3. Transphobia
This was actually a pretty good year for bigots, generally. The threat of terrorism continues to bring out impressively moronic takes on the Islamic world. World leaders and business leaders continue to be mostly men and show no signs of wanting to relinquish even a tiny bit of their power to women. As already mentioned, Donald Trump, a racist, sexist, homophobic mass of decaying privilege, is running for the Republican presidential candidacy and doing damn well for himself. But racism, sexism, homophobia- these are all battles that have been fought, out in the open, for a long time. But transphobia? Well,the general public have only just started paying attention to that and it's become passe almost immediately. Now, this isn't to say that transphobia doesn't exist- it does, an unfortunately huge amount, often with tragic consequences. But it is to say that, in 2015, we went out of our way to make it incredibly uncool. And pop culture played a huge part in that. Season 3 of Orange Is The New Black featured a powerful and heartbreaking storyline for transgender inmate Sophia, who is played by Laverne Cox, an outspoken activist for transgender rights. Transparent, a show about a transgender woman coming out in her 60s, grew in popularity, with a second series due in December. And Caitlyn Jenner came out, sending the conversation about transgender rights mainstream. Sorry (not sorry) transphobic dudes - 2015 has ruined your whole "fear of the unknown" shtick.
Brydie Lee Kennedy
Contributor
Brydie is an Australian writer and performer living in London and she complains exactly the same amount about the weather as every other Australian living in London. Yes, that is her natural lip colour, no, she will not be taking any further questions at this time.
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