Love vs hate: support trans youth
Donation protected
Donate to show your support for the rights of trans people and for love over hate: all monies will go to brilliant projects working with trans youth in the UK.
Attacks on trans people are a collective attack on us all, with trans people bearing the brunt
At one level I want to thank Jennifer James and her supporters for their campaign to raise money to exclude trans women from the Labour Party’s all-women shortlists (it can be viewed here, although arguably it does contain hate speech: Jennifer has now been suspended from the Labour Party as a result of this transphobic campaign).
Join me in loving, not hating, trans people
Jennifer’s campaign has inspired me. I want to see her hateful fundraiser – literally a group profiteering from the violent backlash against trans people in the UK – as an opportunity for all haters-of-hatred, to come together to show love – through the donation of money to benefit the trans community in the UK, especially trans young people, and to raise up all of our humanity in the process. And, I admit it, I also want us to raise more money than Jennifer! Please take a few moments to help me do it or, if you have time, start to plan events to raise money yourselves.
Help love defeat hate: show your support by donating to trans youth organisations
Trans children and young people need our love and support as, like any child, they struggle to settle into who they are and can be. In the face of the current backlash against trans people, it is children and young people who are most likely to swallow this violence: half of trans young people attempt to kill themselves and many more succeed. As such, we are in the midst of a national child protection crisis for trans youth. Our society is failing to create and support families and communities that allow these children and young people to flourish. Yet young people are identifying their trans identity at a younger age and in far greater numbers.
All money donated on this page will go to organisations supporting trans children and young people in the UK
I want to see us raise more money for love than the hate. But I cannot do this alone. I need your help – and your money however little all adds up to counter these distorted arguments against the very existence of trans people. All money donated will go to support three brilliant, professional projects offering services and safe spaces to the trans community and queer young people. This fundraising page will be open until 31 December 2018.
1) Gendered Intelligence specialising in work with trans youth under 21, training, resources and more. I interviewed Finn, their youth work manager, for a recent BACP therapy journal article and know their CEO, Jay Stewart from my time at the Mayor of London's Office
2) Mermaids supporting children, young people and their parents, friends and families re gender nonconformity. This project has a great reputation and offers critical frontline services. I am working with them on a conference idea at the moment.
3) Cortijo Verde a wonderful interspecies family and retreat centre In Andalusia, southern Spain and I am one of its founding members. Monies will support trans young people - especially those on no/low incomes - to attend a special leaders' retreat in the summer of 2019
I believe we are better human beings when we access a deeper capacity for empathy and open to love and understanding – including towards those who attack us. Join me in this struggle and donate now. Thank you for your time, money and love in advance.
Neil xxx
Read a bit more - who am I?
My name is Neil Young and I have been an active trans-advocate for over twenty years – including children and young people (setting up Mosaic LGBT Youth Centre), working for both the first two Mayors of London and now as a student psychotherapist working with the arts in an LGBT+ organisation. Here is my LinkedIn profile and you can also check out the Pink Therapy conference talk I gave on emergent gender and sexual identities amongst young people in 2016. I am passionate about human rights, am a freelance trainer in LGBT+ issues and also photograph farmed animals living in sanctuaries.
What do I think about this ‘debate’ about trans people?
At one level this campaign is the moral equivalent of kicking someone when they are down. I see a group of women, hiding behind a distorted, outdated view of equality and feminism, mounting an attack of on an already traumatised group of people. On the surface Jennifer James and her supporters use superficially plausible political arguments, however, lurking underneath their felt collective reality appears to be a drive – projected mistakenly onto and into trans women – to enact revenge on a hostile, sexist society. This is a completely misdirected and self-defeating strategy, whether within or outside the Labour Party (whose leader, Jeremy Corbyn has been very clear about the
Labour Party position (in the video below): 'I look at the person in front of me, that's their identification and that should be respected'.
Do we want a society in which we mirror the most unacceptable excesses of capitalist and human experience: toxic competition and the projection of self-hatred and the unprocessed experience of exclusion onto ‘others’ with even less power than ourselves? Ironically lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, questioning, queer and intersex (LGBTQQI) people – especially trans and gender fluid folk – have the potential to be a very close ally of feminists (and often are), particularly given how they are also marginalised by the experience of toxic gender stereotyping and misogyny which also underlies much anti-LGBTQQI prejudice. Perhaps this is why trans women have been targeted in this way: sometimes it is easier for people who have disenfranchised to lash out and attack those around them who have even less power.
It is sad to see the women in this campaign acting out their internalised prejudice in ways that make the lives of other marginalised groups more difficult and that magnifies the violent hatred of our reactionary, right wing press (who I do, of course, recognise have much more power to both instigate and magnify violent transphobic hate across the UK and beyond). Trans people, especially the trans women that this campaign focuses on, have not designed or benefitted much, if at all, from a misogynistic world. Trans men and women are often on the front line of gender, fighting to be themselves whilst dealing with the hostility – conscious or otherwise – of people who act out from a place of shame about their own gendered differences or a desire to scapegoat others, rather than facing difficult feelings within and about themselves.
I challenge Jenifer James and her fundraising campaign to see past these differences and broaden her understanding of what ‘man’ and ‘woman’ is and can be. Trans women – and trans people in general – are not a threat: as with all of us, trans people just want to be accepted for who they are and live their lives free from hostility and attack. This is not much to ask.
PS, look what our young people are up to: a 'quiet revolution’ no less
The idea that everyone should have the right to determine their own gender and sexual identity is a transformative social movement being led from below, by children and young people failed by an adult society that largely ignores, attacks or eroticises them. This youth-inspired movement – heralded and magnified by celebrities and across social media – reflects a desire for authenticity; for our inside worlds, including desires, fantasies and our true sense of self to more healthily reflect our external relationships with other people.
This concept of working out your own gender and sexuality – whether over time or across your whole life – is tricky for old-style political activists, as it involves letting people have more power over their own lives, rather than trying to impose narrow, ‘acceptable’ notions of how ‘other’ people should live. Increasingly young people are rejecting glib, intellectual binaries of ‘gay’ or ‘straight’ and ‘male’ or ‘female’ as not reflecting their lived experience. In a 2015 YouGov survey half of young people aged 18-24 surveyed said that they did not identify as 100% heterosexual. This increasingly relaxed and open-minded approach to both sexuality and gender identity should be celebrated and supported, not attacked, as it reflects a growing desire amongst young people to live authentic lives.
PPS That's all for now folks, but please don't forget to donate!
I just cannot imagine us having less money at the end of the month than Jennifer's campaign. Love must win! Please share far and wide with your friends, family and in organisations that you work in.
Let's do this together. Big love, Neil xxx
Attacks on trans people are a collective attack on us all, with trans people bearing the brunt
At one level I want to thank Jennifer James and her supporters for their campaign to raise money to exclude trans women from the Labour Party’s all-women shortlists (it can be viewed here, although arguably it does contain hate speech: Jennifer has now been suspended from the Labour Party as a result of this transphobic campaign).
Join me in loving, not hating, trans people
Jennifer’s campaign has inspired me. I want to see her hateful fundraiser – literally a group profiteering from the violent backlash against trans people in the UK – as an opportunity for all haters-of-hatred, to come together to show love – through the donation of money to benefit the trans community in the UK, especially trans young people, and to raise up all of our humanity in the process. And, I admit it, I also want us to raise more money than Jennifer! Please take a few moments to help me do it or, if you have time, start to plan events to raise money yourselves.
Help love defeat hate: show your support by donating to trans youth organisations
Trans children and young people need our love and support as, like any child, they struggle to settle into who they are and can be. In the face of the current backlash against trans people, it is children and young people who are most likely to swallow this violence: half of trans young people attempt to kill themselves and many more succeed. As such, we are in the midst of a national child protection crisis for trans youth. Our society is failing to create and support families and communities that allow these children and young people to flourish. Yet young people are identifying their trans identity at a younger age and in far greater numbers.
All money donated on this page will go to organisations supporting trans children and young people in the UK
I want to see us raise more money for love than the hate. But I cannot do this alone. I need your help – and your money however little all adds up to counter these distorted arguments against the very existence of trans people. All money donated will go to support three brilliant, professional projects offering services and safe spaces to the trans community and queer young people. This fundraising page will be open until 31 December 2018.
1) Gendered Intelligence specialising in work with trans youth under 21, training, resources and more. I interviewed Finn, their youth work manager, for a recent BACP therapy journal article and know their CEO, Jay Stewart from my time at the Mayor of London's Office
2) Mermaids supporting children, young people and their parents, friends and families re gender nonconformity. This project has a great reputation and offers critical frontline services. I am working with them on a conference idea at the moment.
3) Cortijo Verde a wonderful interspecies family and retreat centre In Andalusia, southern Spain and I am one of its founding members. Monies will support trans young people - especially those on no/low incomes - to attend a special leaders' retreat in the summer of 2019
I believe we are better human beings when we access a deeper capacity for empathy and open to love and understanding – including towards those who attack us. Join me in this struggle and donate now. Thank you for your time, money and love in advance.
Neil xxx
Read a bit more - who am I?
My name is Neil Young and I have been an active trans-advocate for over twenty years – including children and young people (setting up Mosaic LGBT Youth Centre), working for both the first two Mayors of London and now as a student psychotherapist working with the arts in an LGBT+ organisation. Here is my LinkedIn profile and you can also check out the Pink Therapy conference talk I gave on emergent gender and sexual identities amongst young people in 2016. I am passionate about human rights, am a freelance trainer in LGBT+ issues and also photograph farmed animals living in sanctuaries.
What do I think about this ‘debate’ about trans people?
At one level this campaign is the moral equivalent of kicking someone when they are down. I see a group of women, hiding behind a distorted, outdated view of equality and feminism, mounting an attack of on an already traumatised group of people. On the surface Jennifer James and her supporters use superficially plausible political arguments, however, lurking underneath their felt collective reality appears to be a drive – projected mistakenly onto and into trans women – to enact revenge on a hostile, sexist society. This is a completely misdirected and self-defeating strategy, whether within or outside the Labour Party (whose leader, Jeremy Corbyn has been very clear about the
Labour Party position (in the video below): 'I look at the person in front of me, that's their identification and that should be respected'.
Do we want a society in which we mirror the most unacceptable excesses of capitalist and human experience: toxic competition and the projection of self-hatred and the unprocessed experience of exclusion onto ‘others’ with even less power than ourselves? Ironically lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, questioning, queer and intersex (LGBTQQI) people – especially trans and gender fluid folk – have the potential to be a very close ally of feminists (and often are), particularly given how they are also marginalised by the experience of toxic gender stereotyping and misogyny which also underlies much anti-LGBTQQI prejudice. Perhaps this is why trans women have been targeted in this way: sometimes it is easier for people who have disenfranchised to lash out and attack those around them who have even less power.
It is sad to see the women in this campaign acting out their internalised prejudice in ways that make the lives of other marginalised groups more difficult and that magnifies the violent hatred of our reactionary, right wing press (who I do, of course, recognise have much more power to both instigate and magnify violent transphobic hate across the UK and beyond). Trans people, especially the trans women that this campaign focuses on, have not designed or benefitted much, if at all, from a misogynistic world. Trans men and women are often on the front line of gender, fighting to be themselves whilst dealing with the hostility – conscious or otherwise – of people who act out from a place of shame about their own gendered differences or a desire to scapegoat others, rather than facing difficult feelings within and about themselves.
I challenge Jenifer James and her fundraising campaign to see past these differences and broaden her understanding of what ‘man’ and ‘woman’ is and can be. Trans women – and trans people in general – are not a threat: as with all of us, trans people just want to be accepted for who they are and live their lives free from hostility and attack. This is not much to ask.
PS, look what our young people are up to: a 'quiet revolution’ no less
The idea that everyone should have the right to determine their own gender and sexual identity is a transformative social movement being led from below, by children and young people failed by an adult society that largely ignores, attacks or eroticises them. This youth-inspired movement – heralded and magnified by celebrities and across social media – reflects a desire for authenticity; for our inside worlds, including desires, fantasies and our true sense of self to more healthily reflect our external relationships with other people.
This concept of working out your own gender and sexuality – whether over time or across your whole life – is tricky for old-style political activists, as it involves letting people have more power over their own lives, rather than trying to impose narrow, ‘acceptable’ notions of how ‘other’ people should live. Increasingly young people are rejecting glib, intellectual binaries of ‘gay’ or ‘straight’ and ‘male’ or ‘female’ as not reflecting their lived experience. In a 2015 YouGov survey half of young people aged 18-24 surveyed said that they did not identify as 100% heterosexual. This increasingly relaxed and open-minded approach to both sexuality and gender identity should be celebrated and supported, not attacked, as it reflects a growing desire amongst young people to live authentic lives.
PPS That's all for now folks, but please don't forget to donate!
I just cannot imagine us having less money at the end of the month than Jennifer's campaign. Love must win! Please share far and wide with your friends, family and in organisations that you work in.
Let's do this together. Big love, Neil xxx
Organizer
Neil Young
Organizer
