There is a dangerous escalation of transphobia happening right now. The political right in the United States and the United Kingdom are rolling back civil rights for trans people specifically and LGBT people more broadly. This is being driven by an amalgamation of mainstream conservative parties, the far right, Christian fundamentalists and right-wing shock jocks and tabloids.
Bezalel Smotrich is one of the main pillars in the current Israeli government. Although generally described as the finance minister, his work is not confined to curbing inflation.
“Basij guards, you are our Daesh!”, chanted parents outside an Education Ministry building in western Tehran on 4 March, likening Iran’s security forces to the Islamic State.
“The village of Huwwara needs to be wiped out. I think that the State of Israel needs to do that—not, God forbid, private individuals”, Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, said on 1 March.
Posie Parker (also known as Kellie-Jay Keen), a far-right transphobic activist from the UK, is touring Australia in February and March. The National Union of Students has called a series of demonstrations against her and her followers.
I really shouldn’t have been surprised. A mainly white town, surrounded by townships where Black people live in rundown housing, with grossly inadequate services and infrastructure. It could be the former apartheid regime in South Africa. Or Alice Springs today.