Why has the Transgender community been left behind? Rampant increase in transphobia and the role of the media
On September 21ST 2023 Elizabeth Clery and the National Centre for Social Research (NCSR) published a report entitled ‘BSA 40: A liberalisation in attitudes?’. Within this report the overall findings were mostly expected, the British public was becoming more liberal in its views of Same-Sex relationships, Sex outside of marriage and of single-parent families. Surprisingly however, British attitudes towards those within the Transgender community had dropped rather drastically in the last number years. It is findings like this that make it essential to investigate why Transphobia is on the rise.
Examining the figures of increased Transphobia
Clery and NCSR’s report presents the following statistics, 64% of those questioned described themselves as ‘not prejudiced at all against people who are transgender’, this is a decline of 18% from 82% in 2019 (Clery, 2023). As well as this, only 30% of those questioned believe that those who are Transgender should be able to have the ‘sex on their birth certificate altered’, down drastically from 53% in 2019 (Clery, 2023). This illustration of an increase in transphobia is not merely isolated to Clerys report. In the National hate crime report for England and Wales, published every year by the Home Office, it is shown that in the years 2022/23 the recorded number of hate crimes targeted towards transgender individuals numbered a staggering 4,732. This figure of 4,732 hate crimes represented an increase of 11% from 2021/22 which recorded 4,262 Transphobic hate crimes and an increase of over 100% from the figure of 2,253 transphobic hate crimes in 2018/19 (The Home Office , 2023). This Data provided by the Home Office is in line with the findings of the NCSR, as it is reasonable to assume that when acceptance of transgender individuals decreases, hate crime against the group will increase.
In the period of 2021-2023 the number of hate crimes towards individuals for their ‘sexual orientation’ decreased by -6%, so why is it that while acceptance of a scope of sexual orientations increases, acceptance of transgender individuals has decreased? It may have a lot to do with the attitude of the Media.
Media and the Platforming of Transphobia
In the Hate Crimes report of 2023, the Home Office state that the rise in Transphobic hate crimes may be because ‘’Transgender issues have been heavily discussed by politicians, the media and on social media over the last year, which may have led to an increase in these offences’’ (The Home Office , 2023). It is not only the exposure of transgender issues in the media that I believe has led to the increase in Hate crimes, but rather the negative bias and spin media places on transgender issues. For example, The Daily Mail is a newspaper that proudly sits on the right on most social issues (Smith, 2017) and has consistently published negative articles regarding transgender individuals. On the day this blog was written the Daily Mail alone published 7 articles in relation to transgender issues, with headlines such as ‘’Hairy-chested, dress-wearing trans mayor of Mexican border town says they’re being ‘bullied’ …’’ (Williams, 2024). The transphobia within even the headline of this article is apparent, with the refusal to use she/her pronouns to describe the individual, and the term ‘’hairy-chested’’ blatantly defeminizing the individual. The rampant posting of transgender issues on the Daily Mail shows ‘’a rise from six articles in January 2013 to a jaw-dropping 115 articles in January 2023 (+1817%).’’ (Folan, 2023). The bias of these articles is also staggering, of the 115 transgender articles that were published in January 2023, 100 of them (87%) could be categorized as negative, compared to zero negative articles in 2013 (Folan, 2023).
It’s not just mainstream media that is guilty of perpetuating transphobia to the general public. While addressing the 1922 conservative Committee, the leader of our Government, Prime Minister Sunak was quoted as making transphobic comment ‘’Like me, you can probably see that he was trying to convince everybody that women clearly had penises. You’ll all know that I’m a big fan of everybody studying maths to 18, but it turns out that we need to focus on biology.” (Walker, 2023).
If our Prime Minister is confident in being openly transphobic to his fellow MPs while refusing to apologise and the bias negative media attention, how can we be surprised as the increase in transphobia and transphobic attacks within the UK.
Bibliography
Clery, E., 2023. A liberalisation in attitudes? – British Social Attitudes 40, London : National Centre for Social Research .
Folan, E., 2023. Welcome to Terf Island: How Anti-Trans Hate Skyrocketed 156% in Four Years. [Online]
Available at: https://novaramedia.com/2023/02/20/welcome-to-terf-island-how-anti-trans-hate-skyrocketed-156-in-four-years/
[Accessed 14 April 2024].
Smith, M., 2017. How left or right-wing are the UK’s newspapers?. [Online]
Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/17715-how-left-or-right-wing-are-uks-newspapers
[Accessed 14 April 2024].
The Home Office , 2023. Hate crime, England and Wales, 2022 to 2023 second edition, London: The Home Office .
Walker, P., 2023. Rishi Sunak accused of mocking trans people in joke to Tory MPs. [Online]
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jun/19/rishi-sunak-accused-of-mocking-trans-people-in-joke-to-tory-mps
[Accessed 12 April 2024].
Williams, M., 2024. Hairy-chested, dress-wearing trans mayor of Mexican border town says they’re being ‘bullied’ out of office and will become more vulnerable without the protection of being an elected official. [Online]
Available at: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13297695/Hairy-chested-dress-wearing-trans-mayor-Mexican-border-town-says-theyre-bullied-office-vulnerable-without-protection-elected-official.html?ico=topics_pagination_desktop
[Accessed 11 April 2024].
Brilliant use of research to preface the article. Further, there was a detailed analysis of statistics, which revealed some really disturbing facts about attitudes towards transgender people in Britain. There was a good analysis of how the media is biased against transgender people. Overall, this is an excellent post which covers a very important topic, especially when government party officials are being accused of making transphobic remarks: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-67650988
I was immediately compelled to read this blog post as the issue of both trans rights and increasing transphobia has been heightening across in both the media and politics, especially within the UK. The author has successfully used statistics to illustrate the increasing hostility that is exhibited towards trans people in the UK, especially with regards to issues such as how they can legally express themselves. I also appreciate the author of the blog post including the increase in physical attacks that trans people have faced in the UK alone, at a staggering 100% increase in just five years. Furthermore, the author of the blog post successfully delved into the role of both the media and politicians have had in villainising the trans community, especially the Daily Mail, as mentioned by the author of the blog post. Additionally, the author of this blog post has mentioned that transphobia within politicians has reached that of the Prime Minister, who in a statement, made openly transphobic comments, with little to no remorse or pushback from his colleagues. Further highlighting the overt rise in transphobia throughout British society.
This post was a really informative. I chose it because I didn’t know too much about the topic. It provided me with ample statistics and media overview concerning the rise of transphobia. Having all the statistics laid out provided a barefaced truth about how transphobic this country has become, the media using trans people as a way to get easy reads and start controversy was explained well and I found that the discussion concerning Rishi Sunak and his influence was also impactful. I would like to hear their take on the SNP approach to Trans rights and how they feel this will impact or not the British approach to legislation.,