There are indeed issues within the Graun group, particularly between the USA and UK offices. Some of the older columnists have left, largely to join extremely right wing publications. Suzanne Moore is a really good example. Her Wiki page is hilarious, because she is described very clunkily as "the daughter of an American father and a working-class British mother". Get those brownie points in at the start! The cognitive dissonance of someone who writes for both the Daily Mail, famous for cheering on the British Union of Fascists, and 'Marxism Today' can only be imagined.

With the possible exception of Julie Bindel, who simply hates all men, especially gay men, plus bi people and straight women (like herself; she's a 'political lesbian'), the main driver of the hatred there comes from a group of women who are desperate to remain at the centre of attention. As they are all extremely affluent, they have nothing to risk.

This is being driven harder, and largely funded, by the far right and religious fundies/ Many of the leading 'lights' in UK transphobia straddle the line. Forstater, for example, who is utterly vile, works closely with neoNazi supporters like Harry "Fair Cop' Miller, an associate of the criminal fascist and racist Stephen 'Tommy Robinson' Yaxley-Lennon and the Nazi fellow-traveller Kellie-Jay 'Posie Parker' Keen-Minshul, aka Mosley Parker, Avon Braun, Nazi Barbie, etc. It's a toxic mix. Add to it the self-declared LGB Alliance, formed in 2019 and now claiming credit for a pension reform carried out in 2017.

The LGBA, a VERY close friend of the current 'equality' minister, was outed by a government watchdog, possibly deliberately, when they chose to address a reply not to the registered LGBA office but to their real office, at 55 Tufton Street, which is a hub for interlinked far-right lobbying groups of the really nasty sort.

All surveys of people in the UK show overwhelming support for trans people, the strongest being among cis lesbians. Incidentally, the LGBA itself admitted in court that actual lesbians make up only 7% of their members. People in the UK support us, but ALL of the media is unremittingly anti-trans. Transphobic items in the press here, as well as on TV and radio, are now averaging over 1,000 a month.

As for Private Eye, I stopped reading that years ago, as it has become really, REALLY transphobic. Rather like when I first started reading it, when it was openly very homophobic.

This is work I am very involved in, from awareness raising to personal support re mental health and work problems. And I am bloody tired.