Transgender Community

Last May, a few of us were involved in protesting outside a performance by the musician, "Bitch", as part of the "Queer up North" event in Manchester. My account of the event can be read here. To give a summary, Bitch is someone who performs at the Michigan Women's Music Festival, which gained infamy for excluding trans women (sometimes by force), and which has become something of a focal point for the fight against transphobia and trans misogyny within the women's and queer movements. Bitch hasn't merely performed there, but has been a vocal advocate of trans exclusion, and has categorised moves to include trans women in women's events as "making men comfortable and satisfying men".

As we've come to expect from an LGB community which makes a habit of turning a blind eye towards transphobia within its own ranks, the reaction of Queer up North to those objecting to them furthering the artistic career of transphobic performers could, I feel, reasonably be summed up as "yeah, whatever". As talking to them produced, at best, complete indifference, a ew of went and held a little street protest, during which the artistic director himself came to talk to us, apparently upset that we were spoiling his shiny event. I think he demonstrated quite a lot of cluelessness at the time, by being a cis male trying to explain that a bunch of trans people were mistaken to see transphobia where there clearly was none, and a bunch of women were wrong to see misogyny where there was none.

Fast forward thirteen months, and we're now presented with this petulant bit of whining from Queer up North's IT person, Alan Fleming, which contains the following gems:

Last year, several people in the Manchester transgendered community gave us grief because one of our artists had previously performed in a venue that does not allow transgendered people access. We had protests, we had all sorts of stuff going on. That’s fine. I might not agree, but I respect completely the fact that there are different viewpoints here, and that public protest is a legitimate way of expressing opinion.

Quite apart from the use of "transgendered community", which suggests to me like a group of people who might have survived some unpleasant accident involving a veterinary surgery, and formed a support group to deal with their trauma (does he refer to those of us who practice the sapphic arts as the "catted and fisted community", I wonder?), it's notable that his view seems not to changed one iota - this wasn't about festival supposedly for the whole queer community rubbing the collective nose of one of its constituent parts in the dirt - it was merely about "different viewpoints". I think it's notable, however, that there were no overt homophobes invited to perform, in order to foster more "legitimate ways of expressing opinion".

But he goes on:

However, forward to this year. QuN had two transgendered artists in leading slots. It had Joanne Meyerowitz, one of the most eminent academics working in the field of transgender studies, lecturing on “A different history of gender.” And what feedback do we hear from the transgender community this year? Nothing. Not a word. This leads to an interesting question. Why?

That's right - he seems to be upset that the trans community is not embracing Queer up North with open arms and throwing a public celebration because after making a complete mess of things last year, and then compounding it by being condescending and indifferent, they've apparently manaed to do a bit better this year.

I feel kinda bad about this; I for one, would have been only to happy to proclaim and celebrate their hard work, if only I'd known about it. I must confess my guilt here - I hadn't realised the sheer effort and planning needed to invite fewer bigots to their party this year. Perhaps Alan can forgive this little indiscretion though. As he says himself:

I think it’s because the transgender community in Manchester (at least) is politically immature.

As such political lightweights, I don't think it's entirely fair of Queer up North's IT person to expect us to grasp the complexities of making sure that the people they're thinking of inviting are actually broadly supportive of LGBT rights. I mean, we're obviously the sort of naive and inexperienced people who expect to be able to be able to find this sort of thing out using Google, or something. We simply fail to appreciate the months of careful preparation which must have gone into avoiding inviting, say, Fred Phelps to speak at this year's Queer up North festival.

Alan further drives home his point:

To my mind, a politically mature community gives credit where it’s due. It engages with friends and enemies..

I'll close with two thoughts:

Firstly, I realise this may not seem so sincere after being prompted, but thanks for inviting fewer bigots this year. It's really appreciated, and I mean that.

Secondly, if one is to appoint oneself as the arbiter of "political maturity", perhaps it might be productive to avoid making Freudian slip type gaffes implying that Queer up North sees itself as an "enemy" of trans people, because, Alan, it kinda ruins your point a bit.