It’s been impossible to escape notice that over the past few years transgender people have become a particularly important part of right-wing demonology. Echoing the campaign strategy of US Republicans, an exhausted British Tory party has moved transgender issues and the question of ‘what is a woman’ front and centre in their political rhetoric. Alongside immigration, fifteen-minute cities and fantasies of forced reduction in meat consumption by the eco-stasi — the small constituency of transgender people have become an all consuming figure of both fear and amusement on the reactionary right.
At the same time the public mood towards transgender issues is more sharply polarised than ever before. After an intense media campaign by both the tabloid press and small, well funded groups of self-identifed ‘radical feminists’ — essentially all polling of social attitude surveys available suggests a notable portion of the British public has swung from a position of either indifference or ignorance about transgender people to one of fear, disgust and contempt. Whether that be on legal recognition, sports, transition care or generally being able to participate in public life at all — there is a significant political constituency that is now animated by opposition to transgender rights in general.
What are we to make of this unprecedented politicisation of transgender life and its psychic imaginaries? To what extent is this merely a peculiarity of the English? And how can this assembly of reaction be resisted? Drawing connections between seemingly disparate movements in recent history, this talk will emphasise the increasingly international nature of anti-transgender organising – and underscore how our response should be as international in turn.
Moderated by: Nina Čolović
Elle O’Rourke is a founding editor of New Socialist magazine., where she serves as economics editor. She is co-author, with Jules Joanne Gleeson, of Transgender Marxism (2021, Pluto Press). She is currently writing a novel.
