Vote Green

The Green party manifesto has a series of humane policies on trans. In 2017, their policies were the broad consensus, based on our human rights and the clear meaning of the Equality Act as confirmed by the EHRC, and were supported by Theresa May until Boris Johnson’s lurch to the right and decision to grub for votes from division and hate. So they will support the Human Rights Act, which should not need to be said. They support self-declaration for trans people, and nonbinary recognition. They support LGBTIQA+ inclusive Relationships, Sex and Health education.

But they go further. They would ensure mental health provision is tailored to the specific needs of LGBTIQA+ people and other groups, and push for pay-gap protections to be extended beyond sex to all protected characteristics- which includes gender reassignment. Their manifesto has no snide comments or fearmongering.

28 May 2024: I am moving to Brighton, and have been out with the Green party to get Siân Berry elected. When she was leader of the Green Party, she did not want to work with Shahrar Ali, because of his trans-excluding views. She could not get him deselected as party spokesperson, so she resigned the leadership. Now he has sued the party, apparently because he believes trans exclusion a more important issue than the climate catastrophe.

I have been in the Labour party since 2017. I was shocked by the Brexit referendum result. It was time to get serious about politics, and go out and campaign. The Tories were doing serious damage to the country. I am pleased with my encounter with Jeremy Corbyn: someone commented on facebook, “Oh, he looks nice, are you seeing him again?” The Labour Party’s insult to Diane Abbott, and their increasing hostility to trans people makes me not want to support them, but in a Labour/Tory marginal like Corby I would. They would be better for the country than the Conservatives. Almost anyone would.

There are four Green target seats this election. In Brighton Pavilion, Siân Berry is an active ally of trans people.

In Bristol Central, the candidate is Carla Denyer, co-leader. She regularly speaks out for trans people, including for Melissa Poulton as candidate in Redditch.

In Waveney Valley, Adrian Ramsay, co-leader, is standing. He speaks up for trans, including this attempt to explain the law to a deeply transphobic New Statesman journalist.

In North Herefordshire, the candidate is Dr Ellie Chowns, a former MEP. I could find nothing trans-related for her, but the Greens get far less coverage than Reform despite the fact that the Green party has hundreds of local councillors. The constituency is not to be confused with Hereford and South Herefordshire, where a Green councillor with transphobic views is the candidate. She has lost her deposit in three previous elections.

Vote Green, unless by voting Green there is a serious chance of letting a Tory in, in your constituency. Green votes show the commitment of the electorate to environmental policies.

In the afternoon I was out with deputy leader Zack Polanski.

He told me that Quakers started the Green Party, then the Ecology Party. That is why they start meetings with “attunement”, or silence. I got the t-shirt on Saturday, when I visited the local office to join the party. We met at someone’s house, and she prepared a varied lunch for us. I was not the only recent Labour party member there. Canvassing, as so often many people did not answer the intercom, and we had lots of enthusiastic people saying how much they admired Caroline Lucas. It is a good start.

I am so glad to have a candidate I can back wholeheartedly.

More on trans: Darren Johnson was a former Green member of the London Assembly, who has been suspended from the party for falsely claiming that trans children taking PBs was “completely ignoring medical evidence”. In fact there’s a great deal of medical evidence for giving trans children PBs, which is why many countries continue the practice.