The way we as a society, as individuals, in our political sphere and our media portrayals talk about minorities matters.
That much should be understood and should go unsaid.
However, we continue to see discussions and "debates" about minorities and marginalised identities which lose sight of the fact that words matter. Words can change and save lives, and words can do untold damage.
Watch: Just last month we marked Trans Day of Visibility. Post continues below.
With the upcoming federal election, we have seen politics and the media latch on to talking points about trans and gender diverse people.
From the way many politicians and commentators push these issues, it would seem that transgender people are some vast majority group wielding huge amounts of power and influence.
However, the reality is, less than two per cent of the population is trans or gender diverse.
We are a small population group, and research has shown that we experience disproportionate poor mental health outcomes, suicide risk, and lower socioeconomic outcomes.
This is not because we are trans; it is because of the stigma, discriminations and violence we face from a society that isn’t always as accepting, tolerant, inclusive or celebratory as it should be.
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Also, I am pretty sick of seeing men who, up until now have had no interest in women's sport and are not interested in the *actual* issues that women's sport faces (unequal pay, sexual harassment, underfunding) jump up and down about transwomen playing sport with other women. Transwomen and ciswomen can and do have meaningful competition and the "advantages" that transwomen supposedly have over ciswomen are largely non-existent.
"It's bizarre that wanting to ensure the hard-earned freedoms that women have in the west is now considered a right-wing view." How are women's freedoms at risk, exactly, from trans people? Like, I've delved hard into the world of the TERFS, was one there for a little while, and none of their claims that women's rights are at risk actually stack up. The bathroom debate, women's sports, all of these arguments, are just scaremongering. When you look at the stats and facts, ciswomen are not at risk from transwomen at all and it just takes away from the things that actually matter and that actually affect the wellbeing of women.
The right wing always claim to be defending their own hard -earned freedoms, be it gun ownership, slave ownership, a jewish state, feminism or the dominance of the aryan race. The tell is that these "freedoms" always require the repression of other groups.