The only way to avoid hysteria about trans rights is to ground the debate in real life experiences

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Much of the media coverage, pundit commentary and social media discussions centred on trans rights are fixated on manufacturing short-term outrage, rarely allowing us intelligent, humane understanding of the real, lived experiences of trans people in our society. But any public discourse on protecting and advancing the rights of trans people must be firmly grounded in these real-life experiences in order to resist hysteria, abstraction and misinformation. Much of the focus on trans rights in recent years has revolved around the proposed reform of the Gender Recognition Act. It is heartening however, that despite years of negative news coverage relating to transgender rights and the Gender Recognition Act, a YouGov poll found that most women are in favour of trans people self-identifying as a gender other than which they were assigned at birth.