Why should lesbians, gays and bisexuals stand together with trans people? “Because we get beaten up by the same people!” Sometimes the best explanations are the simplest: this one came from an audience member at a talk given by trans writer and activist Juliet Jacques. Having common enemies provides the potential foundation for solidarity even among the most disparate of groups. “An injury to one is an injury to all” has long been the mantra of the labour movement, but it’s applicable to all struggles. And yet the LGBT movement has long been without its T in practice, leaving trans people marginalised, ignored and even reviled.

Here is one of history’s little tragic ironies. The iconic Stonewall riots of 1969 that did so much to galvanise the gay rights movement were dominated by trans people. “It was mostly a trans riot,” says longstanding trans activist Roz Kaveney. But trans people would find themselves often driven out of the movement. Late trans activist Sylvia Rivera was there at the Stonewall riots, but in 1973 there was a determined effort to yell her down at a gay rights Christopher Street Liberation Day rally. Perversely, when Britain’s pre-eminent gay rights charity, Stonewall, was founded in 1989, it was named in homage to the riots, but refused to fight for transgender people.

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Stonewall’s belated but extremely welcome embrace of trans rights is therefore a historic moment for the LGBT movement. It spent several months listening to trans people, and has now apologised for excluding their sisters and brothers. Over the next year-and-a-half it plans to integrate trans people and trans issues. Ruth Hunt from the charity is very concerned that Stonewall should not seize ownership of trans concerns, but the organisation’s work on everything from education to the workplace to guidance will be made trans inclusive. “The most important thing about recognition by Stonewall is that people will take us seriously, and our concerns seriously,” Kaveney says. “It gives us more clout, and shows trans people are worthy of respect.”

Why has the gay rights movement been so rubbish when it comes to trans issues? It is certainly the case that the barriers have not all been erected by LGB people. “There is bigotry on both sides,” suggests trans writer Paris Lees. “You get trans people saying, ‘I’m not homosexual you know, I’ve got a medical condition’, and gay people going on about ‘cross dressers and perverts’.” Hunt points out that a minority of trans people object to the Stonewall move on the grounds that they believe it should be them running their organisation.

But there are other reasons, and that should lead to some reflection and self-criticism by people like me. I have written columns on all sorts of topics – hell, I’ve even written about the merits of cycling helmets – but this is the first time I’ve ever written about trans issues. Neglected by mainstream movements, trans rights have also failed to receive the attention they deserve from all sorts of progressively minded people.

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The other reason is more straightforward and deeply troubling. Transphobia is not confined to knuckle-dragging bigots; it contaminates the thinking of some progressives. A recent article objects to an ideology whose “core … is the assertion ‘trans women are women’.” There was a “discussion to be had” over whether trans people are “a social category”, but “trans women are not, by definition, biological females.” This was published in the New Statesman, a left-of-centre publication. It is my firm belief that in generations to come we will look back at such commentary as we do now on discussions of women, gays and black people in the magazines of the 1950s.

There will be those who do not believe that it is for a man to intervene in a debate within feminism. This is a nonsense, of course: as I expect straight people to speak out against homophobia, non-trans people need to stand in solidarity with trans people, too. Indeed – as we have established – as a gay man I share many of the same enemies. And we know where these sentiments all lead. In Florida, the Republican state representative Frank Artiles is advocating legislation that would compel trans people to use toilets assigned to their original “biological sex”. What does that mean in practice? “If you can’t use the right toilet, you can’t function in society,” Kaveney points out. “You can’t have a job, you can’t have an education.”

Having common enemies provides solidarity even among the most disparate of groups

There are all too many trans causes to champion. Trans people are murdered for who they are: more than 200 were killed across the world last year, with deaths ranging from stoning to being beaten to being burned alive. And then there is mental distress. One survey last year found that a staggering 48% of young trans people had attempted suicide, and 59% had at least considered it. A 2013 study in the US found that trans people are far more likely to suffer from poverty and unemployment, and research in Britain has uncovered similar findings.

It is estimated that around half of Britain’s 28,000 trans students have contemplated abandoning their courses, and a third have faced being bullied or harassed. These are all damning indictments of a transphobic society. Stonewall has now added its considerable voice to addressing them; others must follow its lead.

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But these issues aren’t taken seriously enough because even some progressives are debating the legitimacy of trans identity. There is the sense that they are interlopers, infiltrators, sufferers of psychological conditions rather than people trapped in the wrong bodies. In truth, debates over the latest scientific research are of little interest to me: what matters is that the happiness, security and even lives of a minority are at stake, and all too little has been done about it.

The cause of trans people has been neglected for too long by too many gay rights activists, feminists and progressives. It is a mistake that I myself have made. Now that Stonewall has embraced its trans sisters and brothers, it is a mistake that I hope I and many others will finally address. After all, I owe many of my own rights to the courage and sacrifice of trans people. The least I can do is to support them back.