquick glance at the "Migrant Crisis" section on the Mail's websiteshould be sufficient to show that this is simply not true. The Mail isnotorious as a clearing house for the acceptable fringe of all kinds ofbigotry.How the Mail talks about migrants; scare stories and implications ofimpropriety and incestLast month Laura Pascal, a Labour candidate in the Cazenove ward councilelections, was the subject of controversy after she was found to haveliked transphobic posts on Twitter. Pascal was briefly suspended beforebeing reinstated. One trans Labour member took to Twitter to opine thathad she expressed bigotry against any other minority group "she would beexpelled."The first thing that should be made clear is that at least one of theposts liked by Pascal (comparing trans woman Dylan Mulvaney to ablackface performer) is straightforwardly racist. As Gemma Stone says inher piece for Trans Writes on Pascal:Not only is this obviously and horrifically transphobic - as intended.But its also deeply racist too. Its invoking the spectre of Blackpeople's suffering and oppression as a tool to attack something theydon't like.In addition to this, there are multiple examples of clear bigotry fromLabour politicians not leading to expulsion or, in fact, any officialsanction whatsoever.In August 2016, Labour MP Sarah Champion published an opinion piece inThe Sun tabloid under the headline "British Pakistani men ARE raping andexploiting white girls ... and it's time we faced up to it." WhileChampion claimed that the article had been "stripped of nuance" by TheSun, editors claimed that she had approved the piece. While Championfaced criticism for this racist article, she remains a Labour MP to thisday.In April 2021, the Labour MP Charlotte Nichols handed out local electionleaflets promising "dealing with traveller incursions." Nicholseventually apologised after criticism on social media, claiming to nothave been aware of the negative connotations of promising to expel anethnic minority from the area, and the leaflets were destroyed, but noLabour member was suspended or expelled.* * * * *Most recently, Rishi Sunak has come under fire for transphobic commentsmade during Prime Minister's Questions on a day when the mother ofmurdered trans girl Brianna Ghey was attending as a member of thepublic, resulting in Brianna's father calling for Sunak to apologise forhis "dehumanising" remark. One cis ally on Twitter with a largefollowing claimed that "if this was any other minority, the PM would beresigning in disgrace."Sunak has quite publicly attacked a number of minority groups, includingAlbanian asylum seekers, travelers and disabled people. It's simplyabsurd on the face of it to treat his transphobia, specifically asexceptional.* * * * *So why does any of this matter? It might seem churlish or petty to pickon a particular turn of phrase used by people trying to challengetransphobia but the reality of claiming that transphobia is lesspunished, less socially acceptable than other forms of bigotry likeracism, homophobia, misogyny, ableism, etc. is that you are implicitlydenying just how common, everyday and officially sanctioned thesevarious forms of oppression are. This denial undermines solidarity andrisks pushing trans people who aren't white and able-bodied out of transliberation movement spaces. A majority of trans people in the UK are notwhite British, if you're a white trans person or cis ally, consider howit would feel to share space with people who continually denied howpervasive and damaging transphobia is.https://organisemagazine.org.uk/2024/02/16/the-trouble-with-any-other-minority-opinion/_________________________________________A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C EBy, For, and About AnarchistsSend news reports to A-infos-en mailing listA-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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