LGBTQ+ people from around the country breathed a sigh of relief seeing that the Conservatives had finally been knocked out of power – but the safety of trans rights under the Labour government remains a hot topic, with one activist believing that trans people are “just another minority for politicians to blame”.
Just weeks ahead of the General Election being called, Dr Hilary Cass published the Cass Review – an independent report on gender-affirming care for transgender youth in the UK. One of the main findings was that there wasn’t enough evidence to support puberty blockers’ “safety or clinical effectiveness”, with the UK Government putting an emergency ban into place in England as a result in a highly divisive move, with campaigners arguing that the ban would lead to a decline in the mental health of trans youth.
The topic was heavily debated during each party’s campaign, and despite a legal battle, Labour want to move forward in making the ban permanent.
Scotland quickly followed Westminster, introducing the ban despite the backlash. By the end of that month, the Sandyford Clinic in Glasgow banned puberty blockers and other hormone treatments for under-18s.
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However, in a study carried out in part by Yale researchers, the Cass Review was criticised for “obscure key findings, misrepresenting its own data and being rife with misapplications of the scientific method”.
Yale researchers aren’t the only ones to take issue with the review and the ban either, as just last week, the British Medical Association called for the ban to be lifted because of the Cass Review’s “unsubstantiated recommendations”.
Yet, despite these concerns from official bodies, a High Court judge ruled that the ban was lawful and justified. Trans advocacy groups still argue otherwise, leaving trans people to wonder what comes next.
When the Tories promised to enact a UK-wide ban on conversion therapy in 2018, it seemed like a step in the right direction. Even more so when the Scottish Government made it clear in 2021 that if UK Government proposals were to fail, it would bring forward its own legislation.
Six years have since passed and we’re yet to see a ban materialise in either Scotland, England or Wales. Now, under Labour, the party have promised that they will push for a full ban on all forms of conversion, including those to convert trans people, who weren’t included in the Tories’ proposal.
Despite campaigners describing this as a great step forward, Labour’s manifesto still sparked debate over its pledge to “support the implementation of single-sex exceptions”, with some seeing this as a direct attack on trans people.
The big question following the party’s victory in the General Election was whether they would overturn the ban on puberty blockers. That question was quickly answered as Health Secretary Wes Streeting indicated that the party would pursue a permanent ban. He stated that he would “always put the safety of children first” and that the party’s approach would continue to be informed by the Cass Review.
Kat Chan, 22, is a trans woman and activist from Glasgow. She thinks the ban on puberty blockers is a step backwards for Scotland. She said: “It’ll cause a lot of stress to young people. They want something comforting for them at that age.
“When I was that age, even when I was put on the waiting list, I was very anxious and I would constantly email Sandyford asking how long I’d have to wait for my hormones and stuff.”
She is also concerned that the ban could lead a lot of young people to seek treatment from unsafe, “dodgy” sources.
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A lot of trans people believe that Labour haven’t done enough on the issue thus far. Since being elected, Starmer has indicated that he believes trans women shouldn’t have the right to use female toilets and has agreed to a meeting with gender critic JK Rowling. Both of these actions were met with backlash from the trans community, believing that this was the party showing their true colours after being given the keys to 10 Downing Street.
Statistics by the National LGBT Survey show that the transgender community is the most targeted group in the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. Last year, hate crimes against trans people reached a record high in England and Wales. Police Scotland also saw a substantial increase in reports after the introduction of the SNP’s new hate crime laws. According to a survey carried out by Stonewall Scotland, almost half of trans people in this country have experienced a hate crime or incident because of their gender identity.
With only 55 trans hate crimes reported to the police in 2022/23 as opposed to the 86 reported in ’21/22 according to Statista, it may seem as though trans hate crime is falling. The damning stat in it all though is that 87% of LGBTQ+ people do not report hate incidents to the police for various reasons, according to research conducted by YouGov.
There is a lot of worry surrounding the safety of the trans community, and with over 320 trans people killed worldwide last year according to the Trans Murder Monitoring report, it is clear why.
Matt Dunan, 22, explained how he felt under a Conservative government, saying that there “wasn’t much hope” and that the country didn’t feel like a great place to be.
He lives in Scotland but travels to London frequently and has often felt unsafe in the English capital.
He went on: “There are still places and times where I was just like, ‘I need to pee, where do I go?’ because you don’t know if you’re going to bump into someone and they’re just going to go for you.
“When you’ve got Sunak up on stage making his big declarations with huge crowds cheering him, you think, ‘Well, they’re cheering against me’.
“I voted Labour. Realistically, I wouldn’t have liked either Tory or Labour up there, but it was tactical.
“It’s better than the Tories, it’s definitely a big change, but it could certainly be better. I feel safer now than I did a year ago.”
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With Labour now in power, trans people are seeing potential for a brighter future but still think they leave a lot to be desired. According to them, Keir Starmer needs to pick his next steps carefully in order to get the trans community on his side.
Kat added: “I think it will get better at some point, but when? I’m not sure. Things usually keep progressing as long as we raise awareness about these issues and keep doing our activism, keep educating people. And I think that eventually, things will be accepted and trans people will be slowly integrated as ‘normal’ people and treated similarly to the rest of society.
“The animal rights movement, the climate change movement, the trans rights movement, etc. We all need to come together.
“We can’t be fighting against each other because it’s a waste of time and we’ll get burnt out from that. We need to build these communities together and make meaningful protests, make meaningful noise. Strategize effective protests and activism to get the word out there.
“For me, it’s about community and spreading the love, even to our enemies. I believe that non-violent protests are a key part of moving our Overton window to where it needs to be.”
Young people believe that the next step is for trans people to be listened to, after feeling as though they had been disregarded by Dr Hilary Cass.
“I don’t think you can sit and make all these laws and rules and bans with no personal input from trans people on it,” Matt explained.
“They don’t have the same stakes as we do. They don’t know what they’re doing.”
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