Labour is far better than the Tories on trans rights. The Conservative manifesto has several points where it alleges there is a threat from trans people, and Conservatives will protect the normal people from us. The Liberal Democrats and Greens would modernise gender recognition and protect trans people. Labour is in between.
To cover trans people in hospital wards and schools in a manifesto, as the Conservatives do, is micromanaging. Trans people are not that important to the cis. The Tories want to pretend we are, claiming we are a threat. Labour gives us an amount of space more fitting to our importance to cis people’s lives- that is, much less.
The mention on relationships and health education in schools comes under the section headed “take back our streets”, which is mainly on policing. It says to reduce violence against women and girls, schools should teach children about healthy relationships (p69). There is no mention on education about LGBT. Labour has better things to worry about.
In the section headed “Break down the barriers to opportunity”, mainly about schools but with one mention of universities, the subheading “Respect and opportunity for all” seems an afterthought. It deals with equality, including trans. It starts with women’s equality and equal pay. After covering race and disability it goes on to LGBT. It promises everyone should be treated with respect and dignity, so Labour will make hate crime against LGBT an aggravated offence. That’s meaningless. Hate is an aggravating factor in all crime, already. Very little hate against LGBT people which is not another kind of crime- assault, say- is now an offence.
They will deliver a trans-inclusive ban on conversion practices. They don’t, here, address the difficulties with religious people claiming that they have a human right to claim God hates LGBT.
It sounds so positive- they will modernise gender recognition, removing indignities. Trans people deserve acceptance. But, they will not give gender recognition without a diagnosis of gender dysphoria from a “specialist doctor”.
It’s the next words that chill me. It’s a diagnosis from a specialist doctor “enabling access to the healthcare pathway”. If they mean an NHS gender specialist, not recognising private gender specialists, someone going on the waiting list now could be waiting twenty years for that diagnosis, because people are going onto the waiting lists so much faster than those who have been waiting five years are getting appointments.
Gender recognition and trans inclusion under Labour will continue to tighten- not, perhaps, as enthusiastically as under the Tories, but it will be far harder to be trans than it was in 2011. The manifesto says, Labour is proud of the Equality Act and women’s rights in it; “We will continue to support the implementation of its single-sex exceptions”.
In 2011, it was perfectly clear that women’s single-sex exceptions did not apply to trans women. The EHRC confirmed that. The High Court has confirmed it since. Despite this, the anti-trans campaigners insist they apply to all trans women without a GRC, so the vast majority of trans women would not be allowed to use women’s services. They base this argument on the Scottish Public Boards cases, which will come before the Supreme Court within a year.
The Supreme Court could take away our rights. Labour seems fine with that. They will not give us the gender recognition system which would mean most trans women could get a GRC, because of the insistence on the involvement of a specialist doctor.
If we tried to use a rape crisis centre, we could face demands that we show our GRC, and be excluded. But, if we tried even to use a women’s toilet, we could face a challenge to prove we had a GRC. We might face a culture of suspicion. Few people can use courts- they are expensive and stressful- but even the most wealthy and resilient of us might be without legal recourse.
This is not as bad as the Conservatives, who would ban trans women with a GRC from women’s services. But life for trans people would continue to get worse, making our thriving less likely. And Labour seems fine with that. Trans ally Lloyd Russell-Moyle was banned from standing again. Anti-trans campaigner Rosie Duffield was not. Added: 17 June, they withdrew the whip from trans ally Michael Cashman.
Vote to expel the Conservatives. Any seat where Labour is the main challenger to a Tory, vote Labour- for the economy, for social cohesion, for public services, as well as for trans. The polls predicting a huge Labour majority could be wrong, because so many who say they are Undecided voted Conservative last time. If a Labour incumbent had a small majority over a Tory, vote Labour there to keep the Tory out. But elsewhere, we need LibDem and Green MPs to hold Labour to account.
Clare Flourish 