Trans woman perfectly explains why trans rights should never be up for ‘debate’
Trans woman Chrissy spoke to GB News at Oxford’s first-ever Trans+ Pride and explained the issue with the ‘trans debate’ perfectly. (Twitter / @GBNEWS)
A trans woman who joined protesters outside Kathleen Stock’s Oxford Union’s appearance summed up the problem with framing trans existence as a “debate” perfectly and succinctly – and on one of the UK’s most right-wing broadcasters.
On May 30, GB News spoke with a trans woman named Chrissy about the Oxford protests against academic Stock’s trans-exclusionary views. Protesters exercised their freedom of speech outside the event, while Stock spoke inside the venue.
“We have so much bad news about trans people scaremongering, fear, ignorance, hate and it’s a celebration of trans joy really,” Chrissy told a GB News reporter.
GB News has platformed numerous anti-LGBTQ+ speakers during its time on air, and earlier this year came under fire for homophobic remarks made during a football broadcast which featured no football.
The channel has been found to be in breach of Ofcom broadcast rules on two occasions.
‘How would you feel?’
When asked about Stock’s debate at the Oxford Union, Chrissy responded: “When you listen to that phrase itself, ‘a debate’, a debate about trans existence, trans rights.
“If we were to talk about Black people and debate your existence how would you feel?
“People frame it as the transgender issue, the transgender debate, the trans question… As I say, if we were to ask that of Black people or Jewish people there would be outrage.”
Chrissy went on to explain that she works at St Columba’s United Reformed Church as their outreach and development worker where she experienced three young trans suicides within a six month period.
“This explains some of the emotions and anger that you can feel today,” she said.
“If people die of natural causes that’s very easy to accept in some ways in comparison to when we lose someone to suicide.”
A study carried out for Just Like Us, the LGBT+ young people’s charity, surveyed 3,695 adults aged 18 to 25 and found that 88 per cent of trans people had experienced suicidal thoughts – far higher than other groups.
‘It’s about a conversation’
“It’s not about opposing freedom of speech it’s about a dialogue, it’s about a conversation and it’s about listening to each other,” Chrissy said, before referring to Stock’s position as an LGB Alliance trustee not aligning with her claims that she isn’t anti-trans.
LGB Alliance claims its purpose is to see “lesbians, gay men and bisexuals living free from discrimination or disadvantage based on their sexual orientation”.
The organisation has campaigned to erode trans rights and paint the trans community as dangerous to women and children.
Calvin Robinson, a GB News presenter, has led protests against drag queens reading story books to children in a South London pub.
Previously GB News has been criticised for airing claims that parents who take their children to a drag queen story hour have “narcissistic personality disorder”.
On 9 March, 2023, Press Gazette reported that GB News had made losses ten times greater than its revenue for its first year on air.
How did this story make you feel?
