Gay men who support trans equality – here’s why.
Scott Cuthbertson
I started this website in response to the many gay men that approached me to express their horror in watching the campaign against trans equality take hold and the parallels with the campaigns that took place not so long ago against their rights.
They wanted to know what they could do and how they could use their experiences to help.
Trans rights are human rights, and we as gay men won’t stand by while our trans friends are attacked with the same old rhetoric we’ve learned how to beat.
David Paisley
As a gay cis gendered man I support trans equality as I’ve campaigned for the rights of LGBT+ people all my adult life. Now that we’ve achieved so much, with equal age of consent, repeal of section 28, workplace protections, the right to marry, there is still more to do. So much of the fight for equality has been won for gay and bi men & women, that doesn’t mean the work is over. Having fought and marched side by side with our trans community for years, it’s not right to abandon them now. As an ally and a fellow LGBT+ person I stand with our trans community in solidarity, trans rights are human rights.
If you live in Scotland and would like to be added send 80 – 120 words on why you support trans equality, and a picture to scott [at] gwiththet.scot
Finlay McFarlane
I often watched my mum growing up telling my younger foster brothers and sisters that she had a big loud voice and that she would use it to speak up for them where they couldn’t and it’s stuck with my to this day.
It’s our time to step up as gay men to defend our trans siblings. To try and carry a share of the burden of this campaign. To reach out to our trans friends and ask them what it is that *they* need to be able to keep going. This idea of solidarity shouldn’t be alien to us gay men. Throughout our lives and our history we have relied on our mothers, sisters and girlfriends in the playground to help us keep fighting and to help us stay alive.
Adam Knight
We’re coming to realise that perhaps attitudes towards LGBT people haven’t progressed as far as we had hoped.
Trans people are experiencing the same attacks the rest of our community experienced 20 years ago. I implore other gay men to stand rock solid with our trans siblings because we have strikingly similar shared experiences of bigotry and our progress is precarious.
Find out more about what you can do to support trans equality
Stewart McDonald MP
My party offers itself as a means by which our parliament can take full responsibility, not just through the levers of state power but by ensuring all of Scotland’s citizens can find their voice and help shape the nation. Our parliament in Edinburgh stands proud in the world as having consistently extended equality to LGBT people – Holyrood has never once legislated to deny equality.
As trans equality has its rightful prominence, it’s vital our community sticks together and holds our parliament true to our values and makes Scotland a place where trans citizens can live freely and prosper. The case for equality must always be made with passion, reason and vigour. Let us do so with the strength of a community made resilient by the hard battles of the past and the victories we enjoy today, but always with a hand of friendship to those willing to join our coalition for a better nation for all.
If you live in Scotland and would like to be added send 80 – 120 words on why you support trans equality, and a picture to scott [at] gwiththet.scot
David Thomas
I’m firmly of the view; it’s up to all of us to stand with our Trans brothers and sisters as they have unstintingly stood with us with both integrity and real bravery.
If you’re a young trans person constantly using your birth certificate as you make your initial forays out into the world of work and study; that old birth certificate is your great betrayer if you couldn’t or simply cannot go through the current unnecessarily laborious humiliating and costly, non peer tribunal like process.
That’s all the GRA does; it makes life less complex for our own folk.
Our metaphorical community wagons are circling: please be in here; with all of us!
Alasdair Rothin
Trans people have always been here, part of us. Any attempt to exclude trans folk or belittle trans issues is a cruelty and an insult to us all. Trans rights are human rights: trans folk are straight and gay and lesbian and bi and pan and aro and more.
Hard won rights can be lost again and right now, as always, we need to stand together, to see the value in diversity and move with strength to protect and extend our freedoms. Trans equality is a necessity within the LGBT+ community.
Find out more about what you can do to support trans equality
Simon Jay
We understand what it is like to be scapegoated and lied about. It saddens me that the damage from bigotry can become internalised and some mock the struggle of our trans siblings.
The trans community is fighting against institutional hostility, hatred and cruelty and we need to show the love, compassion and solidarity that we wished we had been shown when the government and public were throwing the bricks at our heads! Trans people just want to get on with their lives – but they can’t until the hatred dies down and better rights are secured – for that I will always be here to support a community that is purposefully misrepresented and demonised.
Damian Barr
A concerted effort is being made in the US and UK to fracture the LGBT community – to turn is against one another and specifically to marginalise trans folk. Trans pioneers fought at stonewall and have been at the forefront of our struggle fighting alongside us for the same freedoms against the same oppressors. We must work together to stay together and to ensure trans folk enjoy the same legal and social protections they helped us fight for.
I am proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with my trans siblings as they do with me.
If you live in Scotland and would like to be added send 80 – 120 words on why you support trans equality, and a picture to scott [at] gwiththet.scot
Gerry Cassidy
As a gay man I’ve always supported LGBT Equality and I proudly call myself a feminist, as I was raised by brilliant women.
I didn’t realise until last year some of the awful hatred towards our Trans friends. I had to educate myself on the issues and bullying our Trans Brothers and Sisters face and frankly, I’m appalled at some of the things people in positions of power have said and did.
We must ensure everyone’s rights are protected and I proudly stand alongside all in our Scottish (and beyond) Trans community our friends and Allies.
I’m also proud to be in love with a gay man, who just happens to be Trans. He’s changed my world, my outlook and opened my eyes. Thank goodness he’s in the world!
Stuart Duffy
As a journalist I’ve been upset and angry at the coverage of the ‘debate’ for gender reform in the media, but not surprised. As gay men, we’ve been here before and that means we have a duty to stand up and fight alongside our trans siblings. The establishment seeks to frame gender recognition reform as dangerous or a step too far, but the reality is that doing nothing has far worse consequences for the mental health and dignity of trans people in Scotland.
Together we must win hearts and minds, yes, but we must also call out those peddling misinformation and bigoted rhetoric in the guise of public protection or safeguarding. This journey for equality is not over – trans people marched with us for progressive laws and policy change. We will not abandon them now.
Find out more about what you can do to support trans equality
Kris Hendry
As a trade unionist, one of the most important words in my vocabulary is solidarity, standing together with those facing struggle. It’s kept both trade union and LGBT+ communities together, indeed helping forge the links between both groups going back to the 1980’s and LGSM.
Much like the 80’s, today we see arguments against our Trans family echoing those used to oppress our community back then. Then we campaigned, together, against those who attacked us and today we must do so again against those who seeking to discriminate against our Trans and Non Binary communities.
As chair of my union’s LGBT+ organisation, I am reassured by their solidarity for the Trans community from across our LGB members and allies and I will continue to stand with them in their struggle.
Solomon Bright Adebayo
As a gay man, l’ve always supported Trans friends because I understand what its like to be different, oppress and marginalise.
When I remember how people used to treat me or look at me differently because of who I am been gay man, now I realised what Trans friends are going through as well. As a gay man facing the same similar situation what we can do to help each others is to love one another.
As a man with Catholic background and member of Mcc Metropolitan community church I believe in what bible told us in the book of Matthew 22: 39 says “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thy self”. We need to continue campaigning and spread love to one another.
If you live in Scotland and would like to be added send 80 – 120 words on why you support trans equality, and a picture to scott [at] gwiththet.scot
Jordan Daly
Transphobia and homophobia are intrinsically linked; they come from the same place, and are often promoted by the same people. They will not stop with the trans community. I know what it’s like to feel different and isolated in a world that seems to be against you.
I will always support my trans friends in their simple quest to live their lives without fear, without prejudice, and in happiness; to step out of their homes and feel confident and safe. They did not choose to become the easy target of a wider cultural discourse, just as lesbians, gay men, and bisexual people did not choose to become the focal point of a similar moment in the 1980s. Our community have overcome this before, and we will overcome it again.
Michael Richardson
As a cis gay man, I recognise that I owe my current rights and freedoms to the trans community. During the Stonewall riots, widely acknowledged as the birthplace of the modern LGBT+ rights movement, it was trans women of colour who led the way. They stood up and spoke out against discrimination. They fought back against those who attempted to oppress us. They showed us that we matter and that we deserve full and happy lives.
I will continue to use my privilege, my trade union and any platforms I access to reciprocate by supporting unequivocally my trans siblings in their fight for equality.
Find out more about what you can do to support trans equality
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