Billy Bragg trans and non binary lyrics "Sexuality"

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I came across this article yesterday. I found it quite balanced and insightful. There is more to it than I shown below, but you can get the gist of it .

https://www.newstatesman.com/comment/2021/11/billy-bragg-why...

Last week, I found myself under fire from gender-critical activists on Twitter, who were agitated to discover that I had changed the lyrics to my 1991 single “Sexuality” when performing the song live on tour. Where previously I had sung “Just because you’re gay I won’t turn you away/If you stick around, I’m sure that we can find some common ground”, for the past few years, I’ve been replacing “gay” with “they” and “some common ground” with “the right pronouns”, in an expression of allyship with the trans and non-binary communities.

We’ve come a long way since then. Equal rights legislation has given gays and lesbians the same benefits and protections as everybody else. But for all our progress, there remains one group of marginalised people whose legitimacy can be questioned among liberal circles: transgender women. The comments of a few high-profile gender-critical feminists has created a quandary for some leftists. Those of us who formed our political beliefs in the 1970s and 1980s are instinctive supporters of women’s rights. Our moral compasses are confused.

The younger generation can see that we are conflicted. Every night on tour, I frame “Sexuality” with a plea of support for Stonewall, the UK’s premier defender of LGBTQ rights, which is currently under attack from powerful anti-trans elements within the government and the media. Witnessing the response at one show, someone tweeted how amazing it was to see people who grew up in the 1980s roaring in approval at a statement of support for trans rights.

To better understand where the gender-critical movement sits on the left/right spectrum through which we Late Boomers persist in seeing the world, it helps to look to the US. There, it’s pretty clear-cut where opposition to trans rights is coming from: 84 per cent of white evangelical Christians believe that gender is determined by sex at birth. The same demographic has similarly strong opinions about preventing women from getting abortions, and are often firm supporters of Donald Trump, who in 2018 who proposed policies the New York Times described as attempting to define “transgender” out of existence.

As in the US, the use of female public toilet facilities by transgender women has become a flashpoint, with gender-critical women arguing that they don’t feel safe if trans women who have not yet fully transitioned are allowed to use the same bathrooms. In making this argument, they are echoing the tropes used against the gay community in the 1970s and 1980s – that trans people are by nature sexual predators, that they cannot be trusted in the presence of children, that they’re nothing but perverts. By using a handful of examples of abusive behaviour to tar the whole trans community, they seek to make the very idea of trans rights a form of predation.

There is also scant regard for the safety of trans women in this argument. The Washington Post reported on 10 November that 2021 has so far been the deadliest year on record for transgender people in the US, highlighting the fact that transgender women are four times more likely to be murdered than cisgender women. And who is perpetrating this violence? Cisgender men. By seeking to push trans women back into the men’s toilets, gender-critical activists are forcing an already vulnerable community to face the threat of more violence and abuse.

Comments

Good for Billy Bragg

Angharad's picture

I've always thought him a decent fellow, which he proves here. It would be easy to get political, but it seems that the pendulum is swinging back to the right which means all the nasty fascists will be in control and not only does it make us more vulnerable but I also blame it for the immigration policies currently espoused by the UK government and which is resulting in desperate people seeking desperate measures to get to the UK. On Wednesday 27 people drowned, including women and children, some very young. I hope the Home Office and the morons who voted in this government are happy, because I feel ashamed.

Angharad

Yes that was horrible. There

leeanna19's picture

Yes that was horrible. There are heartless bastards laughing about it on social media. A lot of these people want to come here because for some reason British people are considered kind and fair, and they think we will look after them.
Many speak English as a second language, so come here to a country where they have a chance of getting work.

They are vilified, and yet we are crying out for workers in some areas. You don't drag kids half across the world for fun.

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Leeanna

the biggest irony

Maddy Bell's picture

of course is that the hate policies being pursued, supposedly in our name, are being espoused by Ministers who themselves come from an immigrant background. Oh the irony of Ugly Patel's words.

I find the whole thing distasteful, after all my great grandparents were immigrants, in fact my family is quite heavy on previous waves of immigration as well, going back at least as far as the Hugenot's arriving for assylum.

Whilst i generally agree with you Ang, others are at fault too, the French Gov't have just as much responsibility and thats without the, often British people traffickers. Much of the UK population is angry that this is still happening but they are angry about so much, they voted for Brexit because they thought that would stop these cross Channel immigrants, they blamed the EU and the politicians told them what they wanted to hear. They've continued to vote for the purveyors of this country's doom as they think the lies could all still come true and of course there is no viable alternative.

In the meantime there are more pressing issues for many Brits, the very future of our healthcare system for example, it may sound callous but the death of uninvited migrants ranks pretty low on your priorities when you are struggling to feed and clothe your family, can't afford to heat your home and get unduly penalised if you are in employment. Foir those people, charity begins at home.


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Madeline Anafrid Bell