It seems clear that trans rights are being used as a political football says FBU LGBT+ national secretary Pat Carberry
Many will recognise the increase in profile that the issue of trans equality has received in recent years. The 2001 census revealed that around 262,000 people in the UK said their gender identity and sex registered at birth were different, which is 0.5% of the population.
So why are trans rights being pushed to the forefront of so much political debate?
The rights of trans people are undoubtedly an important issue, particularly if you happen to be trans. At the heart of it is the freedom for those individuals to live a life in the gender that they identify with, yet those basic entitlements are being decided by people who will not be living that life.
The debate is a classic smoke and mirrors diversion tactic: attack a tiny part of society, demonise and make people frightened of them and divert political debate away from the wider issues such as the cost of living crisis, economic failure and incompetent leadership by government.
While all of this is happening, members of our trans community are the ones who suffer the most.
The debate is a classic smoke and mirrors diversion tactic
This July, a leaked report by the Cabinet Office and its Government People Group revealed draft guidelines for UK civil servants. The new draft policies for the UK’s 500,000 civil servants would restrict trans staff from using single-sex spaces such as toilets and force staff to accept transphobic views in the workplace.
Access to facilities such as toilets would be restricted to the gender at birth of the individual unless they have a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). As only 5,000 GRCs have been issued, only one in 50 of those trans workers would be afforded the dignity of using the facility that aligns with the gender they identify with.
The draft policy also protects gender critical views being expressed in the workplace which would effectively permit the expression of transphobic speech.
Many believe that the leaking of these draft policies is an attempt to trigger a wider, even further anti-trans debate in what is being titled a “war on woke”.
The content of the proposals would also likely be a breach of the Equality Act 2010 so it poses the question: why make such provocative proposals?
It seems clear that trans rights are being used as a political football
It seems clear that trans rights are being used as a political football and, despite the reforms being passed by the Scottish government, the unprecedented intervention by Westminster to veto these reforms shows a clear direction at political level that positive change will be resisted.
The fact that the census shows over a quarter of a million people identify as a different gender than that at birth yet only one in 50 has acquired a GRC, demonstrates the process of legal gender recognition is not fit for purpose.
