Simona Castricum is a musician and a PhD candidate in architecture at the University of Melbourne. @simonacastricum

In the three hours following the prime minister’s “gender whisperers” tweet on Wednesday morning, I was yelled at twice in the street by men sitting in their cars at traffic lights. That was just during a five-minute walk from the tram to the gym. While I’m old enough to recite activist Marsha P Johnson’s mantra, “pay it no mind”, what concerns me is just how many transgender, non-binary or gender-questioning kids at school this week will endure the same harassment in the wake of Scott Morrison’s latest comments about LGBTIQA+ Australians.

There’s often a spike in harassment towards the transgender community at the times when our leaders and media pundits single us out with hate speech. It gives permission for people to think their prejudiced ideas are justifiable beliefs that need to be shouted from cars or in playgrounds. It’s the Australian way – passed down through the generations – with transphobia a staple in the diet of the bully.

“The effect of transphobia, especially when displayed by politicians and the media, is to push gender assimilation on kids who are among the most vulnerable to self-harm and suicide – and it is plainly abusive. Trans people have a right to optimism and better life chances.”

Morrison’s Wednesday morning tweet is yet another fail in a public conversation on the rights and lived experiences of transgender and non-binary people. Paired with the Daily Telegraph’s manipulative article around the increase in rates of children identifying as gender diverse in Australian schools, it contributes to a discussion overwhelmingly dominated by a conservative cisgender platform. It’s a concerted political agenda that actively seeks to shame the communities that help transgender kids move beyond dysphoria.

Programs like those developed by Sydney counsellor Dr Elizabeth Riley – whose work has been misrepresented by the Daily Telegraph – are clearly helping an emerging generation of transgender kids “be kids” beyond gender-binary stereotypes.

As a transgender woman of Generation X who came out late in life, who lived in secrecy, silence and shame for nearly four decades, I hold this awakening in gender diversity dear to me. It’s also the generation before me that helped in understanding my gender identity and gave me the courage and community support to become who I am. As London-based writer Ayishat Akanbi tweeted in 2017: “Millennials aren't creating new gender identities they're only giving language to ones that have always existed under the burden of shame.”