It’s a slow Monday afternoon, and I am sitting across two young people whose very beings are currently the subject of an ongoing culture war. 

Kieran (he/him), 18, and Evan*, (they/them) 14, are both transgender young people who have kindly taken up on my request to tell me about their unique experience as trans people. This means that their sex assigned at birth does not align with their true gender- an experience commonly misunderstood by those outside the transgender community, I am told. Kieran tells me that it is common for him and other trans people to feel the need to 'cover up their childhood' because they don’t want to 'give anyone the excuse to see them at any stage of their lives as girls', which is not an overall positive experience as Evan agrees that it is a form of self which one feels they ‘murder’, which is a lonely experience. 

As we converse, I can’t help but notice the humour and optimism with which they share their stories of struggle. Evan tells me with an ironic smile, 'There's the whole, "my parents don’t support any of this!" So that's gonna be something to get through… I’m not looking forward to that'" They mention offhandedly how they ‘still want to be in contact with my parents... I mean, they’re my parents’, a thought that hasn't even crossed the minds of the majority of cisgender (non-trans) teenagers, yet it is a normal concern for transgender adolescents who do not have the privilege of an accepting family.  

Kieran tells me that ‘I didn’t really think trans people existed beyond the age of 17- I just didn’t think we got to that point’. His view is not exaggerated- according to Stonewall’s School Report 2017, 92% of trans young people in the UK have thought about taking their own life, whilst 45% have tried to take their own life. 

The government shows no sign of slowing down anti-trans sentiment, as shown by cases such as Rishi Sunak’s mocking of trans women in the presence of the mother of murdered transgender teenager Brianna Ghey in the House of Commons. Thus, the question arises: when will transgender people be recognised as victims rather than being used as scapegoats? It is evident that Kieran and Evan have the same questions- the answers to which will determine the nature of their futures.

*Both names have been changed in order to protect the identities of the participants.