The Trannex
Where Is That Thing I Saw On Twitter
So you've decided to debate gender on the internet! Or - you're putting together a proposal, an article, or a resource pack. or you've got five years to kill before yr healthcare comes through and like wallowing in misery to cope.
.
I decided to index and archive my expanding list of "i'm going to want that later" bookmarks on trans topics
INSTRUCTIONS
Please be careful about who you share this webpage with. It will likely be a target of anti-trans activists. Use links from it, as you require.
Please make your own copy of this webpage, and share that (say, uploading the text on another site, or as a text file, or downloading a local copy). I release the work I've done freely, and without restriction, to anyone who wants to archive, expand, print and promote it for the purposes of defending trans people.
Where possible, link to the original studies & rephrase in your own words - rather than the trans people doing the original activism (unless you're very sure they're a campaigning sort who has written a resource to be read, and who would value credit for their work.) Individual activists are targets for online hate campaigns, so let's keep them under the radar where possible. I've tried to steer clear of links I've kept that seem personal in nature, and chosen those with a journalistic or campaigning vibe. If I've included your tweet on here in error, let me know & i'm sorry.
Overviews
How did the UK get so transphobic?? - by What the Trans
How British Feminism Became Anti-Trans - Sophie Lewis
A High Court Decision in Britain Puts Trans People Everywhere at Risk - Grace Lavery
Inside the Great British TERF War - Hanna Ewens
Why we take issue with the Guardian’s stance on trans rights in the UK - Sam Levin, Mona Chalabi and Sabrina Siddiqui (call ou by the Guardian US for the Guardian UK. Love gradually drifting to the right of America! great look for us!)
2020 Galop report on transphobic hate crimes -
summary tweethread;
the entire study.
Anti-trans theory
Autogynephilia - Contrapoints.
Andrea Dworkin was a Trans Ally - John Stoltenberg
Who follows Anti-Trans Groups?
Most anti-trans groups on twitter are astroturfed; they are fake groups pretending to represent real campaigns of ordinary people.
Who follows anti-trans groups? - none of them follow other women's, children's or LGBT+ causes, suggesting they are NOT in fact concerned with any of those groups.
Signatories to the transphobic "Women's Declaration" also, apparently, mostly follow anti-trans groups rather than women's organsations.
Who follows For Women Scotland on twitter? yet again, very little overlap with groups for women or human rights; mostly, overlaps with other anti-trans organisations.
Who follows the LGB Alliance? Same story: other anti-trans campaigns, but no one who follows LGB causes or womens causes.
Analysis of an anti-trans hashtag reveals there are actually very few "real" gender critical accounts on twitter, they just make a disproportionate amount of noise; and many of them are bots. Who's funding those bots and why?
Anti-Trans Groups
Uncovered:LGB Alliance - Trans Safety Network. Incredible work of research, profiling astroturfed hate group LGBA.
National Hate Groups behind coordinated anti-trans bills in America. Including the Heritage Foundation and the Eagle Forum, and the SPLC-designated hate group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF).
WHRC UK's anti-trans demands to parliament - Roz Kaveney identifies them as "genocidal"
Another analysis of WHRC's position - emphasising their campaign goals of removing all medical support, and so forth.
Questionable Expertise at bell vs tavistock - trans safety network hit the ball out of the park once more, with a well-researched factfile on the anti-abortion, Christian right, and unqualified scientists advising the bell case.
The Secret Internet of TERFs - Kaitlyn Tiffany
Crowdfunding drives wave of UK lawsuits over trans rights - Reuters. The notable thing about this is...where is the money coming from? Given that the actual number of active anti-trans organisers is so small. Some donations are
suspiciously large; and here's a good thread exploring some of those
funding links.
Where did the Detrans Advocacy Network go? - detransition isn't inherently anti-trans, of course, but this network got a lot of anti-trans press for what appears to be a mostly fictional organisation.
An earlier thread on the same topic.
Fashwatch
We have a considerable amount of evidence - from their own words! - that anti-abortion and anti-gay activists are pushing anti-trans policies as a wedge issue to try and divide progressive coalitions, and get a foot back in the door to overturn gains. And, in the other direction, the inherently right-wing politics of anti-trans women's groups naturally attracts overtly unsavory right-wing friends - like the Christian right and literal alt-right groups. Oddly enough, TERFs don't seem to mind this at all. This kind of organising moves across the pond: funding from right wing American groups, in exhange for grassroot organising that's being empowered in Britain that can be imported back to the states.
ALERT: Transphobic Feminism and Far Right Activism Rapidly Converging - Trans Safety Network
Historian of 1930s Germany and LGBT history on trans book burnings in
Nazi Germany
A Room Of Their Own: How Anti-Trans Feminists Are Complicit in Christian Right Anti-Trans Advocacy (USA) - Political Research Associates
Values Voter Summit Panelist: ‘Divide & Conquer’ To Defeat ‘Totalitarian’ Trans Inclusion Policies (2017) - Right Wing Watch (USA)
Christian Right tips to fight transgender rights: separate the T from the LGB (2017) - Southern Poverty Law Center (USA)
You Know Who
Why is JKR so obsessed with trans men?
Rita Skeeter's transmisogynistic coding; this tweet-thread doesn't mention it, but villainous Skeeter is driven from the story when Hermione threatens to reveal a secret about her.
Epic rebuttal thread to JKR's anti-trans manifesto
Single-sex spaces
Over 20% of cis female inmates have been sexually assaulted by another cis female inmate in the last 6 months.
This is an outrage and having to cite a statistic like this for these purposes is incredibly distasteful to me. Nontheless, anti-trans campaigners concerned about the safety of cisgender women in prison have seemingly no interest or compassion for cis female inmates subject to this kind of violence, and no political program or activism that would tackle the problem.
Oh Noes! Gays in the Locker Room! - ImplausibleGirl collects news articles about anti-gay bathroom panics.
Trans inclusive bathroom policies reduce sexual assault against trans youth, but do not increase sexual assault against cisgender people. Studies:
Yearlong gal-dem investigation into transphobia in sexual violence services
“Gender Critical” People Don’t Even Know What The GRA Is - Katy Montgomerie - is the frustrated update on her previous
Addressing Concerns Over GRA Reform
Transgender Children
Legendary masterpost of links to studies endorsing trans healthcare for young people.
Critical thoughts on Bell v. Tavistock - Florence Ashley
The laywer for Bell is
Paul Conrathe, who usually acts for the Christian Right bringing cases that people cannot consent to having an abortion.
"socially transitioned trans youth experience levels of anxiety & depression in the normative range" - in other words, similar to their siblings and peers.
Bell vs Tavistock did not accept any submissions from individuals or groups representing transgender children or their families.
Puberty blockers literally make trans kids happier, landmark new study confirms,
Transgender Trend's activism to protect children from transitioning swiftly moves onto those
age 18-25
Child psychiatry fellow talks through some of the
issues with a study popular among anti-trans groups.
Treatment plans at gender clinics have ‘effectively stopped’ for young trans people, warns clinician (inews; Jasmine Andersson; December 21, 2020)
Overview of the research on Puberty Blockers - from Growing Up Transgender.
Analysis of misleading data about bone density, in a study popular with anti-trans groups;
another thread on the same topic.
Taking Puberty Blockers does NOT correlate with identifying as transgender, as evidenced by the fact people taking PBs for non-gender related issues...rarely grow up to be trans.
Statement on ROGD from a number of leading American psychological groups.
Good
reddit comment linking to studies on detransition rates (low), and the beneficial impacts on puberty suppression before puberty; and
another.
- Simona Giordano & Søren Holm (2020) Is puberty delaying treatment ‘experimental treatment’?, International Journal of Transgender Health, 21:2, 113-121, DOI: 10.1080/26895269.2020.1747768 - article refuting some of the common anti-trans talking points on this issue.
- Mental Health of Transgender Youth in Care at an Adolescent Urban Community Health Center: A Matched Retrospective Cohort Study (2015) - transgender young people have worse mental health than non-transgender young people
- BUT
- Mental Health of Transgender Children Who Are Supported in Their Identities Kristina R. Olson, Lily Durwood, Madeleine DeMeules and Katie A. McLaughlin Pediatrics March 2016, 137 (3) e20153223; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2015-3223 - transgender children who are supported in their identities have similar baseline mental health to non-transgender peers, and better mental health to transgender peers being required to live as their birth sex.
- AND
- Young Adult Psychological Outcome After Puberty Suppression and Gender Reassignment
Annelou L.C. de Vries, Jenifer K. McGuire, Thomas D. Steensma, Eva C.F. Wagenaar, Theo A.H. Doreleijers, Peggy T. Cohen-Kettenis (2014) - young people allowed to access these things, have mental health similar to or better than non-transgender people of the same age.
- AND LONGTERM?
- Pubertal Suppression for Transgender Youth and Risk of Suicidal Ideation
Jack L. Turban, Dana King, Jeremi M. Carswell and Alex S. Keuroghlian
Pediatrics February 2020, 145 (2) e20191725; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2019-1725 - allowing young trans people to use puberty blockers makes them less suicidal in later life, compared to trans people who did not use puberty blockers
"Of the countries progressive enough to even have healthcare for transgender children, blockers after a lengthy diagnostic period is the norm. Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands"
American Girl: How Young Is Too Young To Be Transgender? - Azeen Ghorayshi (2016), really sweet profile of a family.
https://slate.com/human-interest/2021/02/detransition-movement-star-ex-gay-explained.html
"For those not following, the main group who gave evidence in the Tavistock case is now arguing that university students shouldn't be allowed to transition"
The Divisional Court's original decision at Bell v The Tavistock and Portland NHS Foundation Trust [2020] EWHC 3274 (Admin); and the follow-up case, Bell v The Tavistock and Portland NHS Foundation Trust [2021] EWCA Civ 1363 plus the official summary (5 pages long)
Healthcare
In two years, the Tavistock and Portman have processed a mere 3 months of referrals; at this rate, the waiting time for someone referred today is something like
27 years. Another estimate puts it at
16 years. In any case, its not good.
The UK Has a Trans Healthcare Crisis | Transnational - documentary from VICENews and I haven't been able to face watching it
Thread on the history of attempting to fix trans people with therapy alone.
The Case for Facial Feminization Surgery - Buzzfeed
A little story about trying to access hair treatment.
Masterpost of research studies on topics relating to medical transition.
The BMA votes to oppose conversion therapy; thread includes links to studies disproving the effecacy of conversion therapy.
My Brother Died of Ovarian Cancer - Deputy Speaker of the House of Lords
GP facing tribunal for running illegal transgender clinic which gave puberty blockers to kids insists she is ‘fighting for what is right’
The GIC system in the UK is fundamentally broken, creating a "bottleneck" for care at a single service, instead of distributing it among primary care. GICs currently deliver fewer appointments, despite increased funding - suggesting it isn't a funding problem, but in how the system is designed.
Transition regret: rarer than regret for cancer treatment! Bustos et al 2021, a meta-analysis of regret after gender affirming surgery, found a rate of 0.4% for major regrets; these regrets include "not getting electrolysis first, being non-binary, not having the sensation they wanted, losing family members, having a "double role", losing their partner". Nn contrast Wilson, Ronnekliev-Kelly and Pawlik 2017 found that across 79 studies of cancer surgeries, thoraic sympathectomy, copocleisis etc, they found a "relatively uncommon average prevalance of 14.4%", which is 15 times higher than that of gender-affirming surgeries
I couldn't find a bookmarked tweet which i felt comfortable sharing; but I want to highlight that if the situation for trans people is dire, the situation for detransitioners is even worse; there are basically no pathways available for people who want to revise or reverse decisions they've made about their gender, including changing your GRC and accessing new medical support. "Detransition" is merely transition by another name; and the current Gender Clinic system is barely capable of meeting the needs of bog standard binary, gender-conforming transgender people, let alone the more unique & compassionate support a 'detransitioner' needs.
The Gender Gulag: Voices of the Asylum - Kelley Winters - disturbing content! examples of historic conversion therapies from trans autobiographies.
Disco Sexology - Multi-part longread exploring medical concepts about trans people from the 1970s, which still influence anti-trans campaigning today. Transadvocate have a good
fact checking section, a terfwatch section, and is generally a good place to bone up on data.
Politics
Tonia Antoniazzi MP , misrepresenting sexual offence statistics (see also
Hansard)
The
Rosie Duffield's Likes-Watchers spot homophobic tweets.
Jess Barnard - elected Chair of Young Labour, representing Labour party members under the age of 26 - and a cisgender woman - was
threatened with investigation for tweeting that she blocked TERF accounts.
Owen Jones' youtube video on
Labour's war on LGBT and young people.
Trans people must be heard by the Labour Party - Arthur Webber describes the initial furore around Rosie Duffield MP's tweet about cervixes; this article is from august 2020, and as of September 2021 Webber has left the party, in response to further tweets from Duffield and a complete lack of action.
REVEALED: The links between the government’s top diversity civil servant and the LGB Alliance - the LGB Alliance have also been advertising in
The EHRC intervene in the Forstater appeal; so what's going on there?
Three UK government LGBT advisers quit with rebuke of 'ignorant' ministers
UNSORTED
WHRC UK's anti-trans demands to parliament - Roz Kaveney identifies them as "genocidal"
Wi Spa Criminal Record - whatever is going on at Wi Spa is a developing situation. But here's more info about the person in question - whose criminal record seems to include charges related to homelessness and prostitution.
Trans people twice as likely to die as cis people according to a study: "Mortality trends over five decades in adult transgender people receiving hormone treatment: a report from the Amsterdam cohort of gender dysphoria" (
source)
What is Ideologically-Motivated Detransition? - Ky Schevers
Detransition as Conversion Therapy: A Survivor Speaks Out -Ky Schevers
An “Ex-Detransitioner” Disavows the Anti-Trans Movement She Helped Spark - Slate
Transgender rights guarabteed under the Equality Act have since been tested in two court cases: AEA v EHRC (2021) and FDJ v MoJ (2021). Both agreed that single-sex spaces are trans-inclusive by default. You can read the
Authentic Equity Alliance judgement here. You may have seen news stories about Stonewall giving "illegal" advice.
Here's the t on that; Stonewall have been informing bodies about the law as is set out in the Equality Act, and this has consequently made
Stonewall itself the target of anger (for reportedly lying about the law for ideological reasons.)
Escalating societal transphobia is being created in part by
the media - this tweet by minusplnp needs quoting in full:
Last year (2020) The Times wrote ~324 articles about trans issues. To my knowledge, none were authored by trans people.
This year they have written ~223 articles and it's only May. To my knowledge, none were authored by trans people.
That's nearly double the publishing rate.
In 2019, they wrote 321 articles; three of them authored by trans people.
Ofcom boss declares it ‘extremely inappropriate’ for BBC to ‘balance’ trans people with anti-trans activists - Pink News