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300 followers down, happy to lose all 45k of the others to. I will not apologise for standing in solidarity with transgender people. They have all my love and support, no matter what it costs my career or finances. I am never going to tolerate transphobia in my notifications.
To be honest it's really crushing being labelled a misogynist. I hate it, I was taught by my mother and my religion to respect women at all times. Fear of being baselessly accused of hating women built a wall of fear around me on the issue of trans rights.
But enough is enough. Things didn't get better with age. The millennial generation took over and adopted the same bigotries of the past. With what little platform I have, I promise to do better in protecting the trans community. I'm sorry I failed you in the past.
I thought that I could just ignore casual transphobia on the timeline and just move on, pretending that I could just forget about it. But I was wrong, I never forgot, the resentment just grew and now I'm just ashamed for not fighting as hard as I do for Syria.
The way Trans people, particularly trans women, are treated in the British media is so disgusting, so horrific and so dehumanising that it honestly defies belief at times. I can't read those newspapers anymore & glaze over an organised & well funded dehumanisation campaign.
Because that's exactly what it is. It is a campaign designed to dehumanise and demoralise trans people to the point that they disappear from public life. This just isn't something that can be ignored, it won't stop unless it's fought against. I'm done sitting on the sidelines now
To any people who have supported my work on the Middle East or British politics, even those who have donated to me, thank you so much, you really helped my career. But this is how I feel about this issue, and if you can't support that, then good riddance as far as I'm concerned.
I didn't get into journalism for money, I certainly don't have any. I didn't get into journalism for fame, I definitely don't have that. But I did get into this godforsaken industry to do one thing, to speak truthfully about oppression when I see it. I'm NEVER shutting up again.
