An advocate has openly stated in the lead-up to Transgender Day of Visibility 2024 that the dangerous conversation surrounding trans people is seeing officials treat the area as “non-human.”
Dee Lou Whitnell made frank remarks about the state of anti-trans politics in the UK and the effects it is having on the community and the general public while speaking with PinkNews about their work leading the #TransKidsDeserveToGrowUp solidarity campaign for Transgender Day of Visibility on March 31.
Whitnell, who is non-binary, created the tweet after parts of the government’s advice for schools on transgender children were leaked to the media in the summer of 2023. The leaks at the time made the suggestion that trans children may not be able to move from their parents without parental approval and be prohibited from playing sports.
“It was really terrible. As an ex-teacher, I just couldn’t sit and let them kind of suggest these practices to teachers because it was absolutely horrible.
Particularly as a trans ex-teacher and as a professor who specialized only in working with LGBTQ+ children.”
Because I knew if the leaked guidance turned into the official guidance, our children wouldn’t turn into adults, they said, they created the campaign Trans Kids Deserve to Grow Up.
Through her involvement in the solidarity campaign and resistance to the guidance that was officially released in December, Whitnell has collaborated with organizations like the LGBT Consortium, spoke on the second all-trans screen in parliament, and formed powerful, personal relationships with families who have lost their trans young people.
In one such scenario, Whitnell said they became tight with the home of Corei Hall, a 14-year-old transgender child who took his own life in October, and was invited to his death. It was a tremendous realization for Whitnell about the state and effects of stigmatization in the UK.
“When I was sitting in a chapel for a young transgender boy’s death, I thought, ‘Wow, this is actually the truth of what our trans children are facing.’
Because I believe we don’t have real conversations about it, I am quite blunt and in your face about the coverage of trans youth.
I think that many politicians and adults view younger people as being just non-humans in this way, that they don’t have their own functionality, they don’t have their own freedom. When, in fact, they are much [more] well-versed than many people are when it comes to gender and identity.”
After this, Whitnell stated that they were aware that the plan was intended to be a means of “making a change” and that they wanted to “make a change more than just through it.”
Whitnell collaborated with various organizations to help people fill out the discussion about it after it was formally made “impossible.”
“If you didn’t have a laptop, if you didn’t have internet access, if English wasn’t your first language, if you’re like me and you’re dyslexic, or you need a physical consultation; it was made so impenetrable for a purpose,” they told PinkNews.
Beyond the advice, Whitnell is determined to raise awareness of the effects of transphobia, especially given that the election will be held in January.
They said, first and foremost, transgender people need to protect themselves during this amplified phase of transphobic. One of the things I’ve been saying to many of my transgender friends right now is that you are still fighting for our rights, even if you are asleep and never reading the news right now because it is so exhausting.
However, it is also crucial to ask difficult questions and keep officials responsible because, in the current environment, transgender people are being attacked left, right, and center.
“It’s really important that you ask politicians direct questions and you don’t allow wishy-washy responses,” they said.
One method Whitnell hopes to employ officials is by young transgender people, parents, carers, and teachers sending letters to MPs to support “humanize” the trans group, rather than politicians seeing them as merely abstract statistics.
Politicians are currently dehumanizing trans people by saying that they don’t exist or that there are concepts or ideologies that they hold.”
In addition, they said, “I’m trying to make the point that the way we talk about trans people and trans people in the media has a direct impact on young people,” adding that there is a rise in young people criticizing trans people, something we haven’t seen before.
We previously witnessed transgender people attacking them on dates while they weren’t aware they were trans. But then we’re seeing young people [attacking trans people] and the only reason for that is because of the internet, because of stars, because of officials, making remarks about transgender people and young people absorbing it.
We have a responsibility to make sure our children cease killing children.”
