On Brianna Ghey

This article is about Brianna Ghey, but it is also a riposte to the actions of the gender-critical movement after her death. We should never forget.

When I was 16, I went to school in a declining, post-industrial midlands town in England. By that age, I had known I was transgender for years. I had a secret blog that charted both the good and bad of my hidden trans life. After horrific bullying elsewhere, and discovering that I did not live in a supportive home, I lived in immense fear of someone finding out. The school itself was the most hostile, homophobic environment I have been in. Being trans there was out of the question. I didn’t know anybody even from the LGBTQ+ community, let alone someone like me. I had no trans role models or guidance. These were hard, hard times. I was profoundly terrified that somebody would find out, and I lived in pure, unadulterated fear that it would happen. Reading my blog today, I am saddened by the great suicidality I experienced at the time. It was awful. I survived, but it kicked off what I perceive to be a lost decade in which I hid from the world, but also from myself. That was Billie, at 16.

Yet last year in Warrington, England, a 16-year-old trans girl was out and living her best life in all weathers. Her name was Brianna Ghey.

Can you imagine the bravery and courage that took? The sheer gall of it? To me, it is almost…