It’s clear that the political landscape in this country is changing. What remains the same is that our communities, day-in day-out, face many challenges: be it the basics of how local councils run with the little funding they have, or how we navigate our way through the abhorrent rhetoric we’re seeing used against already vulnerable groups in the media.
For the LGBTQ+ community, these challenges appear in various aspects of life: employment, healthcare, housing, and more. Trans people are more likely to experience mental health issues, access to gender-affirming healthcare can be fraught with obstacles, and moreover we’re frequently the target of hate crimes and violence. In short, the “trans experience” is arguably defined as a constant struggle for safety and acceptance.
A tirade against the trans community
The tirade we’re seeing against the trans community, who make up less than 1% of the population, is not only a race to the bottom, fuelled by recycled homophobia from nearly forty years ago, but is also a distraction from the issues that really matter: the cost-of-living crisis, international justice, the climate emergency. Despite these hardships, resilience and solidarity shines through. A huge thank you to everyone who has played their part so far to support the LGBTQ+ community, standing with us in solidarity when we need it.
The Supreme Court ruling takes the issues we already face and amplifies them. The ruling offers no clarity and seeks to address a complex issue as though it were a binary. Biology often shows us that sex is a nuanced concept, rather than a “cookie cutter” definition that separates it into a binary.The ruling reducing it this way ignores the varied aspects of sex and groups it together into one single concept, which overlooks that there is no single ‘definition’ of biological sex that encompasses everyone’s lived experience and medical needs.
The Supreme Court ruling: how does it affect us?
Not only does the Supreme Court ruling punch down on the LGBTQ+ community, but it also affects women’s rights by creating a hostile environment for people, often cisgender women, who don’t adhere to gender stereotypes. Additionally, the ruling defines “lesbian” as a biological female attracted to other biological female. In attempting to reduce the definition of “woman” and “lesbian” down to biology, rather than autonomy, the ruling is regressive.
The country voted for change just under a year ago, but the result is that we’ve ended up with a Labour government that is continuing the same tirade against our communities, just as the Conservatives did over 14 years. What the LGBTQ+ community needs right now is support, understanding, and recognition of the challenges we face daily. Unfortunately, we’re not seeing that – the Supreme Court decision has been backed by Labour’s Women and Equalities Minister, we have MPs attacking the Tories from the right on this decision. Where the Labour government has the opportunity to reform the Equality Act following the ruling to protect trans people, they instead push ahead with putting fundamental human rights at risk.
The existence of LGBTQ+ people should not be political… yet it is. The ruling is a decision made about our daily lives without the voice of a single trans person in the room; there should be nothing about us without us.
Green Party values
In the Green Party, we’re proud to be member-led and to have policies that come from the grassroots. We are clear, as enshrined in our responsibilities and rights, that:
- Trans men are men, trans women are women, and that non-binary identities exist and are valid.
- We shall respect transgender and non-binary people’s identities as real.
- There are many gender identities that are within, and outside of, the traditional gender binary of man and woman.
- We shall include, and push for further acceptance of, transgender and non-binary people within all areas of society.
- Trans, non-binary, genderqueer, third gender, and intersex people should have their gender legally recognised and be empowered to update their birth certificate and any other official documents, without medical or state encumbrance.
- We support the right for individuals to update their legally recognised gender by self-determination, the only requirement being a statutory declaration, to how they would describe their gender, including having the option to change their name on all documents.
On legislation, we also believe that:
- All legislation on equality and diversity will include LGBTQ+ people so that, for instance, they are given explicit protection against harassment and discrimination.
- Opt-outs from equality and discrimination laws by religious organisations will not be allowed.
- Current anti-discrimination legislation should be reviewed so as to provide protection to all trans individuals.
- Current exemptions to anti-discrimination legislation should be scrapped.
- We would move to include intersex as a protected status in current equality law and acknowledge that individuals have legal protection in adopting a gender identity and expression.
Time to take a stand
In the Green Party, we’re proud to fight for environmental justice together with social, racial, and economic justice – and we understand the intrinsic links between them.
However, we also understand that history – especially political history – is a powerful teacher. The solidarity shown in the 1980s between lesbians, gay men, and miners brought about change – we need to stand together and show that same solidarity now. Looking back to the time of Stonewall in America, we know that the fight for queer liberation rose up from trans women of colour fighting for the rights of our whole LGBTQ+ community: by having each other’s backs, we can make a difference.
The bottom line is, these are tough times, but we are strong when united. Collectively, we must stand together to fight for the change we need. The issues we need to tackle stem from the broken system of austerity, not from trans rights – which do not exist as a zero-sum game. Now more than ever, it’s crucial we stand together to advocate for real hope, for real change, and for justice.
