Unintended consequences

Why kneejerk reactions to tragedy do not help

Adapted from The Procession of the Trojan Horse in Troy by Giovanni Tiepolo (c.1760): public domain

Proposals to ‘do something’ to prevent tragedies of the sort that befell Brianna Ghey are very seductive. Yet trans people, more than any other, must treat these with caution.

For the history of passing laws to protect minorities is fraught with danger. All too often, the ‘solution’ ends up making life more difficult and penalising those supposed to be helped.

Now read on…

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I cannot agree with Esther Ghey’s instant solution to the ills of teen youth. But i will not condemn her for her proposal.

This, for those who have followed events since the murder of trans teen, Brianna Ghey, is the all-too-seductive notion of special mobile phones for children under 16 to ‘protect them from online harms’.

I get it. I do. Or perhaps, i don’t. Because, honestly? Can anyone imagine something so awful happening — to their own child! It is a grief beyond grieving; and there is nothing more natural than a mother casting around for anything that might save just one parent from having to endure such pain.

Unworkable idea

It is, though, one of those ideas that cannot, will not work. For there is no space where it is…