Marx and historical materialism
Abstract concepts are vital, but we also need to think through how we apply them in practice.
What is Transgender Day of Remembrance, and why does it matter?
Charlie Powell and Taisie Tsikas write on the significance of Transgender Day of Remembrance in the ongoing struggle against the oppression of transgender people.
Trans* rights and the Gender Recognition Act
Emma Rock, a queer activist living in Germany, offers a socialist analysis of the recent debate. Trans* rights have increasingly moved from the fringes and into the spotlight for the Left. While this attention should be something we could all applaud, it has not been characterised by support for the rights of gender nonconforming people […]
Reflections of a reluctant transsexual
Evren Filgate gives their perspective on the reform of the Gender Recognition Act and the struggle that trans people face in their daily lives. We heard news a few weeks ago that the Gender Recognition Act is being reformed. Hooray! Surely that is a good thing. We have Made It; it is just like 2013, […]
Things to read before you comment on the Gender Recognition Act
Following the announcement of reforms to the 2004 Gender Recognition Act, rs21 recommends reading to help socialists understand the key issues. This week, the government has announced reforms to the 2004 Gender Recognition Act to make legal processes for registering a change of gender less distressing. This has sparked debates across the media, including […]
Notes on women, men, trans and intersex: “the gender binary does not fit the facts”
Colin Wilson discusses why the gender binary’s imposition is something to be opposed. One of the most widely accepted “common sense” ideas about society is that human beings – apart from a tiny number of exceptions, none of whom you are ever likely to meet – can be simply divided into two groups, men and […]
Trans politics today: an interview with Roz Kaveney
Back in 2014, Time magazine ran a front cover featuring actress and trans activist Laverne Cox with the headline ‘The transgender tipping point’. In the past five years the number of trans figures in the public sphere has grown, whilst at the same time the murder rate of trans women, predominantly women of colour, hit […]
Our existence is not up for debate: A reply to Germaine Greer and her defenders
Activists at Cardiff University started a petition a week ago to cancel a talk by Germaine Greer on the grounds of Greer’s transphobic hate speech. Greer has since cancelled, but not before many liberal and left commentators came to her defence. Sølvi and Shanice argue that with violence against trans people at appalling levels, solidarity with them should be […]
This story of a trans life is a step towards imagining real liberation
Sølvi reviews Trans: A Memoir by Juliet Jacques (Verso, £16.99) When Juliet Jacques started writing her Transgender Journey blog in the Guardian, I’m reasonably sure I didn’t even know what transgender was. I wish, in hindsight, I had. Perhaps it would have explained some aspects of my life. The fact that Jacques’ blog was the first […]
“Are you like wearing mascara?”
As part of rs21’s ongoing series on trans liberation, Sølvi, a teaching assistant in a London secondary school, tries to grapple with what it means to be non-binary when working in education.
The Future of Trans Politics
In some ways, the struggle for trans liberation is finally beginning to get the respect and recognition it deserves. Yet, as Kae Smith argues, none of this has been achieved without a fight, and a transphobic kickback. Writing in a personal capacity as a trans activist, sie lays out hir vision for what kind of movement […]
“I Was Born a Baby Not a Boy”: Sex, Gender and Trans Liberation
In the second article in a series on trans politics, Shanice McBean discusses sex, gender and trans liberation. This piece was originally published on Shanice’s blog sheisrevolutionarilysuicidal. The Severing of Sex from Gender As transgender identities, social spaces and movements have developed over the past 150 years there’s been a sharpening of the confrontation between bourgeois ideological […]
Leslie Feinberg: ‘Remember me as a revolutionary communist’
Remembering Leslie Feinberg – an ‘anti-racist white, working-class, secular Jewish, transgender, lesbian, female, revolutionary communist’.
Real free speech is subversive, not about defending the status quo
Colin Wilson discusses recent controversies about freedom of speech. The last few months have seen a number of discussions about “free speech”. After the Charlie Hebdo killings, the magazine’s supporters frequently justified its publication of Islamophobic and racist cartoons by reference to free speech. When protesters in January opposed Marine Le Pen speaking at the […]
Leelah Alcorn vigil mourns death, vows to fight for change
The death of Leelah Alcorn has led to protests against the oppression of trans people. Neil Rogall reports from a vigil in Trafalgar Square. Up to 200 mainly young people attended a vigil on the afternoon of Saturday 3 January for seventeen-year-old Leelah Alcorn, a young woman from Ohio who died on 28 December after […]
Review: Orange is the New Black
With Christmas fast approaching, Shanice McBean looks at the politics behind an obvious stocking filler: Orange is the New Black. Orange is the New Black (OITNB) follows the story of main protagonist Piper Chapman as her past in drug smuggling delivers a 15 month prison sentence onto the doorstep of her seemingly pristine, all American lifestyle. […]