Rant time

Interesting reporting of the savage murder of Brianna Ghay in the Daily Mail, a publication responsible previously IMHO for the death of at least one trans-gender person. And one which has consistently questioned the validity of, and treatments for, gender dysphoria in minors. Sarah Vine in her opinion piece rightly points an accusing finger at hate content on the World Wide Web but fails to acknowledge the role of her own employer in cultivating public trans-phobia. 

The Mail's abhorrence with the fate of Brianna Ghay seems incongruous alongside its praise for the the government’s new “Gender Questioning Children” guidance - which basically requires children over the age of 8 and teens to use the toilets and changing rooms of their birth-assigned gender; schools have no obligation to provide alternative facilities. (I.e. Brianna could have been forced to use the boys’ facilities - where’s the safeguarding there?! And she would have had no right to be referred to, by teachers, with female pronouns.)

Is it over-cynical to conclude that, in the Daily Mail’s eyes, gender dysphoria is real if the trans person looks convincingly female (i.e. pretty)?

(Anyone who wants/needs to know about this topic could follow some of the links in this, my Facebook response to someone criticising my post - which called out Rishi Sunak for making the ridiculously ignorant statement "a man is a man and a woman is a woman, it is just common sense". )

I used to think that too Jacqui. Then I started hearing real life experiences which contradicted my perception and did some research. Turns out it’s much more complicated than simply what chromosomes a person has; gender is far from binary! 

Firstly a number of individuals are born with ambiguous genitalia, usually known as “intersex” - https://www.nhs.uk/condit.../differences-in-sex-development/

Then there are people with gender dysphoria - https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/gender-dysphoria/ - nowadays known as ‘trans’ people.
These references are to the NHS web site but there is much more info on Wikipedia.

Also several cultures across the world have historically recognised a ‘third gender’. It’s entirely reasonable to accept that some individuals feel neither male nor female but something else - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_gender. Rather than knock people who are different, how much better to embrace the amazing diversity that makes up human kind!

My point about Sunak is that in 2023 this information is freely available to anyone with the nous to look for it. Better to spend his time informing himself rather than demonising a vulnerable minority, (Which could be the first step on a very slippery slope...)