''The Transgender Issue: An Argument for Justice'' is a 2021 non-fiction book by Shon Faye on the subject of transgender liberation in the United Kingdom. Faye explores how issues of social class, employment and

housing insecurity Housing, or more generally, living spaces, refers to the construction and assigned usage of houses or buildings individually or collectively, for the purpose of shelter. Housing ensures that members of society have a place to live, whether it ...

, police violence and prisons, and sex work affect transgender people. She aims to make a left-wing argument for how transgender liberation would improve society more widely. Faye, a professional journalist, wrote the book largely in the first English COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. She drew from ''

Revolting Prostitutes ''Revolting Prostitutes: The Fight for Sex Workers' Rights'' is a 2018 book by sex workers Juno Mac and Molly Smith. They analyse the effects of varying sex work policies, arguing for full decriminalisation. The book covers topics including surv ...

'' and ''

Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race ''Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race'' is a 2017 debut book by British writer Reni Eddo-Lodge that was published by Bloomsbury Publishing. Synopsis The book explores the links between gender, class and race in Britain and othe ...

'' in her writing, while reviews frequently contrasted it with Helen Joyce's '' Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality'', which was published in the same year. It became a bestseller in '' The Sunday Times''.

Background

Shon Faye is an English journalist who started her career as a lawyer. Her first public reporting as a transgender person was video journalism for

Novara Media Novara Media (often shortened to Novara) is an independent,F. Mayhew,The Media Fund offers 'democratic' alternative to billionaire press owners and BBC' (11/10/17) in Press Gazette left-wing alternative media organisation based in the United King ...

in 2016 and 2017. She later became editor-at-large for the magazine '' Dazed''. ''The Transgender Issue'' was Faye's first book; it was released on 2 September 2021 by Allen Lane. In her book proposal, Faye mentioned the 2010s British books ''

''—about sex work decriminalisation—and ''

''—about gender, race and class. She considered ''The Transgender Issue'' to be "in conversation with both of those books". She did not want to write a memoir, to distinguish the book from other transgender literature, and chose to include "professional anecdotes rather than personal experiences", in a similar manner to the authors of those books. Faye was reluctant to write ''The Transgender Issue'', fearing that it would be met with apathy or hostility. She hoped that it would be "a long-standing text". Though the project took around three years, the book was largely written during the first English lockdown in the COVID-19 pandemic: Faye weighted more left-wing perspectives towards the end of the book, as they seemed to fit with the contemporary mood, including a resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement and pandemic-related concerns over

furlough A furlough (; from nl, verlof, "leave of absence") is a temporary leave of employees due to special needs of a company or employer, which may be due to economic conditions of a specific employer or in society as a whole. These furloughs may be s ...

, homelessness and decarceration. Having previously seen left-wing arguments casting transgender identity as identity politics or a right-wing cause, Faye wanted to make a left-wing argument for transgender liberation, as well as to demonstrate that "if you improve the conditions for minorities, you make society better as a whole". According to '' PinkNews'', the book was published in a context of increasing anti-transgender views in mainstream media, politics, sports and women's spaces. Faye said that public discourse centred cisgender anxieties rather than the reality of transgender life. Their framing of the topic as "the transgender issue", a term which Faye disliked, gave the book its name. Her aim was to cover issues that materially affect transgender people, rather than anti-transgender ideologies and its high-profile proponents such as Graham Linehan. For instance, the second chapter is about

transgender healthcare Transgender health care, also known as gender-affirming care, includes the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of physical and mental health conditions, as well as sex reassignment therapies, for transgender individuals.Gorton N, Grubb HM (2014) ...

in the United Kingdom. Faye aimed to make the topic "legible to" cisgender people, so that they could be "invested in" it. In the book, Faye favours the term ''transgender liberation'' over ''transgender rights'', saying that it relates to her view that "you wouldn't want to be an equal within a society that's already corrupted". When asked about her next project after ''The Transgender Issue'', Faye expressed interest in more personal writing, television writing or more comedic writing.

Synopsis

An epigraph quotes

Travis Alabanza Travis Alabanza (born 15 November 1995) is a British performance artist, writer and theatre maker. Career Alabanza's poems were first published in 2015, in the ''Black and Gay in the UK Anthology''. Later that year Alabanza went on tour for th ...

on the word ''trans'' and its meanings outside of an abbreviation for ''transgender''. Faye argues that the British media, including newspapers and television news, are hostile to trans people. She frames the transgender liberation movement within a broader context of social and economic activism. The book covers a range of issues through the lens of how they affect transgender and non-binary people, including: bodily autonomy and sexual liberation;

class discrimination Class discrimination, also known as classism, is prejudice or discrimination on the basis of social class. It includes individual attitudes, behaviors, systems of policies and practices that are set up to benefit the upper class at the expense ...

; healthcare; sex work; job and housing insecurity; and police violence, prisons and treatment of asylum seekers.

Reception

''The Transgender Issue'' entered '' The Sunday Times''s bestseller list in the week of its publication, in fifth place, falling to seventh and tenth place in the next two weeks. The book also topped the list of

Penguin Press Penguin Group is a British trade book publisher and part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by the German media conglomerate Bertelsmann. The new company was created by a merger that was finalised on 1 July 2013, with Bertelsmann initial ...

bestsellers, surpassing

Jordan Peterson Jordan Bernt Peterson (born 12 June 1962) is a Canadian media personality, clinical psychologist, author, and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. He began to receive widespread attention as a public intellectual in the late 2010s ...

's ''

Beyond Order ''Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life'' is a 2021 self-help book by Canadian clinical psychologist, YouTube personality, and psychology professor Jordan Peterson, as a sequel to his 2018 book '' 12 Rules for Life''. ''Beyond Order'' was released ...

''. Several reviews contrasted the book with Helen Joyce's '' Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality'' and Kathleen Stock's ''Material Girls'', both published the same year. Sophie McBain of the '' New Statesman'' gave a comparative review of ''The Transgender Issue'' and ''Trans'', concluding that "if you find yourself nodding in agreement with Helen Joyce, I can only recommend that the next writer you read is Shon Faye". McBain praised ''The Transgender Issue'' as "a bracing and vital corrective to mainstream writing on trans rights", but criticised "self-defeating" political positions such as opposition of increased police diversity. She believed that an exploration of how to prevent male violence would have improved the book. Christina Patterson of '' The Times'', also making a comparative review, cast Faye's views as both "very radical" and commonly held in many places. Patterson praised her as a "highly intelligent" author who "writes with compassion and clarity about marginalised groups", but criticised that she "doesn't fully acknowledge" that some of her proposed ideas "clash with the rights of" cisgender women. The philosopher

Judith Butler Judith Pamela Butler (born February 24, 1956) is an American philosopher and gender theorist whose work has influenced political philosophy, ethics, and the fields of third-wave feminism, queer theory, and literary theory. In 1993, Butler ...

endorsed the book, praising that it appropriately categorises arguments which should be engaged with and those which should not. Juliet Jacques of '' frieze'' praised its linking of transgender issues with individual autonomy in modern society and its coverage of transgender children and sex workers. '' The Guardian''s Felix Moore was "profoundly grateful" for the book, lauding that Faye's analogies "deftly answer complicated questions" and "shatter the divide whereby trans people are seen as incomprehensible and separate from all other groups". Moore found the writing to be "uncompromising" and contain "palpable" anger. Fiona Sturges, also writing in ''The Guardian'', said that the book "makes for sobering reading", and that her "reclaiming of the word 'issue' is significant". Sturges stated that the book was "measured in tone" and contained "a cool dismantling of the myths and falsehoods that continue to blight rans people'slives".

Christine Burns Christine Burns (born February 1954) is a British political activist best known for her work with Press for ChangeBatty, David (31 July 2004). Mistaken identity. ''The Guardian'' and, more recently, as an internationally recognised health adv ...

described the book as "a seminal text, the kind you see only once in a generation". A review by

Stella O'Malley Stella O'Malley is an Irish psychotherapist and author, with three books on parenting and mental health. She is a regular contributor to Irish national newspapers, podcasts, and TV. She made a documentary about gender dysphoria in children for ...

for the '' Evening Standard'' was positive towards the book's prose style, informational content and "clear and concise analysis of the presenting issues for trans people today", as well as its criticism of what Faye calls "hostile feminist analysis". However, O'Malley criticised incomplete exploration of transgender mental health, some "leaps of logic" and "shallow" argumentation, and said that the book intersperses "dependable peer-reviewed evidence with much more dubious sources such as online surveys".

Background

Synopsis

Reception

References

Further reading