Brutkey

Alexa Devreux-Swift
@alexadeswift@lgbtqia.space

Phillipson has announced that non binary and trans teachers can be addressed as Mx should they wish, however, there is a catch. They cannot insist upon being addressed as they wish but only request that they are. This is because "teachers and pupils must be treated with respect" but "... people are able to express their views on this topic as well". But here is the thing, these two things can be mutually exclusive, since one person's view of using requested honourifics may be antagonistic against such requests which will result in denials of such, and thus lead to insulting others who make such requests.

We must be clear here that 'no one persons gender identity is another person's opinion to endlessly debate' and yet, once again, that is exactly what is happening here, with yet more debate over the legitimacy of another human beings most intimate sense of themselves as a gendered being.

We must be clear that no matter what religion or none, what philosophical outlook upon life, culture and society you may have, such things are not universal and should never be used to determine legislation or statutory guidance let alone the way we treat with or address each other in wider society.

I notice the Christian cross that Phillipson wears and frankly I do not give a fucking shit what she may or may not believe. She should leave that at home, and when devising legislation or statutory guidance around issues of human rights consider purely the rights that we all should have, universally, and the attendant responsibilities that exercising such rights entails.

You may have the right to consider trans women to be "biological males", but that does not give you the right to use insulting language to address us, any more than my right may be to consider all Christians to be bigoted pieces of shit gives me the right to address all in such grotesque ways. We live in a society which is made up of myriad peoples with a diversity of views and opinions, and as such, we must never tolerate intolerance, not even within ourselves.

Calling a teacher by a half century old honourific is the absolute least we can demand of our children as we take them through education, or are we going to have to demand that trans kids have the right to call cisgender teachers by any honourifics they seem appropriate, even if those cisgender teachers might be offended by that? Somehow I do not think that latter would be tolerated.

#Trans #Transgender #TransgenderUK