Dear Brianna

a letter to Brianna Ghey, aged 16

Brianna Ghey, who was murdered in February 2023

Dear Brianna,

As I was putting my daughter to bed last night I spotted one of the books we were given just after she was born. It’s an illustrated book called ‘Happy in Our Skin’, and it made me think of you. It made me think of the TikToks you posted walking home from school, where you look so happy to be in your skin.

The people who gave my daughter this particular book are Christians, and wrote that they hoped she knew that she was ‘fearfully and wonderfully made.’ Like my friends, I believe you were also made in the image of God, reflecting the beauty and diversity of creation. I’m glad that you had parents who clearly loved you and made you proud to be Brianna.

It’s difficult for some people—let’s call them the ‘adults’—to understand that we aren’t all the same, and that we don’t all fit into neat boxes. When these ‘adults’ learn that there are people who feel this personally, and have clarity about what that means for them, they respond from a place of fear. They claim to be fearful for their rights, but I wonder if they’re more afraid of other things: like growing older, feeling sad, or inhabiting a world where they don’t quite hold the same power or influence that they once took for granted. Are these ‘adults’ targeting transgender people because it gives them a cause to feel righteous about? Perhaps it’s more to do with the pain that’s unresolved in their life. Either way, they are old enough to know better.

I wish I wasn’t writing this letter, which feels so inadequate. I think I’m writing it partly from a place of shame about how we have failed you and your trans brothers and sisters.

I think those ‘adults’ might have had a different reaction to the book I mentioned. It’s likely they would say that you weren’t ‘happy in your skin’, after all. Maybe that was true at some point. Some of my transgender friends speak about how difficult it can be to live in a body which doesn’t match your gender in the way you feel it should. But it strikes me that these are also the people who have taught me the most about self-acceptance and loving myself on a deeper level. Anti trans campaigners often seem fixated on the ‘skin’ part of being human, whilst forgetting that there are many other things that truly make us who we are.

‘Yes, we all have skin, but nobody is you.

You are one of a kind and your fingerprints, too.’

I hope that when people think about your life they will recognise that trans people are sacred human beings. People who deserve to experience joy and lives free from violence.

Thank you for knowing who you wanted to be in this world.

Rest in Power, Brianna

Grace

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Hi friends,

As you can see, today’s edition of The Murmuration honours the life of Brianna Ghey, who was brutally murdered on Saturday.

Despite stating that it was a targeted attack, the police initially said that there was ‘no evidence’ to suggest that the circumstances surrounding Brianna’s death were hate related.

When I heard this I was reminded of a scene in the film adaptation of The Constant Gardener, where the brother of a murdered journalist states that ‘there are no murders in Africa. Only regrettable deaths. And from those deaths we derive the benefits of civilisation, benefits we can afford so easily, because those lives were bought so cheaply.’

No, there are no hate crimes in Britain, only targeted murders. And when trans people are murdered or die by suicide their gender identity is portrayed as extraneous to the fact. It only took a matter of hours for The Times to deadname Brianna in their coverage of the murder by using her former name. In our society trans lives are so controversial that the media wilfully erase the very fact of their existence.

Over the past week there has been a call not to politicise Brianna’s death, but Brianna’s life and death were political - not of her own doing, but because of the cultural moment she was born into. Not acknowledging the context in which her murder occurred is an attempt to politicise her death, because it takes place at a time in which the British media have capitulated to the demands of trans exclusionary radical feminists in undermining the dignity and rights of trans people at every opportunity.

Brianna’s murder demonstrates the very real threat of violence which trans people live with on a daily basis. They are twice as likely to be a victim of crime compared to the cisgender population, and endure daily acts of symbolic violence meted out to them by our society.

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WRITING ABOUT THE TRANS EXPERIENCE

There’s no better way to gain an insight into the trans experience than by reading their stories first hand. The following books are all good places to start:

1. The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice by Shon Faye

   A thoroughly researched examination of the complex and interrelated issues facing trans people in the UK.

2. Transitional by Munroe Bergdorf

   Published this week, this is a memoir-slash-manifesto drawn from Munroe’s own experience of transitioning. Munroe is one of the most high-profile trans campaigners in the UK and was interviewed in The Guardian last weekend.

3. The Book of Queer Prophets, edited by Ruth Hunt

   This is a collection of essays that reflect on the relationship between religion, faith and LGBTQI+ identity. Many of the contributors are trans and write powerfully about their respective journey’s. Baroness Ruth Hunt is the former CEO of Stonewall and now sits as a cross bench peer in the House of Lords.

TRANS JOY

1. Read about Wendy Carlos, inventor of the Moog synthesiser and the first trans woman to win a Grammy. She wrote the scores for The Shining, A Clockwork Orange and Tron!

   

2. Listen to Immaterial by SOPHIE, a Scottish music producer, artist and DJ.

3. Admire beautiful ceramics by Rose Schmits, AKA the trans kiln witch from The Great Pottery Throwdown. She says ‘The tendril-like ceramic vessels stand in for bodies and how they can grow and change in various ways. Their shapes invoking organic growth and their markings denoting artificial intervention made possible by modern science. Both coming together in the solid medium of glazed and fired ceramics making solid pieces that always remind of how they got to where they are whilst suggest further possibilities of change.’

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