The spectacular implosion of the Oscars’ first trans nominee

There are some Rude Awokening moments – when the whole damn #BeKind shebang collapses in on itself – that are so perfect, so freakishly unlikely, that they might be mistaken for a fever-dream on the part of we free thinkers. Often, because of their inherent silliness, the ‘trans community’ are involved in some way. 

I’m thinking, for example, of the holier-than-thou trans-ally and persecutor of gender-realist women Damien Barr who in 2020 led a campaign to have Emma Nicholson, then honorary vice-president of the Booker Prize, removed for ‘homophobic views’. He was then revealed to have tweeted, to quote the BBC, ‘derogatory terms to refer to transsexuals on social media. In one post, the author also appeared to mock a transsexual who had attempted to take their own life’. He also gave a shout-out to a ‘nice tranny charity’ and complained that there was a ‘mad tranny going through my recycling bin.’ Barr added, for good measure, a fervent plea for ‘Lady-man truckers of the world, unite!’

Then there was Munroe Bergdorf, who accused a Twitter foe of being a ‘hairy barren lesbian’ and boasted that they wanted to ‘gay bash’ a homosexual TV star.