submerging homes and roads, in the capital seoul. at least eight people have died. the south korean president has called an emergency meeting now on bbc news, it s hardtalk with stephen sackur. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. according to research in the us and the uk, roughly one in 100 people is transgender. but the fact that the debate about transgender rights has become a political and even health care battleground isn t driven so much by the numbers, but more by conflicting ideologies. my guest today has a prominent voice in that debate. shon faye is trans, a writer and a former lawyer. is all this attention on issues of sex, gender and identity making it easier to be trans, or not? shon faye, welcome to hardtalk. pleasure to be here. thank you for having me. it s great to have you here. i also have a copy of your book, the transgender issue, which you wrote. published last year. it s described on the cover as a landmark bestseller. it has done well. and in the
shon faye is trans, a writer and a former lawyer. is all this attention on issues of sex, gender and identity making it easier to be trans, or not? shon faye, welcome to hardtalk. pleasure to be here. thank you for having me. it s great to have you here. i also have a copy of your book, the transgender issue, which you wrote. published last year. it s described on the cover as a landmark bestseller. it has done well. and in the intervening months since you published it, the transgender story, as we put it, the issues around transgender rights has consistently been prominent in the political debate. would it be right to assume that you are delighted those issues are so prominent? shon laughs er, ithink. in one way, i feel vindicated. the argument that i make in the book, essentially, is that there has been an explosion in discussion of transgender people across all forms of media and in politics. but what i argue in the book is that trans people are often not at the centre of
41 people were killed, many of them children. they blamed the blaze on an electrical fault in the air conditioning system. now on bbc news, it s hardtalk with stephen sackur. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. according to research in the us and the uk, roughly one in 100 people is transgender. but the fact that the debate about transgender rights has become a political and even health care battleground isn t driven so much by the numbers, but more by conflicting ideologies. my guest today has a prominent voice in that debate. shon faye is trans, a writer and a former lawyer. is all this attention on issues of sex, gender and identity making it easier to be trans, or not? shon faye, welcome to hardtalk. pleasure to be here. thank you for having me. it s great to have you here. i also have a copy of your book, the transgender issue, which you wrote. published last year. it s described on the cover as a landmark bestseller. it has done well. and in the intervening months
and a former lawyer. is all this attention on issues of sex, gender and identity making it easier to be trans, or not? shon faye, welcome to hardtalk. pleasure to be here, thank you for having me. it s great to have you here. i also have a copy of your book, the transgender issue, which you wrote. published last year. it s described on the cover as a landmark bestseller. it has done well. and in the intervening months since you published it, the transgender story, as we put it, the issues around transgender rights has consistently been prominent in the political debate. would it be right to assume that you are delighted those issues are so prominent? er, i think. in one way, i feel vindicated. the argument that i make in the book, essentially, is that there has been an explosion in discussion of transgender people across all forms of media and in politics. but what i argue in the book is that trans people are often not at the centre of these conversations, and the actual issu
about the rise in referrals to gender identity development services for young people can be used as a sort of scare tactic. but provided the services are good, it s good. yeah, well, the tavistock clinic, which is at the centre of what has been happening, the government has now said it should be closed down. its gender identity services are going to be closed down in the next few months. and when you talk about experiences, let s talk about one particular experience. i just wonder whether it gives you pause. keira bell. she s gone public with her own experience. she was put on puberty blockers at the age of 16. and a year later, she says she was receiving testosterone shots. when she was 20, she had a double mastectomy. this is her words. the further my transition went, the more i realised i wasn t a man and never would be. something went very badly wrong there. people like janice turner and otherjournalists who call themselves feminists say this isn t an isolated example. too ofte