https://inews.co.uk/opinion/ricky-gervais-jokes-trans-people-bathrooms-public-bodies-exclude-1658948
It’s not ‘brave’ to recycle the same old jokes about transgender people – laughing at us isn’t bold, it’s boring
SuperNature, Ricky Gervais’ latest Netflix special, opens with jokes about trans women attacking and raping people in public bathrooms. This is such a tired and excessively used trope that every trans person I know isn’t even shocked by it anymore. Reducing trans people to their physical form for a punchline is far from edgy; it’s boring.
Instead of discussions about how the rights of trans people can be protected in our society, the focus is skewed towards how to limit our lives – particularly in public bathrooms. Only days ago, Attorney General and MP Suella Braverman told The Times that schools should take “a much firmer line” on the subject of trans children in schools.
On the topic of a trans girl wanting to use the girls’ toilets, Braverman explicitly said: “I would say to the school that they don’t have to and that they shouldn’t allow that child to go into [the] girls’ toilets.”
As far as I’m concerned, this is blatant discrimination that breaches the Equality Act 2010 and tells every trans person in education that they may not be recognised for who they are. Most upsettingly, it puts fear of trans people above compassion, even compassion for trans children.
But the casual description of trans people as threats is nothing new. In 2018, comedy writer Graham Linehan was criticised for comparing trans activism to Nazism. Two years later, in 2020, he was permanently suspended by Twitter for repeatedly violating its rules on “hateful conduct and platform manipulation”. Before this happened however, influential voices like Jonathan Ross had publicly said they “admire[d] and applaud[ed]” Linehan for sharing his opinions.
Tired and regularly repeated tropes about trans people attacking others in bathrooms or being somehow like Nazis is particularly harmful because we are actually more likely to experience crime. According to ONS figures from 2020, 28 per cent of trans people experienced crime compared with 14 per cent of cisgender (people who identify with the gender they were born) people. The Government’s own statistics on crime in England and Wales showed that transgender identity hate crimes increased by 16 per cent (to 2,540) from 2019 to 2020.
In a climate where we can be so casually abused, decisions which exclude us are becoming the norm. Recently, the EHRC (The Equalities and Human Rights Commission, an independent body that aims to encourage equality and tackle discrimination), has written guidance which is arguably influenced by this flawed idea that we – trans people – who disproportionately experience crime, are a threat.
Using the single sex exemptions in the Equality Act, they write that it is OK to exclude us from fitness classes or public bathrooms (please note the obsession with bathrooms). In my eyes, exclusion is not necessary in these spaces and the guidance is a clear violation of the 2010 Equality Act. Again, while this disappoints me, it does not surprise me – because focusing on trans people and speculating on whether our existing rights should be removed has become increasingly commonplace.
It would be remiss of me not to note here that in 2020, 46 per cent of Britons thought trans women should be allowed to use women’s toilets (compared to only 30 per cent who were against the idea). In a similar vein, 39 per cent of Britons thought trans women did not present any genuine risk of harm in spaces reserved for women (compared to 32 per cent who did). Yet trans people’s rights are being restricted anyway.
Gervais has gone on to defend his show in The Spectator by claiming his joke wasn’t at transgender people’s expense but rather “trans activist” ideology. Are we now claiming that literally needing to use the loo is activism? Trans women and girls have used public facilities in the same way for decades. Just days ago in the Daily Mail, Sarah Vine defended Gervais and wrote: “He’s seen how the subjects he’s tackling are ones that concern people everywhere. He’s observed our bewilderment and anger that in these censorious days, we’re not allowed even to discuss them.”
Despite Vine’s assertation that Gervais’ comedy is subversive or brave, there is nothing boundary pushing about attacking trans people publicly. It’s important to note that she is currently being paid to write in a national newspaper, so her claim of censorship is also redundant. Her suggestion that Gervais deserves a knighthood is a good indication of just how mainstream and normalised the abuse of trans people has become.
Those who criticise us regularly describe all sorts of things we do as activism. But we are not being rebellious by going about our daily lives. If Gervais and those who so casually mock us want to be as bold and outspoken as they claim to be, they should try defending trans people. That would truly be groundbreaking.
In the interim, however, society needs to empathise with trans people, rather than those who mock us for living our lives.
Esme Lord is an an LGBT+ rights advocate, a feminist and a politics graduate. She currently works for a national rehabilitation charity
