‘The fight against ableism mirrors the fight against transphobia’

The battles against ableism and transphobia mirror each other in the way that bigots consider us not “normal”, writes Ayman Eckford.

Whenever I see transphobic posts on X/Twitter, insisting that being “LGB” is fine, but being transgender means being mentally ill and so trans people should be denied basic human rights, I have an eerie feeling of déjà vu. 

I knew I was not a girl from early childhood, before I ever heard the word trans. I’m also autistic and have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. I have 10 years of experience in pro-neurodiversity activism in different countries, including Ukraine, Russia, the US and the UK.

I’ve seen this argument hundreds of times: if you’re somehow different, you do not deserve the same rights as everyone else. This is what bigots believe. Despite that, transgender people are not considered ill by the World Health Organization.

But populist politicians and bigots still consider us to be “crazy.” There are even some people who still believe that gay, lesbian and bisexual people are mentally ill. 

As someone who is neurodivergent and trans, I know all too well that there is a big difference between being queer and being neurodivergent, despite studies showing that they often go hand in hand. For example, transgender people are up to six times more likely to be autistic, but ableism – discriminating against disabled individuals – is so widespread in our society that its damage extends to neurotypical, able-bodied LGBTQ+ people. When society wants to erase, downplay or ignore any marginalised group, they try to make this group look “mentally unstable”.

Throughout history, ableism has been used against women to justify gender inequality, against Jewish people to justify the Holocaust, against people of colour to justify slavery and colonialism, and, of course, against the LGBTQ+ community. 

When Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban transgender people from military service, he insisted that the quality requited was “inconsistent with the medical, surgical and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria”.

The order includes over-medicalised language for transgender individuals and tries to frame them as incapable, based on their “diagnosis”.

It mirrors his comments on diversity, equality and inclusion programmes for disabled pilots, falsely claiming these caused the collision between a passenger jet and a helicopter over Washington DC last month.

He deliberately ignored that all aircraft operators “receive the same rigorous consideration in terms of aptitude, medical and security qualifications as those individuals considered for a standard public opening, for air-traffic-controller jobs”.

The Trump administration, just like many far-right regimes, is deeply ableist. The president is even alleged to have told his nephew he should let his disabled son die. He uses ableism against any group that is considered “not worthy” of basic dignity and human rights, including trans people. 

This is why I believe that it is not enough for LGBTQ+ activists to speak up against ableism, especially to protect those of us who live at an intersection. LGBTQ+ people are also at greater risk of having mental-health issues because of the discrimination we face, and we shouldn’t deny people with mental-health issues their competence.

To help this, we need to look closer at the neurodiversity paradigm – the way in which everyone functions varies widely and there is no “right” or “wrong” way of functioning. Society simply needs to provide people with proper accommodation.

If the majority of people were autistic, then non-autistic people would be considered disabled. Autism doesn’t cause problems by itself and it’s not considered to be a disorder by many, despite being treated as such. We do not need a cure, we need accommodation.

On the other hand, clinical depression is a disorder that can lead to mental-health issues. This doesn’t mean it is something shameful or that people with depression should be discriminated against, but it should be cured. 

The question we need to ask ourselves when we are speaking about these conditions is not whether they are considered “normal” but whether they make people suffer without a social context that stigmatises them.

I think the best way to oppose bigots such as Trump, and secure rights for all LGBTQ+ people, is by working to get rid of ableism and the cult of “normality”, instead accepting that our brains work differently, we understand our bodies differently, and it is not a problem. The norms should serve society, not the other way around.

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