The Threat to Trans Rights
Photo taken by Flo Rushton at the protest against Rosie Parker’s anti-trans demonstration.
The past five years have seen some of the most contentious and harmful discourse surrounding trans identities in British political history. Whether its media coverage, snark remarks during PMQs or J.K. Rowling’s Twitter, trans people’s safety, right to recognition and protection of identity has been scrutinised constantly under a politically-charged microscope. This (relatively-small) demographic of individuals has been put centre stage of British politics, often seemingly deliberately, to draw attention away from party failures, genocide funding and the sky-rocketing price of living.
Behind this bigoted landscape is a terrifying reminder that words have consequences. In 2023, hate crimes targeting trans people rose by 11% from the year prior (Goodier, 2023). Between October 1st 2022 and September 30th 2023, 320 trans and gender queer people were killed in the UK. 94% of those being trans women or trans-feminine people and 80% being trans people of colour (Pride in London, 2023).
“ It’s easy to forget that gender reassignment, non-binary and genderfluid identities are all ‘protected’ characteristics under the 2010 Equality Act (Legislation.gov.uk, 2010). “
Laws surrounding trans bodies have been ever changing over the last 10 years.
This April saw the release of the Independent Review of Gender Identity Services for Children and Young People (commonly known as a Cass Review). Commissioned in 2020, the review led to the banning of puberty blockers for those under 18. The review highlighted the lack of research that has gone into gender-related services.
The government has called upon conversion therapy that targets LGB+ individuals to be banned but has almost always ignored trans people despite the fact they are twice as likely to be offered the ‘therapy’ than gay and bisexual people (Gallagher and Parry, 2022). Since Theresa May’s 2018 cabinet the government has promised an umbrella ban- with no results.
In 2023, Kemi Badenoch - then Minister for Women and Equalities- threatened to change the Equality Act to define sex as the sex assigned at birth, in an attempt to exclude trans people from same sex spaces (Allegretti, 2023). The baseless “bathroom debate” aiming to exclude trans women from women only spaces seems to grasp British politics every month or so with various politicians (from both sides) repeating the same cisnormative campaign phrases.
In May, the government released draft guidance on Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) which affirmed that schools “should teach the facts about biological sex and not use any materials that present contested views as fact, including the view that gender is a spectrum” with a particular concern that students may “question their gender when they might not have done so otherwise” (Department for Education, 2024).
It’s easy to forget that gender reassignment, non-binary and genderfluid identities are all ‘protected’ characteristics under the 2010 Equality Act (Legislation.gov.uk, 2010).
Although the vast majority of proposed changes to gender-related laws have not passed, the very fact that politicians spew this inflammatory transphobic discourse perpetuates systemic hostility towards trans and gender queer people.
All these statistics are representative of real people.
At the time of writing, an anti-trans demonstration led by Posie Parker is scheduled on the coming Saturday. Transphobia has no place in Sheffield, nor anywhere else. The words of our politicians and media have real life implications that are putting the vulnerable increasingly in the firing line.
Sources:
https://prideinlondon.org/news-and-views/honouring-lives-lost-to-transphobia/
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2010/15/section/7