Missed the #WhyImATransAlly hashtag trending, but I am a trans ally and there are very good reasons for that. TL;DR Transrightsarehumanrights. But let me share a realisation that hit me last week. [cw: suicide, hate murders, racism, antisemitism ] 1/13

For research I spent a miserable two hours listening to all the speeches from the German American Bund Rally at Madison Square Garden in 1939. There was one speaker on race with all the usual: biological immutability, sexual predation, innuendo & anecdotal examples... 2/

...junk science, erasure, separation, sinister conspiracy etc. What hit me about this particular speech was that if you swapped the words "Jew & N****" for "Trans" it was basically the "gender critical" / transphobia "argument", including the faux-concern for the targets. 3/

We've had this discussion before, over & over, in various guises, about various peoples. When we platform people who think this way about others, it ends in bloodshed. Sometimes a war, sometimes a victim is hanging from a tree, sometimes victims are driven to suicide. 4/

That trans people are real, that trans rights are human rights, that they ARE their identity & that isn't always that one assigned at birth & should be treated as such, that gender is not binary or immutable, that even sex is a messy compromise - these are facts. 5/

These are medical, moral & legal matters long since settled. Accepted as good for society. Some people didn't like it. With an extreme right-wing government in power, they smell blood. They're organised & persuasive, with a strategy - but it's the same one that it always was. 6/

Fear. Ignorance. The illusion of intellectualism, of concern for the normal people & their normal fears, of writing off those who disagree & their evidence as a conspiracy. Lindbergh, R***ing, there's always a mouthpiece. America First, M**snet, there's always an organisation. 7/

And there's always "free speech", or rather people demanding that their speech comes with no consequences. And being controversial sells. This time, the audience on the internet is so vast, that you can say the most egregious thing and someone out there will agree with you. 8/

If you're pandering to deep-seated fears - the scary other - the tired and hopeless and misinformed who feel frustrated at a world stacked against them for more complex reasons will call you a plain-speaker. But you're not...you've appalled huge numbers of people as well. 9/

So I'm a trans ally because it's right, & because "the other side" are on the wrong side of history, outnumbered but still dangerous. Because outside Madison Square Garden that night in 1939 were as many anti-fascist protesters, getting hit by the cops. That's the photo to be in.

If you've been in any way persuaded by anti-trans arguments, I *beg you* to seek out information from orgs like:
https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/parents/ 
http://genderedintelligence.co.uk/ 
Don't be surprised if trans allies & trans people react negatively to your statements & questions. 11/13

Good faith enquiries are thin on the ground. Trolls be trolls. You're probably unknowingly repeating anti-trans dog-whistles & most trans people are exhausted from defending their right to exist. You see, for some of us, this is not abstract, it's personal. It's life. 12/13

This is my daughter. She is a trans woman...or a woman, in other words. The road ahead for her is hard enough without the anti-trans pseudo panic. So if you're spouting this stuff, I will be protecting her first & foremost and I will tell you to do one.