‘It’s important that we understand the difference between trans liberation and trans rights, because if we only strive to make things a little better and set our sights on the bare minimum, we’ll always be playing catch-up and responding to attacks made against us. We must fight for liberation, for more than the bare minimum, or else we’ll find the things we are defending slowly eroded away.’  Tilly Dow.

Resisting Transphobia in Edinburgh ran a panel discussion on Trans Liberation on the 20th of October at the Augustine United church. The topic of the discussion, ‘What is trans liberation?’, is one of particular relevance in current times, and we hope it provided a nuanced and progressive understanding of the different sides to this question.

The event highlighted local voices from all parts of the LGBT community in Edinburgh, including Dr Gina Gwenffrewi, Dr Nat Raha, Leslie Cunningham and Tilly Dow, and had stall space for Resisting Transphobia in Edinburgh, Revolutionary Socialism in the 21st Century, the Industrial Workers of the World, Edinburgh Anti-Raids and LGBT Health and Wellbeing. It provided a space for members of all the many liberation groups in Edinburgh to meet and get to know one another.

Key points

Notes from the panel discussion