Anti-trans activists made #peaktrans to spread hate and it backfired spectacularly

It started as an anti-trans hashtag, but the hate was quickly drowned out by a wave of love and acceptance.

Pro-trans activists took back #peaktrans after a brief spell of it being used to spread messages denying trans people’s existence.

Anti-trans people took to Reddit and Mumsnet to prepare others of their persuasion for a concerted attempt to promote the hashtag this week.

(Photo by Mark Makela/Getty Images)

On an anti-trans subreddit, one person wrote that #peaktrans was “the moment when you go from thinking that the trans movement is a just cause that is about fighting for the rights of a tiny marginalised minority to realising that it’s actually… something else. Something that might even be quite troubling and sinister.”

They then accused trans people and their advocates of “male supremacism, homophobia and child abuse.”

Another said: “It’s like ‘woke.”

It is not, in fact, like being woke. Woke is, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, being “alert to racial or social discrimination and injustice” in a positive way.

Of course, the wonderful trans advocates of the internet could not let this slide. They had to intervene to take back a hashtag which should be a celebration of all things trans.

“Good morning everyone!” an organiser began, adding: “Some of the trans community has chosen to reclaim #peaktrans from TERFs today. If you want to participate, here are some ideas!

(Twitter/my_trans_voice)

“Go into the tag, Like & support trans positivity posts. Additionally, you can report the harmful anti-trans posts in there.”