By Ray Goodspeed
Trans people right now are suffering from shock after shock as attempts are made to turn back the clock and take away rights that they have enjoyed for over twenty years. But this has led to a new mood of rage, unity and determination from trans people themselves, with marches demonstrations and protest actions.
The Labour government’s endorsement of the Tory ban on puberty blockers for trans adolescents and Wes Streeting’s making the temporary ban permanent was a huge betrayal.
Then came the absurd and ill-informed Supreme Court judgement, made without a single trans person being allowed to give evidence, that defined the word “woman” as it is used in the Equality Act of 2010, as only referring to “biological women” – but without supplying any scientific definition of what that meant. This is in the long tradition of legal judgements against the interests of workers, trade unions and oppressed groups, and it must be fought.
The reaction from Starmer, and the Equalities Minister, Phillipson, was spineless at best and savage at worst, going along with the most extreme interpretation of that ruling, which provided nothing like the clarity that Starmer has claimed it provided. Within days they had suggested that the judgement had ruled that a “women” only referred to “biological women” for all legal purposes and that all women’s facilities must now exclude trans women.
Trans women who have lived as women and used women’s facilities, sometimes for decades, are now expected to just use gents toilets, male changing facilities and to be barred from women’s hospital wards.
[photo TKDB website]
They have relied on guidance from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which itself had been stacked with anti-trans members by the Tories, including the clearly anti-trans Chair, Baroness Falkner, as part of their war on “woke”. This body is completely compromised as an organisation designed to defend the human rights of all groups. Its bias could not be clearer.
Grass roots protests
While there are several ongoing legal challenges to this nonsense, and the EHRC have been forced to extend their consultation period by a few more weeks, grass roots organisations of trans people have taken part in protests to try to push back against the wave of anti-trans propaganda from the mainstream media outlets, the EHRC itself and transphobic or gutless politicians.
On 26 May bank holiday, a group of trans women and their supporters held a powerful symbolic protest on the South Bank of the Thames near the Tate modern art gallery, standing for two hours on a cold and rainy day topless and holding placards above their heads which asked the question – “Men?” and to draw attention to the ridiculousness of the current legal mess.
As their statement read: –
“In London over thirty activists gathered by the river outside Tate Modern to raise awareness and speak about trans issues. A powerful speech was read by a single non-binary activist whilst a whole line of trans women stood unapologetically topless in the cold and rain. We did so to draw attention to the important message we needed the public to hear.
“Violence against women is not caused by trans women. It is caused by people who believe we must all conform to the binary roles of man and women or be an outcast from society.
“Twenty or so trans people, and allies, stood diligently and engaged with the public in conversation, after conversation, about a subject that is almost never discussed face to face in public and certainly not between strangers on the street.
“This was part of a national campaign by a group called DefTrans who’re attempting make events like these a common site starting from mid-June on high streets up and down the country.”
[DefTrans – @defundtransphobes for more info or an interview.]
The group have subsequently carried out peaceful protest outside Waterstones bookshops, drawing attention to the fact that the wealthy author of the Harry Potter books, JK Rowling, has part-funded the case that led to the Supreme Court judgement and has declared that she has set up a fund out of her vast fortune to finance more legal cases designed to ruin the lives of trans people.
Trans Kids Deserve Better
On the same day, another group, Trans kids Deserve Better made up of a heroic group of young trans teenagers began an occupation outside the EHRC’s London offices at Tintagel House, intending to stay there overnight.
One of them, Blue (she/her), stated,
“the EHRC are complicit in and responsible for enabling the ongoing erasure of transgender youth in the UK, which is incredibly ironic considering that they’re meant to be the ones protecting OUR rights! I’m taking part in this action because the time for waving placards is over – the time for action is now.” [Trans kids Deserve Better website]
Yet again, on the same day members of the group in Scotland occupied the balcony above the entrance to the EHRC office in Glasgow in protest at the so-called “interim guidance” published by the Commission. They were forcibly removed by the police.
As they explained on their website:
“The group were seen flying a banner which reads “End segregation, Trans Liberation!” as a direct response to the EHRC’s statements which seek to further alienate trans people from groups or spaces that they would have otherwise have been allowed to exist in. An activist participating said, “It is disappointing that we have to undertake an action such as this to be listened to, but as long as we are ignored and oppressed, we we’ll keep fighting.”
[photo TKDB website]
The group had previously left red hand mark on the front window of the NHS HQ, in protest at the deaths by suicide of trans kids denied treatment. They have also regularly targeted the office of Wes Streeting, leaving him painted cardboard “coffins”.
It is inevitable that trans people will fight against their rights being stripped away – they have no choice. But they must not be left to fight alone. The trade union and labour movement must offer full support to their efforts and ensure that in every workplace, any attempts by employers to use this judgement isolate or humiliate trans people by forcing them into using the wrong facilities it defeated by solidarity action from their colleagues.
Virtually all trade unions have formal policies in favour of rights for trans people and active union members must ensure that these are fully acted upon. Trade unions that are affiliated to the Labour Party must exert pressure on the Labour leaders, as they did in the 90s and 00s for lesbian and gay rights, to change the law to reaffirm the rights that were granted in 2010 and 2004 by the last Labour government.
[Feature photograph: Ray Goodspeed]
