It's becuase they have acutal TERFs in the UK, like people who would otherwise be feminists and leftwing but are rabidly transphobic; real TERFs are basically non-existent in the US or Canada. So where as in the US transphobia is seen as exclusive to the right-wing and Christian fundamentalists, in the UK transphobia is non-partisan and appears in both left(ish) publications like The Guardian and the conservative press. This creates an environment where anti-trans sentiment is pervasive, as there is no concerted pushback from the libs and the left. It also dosen't help that older politicians and writers are more likely to be transphoic and they tend to be in power in both politics and the press.
For what it's worth, based on polling data, 50-60 percent of British people are generally supportive of trans-rights, with anti-trans opinion hovering around 30 percent. This is comparable to the US, although the US population seems to be more consistently pro-trans-rights.
Edit: and they have so many TERFs becuase Third Wave feminism never really took hold in the UK to challange some of the retrograde assumptions of Second Wave feminism, as Straight_Depth discusses.
It's becuase they have acutal TERFs in the UK, like people who would otherwise be feminists and leftwing but are rabidly transphobic; real TERFs are basically non-existent in the US or Canada. So where as in the US transphobia is seen as exclusive to the right-wing and Christian fundamentalists, in the UK transphobia is non-partisan and appears in both left(ish) publications like The Guardian and the conservative press. This creates an environment where anti-trans sentiment is pervasive, as there is no concerted pushback from the libs and the left. It also dosen't help that older politicians and writers are more likely to be transphoic and they tend to be in power in both politics and the press.
For what it's worth, based on polling data, 50-60 percent of British people are generally supportive of trans-rights, with anti-trans opinion hovering around 30 percent. This is comparable to the US, although the US population seems to be more consistently pro-trans-rights.
Edit: and they have so many TERFs becuase Third Wave feminism never really took hold in the UK to challange some of the retrograde assumptions of Second Wave feminism, as Straight_Depth discusses.