Brianna Ghey
(Warning: This post discusses the violent death of a Trans child, i.e. the murder of Brianna Ghey, and related topics, including but not limited to — Transphobia, systemic Transphobia, hate crimes, misgendering, deadnaming.
Any links may likewise contain distressing material.)
On 11th February 2023, in Cheshire, UK, a beautiful teenage Trans girl was murdered.
Brianna Ghey was 16 years old, and brutally murdered.
The boy and girl charged with her murder are 15 years old. They are presumably Cisgender (non-Trans.)
I’m going to be careful with what I say in this post
- because I firmly believe everyone deserves the right to a fair trial, and also because contempt of court laws here in the UK limit what can be published about people who have not yet been convicted, in order to avoid prejudicing the case.
And unlike a lot of people on social media, I am a big fan of both not being fined for contempt of court, and doing the right thing by giving everyone the rights that they are entitled to.
So, if you find some of my wording to be overly cautious — that’s why.
It’s not yet known whether Brianna’s death was a hate crime, but it’s a possibility that the police are investigating.
…It’s a pretty strong possibility, in my own opinion.
But whether or not it was a hate crime, it was the violent murder of a 16-year-old Transgender child, amongst a media climate that can, at best, be described as unfriendly to Trans people.
And most of the time it’s a lot worse than unfriendly — the UK media are often downright Transphobic, and they’ve only ramped up the rhetoric as of late, borrowing the ‘groomers’ term from the US, and platforming as many Transphobic views as they can.
In fact, even the violent murder of a child hasn’t stopped them.
Some of the actions of the media this last week have been truly galling, though not as…
