A post-Leveson petition re:abuse of trans people

[julesjones]

Picked this up from LoneMagpie. It's a subject that's a little too close to home for both of us at the moment, although more so for him as Eris was a friend of his. Eris was a fan who went to the same cons as us. She was also a transwoman. Was, because she committed suicide two weeks ago. I don't know the details of what happened, but I have no doubt that a contributing factor was the vicious hatred whipped up by elements of the press earlier this year against another transwoman.

I'm cis-gendered. But some of my friends and acquaintances aren't, and I don't want to be mourning any more of them before their time.

This is a Direct.Gov epetition, and you need to be a British citizen or UK resident to sign it. I doubt it will have any direct influence. But it might make a few MPs think about the issues.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/47599

Comments

[lonemagpie]

I don't think press bullying was directly involved with Eris - more the matter of Brighton health authorities lying and deciding to just sweep her (and by extension others like her) under the carpet in the hopes they'd go away.

There is, however, a general perception in society that it's somehow OK to abuse minorities, and according to a piece in Monday's Yorkshire Evening Post (there doesn't seem to be an online version of the article, but it was in the print edition), trans people are the most abused of all, with an average of six assaults in some form that qualify to be reported to the police per day.

That's six per day for the average trans individual. No wonder they have the highest suicide rate...

[julesjones]

Mostly Brighton, and being repeatedly told that whatever her current medical problem was, it was Somebody Else's responsibility to treat it. But I got the impression from a couple of entries on her LJ that the things this year with various outrageous-opinions-for-rent deciding that abusing trans people would get the page hits sky-high helped to chip away at her defences.

[lonemagpie]

Yeah, the general atmosphere didn't help...

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link. I have signed. I don't think I knew Eris, though I may have known her by sight if she was a regular at conventions.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

I have dual citizenship, so was able to sign...

[ms-chatelaine.livejournal.com]

Dear God, another death. Petition signed and I've forwarded it to my friends.

[julesjones]

As Dave noted over on Dreamwidth, the primary responsibility for this probably lies with her local health authority. But the stuff that was going on in the press earlier this year did not exactly help.