08.10.2008
Defend trans people
Transphobia is completely unacceptable, writes Robbie Folkard
A furore has erupted at Manchester University after one set of toilets in the student union building was made gender-neutral, the toilets formerly being ‘ladies’ and ‘gents’ now being merely ‘toilets’ and ‘toilets with urinals’.
The idea was to provide trans (gender-variant) students with toilet facilities where they would no longer be at threat of victimisation or abuse. This provoked hysteria from the union’s newspaper, Student Direct, and various other publications. It was claimed that this was ‘political correctness gone mad’.
The editorial of the September 22 Student Direct described the move as “potty parity”, and ridiculed trans people by claiming the facilities were for “those men who do not ‘self-identify’ as men, and all those women who do not think of themselves as women”. Quite rightly this received a sharp rebuke from women’s officer Jennie Killip, who wrote a letter published in the September 29 edition, signed by 60 other people including Communist Students comrades, protesting against the “great offence” caused, and the “degrading treatment” and “overt vilification” of trans students.
Following this, a whole host of bourgeois papers took up the story, including The Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail, as did the BBC. All seemed to reject the move, with the most shocking response coming from the October 1 Daily Star, which claimed that the student union “changed the signs on the gents to read ‘toilets with urinals’, so tomboys can use them if they feel the need”. Susannah Birkwood, editor of Student Direct, was quoted in the Mail as saying: “Whether or not this is political correctness gone mad … it certainly seems that way to some members of our student community.”
Such outright transphobia is completely unacceptable, especially for an elected officer of a student union; though the fact that Birkwood felt able to be transphobic quite so crassly without fear of being held accountable for her actions highlights the complete lack of a democratic culture on campuses. Trans people should have the same opportunities and should be catered for, however small a minority they are (one of the many arguments against the move was that trans students are far too few for such a move to be necessary). In this case in particular, the toilets in question are one set in a building which has four.
It was also argued that women would not feel safe in the same toilets as men. However, they can quite easily use one of the other three sets of toilets if, for whatever reason, they feel unable to use the gender-neutral toilets. The arguments which claim that the move would adversely effect religious groups furthermore are, in many cases, a cynical bid to set one minority against another. After all, the decision to change the toilets in question was almost unanimously approved by the student union council and executive - elected bodies which have a large proportion of students from a variety of religions.
This publicity was, quite obviously, a bid to make the idea that trans people are just another section of society that needs to be catered for, just like women, lesbians and gays, or ethnic minorities, seem absurd. The toilets were never the issue: it was the acceptance of trans people into society that was being debated. The characterisation of this acceptance as ‘political correctness gone mad’ has in the past been applied to the acceptance of other oppressed groups. It is a symptom of the attempted division of the working class under the capitalist system - a division that we must always oppose; including in the face of hysterical attacks on student unions for attempting to provide better conditions for oppressed groups - in this case trans people.
Communists must defend trans people against such attacks. We aim to be tribunes of the oppressed and stand in solidarity with all oppressed groups. We must defend the gains made by trans people, but must also fight to extend them. For instance, in a country like Britain, gender reassignment surgery has very limited availability, especially on the NHS. The same goes for counselling services and hormone therapies, along with a whole host of other services. These must be free on demand. Trans people should not be forced by a repressive society to wait for long periods of time, or made to prove their worth for such things.
Sometimes it is said that rich trans people can afford to go private, while those from the working class have to go on long NHS waiting lists, and some even join the army in a bid to get free access to the services they need. While that is true, we defend the rights of all oppressed groups, no matter what class they belong to. In addition, we must also fight for the rights of trans people to complete legal recognition, not just in employment and such areas as adoption, but in all areas of life. The concept that sex and gender is specifically linked to birth must be fought against.
Of course, these democratic questions must be taken up by the workers’ movement as a whole. Whilst we defend the right of trans people to democratically organised autonomy, we must fight sectionalism of all kinds. We must be unequivocal in stating our belief that only in the struggle for working class power and communism will the liberation of trans people, and all other oppressed groups, be realised.
This must necessarily be a collective struggle, a struggle not just of a few separate groups fighting alongside each other, but of a democratically organised whole fighting for the liberation of humanity. On the other hand, this goal, whilst always being paramount, must never obscure the fight for better conditions for the oppressed in the here and now; even at the basic level of fighting for the right of trans people to use toilets without fear.
