On the 29th of June 2022 a trans rights protest was held outside of 10 Downing Street. One of the speakers was Dr. Natacha Kennedy and we are grateful to her for this transcript:
A lot of people don’t understand why trans and non-binary people have campaigned so hard for abortion rights in places like the US and Ireland. This is partly because there are plenty of us who can become pregnant, but it is also because of the principle of bodily autonomy.
The right to bodily autonomy is as fundamental as any other human right. If you claim to be in favour of abortion you cannot be opposed to trans healthcare, including the right for young trans and non-binary people to pause puberty.
Five years ago when the current wave of transphobia started in the UK trans and non-binary people here said it was powered by the extreme right. The anti-trans groups promoted by the UK mainstream media either had conveniently opaque funding sources or funding that could be traced back to groups like The Heritage Foundation, a far-right anti-abortion group Liz Truss recently worked with. Anti-trans campaigners claiming to be “feminists” write in reactionary anti-abortion media like The Spectator and The Murdoch Times. Organised transphobia in the UK has always been fascist. It’s just become more obvious now.
UK “Gender critical” transphobes have allowed their rhetoric to be recycled by the far-right legislating against trans rights, the same people now legislating against abortion.
And in turn, British anti-trans activists recycle far-right rhetoric; their phrase “gender ideology” is from European fascists. This phrase was used in 2013 to shut down an LGBTQLGBTQ LGBTQIA+ is an inclusive term that includes people of all genders and sexualities, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, queer, intersex, asexual, pansexual, and allies. While each letter in LGBTQIA+ stands for a specific group of people, the term encompasses the entire spectrum of gender fluidity and sexual identities. https://abbreviations.yourdictionary.com/what-does-lgbtqia-stand-for-full-acronym-explained.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT conference at the University of Verona, silencing feminist and LGBTQ academics in Italy.
UK transphobes’ anti-trans ideology is fully supported by every far-right politician like;
Donald Trump,
Tommy Robinson,
Viktor Orban,
Marine Le Pen,
And, of course
Vladimir Putin
…politicians who also oppose abortion. And “Gender Criticals” have long supported and worked with transphobic, right-wing cis men, men who fully oppose abortion rights.
This is one of the reasons why FGEN, the Feminist Gender Equality Network was started; to reclaim feminism. It is no coincidence that the transphobic hard right that supports British “gender-criticals” is also viciously anti-feminist.
Far-right anti-abortion, anti-feminist groups in the US and elsewhere have for years been pouring millions into the UK and consequently, anti-trans campaigners have been spending millions on media propaganda, flying in speakers from around the world, hiring multiple expensive venues for rallies, paying for expensive court cases, expensive adverts in newspapers, slick websites, glossy propaganda, dodgy research and professional SEO. While they’re boosted by a mainstream media which also silences, and in some cases censors us.
So you can follow the political links or follow the money. The trail leads to the same place, “gender-critical” transphobes are in bed with the people who ended Roe v Wade, which will cost thousands of lives in the US, including cis women who they claim to be protecting.
And I say to all those who thought the far right would stop at trans and non-binary people; you are the most deluded of all.
They have already come for abortion in the US and in some parts of Europe;
They are already coming for your human rights in the UK, for democracy and your right to vote;
They are already coming for Gillick;
They will come for same-sex marriage, for the right to love who you want to love;
For IVF, especially for lesbians and bi women;
For the right of same-sex couples to adopt children;
For inclusive sex and relationship education;
They will come for contraception;
For intersectional feminists, trade unionists, human rights campaigners, people who want to stop climate change and;
Quite possibly for interracial marriage;
They… will… come… for… you.
So to conclude, let’s be clear; trans and non-binary people are not, and have NEVER been, a threat to cis women.
But,
Anti-abortionists, the extreme right and the “gender-critical” transphobes who support them ARE a threat to cis women,
and… will… ALWAYS… be.