The rampant transphobia of Emile Ratelband

I recently had an argument with an oh-so-entitled stranger on the internet, who claimed that because she knows a couple trans people, she can decide what is transphobic and what isn't.
Emile Ratelband, if you haven't heard of this absolute imbecile, is a transphobe. He is the man who achieved internet fame by proposing to his country's courts that he should be able to change his age, as, and I quote, "people can change their gender". His reasoning behind this? He "would be able to get more women on tinder".
Perhaps, Emile Ratelband, at the age of 69 and a single father, you should focus on raising your nine children (two of whom you originally wanted to name after such materialistic goods as cars, which just says it all,) rather than how many romps you can attain on a dating site.

Ratelband's new-found fame has rightly offended and disgusted many LGBTQ+ people and their friends and families over the world, and has further enabled transphobes by giving them yet another bigot to agree with and quote in their narrative of how the world should work. By comparing a ridiculous choice such as changing your age so you can 'attract more women' to the absolute battle trans people face every day, you are belittling trans people and making a joke out of us. It further fuels the fire of hatred towards us, and that is one hundred percent Ratelband's sole intention. It only takes one look into Ratelband's personal beliefs and history to realise that he is a bigot and a transphobe. For one, he is a trump supporter - and a vote for trump is a vote for transphobia. He also claimed in one BBC interview that age is the biggest cause of discrimination, which is closed-minded and frankly laughable; try telling the black trans teen that he is privileged just because he is young. He reduces being transgender to a choice, and claims that in the Netherlands, there is absolutely no transphobia at all.

In addition to being transphobic, Emile stated that homosexuality is "not human and not healthy". The fact that people can still support this man after his rampant discrimination of the LGBTQ+ community is absolutely beyond me - and how people such as the individual I had a debate with can say that he is not transphobic purely because they know a trans person and thus can apparently make that decision, is mind-boggling.

The attitudes of people such as Ratelband directly contribute to the oppression of transgender people, and are one of the many reasons why 89 percent of trans people have thought about suicide. Bigoted viewpoints shouldn't be tolerated in a society that claims to be so progressive, yet they still are, and people such as Ratelband are given screen time and fame simply for being discriminatory. This has to end.

72 percent of trans people have self harmed at least once.
27 percent of trans people have attempted suicide.
89 percent of trans people have had thoughts of suicide.
55 percent of trans people have experienced workplace discrimination related to their gender identity.


48 percent of trans people in the UK have attempted suicide.