Transphobic article.

The definition of being transgender is "denoting or relating to a person whose sense of personal identity and gender does not correspond with their birth sex." Which, simply put, means a person can be born as a man while wanting to be a woman, and a person can be born a woman while wanting to be a man. Now that you have been given this quiet simple piece of information, I feel that this acticle was needed to shed light on the lives of trans people and the struggles they go through.  

Since Donald Trump's election, his administration has been trying to define transgender people out of existence. The US government is seeking to deny trans people of their most basic rights in an attempt to reduce their remove their recognition. Last month, the New York Times quoted the US government as saying "gender is determined by the genitals that a person is born with".

Before everyone goes on a Trump fuelled hate rant, just across the Atlantic ocean, our prolific journalist Katie Hopkins was forced to deny that she was transphobic after aiming slurs at transgender news presenter and Celebrity Big Brother contestant India Willoughby. A successful women in her own right, Willoughby started her career as a news reported when she worked for ITV in 2010. One of the tweets made by Hopkins said "A man who castrates his penis is not a woman. just as a cat with no legs is not a slug." 

It's extremely hard to believe that with issues such as global warming, poverty and Brexit, that there are some men and women still feel the need to worry about what is in someone's pants. 

In 2019, the majority of the world does not legally recognise a third gender, including the UK. In a some what insane decision by Trump, a ban has been put in place preventing transgender people from joining the US military. Brave people are willing to put their lives at risk to protect their country and this is how they are treated? Amid the development of the ban, Trump flew to Scotland to play at the Turnberry golf course which he owns. While Trump is off playing 18 holes, some of the transgender men in America only want one!  

Perhaps somewhat more dangerously, in countries such as Scotland and Northern Island, transgender people have no right to access medical treatment and can not be protected against hate speech or hate crime, leaving them vulnerable to attacks. 

Just last year, a gay man and a transgender women were assaulted by Burger King staff. While the man walked away with a broken jaw and the woman was pepper-sprayed during this anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime, the out come could have bene much worse.

These examples are just some of the reasons that trans people need to be protected. We need stricter laws against transphobic hate crimes as well as harsher punishments for those who are convicted. It's not right that other human beings are living in fear of being hurt simply for being themselves.