A transgender councillor has spoken out about outpourings of “hatred” that put people off standing for public office.
Brighton and Hove City Council’s first elected transgender councillor Raphael Hill made the comments in a debate about the council’s “Diverse Councils Action Plan”.
The plan was approved at the “annual council” meeting at Brighton Town Hall yesterday (Thursday 16 May).
Councillor Hill, the Green group’s diversity ambassador, said that mentoring, counselling and other schemes could only go so far when it comes to improving diversity.
In a passionate speech, the Roundhill ward councillor said: “I want to draw members’ attention to the barriers transgender people like myself face.
“Ultimately, the main thing that is stopping us is we are so thoroughly hated by politicians in both major political parties.
“And in the face of that hatred most people in my community not only do not want to stand for public office, they have given up on democracy entirely because they feel utterly unable to fight back against this hate.
“I want more transgender people like myself to be able to hold public office and participate in society and our democracy. But the hatred we experience is, I think, so much the most significant barrier.
“There’s always political capital to be gained whenever Labour or the Conservatives argue for banning trans woman or other trans people from various different basic amenities such as hospital wards – and also for outing transgender children to, for instance, abusive parents.
“Because our existence is so thoroughly dehumanised by the cabinet and shadow cabinet, that is not considered to be a problem.
“Our current Conservative government and our future Labour government treat transgender people at best as a political problem.
“At worst they treat us as a threat to society at large – a disease to be extinguished in order to safeguard others from the perceived harms that transgender people simply being alive cause.
“I don’t believe it is unique to trans people that this is the case. I think it is the responsibility of all of us to call out bigotry within our own parties and in others.
“Loyalty for our parties should not come at the expense of allowing hatred.
“If there are people like me who come to me asking, can I stand for public office, I would ask them to caution and think about their personal safety because it is something, frankly, we have to experience on a daily basis, this hatred.
“We need to look right to the top of the people in Westminster who are actually causing a lot of this so I hope that this is something that we consider.
“I just want to be honest in saying that this is something that’s really made it hard for me to be a councillor personally.”
Labour councillor Emma Daniel, who proposed adopting the “Diverse Councils Action Plan” at the meeting, praised Councillor Hill’s courage.
The Labour group has also appointed a diversity ambassador, Councillor Leslie Pumm.
The action plan asks all political groups to set targets to encourage and support candidates from under-represented groups to stand for election.
National data found that 96 per cent of councilllors were white, 88 per cent heterosexual, 16 per cent had a disability or long-term condition, 36 per cent had caring responsibilities and 36 per cent were female.
In Brighton and Hove, the 54 councillors more closely reflect the ethnic heritage and background, gender, sexual orientation, faith, disability, caring responsibilities and armed forces backgrounds when compared with the 2021 census.
It’s very refreshing to see a councillor who is not completely focused on their own problems.
It’s the ‘activists’ who ruin it for the rest of the trans community and inspire dislike, rather than hatred.
Those trans people with a live and let live attitude who just get on with their lives and do not try and influence underage children or denigrate or deny biological women their own righrs and spaces enjoy far more friends and societal acceptance.
No, it’s gammon who give trans people transphobic abuse.
Please show us this transphobic abuse? Preferably without using your own slurs (again)?
No one should be exposed to hate, even in public office, but it appears, again, that the ‘hate’ referred to in this article relates to any fair challenge to trans ideology, and the main political parties finally seeking to redress the dominance of trans ideology and its often self imposed rights over everyone’s actual rights. Also highlighting this councillor, the Green Party, BHCC still seem unable to acknowledge the harm induced by trans ideology driven health care and education and its affect on our children, young people, and their families. When trans ideologues and activists stop trying to oppress differing thought and speech, stop dismissing science and quality evidence that conflicts with their agenda, stop trampling others hard won and necessary equality rights, stop promoting unproven health care practices that can cause short and long term harm to children and young (including the medicalisation of our gay and lesbian youth), stop promoting trans ideology at any cost- including by silencing (mostly) females in public positions (including this councillors labour colleagues) who dare to speak up about these issues, there will be less reason for people to make the very reasonable challenges trans activists seem unable to defend or tolerate without calling it hate, bigoted, transphobe, erasing etc.
You’ve been sucking up too much right wing media 🤣 ‘Trans ideology’…the right to exist with the same rights as everyone else isnt an ideology, its basic decency.
Science is steadfastly in line with trans rights and youth care if you do some research beyond the evidence excluding papers written by retired tories that draw widespread conclusions from bias and cherry picked facts.
Your post is literally 100% misinformation pushing your anti trans agenda (or more likely the newspapers your a slave to)
Do yourself a favour and stop being a media puppet.
Please explain what human rights trans people do not have.
-The right to life, liberty and the secuirity of person: (this means the right to live and express themselves freely without the risk of coming to physical harm for doing so)
-The right to be recognised as a person before the law (there have been cases where trans people are not seen legally as ‘people’ because the law’s defenitions are vague and some only apply to binary genders)
-The right to not be subjected to arbritary arrest or exile; the right to be trated fairly by the law (trans ppl are frequently arrested for being in the ‘wrong’ place – this hearkens back to racial segregation…)
-Innocent until proven guilty (trans people are often seen as guilty UNLESS they can prove their innocence: a trans woman in a female toilet is usually assumed to be predatory…)
-The right to marry and start a family (many trans people have had their parental status legally stripped purely because they are trans. It means that they can no longer be legal guardians of their *biological children*. They have been banned from picking their own kids up from school. Sometimes they also can’t marry unless they choose to do it as their ‘birth sex’.)
-The right to work and social protection (many trans people are fired for being trans, or for talking about being trans, or for having unexpected pronouns)
-The right to enjoy the cultural life of the community (again, trans people are often excluded from it, things like being kicked out from social clubs, a cafe or theatre)
-The right to take part in the government (trans MP are very rare and are often discriminated against, ousted and forced to leave. Trans people usually don’t get into coucil or government on the basis of being trans alone.)
-The freedom of movement and recidence (trans people could be killed just for visiting ceritain countries. Trans people are still sometimes denied housing because they are trans.)
-Freedom of opinion and expression (as an example: I was in charge of making a typography design for a Pride. When I showed them my design, they told me I had to take the word “trans” off because they didnt want to annoy transohobes…)
Those all come under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Trans people are already protected in the UK- except if there is something else going on that means safeguards need to be in place to protect others- exactly like the rest of the population. No one is suggesting trans people should be exiled, killed etc. None the less, if trans people perceive their rights justify perpetuating harm to children and young people by medicalising normal adolescence or acting to minimise/deny/silence/threaten/reduce the rights and protections of others- eg biological women and girls, that does need to be addressed. Human rights doesn’t just work one way, and while any abuse is not OK, trans people are not the only ones who are more likely to face abuse in public office- look no further than women (who are underrepresented at scale). Interestingly no one has suggested this councillor should be ‘exiled’ from the council for promoting harmful practices and policies in minors and quashing women’s and girls rights to promote trans ideology, yet it was this very councillor who sought to ‘exile’ (female) Labour councillors when they dared to highlight women’s rights. Everyone’s rights matter (including children’s and women’s), as does evidence (not ideology) based health care and policies. It is not being transphobe or denying trans rights by raising legitimate concerns and expecting that people in public positions ensure everyone’s rights are considered and respected.
Fortunately however much you protest and deflect, the facts about, and consequences of, trans ideology and associated activism is finally getting exposure along with the extensive harm this ideology causes. That is coming from many credible sources (including but not limited to the ‘Cass review’, the ‘WPATH files’, the KC review of the BHCC schools trans inclusion toolkit, the equality act, our genes and biology, and internationally recognised health and research standards). Once highlighted this doesn’t need explanation to most ‘educated’ people. However, appreciate facts don’t matter and attacks are the norm if you are an ideologue. It’s very exposing of the trans ideology and a real tragedy that the rights and wellbeing of children and young people, the wider LGBTQ community, and women and girls continue to be considered acceptable collateral damage despite the (real) facts and evidence available.
And just to clarify at no point have I said people who experience gender dysmorphia (that was me at one time) or identify as trans don’t exist. I am saying that trans ideology and activism is causing extensive harm, including to its own community, and there are no excuses for ignoring the evidence and knowingly perpetuating harm anymore- especially if a public representative.
No one hates you. We just won’t join in your delusion that you are a woman. We feel sorry for you that your mental illness has taken you to these extremes. Im sure you are a lovely person but feelings aren’t facts.
Well said
Sad that Cllr Hill focuses on that element (hate) of transgenderism when there is so much more to the life of a transgender person.
None of the things mentioned – single sex hospital wards, single sex toilets, informing children’s parents if they are mentally distressed – are hatred.
Hostility to trans people is resistance around the compelled thought and speech – Raphael Hill is a man, is male and always will be – compelling people to treat him like a woman is in itself a hostile act. Being accused of “hatred” when in fact – the vast majority of people understand why allowing men into women’s changing rooms is dangerous, why allowing men into women’s sports stops women competing and why compelling anyone’s speech always backfires.
I wish Raphael Hill the very best life, in all ways. But do not force your beliefs upon other people.
You are Graham Linehan and I claim my five pounds.
Someone else who hasn’t a shred of transphobia in them.
LGBTQ+ should be supported every day.
I identify as non binary and should be respected. I also have adhd and want to live openly
You earn respect – you don’t just get given it. Please explain why you feel I should respect you?
The problem with today in a nutshell, it should be totally irrelevant if a councilor is male, female, trans, gay, straight etc as long as they effectively engage and represent their ward. A lot of the hate I have seen is nothing to do with Cllr Hills identity but rather the ill feeling still left over from the previous Green administration.
Plus Councillor Hills was not elected to whinge about being trans, but to serve his/her/their electorate.
Transgenderism is rare (<0.1% to 0.6%). To have 1 in 54 (1.86%) councillors in the city a transgender person is a level or representation that far exceeds the population prevalence of transgenderism. Not sure how this equates with "hate", I think you are a bit mixed up about a few things.
Not sure about your logic here – if the representation rate in the council matched the population rate, we’d have a third of a trans councillor. And I seriously doubt that the percentage of trans councillors nationwide is anywhere near that. If the Wikipedia page is anything to go by, there are 21 trans councillors in England, out of a total of 17000 – approximately 0.001%.
Its not hateful to stand up for women’s and girls rights. You are supposed to serve your area not yourself hun.
Oh grow a pair will ya! Oops
You might all like to know that every resident in Brighton and Hove is being misled by the council and many council offices. The issues in city clean are throughout the whole of the council especially within the housing department and customer feedback.
You will find your complaints will very rarely be upheld especially if they could lead to anyone being reprimanded well because breach of code of conduct.
I’m very rarely is the customer promise upheld or followed.
So you should take on board what is mentioned here and realise this does effect everybody that lives in Brighton and Hove.
You will realise this once you have an issue with the council and you will also find out that Bella Sankey is not what she makes out to be.
Over the coming weeks and months this will come out into the public domain.
This news outlet is really really obsessed with trans issues.
Barely a week goes by without another trans focussed story. Is this a good thing? is this responsible journalism?
No
It is just another chance for the transphobic commentators on here to push their bigoted views. In a story about a trans councillor relating the hatred they feel directed at them and the trans community generally, they are fed to the lions below the line.
Even the Argus gets this. They will close comments on trans pieces where those comments are likely to be transphobic. This paper just fields hatred for clicks.
Weaponising hatred.
I’m pleased this paper reports, and allows, people to comment on trans issues. I, like many women, professionals, and parents have been terrified of expressing my views because of how others have been treated, to the detriment of our rights and health and our children’s health and wellbeing. I think the dialogue is getting more open and rationale- if still tense- but being open and transparent, and taking into account all views is the only way forward for all concerned.
Do show us one single transphobic thing in any of the comments on this article please.
Question: would saying gay people are “mentally ill” be homophobic? It would. I don’t think anyone would argue that.
Remember the 70s and 80s and all the decades before where people said gay people were mentally ill and that they weren’t homophobic because it was “true” (supported by very dodgy science). people still use the same arguments today to be homophobic “it’s not natural” “it goes against biology” etc.
You can apply the exact same logic to transphobic comments people make and still people fall back on the same excuses from years ago. (“I’m not homophobic, I’m just stating fact!!”)
History repeats itself.
Yours is the only comment to use the phrase ‘mental illness’. Are you referring to an imaginary term along with the imaginary hatred that Hills refers to?
“What the fark” said it 4 days ago. All you had to do was read. It’s literally right there.
But I’m sure you’ll move the goalposts and say it doesn’t count.
You are the only one referring to mental illness, however there are also significant differences between transgender ideology and homosexuality. While the majority of people accept the trans experience is real and love and support our trans community, todays transgender ideologically driven movement also means us accepting that people can be born in the ‘wrong body’ and that biology and biological sex isn’t relevant; that gender dysphoria can be ‘fixed’ through medical conversion in what has now been exposed as not only harmful but a medical scandal: that trans (self appointed) rights trump others rights- including women’s and girls rights, and we have to accept all of this without question or risk being accused of being hateful etc. erasing of the trans experience, and being cancelled.
There is still a lot to be understood through proper research and evaluation, and that includes how misogyny and homophobia is playing out in the current trans ideology. Important to explore given this movements attempts to silence women, deny their biology, and erode their safety and rights, and the number of same sex attracted young people seeking to transition (leading to the question does trans medicalisation amount to conversation therapy for gay and lesbian youth?).
We literally have someone in the comments from 4 days ago saying it. At least use your eyes.
And sure, that must be why GRS has a lower regret rate than cancer and hip replacement surgeries. That must be why the vast vast majority of the trans community will say that medical transition saved their lives and greatly improved them. But of course in your world this isn’t the case, because the facts don’t matter in your world.
I don’t think you should be vouching for women’s rights and claiming that trans people are homophobic when you support KJK and don’t see a problem with turning a blind eye to the genuinely homophobic things she’s said just because she hates trans people.
you say you support this select group of “good” trans people but where are they? I can bet I know a lot more trans and LGBTQ+ people than you do and I dont know anyone who would agree with you. Are you even queer yourself?
Responding to ginseng (not myself). Apologies gingseng someone did mention mental illness in another comment and I will indeed use my eyes next time. In relation to everything else please stop misrepresenting me including making up things I’ve said to serve your agenda.
You now claim GRS results in less regret than cancer and hip surgery! But you don’t provide a source, and there is a lack of reliable data for gender care- especially for long term outcomes what data was used and by whom? Are these even comparable conditions? Thank goodness for the Cass report exposing the issues of inadequate , poor quality, and misrepresented evidence like this being used to inform care, which will now help inform safe and effective care for gender dysphoria in the future.
I’m not getting into a petty spat with you over who has the most LGBTQ+ friends/family etc. or who is most queer, or who YOU think I can vouch for, or not 🙄. But you must at least recognise that you don’t (and can’t) represent everyone in this community, and some of what trans ideologues drive and advocate is causing harm.
I asked you to point to a single transphobic comment on this article. Given you can’t, can we assume you’re wrong and there aren’t any?
“What the fark” literally says it in a comment 4 days ago. You didn’t even look did you?
Hill appears rather confused. Neither the Labour party nor the Conservative government have said they will “ban[] trans woman or other trans people from [] hospital wards” (the proposals are simply that single-sex wards should, as the law requires, actually be provided); nor has either said they are in favour of “outing transgender children to [] abusive parents (the draft guidance published earlier in the year says that parents should be involved in decisions concerning children *unless* there is danger of abuse).
Perhaps if Councillor Hill spent more time actually *reading* government and opposition policy, and less time misrepresenting it, other people that identify as transgender would not be – completely unnecessarily – frightened by such misunderstandings?
Well done Cllr Hill. We need more trans councillors, and more diversity in general. Keep going.
Most people couldn’t care less about trans issues, much as they don’t care for a multitude of other things unless they directly affect them. Trans people have every right to go about their business and live their lives peacefully. It is the angry and vocal minority of this group that polarise opinion and cause them more problems then if they just spoke rationally and listened to other people’s concerns
Quite right. Well said.
Of course trans people should be able to ‘’go about their business and live their lives peacefully’’ and I can’t see anyone here suggesting otherwise- while noting that also works both ways. Generally people don’t care about trans ‘issues’ until it directly affects them (as examples- a female being silenced or denied their rights/protections; as parents of a child questioning their gender; as professionals being told normal safeguards (established to protect everyone) don’t apply to avoid offending the trans community). However trans ideology (not individuals identifying as trans) is pervasive and increasingly affects every part of our society- without understanding the underlying issues or impact- most recently highlighted by the cass report and the harm inflicted on children and young people. It’s time for open and honest, and evidence rather than ideologue based discussion – not continuing to shut any alternative position down as hateful, phobic etc.
As Councillor for Roundhill, according to the Roundhill Community Notice Board, current issues of concern are:
Odour and noise from Hollingdean Waste Transfer Station, Dog fouling in the area, cuts to community support officers, whether Roundhill needs a Neighbour hood Watch scheme, problems with Hollingdean area HMOs, and liaison between the local community and the universities, including local student housing issues.
Is this councillor in any way interested in these matters for which they were elected to address on behalf of their constituency? Or is it just all about them being trans?
We elect councillors to represent us and help us with community issues, Council decisions, local businesses and local organisations.
We do not elect councillors to wholly use their position as a voice to represent themselves, and only themselves, on personal matters, which just happens to be their own personal hobbyhorse, and happens to be the only thing they are willing to put their efforts into.
This is not what a councillor is elected for.
I see no issues with transgender, or any other persons no matter how they represent themselves, as long as they just to the job they said they were going to do. The problem with any politician, from parish councillor to PM, is when they are self-serving. If anything is going to get them hated, it’s that.
Once again the comments illustrate precisely why this statement needed to be made.
I can’t see a single hateful comment here, honestly not one, can you point to what you think *is* hateful? And why it is?
“Sealioning (also sea-lioning and sea lioning) is a type of trolling or harassment that consists of pursuing people with relentless requests for evidence, often tangential or previously addressed, while maintaining a pretense of civility and sincerity (“I’m just trying to have a debate”), and feigning ignorance of the subject matter. It may take the form of “incessant, bad-faith invitations to engage in debate”
No hate just more attempts to oppress legitimate commentary that the trans ideologues don’t want to hear and still can’t objectively respond to. Now accusing people of ‘sea lioning’.
‘’the real reason why the term ‘sea lioning’ has gained so much currency in some spaces is that it’s an easy excuse for laziness, cowardice, and close-mindedness. Yes, hearing criticism or questioning of your belief system can be unpleasant, but it’s something that everyone should do sometimes. If you don’t listen to a dissenting perspective, you’re putting yourself in an echo chamber. At the very least, a community should have at least some people capable of answering the tough questions.’’
The post by evidence based c is absolutely sealioning.
There is so much anti trans sentiment in the posts above that they couldn’t possibly not have noticed it. It is a bad faith enquiry aiming to suppress anyone pointing this out, and supporting the position held by cllr Hill.