Words Matter:

Why Vocal Trans Allyship Matters Now More Than Ever

The 20th of November is Trans Day of Remembrance, taking time to remember all those trans people who have been murdered solely because of who they are. Our own lovely Cheryl wrote a beautiful blog explaining why this day is so important, and her words still ring true today - even more than ever in these increasingly hostile times for our trans communities. The week leading up to Trans Day of Remembrance is an opportunity to celebrate Trans Awareness week - an opportunity for all of us to raise the visibility of transgender and gender non-conforming people, and address the issues the community faces.

Sadly, even in 2022, the issues facing this community are on the increase, rather than improving. The UK has fallen down Europe’s LGBTQ+ rights ranking for third year running, dropping from the top of the table in an international ranking in 2015, to number 14 in 2022. This statistic might be upsetting, but given the government and opposition views on trans people; the prevalence of high profile, super-articulate people using their craft to tear down this community; and the casual casting of cisgender men in roles as trans women; it’s hardly surprising. You can read more about the background to the hostility trans folk in the UK are facing in our blog here.

Bearing all of this in mind, it’s maybe unsurprising that hate crimes against trans people increased by 56% in the last year.

Five ways to show ally-ship for the Trans Community:

Vocal, proactive and consistent ally-ship for the trans community is more critical now than it has ever been - here are five ways to be a great ally:

1. Speak out, challenge and debunk anti-trans rhetoric and practices (like Jon Stewart and Daniel Radcliffe have done recently).

2. Vocally support responsible and authentic casting of trans and non-binary characters (more on why this is important in our blog here) - we’re so proud to work with Audible who have done this beautifully in White Hot Heist and The Sandman.

3. Continue to educate ourselves all year round. We share below the brilliant “myth-busting” series from Vox, and that’s a great place to start.

4. If you are a cisgender ally - please consider routinely sharing your pronouns. We’ve shared a short video below about why this is so important.

5. Support charities working alongside trans people. Mermaids is a charity doing amazing work to support trans kids and their families. They are currently on the receiving end of a campaign of hate coordinated by various anti-trans groups. If you’d like to join us in supporting them by making a donation, we’ve shared a link below, along with some comments from those who’ve been supported by Mermaids in the past.

This Week at A New Normal

Transgender people: 10 common myths debunked.

Trans people have always been here.

We love this article from Vox where they outline and debunk myths about Transgender people.

Some of the myths include - "Transgender people are mentally ill"

Watch Cheryl Morgan and Theo Sakyi travel through history on a journey highlighting significant Transgender people.

D&I News

Jon Stewart delivers masterful takedown of Arkansas attorney general over cruel anti-trans laws.

American comedian and political commentator Jon Stewart beautifully and factually takes down the Attorney General of Arkansas during an interview about the disgusting anti-trans laws.

“So I am confused why you follow AMA guidelines… for all other health issues in Arkansas – because we checked – but not for this.”

Watch the interview here

You can't be what you can't see: Why representation matters.

Comic books are a really great representation of D&I. Both the big two (Marvel and DC) have main title books featuring LGBTQ+ and BIPOC people.

Marvel's Voices is a series of comics by a diverse cast of writers and artists.

The importance of authentic casting is high with the ever-growing catalogue of adaptations on-screen and through audio, such as DC's The Sandman on Netflix and Audible.

Both Justin Vivian Bond (Audible) and Mason Alexander Park (Netflix) were cast as the anthropomorphic personification of Desire.

Why sharing your pronouns makes a difference!

With the lead-up to Trans Week of Visibility and Trans Day of Remembrance, we'd like to reshare this video that Trish Driver did for International Pronoun Day back in October.

Trish explains why using pronouns for yourself and others create a safer space for people to be themselves.

“Transgender women are women” - Daniel Radcliffe.

Daniel Radcliffe, the child star of the Harry Potter film series says it was ‘important’ to defend trans kids after JK Rowling's comments.

“The reason I felt very, very much as though I needed to say something when I did was that, particularly since finishing Potter, I’ve met so many queer and trans kids and young people who had a huge amount of identification with Potter on that, ... And so seeing them hurt on that day I was like, I wanted them to know that not everybody in the franchise felt that way. And that was really important."

Watch our webinar on Privilege and Bias | Click Here

A New Normal | November

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