In our weekly spot where we chat mental health, a few words for the trans community after one hell of a week.
Hello, friends. I hope you all had a good Easter break, if you celebrate, or at least a nice weekend. A nice weekend focused on chocolate was for sure needed for many of us, after the events of last week. Things have been rough sailing for a while, but a recent ruling by the UK Supreme Court has rocked the ship yet again.
The legal definition of a ‘woman’ has now been redesigned to exclude trans women; an unnecessary act that has opened an already marginalised and vulnerable community to more scrutiny and abuse than they were already experiencing. This will have further reaching implications on multiple issues, including but not limited to medical care and public bathroom usage.
Now, relax – this article is not about to delve into the finer points of the decision, whether political or otherwise.
Instead, this is an article that is aimed at all supporters and members of the Film Stories community, and hopefully beyond. This article is just to say that you are absolutely welcome here.
Humans are humans, and everyone gets to dictate their own identity. It is not for anyone else to tell another person who they should be or how they should live.
Naturally, being human means that everyone will have an opinion about who you are or how you look – it is one of those unfortunate facts that we would be hypocritical to dismiss. But unless a person has shown themselves to be a direct threat to you or society, then why should we enforce those opinions on anyone to such a degree that their very existence is negatively affected by it?
I have met multiple trans people, over the past decade, and have never found myself feeling threatened, intimidated, or at risk in any way by their presence. In fact, it is quite the opposite; their transition, however far along they are in the process, opens them up to more risk from other people than people are at risk from them.
We need to come together and show real community to them, and to all other minority groups. It is 2025 – we shouldn’t still be pushing such harmful narratives about our brothers and sisters.
Trans women exist. Trans men exist. Non-binary people are people.
Not all men are dangerous. Not all women wish to be wives and mothers. Members of the LGBTQIA+ community are not sexual deviants. Drag Queens are caricatures and fun representations of who people want to be. Black lives matter. Followers of Islam are not the enemy. Nor are Christians, Catholics, Jews, Hindus, or any other religious group. I could go on (and I would, if not for the word count…).
My point is that we are all people just trying to live our own lives. Stereotypes are hateful and harmful, and we shouldn’t still be perpetuating them in this day and age.
Rather than punching down, let’s lift people up. We’re all just trying to be.
Everybody is welcome. Everybody is relevant. Everybody matters.
Everybody belongs here. Everybody is safe here.
Everybody.
Here at Film Stories you are welcome to be yourself, because we don’t care about your gender, race, sexuality, or anything else. Just don’t come in here slagging off Kevin Costner movies.
(I mean, we care about a lot more, but you see the point.)
A legal ruling doesn’t suddenly mean that a community of people doesn’t exist, no matter how people may be spinning it.
You all take care. This column will return next week.
