“I have to be clap-backy because it’s all day, every f**king day”
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE BY GETTY
Trans activist Charlie Craggs told her Instagram story yesterday (1 May) that she was “threatened” by a group of men just minutes after giving an educational talk about transphobia. Charlie said that she was approached by a group of men who reportedly started to hurl not only transphobic comments at the activist but also threatened her with physical violence.
“The irony that I did a (really good) talk about how s**t it is being trans in the UK right now at Google and within less than five of leaving the building I had a group of roadmen come over to me while I was standing alone waiting for my friend to ask me if I was a man and threaten to beat me up,” Charlie wrote on her story.
She continued saying: “The same day that the Tories announce they will segregate trans people in hospital wards because we’re such a threat you know guys. We’re the ones threatening to beat you lot up for being cis.”
Charlie was referring to Steve Barclay’s proposal made last year which aimed to prevent trans women from entering female-only wards. New government plans to the NHS constitution will see trans patients treated in single rooms now.
Since the reported attack, Charlie has shared that while she is “used to stuff like that happening”, she isn’t fine with how she “isn’t allowed to be soft”.
She went on to share that calling out transphobia has impacted her job. “I’m just not getting gigs the way I was, partly because the brands are like, ‘Oh she’s a bit clap-backy’… But I have to be clap-backy because it’s all day, every f**king day.”
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