A popular anti-trans “gotcha” is to ask, “what rights don’t trans people have?” The question is never asked in good faith, so trans people generally ignore it: it’s the same assholes with the same bullshit all over again shouting “debate me, cowards!” But by not answering it, it enables the bad faith poster to claim that we didn’t respond because we can’t answer.

So let’s answer it. Bear in mind this is a blog post, not a piece of research, so there will be tons of things I’ve missed out.

The rights we have vary from country to country, and many of them are detailed in this annual study. Here’s a more accessible summary of some of the key issues by Katie Montgomerie.

For example in some countries trans people cannot have legal gender recognition without forced sterilisation, a breach of their human rights. Technically that isn’t the case in the UK, but the Gender Recognition Panel’s focus on surgical and hormonal transition – both of which lead to sterilisation – means that in effect, it’s much the same here. Our legal gender recognition also requires a mental health diagnosis even though being trans is not a mental health problem.

In the UK, it’s still legal to force trans and non-binary teens into dangerous and damaging conversion therapy to try and “cure” them.

There are other rights. We do not have the same right to healthcare as you do: NHS waiting lists shouldn’t exceed 18 weeks, but for trans people they are at least two years and in some cases more than four years long. Seven percent of trans people have been refused health care altogether because they are LGBT.

We do not have the same right to safe workspaces as you do. One in eight British trans people has been assaulted at work by a co-worker or customer. Half of trans people hide or disguise their gender identity at work because they fear discrimination.

We do not have the same rights to live free from discrimination and violence. Two in five trans people and three in ten non-binary people have experienced hate crimes because of their gender identity. For younger people the numbers are even higher. Half of us are scared to use public toilets for fear of abuse or assault. 44% of us avoid certain streets because we don’t feel safe.

We do not have the same rights to marry as other people do. Without legal gender recognition we cannot marry in our correct gender.

And crucially, there are rights we supposedly have on paper but do not have in reality. It’s illegal to discriminate against people because of their gender identity but one in three employers say they wouldn’t consider hiring a trans person. 25% of trans people have been discriminated against in housing. 29% of social services users have experienced discrimination. 34% of young trans people have experienced discrimination in social places such as restaurants or bars. One in seven trans students has considered dropping out of university because of their experiences of harassment and discrimination.

Finally, there are the rights we have and that others want to take from us. Here in the UK those rights include the rights set out in the Equality Act. In the US, those rights include the right to basic and even emergency healthcare.

“What rights don’t trans people have” is the bigot equivalent of “what have the Romans ever done for us”. But it’s a lot less amusing.

There’s been a lot of discussion about conversion therapy, the often-illegal and usually deeply damaging attempts to force people to change their sexual orientation or gender identity.

That’s horrific, of course. But you don’t have to give people electro-shock therapy or send them off to prayer camp to try and talk them out of being who they are. From parents to healthcare providers, many trans and non-binary people encounter a great deal of resistance. In the case of GPs, that resistance can mean denying them access to the gender clinic system: as far as I’m aware Scotland is the only bit of the UK where you don’t need to persuade your GP to refer you to the gender clinic; I’ve heard plenty of horror stories about Northern Irish GPs in particular refusing to refer patients.

The trans-friendly practice GenderGP asked some of its blog readers what experiences they’d had with medical professionals. The responses included being told the following:

“Come back next year to see if you change your mind.”

“You have to be attracted to men if you’re really trans.”

“Pack it in, you’re too big for that sort of nonsense.”

“If you continue on this path you’ll lose your job, your family, your friends, you’ll be neither male nor female & no-one will ever love you.”

“Why can’t you just live as a tomboy for now?”

“It’s just a perversion and you should be closer to God and your parents.”

The rather dull headline undersells this sensitive, fascinating and terribly sad piece about the death of Angela Martinez last month in LA: Death of an Indigenous essential worker sparks debate over gender identity.

Martinez died of COVID-19, but the manager at the Burger King where she worked claimed she died from a “hormone overdose”. It was an appalling and idiotic claim, and there were storms of protest. But amid the storm it seems that Martinez herself was forgotten about: while her death sparked protests under the hashtag #TransLivesMatter, Martinez didn’t consider herself trans.

Martinez’s friends said she had been meticulous about not referring to herself as transgender. Though Martinez went by “she,” she was neither man, nor woman. She was “muxe.”

The muxe identity, which Martinez held dear, has existed as a respected third gender in Zapotec cultures in Oaxaca for centuries, especially in the southeastern area of Istmo de Tehuantepéc.

Gender binaries aren’t carved in stone: the idea that there are just two genders is primarily a white European Christian thing that our ancestors spent many years and spilled a lot of blood exporting to other countries.

The notion of a third gender has existed for centuries in different cultures worldwide. In some Native American cultures, the term “two-spirit” is an umbrella term describing those who fulfill a third gender. In South Asia, there are more than half a million officially recognized hijras. In Thailand, there are the kathoeys. In Ethiopia, the ashtime. And in Polynesia, the fa’afafine.

The protesters using the #TransLivesMatter hashtag were well-intentioned, but ultimately they were projecting a primarily white perspective onto somebody who didn’t share it: while Martinez was clearly a strong trans ally, she didn’t see herself as trans.

…friends complained that trans activists were, as Midnight Blue wrote on Facebook, “exploiting her image without permission. She was not trans, my sister was muxe and indigenous people are tired of the erasure of our identities.”

Although I’ve quoted bits about Martinez’s gender identity here, that’s not really what the piece focuses on: it’s a warm, sad and beautifully written portrait of the human behind the headlines.

“One time she asked me, ‘Do you think angels exist?’” Midnight Blue said. “Her greatest wish was to see an angel. I think she forgot that she was one of them.”