The older I get, the more I realize that I shouldn’t judge people by superficial aspects like appearance or socioeconomic background. There’s so much more to a person’s character than these surface-level traits, and we can all work towards making this world a more civil place to inhabit if we take the time to get to know one another before making judgments. This is why I no longer think that everybody with a British accent is a transphobic children’s book author.
It sounds crazy, doesn’t it? Well, hear me out for a second.
For far too long, every time I found myself in the presence of a person with a British accent, I just assumed that person had made an extremely lucrative living writing a series of admittedly stellar children’s fantasy books before making a sudden and baffling pivot to obsessing over the existence of trans people as the sole root of all of society’s ills. This caused a lot of problems in my social life, and culminated in me ruining numerous social events by screaming in the face of some mystified Brit who was just trying to have a good time. Well, now I know that I was mistaken in doing this, and I’d like to apologize to our poor friends across the pond. It takes a big man to admit when he’s erred, which is why I’m extending this olive branch to those I’ve wronged.
Still don’t believe me? How about famed evolutionary biologist and religious skeptic Richard Dawkins? He was instrumental in many of us shedding the restrictive and oppressive veil imposed upon us by religion, and not once did he — oh, wait. He’s made numerous tweets criticizing trans Olympic athletes and mocking the identities of trans people everywhere? He also wrote a children’s book called “The Magic of Reality” in 2011? OK, bad example. No big deal. Let’s just move on.
What about popular actor and comedic icon Ricky Gervais? Seriously, how funny is “The Office UK”? So good, right? Well, Mr. Gervais definitely has a British accent, and he’s never — huh? He’s also gone on more than one transphobic tweetstorm, with one fully supporting J.K. Rowling? He also deadnamed Caitlin Jenner at the 2016 Golden Globes? Oh, and he’s the author of the “Flanimals” children’s books? Well, shit. Maybe I’m wrong here?
You know what? I take back this entire article. You should definitely assume everybody with a British accent is a transphobic children’s book author. It was my mistake for assuming otherwise, and I apologize for the confusion.
