Last week, dreadful news broke once again for trans people in the UK. The NHS, jumping eagerly upon the meagre excuse of a transphobic blog post that gained traction within the usual right wing circuits, has suddenly and unilaterally cancelled hundreds of life-saving surgeries for trans people that were scheduled by the Welsh Gender Service - a service whose standard of care is high enough to have been praised by the UN. Soulless, cowardly bureaucrats, who have for years refused to engage with the affected communities on such issues, have handed down another decision which will lead to preventable deaths. This amounts to the murder-by-proxy of transgender people; one further thrust in a genocidal campaign for which, we should be clear, specific individuals are criminally responsible. The alarm bells are ringing for trans people in this country.
In the absence of adequate media organs through which to ring those bells, however, there is only so much that condemnation can achieve. In fact, the situation is worse than that - today we face an emboldened hate movement that seeks to wipe out our community, which has established its lieutenants in key positions of influence within state institutions and the press, and cowed fair-weather allies who might once have stood up for us into a complicit silence. The Labour Party is the foremost example of this sort of institutional capture, and the deafening silence of Prime Minister Andy Burnham in particular, who was previously happy to “stand alongside” trans people as mayor of Manchester, should be raised as a key issue against those who would like to view his premiership as somehow left-wing. Culpability also extends to the rest of the Labour Party, including its elected officials, staffers, and membership, and this must be impressed upon them. Is all hope lost, then? Should we abandon TERF island and seek refuge in some other country, free from the global far-right campaign for trans genocide - presumably therefore on the Moon? No. Of course not. We have been through worse and we will, unfortunately, probably go through worse before things get better too.
But things can get better with the right approach and with our combined efforts. The development of local trans and queer solidarity organisations across the country in recent years has been a first step towards this. The solidarity expressed by major trade unions and ongoing battles taking place in the workplace against the absurd segregationist “guidance” that came out last month is another example of the fact that our efforts and those of our allies are not pointless.
There is nevertheless far more that can be done. The next logical step for our movement begs to be taken.
In the face of escalating oppression we must escalate our resistance; to resist effectively, an organisation capable of unifying the struggle on a national level is necessary. The Trans Liberation Group has the ambition to be that organisation. Trans people and allies across the country are often despondent and feel powerless, but political power for the oppressed is nothing more or less than the result of collective action, co-ordinated by structures that we erect to govern ourselves and direct our efforts. Under the banner of a single, nationwide organisation dedicated to our liberation alongside the liberation of all oppressed people, we can not only one day stop the fascist onslaught, but reverse it and turn it into an onslaught against its criminal perpetrators. Those are our principles; liberation for the oppressed, and justice against the oppressors.
Every dark moment of history comes to an end. The question facing each of us is simply how long we are willing to endure the darkness before we do something about it. Join the Trans Liberation Group and start building trans power across the country with us.