Maggie Chapman announces 2026 must be year we halt the rollback of trans rights.

Must it? Why? How about halting and reversing the rollback of women’s rights? What actual literal enforceable rights have trans people lost anyway?

She tells us “the festive period” is a time when people get together tralala, in order to say BUT not for everyone.

It can be a particularly hard time for a lot of LGBTQIA+ people, with many forced back into the closet or into denial just to keep the peace, and others cut off by estrangement.

But there are no such people. Trans is not the same as lesbian and gay and bisexual.

All over our country there are people being made to deny who they are, their relationships, their identity, so as not to create friction or disrupt the time that is supposed to be special.

Oh shut up and get on with peeling the potatoes or recycling the wrapping paper. If people claim an “identity” that is in fact the opposite of their real identity then that’s not everyone else’s problem. If a man “identifies as” a woman or a tree or a mince pie, he should do it on his own time. The rest of us do not care.

For some trans people in particular, it might mean being forced to return to a dead name they hoped they would never have to use again and a life that simply is not theirs and never truly was.

All that and having to comb their hair too!

Get a grip. The winter solstice holiday is notoriously difficult for many many people who have issues with their families but don’t want to disconnect entirely. That’s just life.

A survey by Pink News, an LGBTQIA+ publication, found 80% of its readers felt they had to hide who they are over the holiday season.

Oh a survey by Pink News; well then there’s no more to be said.

Kidding. Lots of people feel they have to hide at least some part of “who they are” around family. I repeat: that’s just life.

This year’s Supreme Court ruling has led to an increased hostility. Some of the most conservative and reactionary forces feel even more empowered to spread their bile and claw back even more hard-won rights.

Speaking of reactionary forces – here’s a woman spreading her bile at a court ruling that women and only women are women. The fact that she thinks she’s the opposite of reactionary is quite startling.

However, we must not lose hope. Dr Beth Upton’s tribunal victory and vindication underlined the huge problems with the Supreme Court ruling and entrenched the legal right for people to use the facilities that match their lived-in identities, including while they are at work.

I can’t begin to imagine how Dr Upton felt being dragged through a media circus, having her name slandered and her rights questioned in the most public way. Nobody should have to endure that or be maligned and vilified in such a public spectacle for simply being trans at work.

But for simply being a woman at work? Oh that’s a whole other story.