Hello! I’m aware that people might follow me for different things; Museums, nerdiness, dumb selfies. I think a lot of those who are cis gay or bisexual men might not get the trans allyship ‘thing’. Maybe they are on the fence so I thought I’d explain why I’m so outspoken. 1/

When I came out at 15, I was still learning a LOT of stuff about the world. I said stuff that was dumb and offensive: I had never actually met a transgender person before and so I just didn’t take it seriously. I am ashamed to say I would join in on cruel transphobic jokes 2/

To me a privileged gay 19 year-old it wasn’t ‘real’.

This changed over the next couple of years when (through student politics) I met queer people who’s struggles were aligned with mine but were NOT the same.

Talking to a human being has an amazing power to change you. 3/

The next big thing was a very close AFAB friend, a person who was a ‘best man’ at my wedding, identified as non-binary and transgender. When they first mentioned pronouns I’m again ashamed to say my initial response was confusion. But, I’m thankful they kept me as a friend. 4/

4 years-ago: I was working at @rmgreenwich and I was able to visit families at a @Mermaids_Gender residentials. That was the nail in the coffin for my transphobia. Seeing kids being awesome and brave about their gender made me realise how wrong it was to disclude them. /5

So what I’m saying is I didn’t arrive at this opinion because of a desire to be ‘woke’, or to get published in Pink News (as GC will often argue!) I was just lucky enough to meet and talk to real living breathing trans people.

Guess what, it changes you. /6

For this reason I have no truck with transphobia or discussing people’s right to gender as if it were ‘just an opinion’. I’ve seen the pain trans people go through and it’s very very real. So yes, I’m bouncy and playful about many things but this really gets my hackles up. /7

Now I get it if you don’t feel as strongly as I do; I do hope you are in a journey to acceptance.

But... be better than me... I needed these experiences to grow. I needed all those kind patient trans people. Maybe you can do it alone simply because it’s the right thing? /8