Activists From England

"I don’t believe in empire, and I actively resist colonialism and its toxic and enduring legacy."

"I’m torn when I’m asked to be on a panel and am the only woman. Do I need to do it to make a point or do I say I won’t participate until they find more women? I’ve done that before. Subtle sexism that goes unchallenged is a big problem that you must call out"

"They have to have a compelling story, a tangible ask and be mobilising the people who sign it. Rarely is a petition just going to win on its own."

"The openness is part of why we see MPs using the site"

"We are seeing a power shift — people who weren’t interested in politics or felt powerless now want to become MPs, while the politicians who are successful are those who engage with issues using digital tools,"

"but that’s separate to my role”. Most people come to the site after seeing links on Facebook, email and WhatsApp rather than Twitter, which is “a way to communicate to decision makers than drive traffic"

"I often hear people say two things about today's society – that we are powerless to do anything to change things and that it doesn't matter because young people in particular don't care about politics. That makes me really annoyed, because what I see every day through our users on Change.org is that the opposite is true."

"We are more like Facebook or Twitter than campaigning sites"

"It’s changing the way people interact with politics"

"Subtle sexism that goes unchallenged is a big problem that you must call out"

"Petitions are just the start"

"Science has wonders far transcending those of superstition, and they are poor philosophers who try to bring Nature down to the level of their small capacities instead of striving to exalt those capacities to the height of creation's truth. No savage, worshipping the most preposterous idol, ever believed greater absurdities than a modern sceptic, who makes his small modicum of reason the standard by which to measure the boundless universe."

"Where this terrible dogma does not embitter happiness, it corrupts character. Where people believe with a realized belief, their whole lives must be overshadowed with its stupendous horror; where they only pretend to believe, the extent of their hypocrisy can be measured only by their pretence."

"Easter was a more important holiday time at . On Good Friday, children took little baskets neatly trimmed with moss, and went "," and received at some places eggs, at some places , and at others , which they carried home to their mothers, who would feel proud that their children had been so much respected. On , companies of young men grotesquely dressed, led up by a fiddler, and with one or two in female attire, would go from house to house on the same errand of "peace-egging." At some places they would dance, at other they would recite quaint verses, and at the houses of the more sedate inhabitants, they would merely request a "peace-egg." Money or ale would in general be presented to them, which they afterwards divided and spent. Meantime, the holiday having fairly commenced, all work was abandoned, good eating, good drinking, and new clothing were the order of the day. Men thronged to the ale-houses, and there was much folly, intemperance, and quarreling, amidst the prevailing good humour."

"At the latter end of 1849 Mrs. Gaskell, the author of ', wrote to , asking for an introduction to Tennyson, in connection with Samuel Bamford, the Lancashire weaver, and author of Life of a Radical. Mrs. Gaskell wished, I believe, to enlist the poet's interest on behalf of Bamford, who was now old, and greatly desirous of having a copy of Tennyson's poems for himself. With his usual kindness of heart, the author of ' writes at once to Forster that he will, as soon as maybe, instruct (his publisher) to forward the books—adding that he reckoned Bamford's admiration as the highest honour he had ever received."

"It is matter of history, that whilst the laurels were yet cool on the brows of our victorious soldiers on their second occupation of Paris, the elements of convulsion were at work amongst the masses of our labouring population; and that a series of disturbances commenced with the introduction of the , and continued, with short intervals, until the close of the year 1816. In London and riots ensued, and were continued for several days, whilst the bill was discussed; at , there were riots on account of the high price of bread; at there were similar disturbances to prevent the exportation of grain; at , by the unemployed, to destroy machinery; at , not suppressed without bloodshed ..."

"The condition of the working classes, physically, morally, and mentally, having of late begun to attract that degree of attention which it ought long ago to have done, I conceived that, at this particular crisis, some good might be rendered to the country — some advancement made towards the Truth — by an actual survey of the present condition of such labouring persons. I determined therefore, on taking a series of perambulations amongst them, for the purpose of noting down their real state and condition, and of making it known through the public press of the country."

"Vegetarianism is a most simple thing, and I suppose it is because of its great simplicity that there exist so many misunderstandings about it. It is not an ideal in food and drink; it is an actuality which has proved widely beneficial; it is a reality, something which can be practiced—not something which can only be looked at with desire from a distance; but vegetarianism is a system or diet which leaves its adherents absolutely free, with one exception, to choose from all the entire range of food products which the world offers. The exception is that section of foods which are obtainable only by loss of life."

"When considering the extent of an animal’s capacity for suffering, it is impossible to draw a distinct line between domestic animals and so-called vermin. Such a line is purely a matter of sentiment. The fact remains that all vertebrate animals are highly sensitive."

"Have you a right to torture animals for your pleasure? Have you a right to make their lives amid terror and misery in order to derive some measure of gratification from what are called the pleasures of the chase?"

"I am quite convinced that within its limitations an animal has this higher life, and that it has not merely a 'blind life within the brain', but a very real one within the soul, with its own standard of right and wrong."

"There are paths to knowledge which must be forever closed to us, and the way of vivisection is one of those paths. It is made possible only because of our cowardice and fears."

"As to the actual intensity of pain felt by animals, let us take each of the five senses. When compared to humans, most of these senses are far more acutely and highly developed in animals. Additionally, animals possess other remarkable senses, such as the homing instinct and an awareness of their approaching death."

"I have observed cats and dogs, horses, cattle and sheep under every kind of pain, and I do unhesitatingly say that they suffer as we suffer."

"While some animals are protected by law, far too many still remain outside the pale of such protection. And so, I ask: should not their capacity to suffer be the measure of their right to be protected? This is not a plea for charity but for justice—a right that must be claimed."

"When we really understand what pain has to teach us, we shall in large measure have abolished suffering."

"Yet, like all God’s wonderful gifts to us, this great gift of pain can be turned into a horrible curse. Just in proportion as God’s love provides the possibility of good, so our vice or ignorance makes the possibility of evil. The abuse of God’s gift of pain may be the cause of the most terrible of evils, and we call it cruelty."

"Every form of cruelty—whether it be trapping, hunting, the working of ponies in mines, or the practice of vivisection—casts a slur on humanity. These actions demand our attention if we are to make progress as a truly humane society."

"Much has also been said about the cruelties inflicted by animals upon one another. But I must emphasize that, in their original wild state, and with rare exceptions, animals kill only for food, not for the sake of killing. That is a prerogative peculiar to humankind."

"Lesbian Visibility Week starts today in the UK. A good moment to salute the resilience and courage of my inspirational friend. #IStandWithAllisonBailey"

"This win demonstrated the discrimination and aggravated discrimination to which I personally was subjected by a set of barristers who define and present themselves as defenders of human rights, but it also demonstrated the institutional approaches and beliefs that cause that discrimination to arise - as is now being demonstrated in other cases brought by other women against other institutions."

"There are many of us within the LGBT community who fully support trans rights but who do not support the trans extremism which is currently being advocated by Stonewall and others. I emphatically object to any formal association with Stonewall."

"Any ideology that cannot be questioned is dangerous and yet that is how Stonewall have infiltrated so many of our institutions. In picking on Bailey they have found a woman who has fought her entire life. Is this really a good look, Stonewall? Trying to destroy a black lesbian? We watch agog. Bailey, like any other woman, gay or straight, can think what the hell she likes. Is she really your enemy, Stonewall? Seriously, who do you represent now?"

"That a gay rights charity stands accused of discriminating against a black lesbian illustrates how wrong it is to assume the rights and interests of all LGBTQ+ people perfectly align. Of course, that has not stopped white men telling Bailey that her concept of womanhood is not only wrong, it makes her a bigot."

"Gender dysphoria is a rare experience in society as a whole, affecting about 0.4 per cent of the population, which can make it hard to explain to the vast majority of people, who have not experienced it. To get around this, we often rely on metaphors. The clumsy phrase ‘born in the wrong body’ has become the favoured soundbite in popular media. Clumsy because – and this must be stressed – many trans people do not think this describes dysphoria at all well. To my mind, the trans writer expresses it more accurately: ‘Dysphoria,’ she says, ‘can feel like heartbreak.’ Heartbreak, its incapacitating grief and the sense of absence and loss which activate the same parts of the brain as physical pain, can be so all-consuming it interferes with your everyday life. So, too, dysphoria. For me, at least, this is a much richer way of describing how many trans people experience distress with their bodies – indeed, how I felt until I medically transitioned."

"The shadow of fell heavily: the effect of suppressing education about LGBTQ+ issues was not only to prevent LGBTQ+ children existing openly at school but, just as perniciously, to create a culture of silence that allowed prejudice among kids and staff alike to flourish unchallenged. Queer young people, for their part, were forced to internalize a constant drip-feed of humiliation, often (like me) not wanting to speak out for fear of making a horrible situation even worse. Having to absorb such humiliation in childhood is, unsurprisingly, something associated with a range of negative mental health outcomes later in life. Section 28 must be remembered and condemned for what it was: a staggering dereliction of duty on behalf of Britain’s policymakers towards the country’s young people."

"Dysphoria, it should be said, is not a precondition of being trans. According to some research, as many as 10 per cent of those who positively identify as trans men, trans women, non-binary people and various other terms do so without any feelings of dysphoria. It is sometimes incorrectly assumed that trans men and women experience dysphoria and non-binary people do not, when in fact some non-binary people feel themselves to be in great need of medical assistance, and some trans men and women seek none at all. Nevertheless, most trans people experience dysphoria to some degree."

"While the media seems all too happy to focus on trans children’s right to participate in activities alongside their peers (or, indeed, on trans children’s very existence), there is little coverage of one of the most pressing problems: the fact that they are significantly more likely to experience discrimination, harassment and violence at home or at school. Sometimes, horrific stories hit local news headlines, such as the trans teenage boy whose face was slashed by a gang of teenagers in Witham, Essex, or the eleven-year-old trans girl in Manchester who, after months of bullying, was shot with a BB gun at school. To date, though, the national media has more or less completely failed to explore the ways in which such egregious incidents form part of a wider pattern of abuse of trans children."

"It is the adult world, though, that instils and nurtures prejudice."

"Everyone’s got their own battles to fight."

"For those who need them, medical transition and contraception or abortion are – or should be – about the bodily autonomy of the individual, their right to mental well-being and the freedom to carve out their own destiny in defiance of prevailing gender roles. (These roles, should we need reminding, frame women as vessels for reproduction and trans people as threats to the strict separation of male and female sex roles on which patriarchy depends.) Access to abortion and access to trans healthcare are often attacked in similar ways: principally by overstating the incidence and likelihood of regretting either process, and an intense, disproportionate focus in the media on the stories of individuals who do regret their personal choices, as a way to undermine the principle of choice generally. Only about 5 per cent of women experience any degree of regret over their abortion. Multiple studies show the regret rate for gender reassignment surgery is even lower: about 0–2 per cent. Despite this, the fear of regret has become a powerful tool used to justify the delay or withholding of treatment. Little wonder, then, that it is conservative politicians who attack trans healthcare and women’s in the same breath."

"The media agenda with respect to ‘the transgender issue’ is often cynical and unhelpful to the cause of trans justice and liberation. Media coverage of the trans community rarely seems to be driven by a desire to inform and educate the public about the actual issues and challenges facing a group who – as all evidence indicates – are likely to experience severe discrimination throughout their lives. Today, the typical news item on trans people features a debate between a trans advocate on one side and a person with ‘concerns’ on the other – as if both parties were equally affected by the discussion. As trans people face a broken – which in turn leaves them with a desperate lack of support both with their gender and the mental health impacts of the all-too-commonly associated problems of family rejection, bullying, homelessness and unemployment – trans people with any kind of platform or access have tried to focus media reporting on these issues, to no avail. Instead, we are invited on television to debate whether trans people should be allowed to use public toilets. Trans people have been dehumanized, reduced to a talking point or conceptual problem: an ‘issue’ to be discussed and debated endlessly. It turns out that when the media want to talk about trans issues, it means they want to talk about their issues with us, not the challenges facing us."

"By the end of the 2010s, trans people weren’t the occasional freak show in the pages of a red-top tabloid. Rather, we were in the headlines of almost every major newspaper every single day. We were no longer portrayed as the ridiculous but unthreatening provincial mechanic who was having a ‘sex swap’; now, we were depicted as the proponents of a powerful new ‘ideology’ that was capturing institutions and dominating public life. No longer something to be jeered at, we were instead something to be feared. Soon after the Lucy Meadows inquest, that fleeting opportunity to shed light on the bullying of trans people evaporated. In the intervening years, the press flipped the narrative: it was trans people who were the bullies."

"Human beings rely on familiarity to understand and empathize with others, and we find it easier to extend compassion to those we can relate to. Given that, like any minority, trans people are unfamiliar to the average person, we rely more heavily on media representation, on political solidarity from people who aren’t trans and vocal, and ongoing support from public institutions to create the right conditions for understanding and compassion from the rest of society. By the same token, we’re especially vulnerable to the spread of misinformation, harmful stereotypes and repeated prejudicial tropes. And the latter, unfortunately, are widespread in public culture, just as they have been throughout history. Trans people are discriminated against, harassed and subjected to violence around the world because of deep prejudices that have been embedded into the fabric of our culture, poisoning our capacity to empathize, and even to accept trans people as fully human."

"Suicide attempts occur at a higher rate among trans people than the general population. Indeed, the statistics are truly alarming: research by the UK charity Stonewall published in 2017 found that 45 per cent of trans young people had attempted suicide at least once. Yet, behind the statistics are individuals, suffering in private and leading complex human lives: there is rarely one simple explanation for such a tragedy."

"In the final months of her life, when she must have been experiencing a degree of mental anguish, Lucy Meadows was bullied, harassed, ridiculed and demonized by the British media. Her death remains one of the darkest chapters in the British trans community’s history, and one of the most shameful episodes in the long and shameful history of the British tabloid press. Even if she was struggling in other ways, Meadows had not been a public figure or a celebrity, nor had she ever sought to be. She had wrestled privately with gender for many years, and her decision to transition was, by all accounts, not taken lightly. All she had done was to be trans and to be honest about who she was, continuing with a job she had been good at in a school that supported her. Her story was not remotely in the public interest. At the inquest into her death, the coroner, Michael Singleton, stated that the media should be ashamed of their treatment of Meadows. Summing up his verdict, Singleton turned to the assembled press in the court gallery and told them, ‘Shame on all of you.’"

"‘Trans’ [...] is an umbrella term that describes people whose (their personal sense of their own gender) varies from, does not sit comfortably with, or is different from, the biological sex recorded on their birth certificate based on the appearance of their external . The standard view of how sex and gender manifest in the world is as follows. Babies born with observable penises are recorded as male, referred to and raised as boys, and as adults are men; babies born with observable vulvas are recorded as female, referred to and raised as girls, and as adults are women. To be trans is, on some level, to feel that this standardized relationship between one’s genitalia at birth and the assignment of one of two fixed gender identities that are supposed to accurately reflect your feelings about your own body has been interrupted. How the person who experiences this interruption reacts to it can vary hugely – which is why ‘trans’ is a catch-all word for a diverse range of identities and experiences."

"It is only through solidarity, compassion and radical reimagining that we can build a more just and joyful world for all of us."

"When we talk about trans people, we’re usually referring to individuals who were either recorded as male at birth but who understand themselves to be women (trans women) or, vice versa, were recorded as female at birth but who understand themselves to be men (). Not all trans people, however, find simply moving between the pre-existing categories of man and woman satisfactory, accurate or desirable. Such trans people, who are less well understood, generally unsettle mainstream society more than trans men and women, because they challenge not only the prevailing idea that birth genitals and gender are inseparable, but also the idea that there are just two gender categories. Often, these people are accused of making up their experience out of a need for attention or a desire to feel special – though in reality the political, economic and social costs for such ‘non-binary’ trans people (who don’t straightforwardly see themselves as men or women) can be immense."

"Family rejection and estrangement have devastating long-term health implications. They also have a material impact. For some kids, the only option is leaving home. Others have no option at all: their parents kick them out. As a result, trans teenagers and young adults in Britain are much more likely to experience homelessness than their cisgender peers. [...] A minority within a minority, trans young people are disproportionately over-represented in the homeless population: one in four trans people have experienced homelessness."