{"id":58350,"date":"2025-12-11T11:45:41","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T11:45:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/creditsafecareers.kinsta.cloud\/gb\/?p=58350"},"modified":"2025-12-11T11:46:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T11:46:04","slug":"transgender-awareness-dispelling-myths-and-building-understanding-with-francesca-carter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/careers.creditsafe.com\/gb\/blog\/transgender-awareness-dispelling-myths-and-building-understanding-with-francesca-carter\/","title":{"rendered":"Transgender Awareness: Dispelling Myths and Building Understanding With Francesca Carter"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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We\u2019re proud to feature our very own Francesca Carter in our Lived and Learnt series, who gave a heartfelt, insightful and fun talk on dispelling myths surrounding trans people. She helps us to build the understanding and confidence needed to engage in conversations and allyship.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

In this article, she walks us through the 10 common myths surrounding trans people today, and how we can be a helpful ally for trans people in today’s world. Let’s dive in!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Introduction<\/h2>

The first thing to say is that while this presentation is largely about breaking down myths, it’s also worth saying that silence around transgender people and not having conversations about it can also be damaging. Fran was inspired to do this presentation following the recent UK Supreme Court’s ruling on biological sex, wanting to help dispel some common myths and disinformation that have been cropping up around transgender people in recent years and leading to increased discrimination.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Fran decided to come out in 2021 and identifies as a woman. She went on to start hormone therapy in December 2022, but is still waiting for NHS treatment. Fran discusses how transitioning has really improved her quality of life, wellbeing, and confidence.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

She has seen that often, people want to be supportive but they don’t know how to talk about it out of fear of hurting feelings and causing offence.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

And with that, this talk sets out to spark conversation, understanding and engagement! We’ll walk through 10 common myths surrounding the conversation to do this.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Let’s start with clarifying sex vs gender and some terminology around that. Sex is to do with our chromosomes and genitalia, in short, it’s about your body. Whereas gender is about how we feel and how we identify.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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With our terms cleared up, let’s move, onto the 10 common myths!\u00a0<\/p>

The 10 Common Myths About Trans People \ud83e\udd14<\/b><\/h2>
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Myth 1: Trans People Are Everywhere!\u00a0<\/b><\/span><\/p>

A lot of news gets dedicated to transgender people, with it sometimes getting\u00a0 characterised as like a tsunami that’s taking over society and moulding the minds of young people. In reality, trans people are very much a minority. In every 200 people, roughly just 1 out of them will be trans.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Some research has been done on how the news amplifies the idea that trans people are everywhere and causing harm. An example comes from the Daily Mail. Up to January 2013, there were 6 articles about trans people, none of them negative. Fast forward to January 2023, there were <\/span>115 articles, and 87% of them were negative<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Overall, transgender people aren\u2019t much of a trend, a lot of it is people having the space to speak out and use a vocabulary that just wasn’t there before. We should be mindful there’s a potentially bigger trend of people talking <\/span>about<\/span><\/i> it (often unkindly)! We are written about, but rarely are we the ones doing the writing.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Myth 2: ‘They Didn’t Exist Back In My Day’<\/b><\/h3>

This is really a misconception. Proto-trans people have existed across history, and we say ‘proto’ as we didn’t have enough of the language or awareness that we have today.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

But historically, we’ve had lots of examples of people who felt their gender identity differed from their assigned one at birth. They range from rulers to saints and thinkers; some examples include:\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>