A journalist writes

The Guardian newspaper, well-known in many sections of the UK trans community for its willingness to give a platform to some of the vilest anti-trans hate speech in the country, seems to be continuing its tradition with this piece about the city of Brighton and why the writer (for a change, it’s not Ms Bindel) loves it so.

So-o-o… Do tell us why you love Brighton, then, Mr Petridis. Is it because “the constituency of Brighton Pavilion has elected Britain’s first ever Green MP, in the shape of party leader Caroline Lucas“? No? Well then, is it “the Brightonian nonconformist attitude or love of a theatrical gesture”? No? Is it the beach, or is it “Brighton’s panoply of celebrity residents”, perhaps? Still no? Oh, all right, I give up. Tell me why you love Brighton:

No, when I think of why I love Brighton, it’s The World’s Least Convincing Transvestite that springs to mind.

I walk past The World’s Least Convincing Transvestite every day, on the way to my office. A man who has made the bold fashion decision to sport a jaw-dropping combination of earrings, eyeshadow, stubble and shaving rash on a daily basis, he has all the bewitching femininity of a rugby league prop forward in a pencil skirt; by comparison, Grayson Perry is the absolute spit of Audrey Hepburn. Judging by his clothes – demure court shoes, tights, pussy-bow blouse – he’s en route to a clerical job in an office. For all I know, he might be facing yet another day of bruising homophobia and derision from his colleagues, but it doesn’t look like it. He just looks like an ordinary bloke on his way to an ordinary job, albeit dressed as a woman. I’ve got a sneaking suspicion his workmates just let him get on with it. And if they do, that would be very Brighton.

Ah, okay, I get it. You love Brighton because it lets you give free rein to your trans-misogyny⁽¹⁾. Gosh, that’s hil-ar-ious. And you get paid for writing this stuff? Amazing.

No wonder newspaper sales are declining.

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1 The writer, performer, trans activist and biologist Julia Serano identifies trans-misogyny as follows:

When a trans person is ridiculed or dismissed not merely for failing to live up to gender norms, but for their expressions of femaleness or feminity, they become the victims of a specific form of discrimination: trans-misogyny. When the majority of jokes made at the expense of trans people center on “men wearing dresses” or “men who want their penises cut off,” that is not transphobia – it is trans-misogyny. [Via]