There's a T in LGBT

It seems beyond bleeding obvious, but, the fact is that, for most people, the T tends to disappear into their blind spot. Don't take my word for it - facts speak louder than words. ILGA Europe have been hard at work producing maps of Europe to illustrate the state of LGBT equality and discrimination in each country. There are two separate maps: one marked Sexual Orientation (LGB) and the other Gender Identity (T). Click on the links and have a look. I don't know about you, but I just wanted to cry when I saw what reality looks like for transgenders in Europe in the 21st century. LGB rights throughout Europe follow a predictable pattern with the odd surprise here and there: while Eastern Europe is stuck in the dark ages of deeply ingrained homophobia, Western Europe, bar the occasional anomaly, has moved with the times (but shame on you France and FFS Italy!). And then we get to the T... Countries that had the highest score for LGB rights are now barely distinguishable from the former Eastern bloc. It's a travesty that a whole group seems to have been left behind in the struggle for LGBT rights.

But transgenders often face discrimination where you would expect acceptance and understanding: gays and lesbians. It's no wonder that the B and the T often stick together - we know only too well what it's like to be marginalised and dismissed as someone who has taken a wrong turn or got stuck on the road to enlightenment. An example of a horrific case of transphobia from old-school lesbians, is the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival that has been marginalising transwomen for decades. They operate a disgraceful policy of Womyn-born-Womyn (women who were identified as female at birth, then raised as girls, and then chose to live as women). This excludes transwomen, transmen and intersex, since they don't conform to their narrow definition of the purity of the gender (and I choose my words carefully). I deliberately don't use the word 'feminists' to describe these women (or womyn), because I identify as a feminist and I don't want to be associated with such hateful prejudice. This isn't feminism. This isn't sisterhood. This is pure hatred and oppression worse than any patriarchy they complain about at any opportunity.

Are we going to remain silent while such discrimination continues in broad daylight? Transgenders are part of our community and we must never forget that. We diminish ourselves by ignoring their fight for equality. We reveal our deepest ugliness by treating them as an aberration, by lacking compassion for fellow human beings. We shouldn't question - we should accept and respect. We wouldn't expect anything else ourselves, so what's so different about transgenders?