Eddie Izzard criticises discord sown between trans and women's rights: 'They shouldn't be fought against each other'

Trans comedian Eddie Izzard and Doctor Jekyll director Joe Stephenson speak to Yahoo UK about anti-trans sentiment in the public sphere and why we're at a "tipping point".

Video transcript

- Sadly, nowadays, I find there's a lot of anti-trans sentiment in the media, in-- in public as well, and also in politicians. And I wondered, do you--

EDDIE IZZARD: I know why. I know why it is. It's a tipping point. It's like before marriage equality happened, there was a lot of anti-gay and lesbian ideas of couples being together. Surely, that's a bad thing. And then we went through marriage equality, and a lot of positive countries have done it. And people said, oh, it's about love. And all those arguments have sort of drifted away.

And you know, some transphobic people are out there, and they're going to get very loud right at this moment. And then that time will pass, and we will go through that, and we will go to a place where it's live and let live and reach out and just say, people exist. Women's rights are human rights. Trans rights are human rights. End of story.

We just-- they shouldn't be fought against each other. That's a right-wing ideology, and they're trying to set people against people. That's just not good.

In our film, I happen to be-- play a trans character. I happen to be a trans woman. It doesn't actually affect the story. The story's about dark power and how that could be inside someone in a mystical story.

JOE STEPHENSON: Yeah, I think we'll get to a point where it is the same as it was. In the '80s, you had people being very confidently homophobic in public. The same thing will happen in which, you know, in 10 or 15 years, those people who are being so confidently anti-trans today will be telling us that it was a-- 2023 was a different time. We didn't know any better and things. And it will be up to us to decide whether we want to forgive them or not. But I do think we'll get to that point.