Kellie Maloney: We’re Not All In This Together
Boxing promoter, manager of Lennox Lewis and former UKIP candidate Kellie Maloney has surprised the LGBT community this week by speaking out against same-sex couples raising children. Now, if you haven’t heard about Kellie’s story, this homophobia likely won’t come as too much of a shock – she was running for UKIP after all. The thing is, we expect this kind of thing from people outside of the queer community, but it feels so different, so much harsher, when it comes from someone who openly identifies as LGBT.
Kellie Maloney is a transgender woman who only recently came out as such. Her life in the closet might explain (but in no means justifies) previous homophobic comments – we all know that people sometimes go to extreme lengths to hide their identities. But, I suppose I assumed that her discrimination against gay and bisexual couples was part of an elaborate cover. I naively thought that when she came out as a trans woman, it meant that she was coming out in support of LGB equality as well. This was not the case, as she made very clear this week when speaking out against same-sex adoption.
The LGBT liberation movement has been guilty of being quite trans-exclusionary in the past (and present too, sometimes), but the case of Kellie Maloney shows the flip side of that. It is important to challenge homophobia in all its forms, but Maloney has me confused. On the one hand, I want to support her and welcome her to our beautifully queer world, but, on the other hand, it’s a two-way street and I would really appreciate her support back.