Trans Notes From a Small Island: The Benefits of Being a Follower not a Leader

When I tell people from other countries where I come from, they always ask what it’s like to be a trans man in such a small place. There is an assumption that the more cosmopolitan a place is, the more cultural influences it absorbs, the more tolerant it is. I’m not sure this is true. Our LGBTQ police liaison officers tell me that our hate crime figures are so low as to be almost zero and that’s not because incidents have gone unreported. It simply doesn’t happen here. The LGBTQ population are “out” and part of the business community, the political establishment and our charitable and cultural sectors, seamlessly integrated into our society. We haven’t had a gay bar for over ten years – perhaps, because we no longer need a meeting place separate from everyone else – and we had our first pride march last year, purely to show support for equal marriage legislation, which is now being drawn up…

https://planettransgender.com/trans-notes-from-a-small-island-the-benefits-of-being-a-follower-not-a-leader/