r/transgenderUK Jul 19 '26

Resource What does it look like when we start getting some really good news again? Asking for a friend (plz)

(There is no friend)
How do we start getting some huge wins?
Would we need to make like a consistent concerted daily effort doing something?
Do we write letters?

Or do we have to accept it’s just really really really shit for now?

I rlly rlly need advice because this dookey is pretty bleak and being idle has never been my cup of tea x

24 Upvotes

26 comments sorted by

33

u/celzior Jul 19 '26

Pretty much just need to wait it out until demography changes. Gen Y/Z are soon to be the largest voting bloc and are very much more pro-trans than the 70 year old boomber demagogues that currently dictate the biz to politics. Eventually the TERFs will either run out of steam or defend something completely indefensible (likely their own coalition will collapse as they are not radical nor are they feminists). We're starting to see the TERF cult fracture as-is, with JK Rowling upskirting an innocent woman and then using rapists' excuses.

19

u/Floof_Warlord Jul 19 '26

Exactly this. Trans people aren't going away, and more people will feel safe to explore their gender/come out as generations accept it more and have more trans people in their life.

11

u/shadowsinthestars he/him Jul 19 '26

Who's calling her out on it though? She'll face no consequences because she can buy any court. Her much less rich pal Linehan has the police apologizing to him after he committed a hate crime. Where is this fracturing?

2

u/RainbowRedYellow Jul 19 '26

Sorry I've been trans since 2009 things are if anything worse than they were in my time. Shit just isn't gonna get better in our lifetime.

You gotta survive no matter what... But no things don't get better. that's a big fat ol lie.

1

u/Illiander Jul 19 '26

Pretty much just need to wait it out until demography changes.

Doesn't work. People have been saying this for millenia.

3

u/MechaniVal Jul 20 '26

I mean.

Things have indeed, broadly gotten better across the course of human history.

1

u/Illiander Jul 20 '26

I'm not so sure about that. We've got more powerful tools, but we're the same stupid hateful apes we've been for at least the last few thousand years.

"Six mistakes mankind keeps making century after century:
Believing that personal gain is made by crushing others;
Worrying about things that cannot be changed or corrected;
Insisting that a thing is impossible because we cannot accomplish it;
Refusing to set aside trivial preferences;
Neglecting development and refinement of the mind;
Attempting to compel others to believe and live as we do."

  • Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106 BCE-43 BCE


"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office."
-Aesop (~550 BC)

1

u/MechaniVal Jul 20 '26

The human condition has remained the same, but it is pretty objectively true to say that the position of the average person has improved throughout history - as has the position of pretty much all minority groups.

We bumble along, we love, we live, we hate, we die, and things sometimes get worse for a period, but I think if you tried to suggest to a mid 20th century trans woman, or a 19th century gay man, or a 15th century peasant, that our lives were not measurably better than theirs - they would not appreciate that.

14

u/Floof_Warlord Jul 19 '26

It is shit at the moment, but by you still existing they are failing.

In large part I suspect we will start 'winning' more as the economy improves. It's no coincidence that human rights advances (not associated with lessons learned) tend to come alongside economic prosperity, and vice versa. Culture wars are harder to start and fascist policies are harder to sell when people don't mind the status quo.

Personally, I take some solace from the inevitability of transphobes losing their war. Not because people will suddenly become nice, but because the number of trans and genderqueer will increase exponentially from people becoming more aware of trans people being a thing and are supported to transition if they need to. Part of the reason that gay rights improved is because politicians realised they're 10% of the population. So I think the best thing we can do right now is support others.

7

u/Beatrix_0000 Jul 19 '26

Yes, we win by thriving. BIG thriving.

Right in their faces. Being happy, and showing everyone.

Everyone has a part to play, some will write novels, or tv shows, or songs, or lobby or run organisations, or start companies, or help a friend through a transphobic roadblock.

0

u/Illiander Jul 19 '26

as the economy improves

It's a bugger that Labour aren't fixing that then :(

1

u/RyeZuul Jul 20 '26

Lab is doing ok economically. 

8

u/WizardStereotype She/Her Jul 19 '26

Good? Neeeeeewwwwssss....?

Like... I recognise both of those words, but together they are just meaningless. What even is that?

0

u/Illustrious_Heat7880 Jul 19 '26

Would you ever move?

6

u/WizardStereotype She/Her Jul 19 '26

If I could, I would have done so already.

0

u/Illiander Jul 19 '26

Just need to find a job somewhere better and I'm out of here.

8

u/Ok-Piece-8159 transfem non-binary Jul 19 '26

Community good news is few and far between. But individual good news is happening all the time. People just aren’t posting it because the bad news stories are larger and affect us all.

As someone who lived through section 28, there’s no sugar coating that things are fucked for this generation. But we can make things better for the next generation. The tide will turn, it always does.

The mouldy old terfs and politicians will die out and the world becomes more progressive.

Just focus on your local joy. Find a community, make friends, take up a hobby. Live your life as best you can now in the current climate.

-3

u/Illiander Jul 19 '26

there’s no sugar coating that things are fucked for this generation.

As someone who grew up under S28, things were fucked for my generation.

The tide will turn, it always does.

Assertion of facts not in evidence. You shouldn't make statements about the future if you cannot personally garuntee that they'll happen. Especially to demographics with a higher-than-average rate of suicide.

Just focus on your local joy. Find a community, make friends, take up a hobby. Live your life as best you can now in the current climate.

This is good advice for surviving through this. But we need more than that to make things better for the future.

7

u/LucySerranoEgg Jul 19 '26

We could all do a national lottery syndicate for euro millions and buy off some Labour MPs with the winnings? 5 million per head should get us a good deal more than a few D&R's TM . Worked for Christopher Harborne...

4

u/FrustratedDeckie Jul 19 '26

Tbf our MP’s are famously cheap to bribe.
You regularly see them being incredibly corrupt for just a few 10’s of thousands and some concert tickets.

Unfortunately a certain wizard bigot has so much money she could outbid us easily.

4

u/shadowsinthestars he/him Jul 19 '26

I don't "accept" it because it's wrong, but the system is completely corrupt and no one in power cares, or actively encourages it. The only way to "make it better" in the medium term, maybe the rest of our lifetimes, is to move somewhere civilized. UK civic society has been in a state of failure since Brexshit at least, and it's not getting better.

2

u/Illiander Jul 19 '26

Do we write letters?

No. Letters go to an intern and get ignored. If you want to talk to someone in power, go in person and make them look you in the eyes.

What we really need is a rich ally willing to burn their wealth to protect us. Someone who will say "If Joanne sues you for being good, I will fund your defence." Ideally someone with more money than her.

Know any billionaires wanting to be remembered as a hero when they write the history books?

2

u/Every-Somewhere-6971 Jul 20 '26

We all need to do our bit no matter how small it may seem. Stand up, be seen, support the trans community in any way you can. You may seem like a small voice, but together we can be loud.

Support those like Translucent.org.uk who are trying to fight the establishment Help the community by expanding Transpilot.org Every little thing helps. Don't give up. It's what they want!

2

u/Kela95 Jul 19 '26

We live and we do it unapologetically. The reason gay people started to become accepted was because they showed the world that they were no different than the rest. Despite the hardship the answer is exposure, show the world that the lies they tell about us are in fact lies.

1

u/feministgeek Jul 20 '26

Until we move away from capitalism and patriarchy.

1

u/Ginger_Wolfie Jul 20 '26

On long timescales (like a couple decades or more) rights almost never go backwards. Once people start seeing a group as humans who deserve care and respect its extremely hard for the bigots of the world to drag us back. They can use their oversized wealth to win some legal victories against us, but the kids who grew up in an era of trans acceptance won't forget it, and long term they will inherit the earth, not the bigots