Transgender is way to climb social ladder, says historian

PEOPLE can climb the social “pecking order” by claiming they are trans, Tom Holland, the historian, has suggested.

The best-selling author has claimed there is a “growing” trend of people claiming to have a particular gender or sexual orientation in “progressive” circles in London and UK universities.

Being heterosexual is “boring” and places people “down the pecking order”, Mr Holland has said, and more cultural cache can be gained by being transgender than “bog-standard straight”.

The historian mentioned the Tory MP Jamie Wallis in relation to this trend, as he spoke yesterday at the Chalke Valley History Festival. Mr Wallis came out as the first transgender MP in March.

Questioning fellow writer Lipika Pelham at the event, Mr Holland said: “I wonder, is there a sense in which, in London or universities, or places where the public culture is very, very progressive that actually to have a kind of a white heterosexual identity is a bit de classe, you’re boring, you’re dull, you’re kind of down the pecking order...

“But I kind of suspect that in a sense it’s more interesting to be queer. Or at least it’s more interesting to not be heterosexual.”

Mr Holland, the author of Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind, said that in a post-christian culture, selfidentifying as a perceived victim can be a way to gain respect in the modern West. His questions were directed at Ms Pelham, whose book Passing deals with people swapping identities in history.