Dr Ronx Ikharia has launched a new safety initiative designed to help make life safer and easier for trans people in the UK, and has been immediately met with hostility from anti-trans extremists and bigots.
The new 'Safe With Me' initiative was launched this week by Dr Ronx Ikharia, who has appeared on BBC television in the past. Dr Ronx, a Black transmasculine non-binary medical doctor, chose to create the Safe With Me initiative following the recent UK Supreme Court ruling on the legal definition of sex under the Equality Act. The case, which did not allow transgender people to participate or give evidence, decided that sex would be determined by 'biological sex', a distinction that has proven both nebulous and useless as they have been unwilling and unable to define biological sex. This decision resulted in huge backlash across the country, including from the British Medical Association, who labelled it as 'biologically nonsensical', and 'scientifically illiterate'.
Since the ruling the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has tried to push through guidance that would see trans people segregated from gendered spaces, effectively pushing trans people into their own areas, or removed from everyday life completely. This has resulted in tremendous fear within the trans community, as we have been made to feel othered, our legal rights and protections being slowly eroded, and our safety in public brought into question.
Dr Ronx's new initiative is trying to counter this by asking individuals to wear a badge that indicated that trans people are safe around them, and that they will even accompany them into potentially dangerous spaces, such as toilets and changing rooms.
'I have often been kicked out of toilets because people don’t know where to place me. But when I’m with someone, it happens less.' Dr Ronx told press at the Safe With Me launch. 'This badge is about making allyship visible. It’s non-confrontational. It’s a signal to a trans+ person that they can come up to you and feel safe doing so.'
They added, 'Most people aren’t trying to deny our humanity, they just don’t understand what being trans+ means or how to help. This is a way for people to step out of the shadows and into visible support.'
This is not the first time that Dr Ronx has found themself fighting for people's rights and safety, as they have been advocating for inclusive healthcare and representation for various marginalised communities. The new initiative is designed for anyone to use, but is aiming to raise both awareness and safety in workplaces and schools.
'I want this to be everywhere. At schools, in NHS settings, at festivals, in shops. The trans community deserve to feel safe! Not just protected by law but actively welcomed and this badge is one small way we can all help make that happen.' Dr Ronx explained.
As to be expected, this new initiative has been met with a very vocal backlash from the very people who have been fighting to remove trans people's rights and protections under the law; bolstered by the established media outlets. An article in The Telegraph on the subject both frames the initiative as dangerous, and describes Dr Ronx's identity in quote marks in a way that delegitimises who they are.
Helen Joyce, the director of Sex Matters, a transphobic hate group, has been very outspoken on the initiative, claiming it's encouraging children to accompany adult strangers into toilets, claiming that it will create a dangerous and unsafe environment in public toilets. This is something of a surprising response as Joyce and Sex Matters have been pushing to make public spaces unsafe for years now, campaigning to enact legislation and laws that could see people being pushed into potentially dangerous spaces, and creating an environment that has resulted in people being publicly harassed and attacked for using certain spaces. Joyce also intentionally misgendered Dr Ronx in her comments to the press.
Joyce's sentiments seem to be echoed online, with users on the social media platform Twitter pushing the idea that the Safe With Me initiative will be used to target children, and that only people who are out to cause harm would wear the badges. Multiple Twitter users have also encouraged physically harming people wearing the badges.
As with anything that involves the safety of trans people, anything that tries to improve trans lives is met with extremist language, accusations of paedophilia and grooming, and whataboutisms that paint people simply trying to live their lives safely and normally as being the villains, whilst the other side is advocating the eradication of a minority group. In an ever increasingly transphobic world it appears that the simple act of wearing a badge to identify yourself as a decent person is seen as something sinister.
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