Tag Archives: Trans Rights

Jennie Rigg

A strange but welcome feeling

By Jennie Rigg | Wed 3rd June 2026 - 10:10 am

I write this as a serial and vocal complainer about much of what the Parliamentary Party does. I have been such for many years. Way back in the neolithic era I won awards for blogging my complaints. So it’s only fair that when the Parliamentary Party knocks something out of the park I be equally vocal with my praise.

Firstly, on Sunday, Ed Davey, our leader and Marie Goldman, our Equalities Spokes, sent this letter to Bridget Phillipson. The consensus among the exec of LGBT+LDs was “well, we might have worded a couple of things differently, but mostly, it’s really good”. We weren’t really surprised at Marie’s name being on it, because she’s been consistently great in the equalities role from day one, but Ed putting his name to it was a very welcome surprise.

Then yesterday’s debate on the EHRC New Section 28, I’m sorry, services guidance happened in parliament. And our MPs were MAGNIFICENT.

It’s worth reading the whole thing in Hansard, for exactly how great they all were (and how awful the non-responses from the Labour minister were), but I want to do a roll call. First up was Marvellous Marie, who pointed out how unworkable the guidance was, and asked the minister to consider new legislation.

Then came my fellow Yorkshirer Tom Gordon, who was appalled by the Tory response.

Then, Honorary President of LGBT+ LDs Queen CJ admonished the minister for her non-adherence to the spirit of the Equality Act.

Then, Layla Moran asked the minister to consider what would be the consequences if her assertions that this document provides protections for trans and non-binary folks were wrong.

Then, Josh Babarinde, our Party President, not only made the point that this code does nothing to protect women and girls, but also gave a shout out to LGBT+LDs and Lib Dem Women.

Then, Vikki Slade pointed out the lack of respect for human rights of trans and non-binary people.

Then, Charlotte Cane asked “Will the Minister consider changing the law so that the Equality Act lives up to its name?”.

And then Mike Martin asked for a vote on the code itself.

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Tanya Park

Written Out: Trans people, the British press, and a debate conducted in their absence

By Tanya Park | Mon 25th May 2026 - 10:09 am

Between January 2020 and April 2025, four major British newspapers published 17,000 articles about trans people. That’s an average of nine a day, every day, for five years. A rate, Amnesty International UK notes in its new report, entirely disproportionate to the size of the trans population, which represents around 0.5% of people in England and Wales.

To understand who was shaping the coverage, Amnesty’s researchers tracked which names appeared with enough consistency and regularity to be considered significant presences in the reporting. Not every passing mention, but sustained, repeated prominence across the five years. Of all the individuals who met that threshold, only two were British trans people. One was Brianna Ghey, a sixteen-year-old murdered in a park by two teenagers. The other was Isla Bryson, a trans woman convicted of sexual violence. JK Rowling, by contrast, appears more than four times as often as both of them combined.

That asymmetry tells you almost everything you need to know about how this debate has been constructed, and why it is a democracy problem as much as a trans rights problem.

The findings come from a systematic statistical analysis of how four major outlets, The Guardian, The Sun, The Telegraph, and The Times and Sunday Times, reported on trans people between 2020 and 2025, which identified patterns across thousands of articles.

Coverage was disproportionate to public interest: ahead of the 2024 general election, trans rights didn’t feature in voters’ top 16 concerns, yet gender and sexuality were the most-covered culture war topics in the four weeks before polling day. Coverage was disproportionately negative in sentiment. Successive prime ministers, opposition leaders, and the longest-serving Scottish first minister appear consistently as the named subjects of reporting, confirming that “trans issues” have been elevated to a political priority by the press even where no equivalent public demand exists.

The analysis of which named individuals appear frequently enough in the coverage to be statistically significant is where the picture becomes sharpest. Trans people appear in reporting about their own lives almost exclusively as victim or perpetrator. The frame is set by politicians, campaigners, and a novelist. The people most affected by decisions on legal gender recognition, healthcare access, and single-sex spaces are, as Amnesty puts it, virtually invisible. That absence is not just a media ethics problem, though it is that. It is a structural condition that makes it easier to do things to people than it would be if those people were present in the conversation.

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Tanya Park

The amended EHRC code is an attack on trans rights. Lib Dems should be at the forefront of challenging it.

By Tanya Park | Fri 22nd May 2026 - 12:02 pm

The amended Equality and Human Rights Commission Code of Practice on services, public functions, and associations was laid before Parliament yesterday. It will become law in 40 days unless Parliament acts. That window matters, and Liberal Democrats should be using it.

I have read the code carefully. The headline is this: it does not just reflect the Supreme Court’s ruling in For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers. It goes further, resolving almost every area of discretion against trans people and in favour of those who want to exclude them. It makes inclusion legally risky and exclusion legally safe. That is not what the law required. It is a choice the Commission made.

The Supreme Court ruled that “sex” means biological sex for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010. That ruling set certain parameters. It did not dictate how the Commission should weight trans people’s interests in the proportionality framework, how broadly to define legitimate grounds for exclusion, or how much guidance to give service providers on how to include rather than exclude. Those were judgment calls.

The most significant of them is in paragraph 13.131, which states that a service provided to “women and trans women” could amount to unlawful sex discrimination against women. An organisation that has made a principled, considered decision to include trans women in its women’s spaces now faces potential legal liability for doing so. Inclusion has been turned into a risk. The same logic applies in reverse to trans men: a man’s service that includes trans men is equally exposed. In both directions, the code makes the inclusive choice the dangerous one.

The proportionality framework for single-sex services sounds balanced in principle. Service providers weigh the benefits of a single-sex service against the harm of excluding trans people. But the legitimate aims available for exclusion include preventing “discomfort or distress” in other users, assessed by reference to whether those users “could reasonably object” to someone who “appears to be of the opposite sex.” The threshold is not harm, not complaint, not evidence. It is hypothetical discomfort, assessed by the service provider.

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Tanya Park

The Peggie case and the problem of shadow funding

By Tanya Park | Wed 10th December 2025 - 11:54 am

An employment tribunal recently dismissed almost all claims in the closely-watched Peggie v Fife Health Board case. Sandie Peggie, a nurse with gender-critical beliefs, sued her employer over its policy allowing a trans woman doctor to use the female changing room. The tribunal found no direct discrimination, no indirect discrimination, and no victimisation. Only one narrow procedural claim succeeded.

For many, this reads as vindication of trans-inclusive policies. But there’s a bigger story liberals need to understand. This case is part of a coordinated litigation campaign operating largely in the shadows, bankrolled by wealthy individuals and organisations whose funding remains deliberately opaque.

Who paid for Sandie Peggie’s legal representation? We don’t know. What other similar cases are they funding? Whether this is an isolated grievance or a test case in a broader strategy? We don’t know. That’s precisely the problem.

Over the past two years, employment tribunals have seen a forty-fold increase in gender-critical belief discrimination cases. Multiple NHS trusts faced legal action within just three months, the Girl Guides received a pre-action letter threatening litigation over their trans-inclusive policies, and the pattern continues to accelerate. The strategy works even without courtroom victories – both the Girl Guides and the Women’s Institute recently withdrew trans-inclusive policies in the face of legal threats, capitulating before cases even reached tribunal.

Beyond the direct policy changes, the litigation serves another purpose: media attention. Each case – win, lose, or settle – generates headlines positioning trans-inclusive policies as legally risky and politically contested. The public controversy itself becomes the victory, shaping discourse and institutional behaviour far beyond any single courtroom.

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Jack Meredith

Strength in solidarity: masculinity and the fight for trans rights

By Jack Meredith | Thu 13th November 2025 - 2:54 pm

My journey in powerlifting spans over a decade, a journey that has not only shaped my physical strength but also my outlook on masculinity.

For those unfamiliar, powerlifting is a strength sport that consists of three movements: the squat, the bench press, and the deadlift. Each competition allows competitors to attempt each lift three times, with the heaviest successful attempt from each forming a competitor’s overall total.

Powerlifting, for me, has transcended the mere act of lifting. It has sparked profound introspection about the essence of strength. The finest lifters are not defined by their volume or aggression; they are the ones who maintain composure in adversity, bolster others in their pursuit of goals, and persist even when the going gets tough. They don’t wield their strength as a tool to undermine others; they employ it to elevate everyone around them.

In a world where figures like Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, Andrew Tate, and Joe Rogan dismiss the concept of being ‘woke’, my fellow male powerlifters and I have consciously chosen to reject this toxic masculinity. We value decency and community over the hollow, performative notion of being an ‘alpha male’.

Our approach can be best described as ‘positive masculinity,’ a form of strength deeply rooted in respect, empathy, and equality.

Positive masculinity, at its core, is about recognising that strength should never come at someone else’s expense. In a society where so many communities still face hostility, cis men have a duty to use their strength, physical, emotional, and moral, to stand beside them. Liberalism is rooted in empathy and fairness; positive masculinity is simply those principles lived out in everyday behaviour.

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Marlowe North

How can I stand in the rain leafleting for a party that does this?

By Marlowe North | Thu 6th November 2025 - 10:37 am

I canvassed seventy-five doors for the Liberal Democrats last Saturday.

I know it’s not a massive number by many politicos’ standards — I mean, I did seven hundred and sixty-nine across the short campaign period last year — but it’s still a decent amount to do on one casualish action day, I think.

And yet, when I watch my partner (our local candidate) trawling through the local rag’s website for things we can use as Focus stories, I can’t help but wonder what I’m doing here.

I am (as far as I’m aware) the only trans member of our local party, and I’m our diversity officer too. I organised and ran the Lib Dem stall at our local pride event this summer, and I spent eight hours wearing my voice hoarse (top tip trans-masc people, it’s a great temporary alternative to T in terms of dropping about an octave) telling attendees that the Lib Dems are standing up for all queer people’s rights. It was a tough day, but it was exhilarating and I loved every second. It was a fantastic way to spend my first ever pride event.

I don’t know if I could do that in good faith any more.

I canvassed seventy-five doors last Saturday because this is the party I’ve signed up to, and because I really truly believe that my partner would be significantly better on the council than the God-awful complacent Labour people currently clogging up this ward. But I did have to slightly switch my brain off in order to do so, because I really don’t know what I would have said if a trans voter had asked me about our party’s policy on their rights.

Now, I know our party’s policy is excellent. We’re in favour of self-ID including a neutral option, a complete ban on conversion practices, and removal of the spousal veto. But at the same time, trans people within the party are not free to be who we are: not if we want to be counted in quotas.

(Non-binary people in particular now don’t show up in gender quotas at all, and it’s not like this can be blamed on the Supreme Court ruling, because non-binary people have never existed in UK law.)

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Onyx Rist

I know it’s hard but… please stay

By Onyx Rist | Tue 4th November 2025 - 2:14 pm

It’s been a difficult time in this party recently. I’ll admit that. Those of us who are trans and non-binary have been vilified not just in the media, but within our own party too. I understand why some people want to leave or resign. It’s not easy to stay.

But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from being on the exec for Plus, it’s that the majority of our members, MPs, and activists support our rights. Most of this party fundamentally disagrees with the Supreme Court ruling.

And let’s be honest, if you do agree with it, you’re in the wrong party. The ruling is dangerous for both cis and trans women, and we must work to overturn it. There are already cases of cis women being kicked out of toilets because they don’t fit patriarchal stereotypes of what a woman should look like. Trans people are being left with nowhere safe to go in public.

Real Liberals are angry about this and want the Equality Act updated so it can no longer be used to strip away equality. But I digress.

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Jack Meredith

Diversity in name only

By Jack Meredith | Tue 4th November 2025 - 10:19 am

Warning: There are mentions made to studies referencing suicidal ideation in the trans community later on in this piece. If this topic causes you discomfort or concern, you may wish to avoid reading this article.

We are now a week removed from our party’s announcement of adherence to the Supreme Court’s ruling on gender identity in reference to our internal election diversity quotas.

During that time, we have heard from many people, including, but not limited to, Prue, Josh, Caron, Rebecca, Iain, Chris and me. There is, however, one person we haven’t heard from: Ed Davey.

Now, of course, there are many Liberal Democrat MPs who have yet to speak out. Still, as both our party’s leader and a previously outspoken supporter of the LGBTQIA+ community, it has been nothing short of a betrayal to hear nothing but radio silence from Ed. His article for the Lib Dem website, published during Pride Month, even referred to our Spring Conference’s reaffirmation of support for LGBTQIA+ rights, with the introduction of the supporting paper “Free To Be Who You Are“, which sets out a range of policies supporting the LGBTQIA+ community. Rereading his piece now, it does beg the question, “How much of this is legitimate support, and how much is pandering?”.

It’s ironic, really, that the paper is titled “Free To Be Who You Are”. Perhaps the subtitle “Unless you’re an elected official in the Lib Dems” is needed to reflect the reality of such a two-faced approach to allyship.

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Sean Bennett

The world sees us as leaders on trans rights. How can we be getting this so wrong at home?

By Sean Bennett | Thu 30th October 2025 - 8:55 am

Of all the topics that my first Lib Dem voice article might have been about, I never dreamed it would have to be this one. 

The recent change, during an election, of our party’s diversity quotas is nothing short of shameful. The decision itself is abominable, the manner in which it was taken was disingenuous, the announcement was cowardly, and the justifications have been fundamentally flawed.

There are many authors on this site and members in our party who are trans or non-binary, and their opinions and thoughts on this situation should carry far more weight than mine. However, in the light of this newest betrayal when it comes to the rights of our trans and non-binary siblings, there sprung up a fundamental contradiction in our party that I felt required sharing.

Many of our sister parties around the world look to the Liberal Democrats as torchbearers on matters of LGBTQ+ rights. On the world stage, we are seen as being among the most progressive, the most committed, and the most forward looking on these issues. Indeed, colleagues from around the world have, and continue to, actively look to us for advice and guidance on these matters, believing our positions to be the standard to which many wish their own parties would hold themselves.

Yet, lately, the gulf between the way we are seen by our international friends and the reality of our party here at home seems to be widening.

One of my first experiences representing the Liberal Democrats was on bilateral trip to Finland. The youth wing of one of our sister parties there had invited the Young Liberals to come and advise them on how to improve their policy on trans rights in the face of the prevailing laws at the time, which were draconian.

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Rebecca Jones

Have we forgotten what we stand for?

By Rebecca Jones | Tue 28th October 2025 - 4:00 pm

I joined the Liberal Democrats six years ago. I was 16, I’d just finished my GCSEs and I wanted to make a difference. I believe in Liberalism, and the party’s preamble spoke to me. After all, who wouldn’t want a free, fair and open society? Well, as it would seem, quite a lot of people.

But nevertheless, I campaigned in elections during 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023, 3 times in 2024 and again in 2025 and I’ll continue in 2026 for my local election campaign. We lost most of those elections. All 5 of the ones I stood in we lost, which wasn’t too surprising. Throughout all of this I kept going not because I thought it was the best way to spend my Saturdays. Nor for my step counter. Nor because I wanted fame and fortune.

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Josh Babarinde

Trans and non-binary Liberal Democrats – I stand right with you

By Josh Babarinde | Tue 28th October 2025 - 12:00 pm

All presidential and vice presidential candidates were offered an additional piece given the importance of and interest in the announcement on diversity quotas.

So many of us in LGBT+ community – and countless allies, too – feared that the Supreme Court ruling earlier this year would challenge the dignity and identity of trans and non-binary people across our country.

Shortly after the ruling, I insisted on meeting the Supreme Court Justices following the judgement and made it clear to them just how much trauma, pain and uncertainty has been created by it among our trans and non-binary community.

It is gut-wrenching to see this reverberate through our party, particularly in the last 24 hours, and to have spent yesterday speaking with some of our trans and non-binary members who feel disillusionment and despair.

As a liberal party, with equity and inclusion fundamental to our values, we all have a duty to challenge affronts to the dignity of trans and non-binary people, and to defend their rightful place in our movement.

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Prue Bray

Prue Bray: I am so angry I almost can’t type

By Prue Bray | Mon 27th October 2025 - 7:15 pm

All presidential and vice presidential candidates were offered an additional piece given the importance of and interest in the announcement on diversity quotas.

We are in the middle of elections for internal roles in the Federal party, and I am one of the candidates for President. Voting opens tomorrow. So, this morning, I sat down to write a piece about why members should vote for me.

But then, at lunchtime, a statement appeared on the party website – stating that – in the middle of the election – a decision has been taken to change the rules on diversity quotas. And not just any old change, but the very change that only last month Autumn Conference voted overwhelmingly not just to reject, but to reject without even debating. That change is to apply the quotas to people according to their sex at birth, so that trans men will be considered women and trans women considered men. If you are non-binary, who knows what happens!

I am so angry I almost can’t type.

It isn’t just the fact that this decision goes against the express wishes of Conference. Or that it is being done in the middle of an election, inviting all sorts of challenges. Or that it is hard to see how it can work in practice, given the party don’t have gender reassignment data for the vast majority of members – and even the ones they do have it for are likely to revoke permission for the party to hold it, in case they are outed by standing for election. Or that it has been slipped out by being posted on a website, rather than all candidates being informed – such cowardice! Or the fact that if it is an attempt to prevent the party being sued it is probably doomed to failure, on GDPR grounds if nothing else. No, it’s the fact that they are voluntarily throwing trans and non-binary people under the bus. Voluntarily!

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Caron Lindsay

Caron’s Conference Diary: Lobsters and an MP barking “at the f***ing tide”

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 21st September 2025 - 12:01 pm

The sun rises over Bournemouth PierIt’s 10 am on Sunday morning as I write this. I’ve already been to an 8am consultation session, of which more later.  So far my Conference has been everything I’ve wanted it to be – a wonderful catch-up with friends, meeting lots of new people and playing shops at the stalls with the enthusiasm of a 5 year old in a room full of lollipops.

I arrived from drizzly Scotland to the warm, sunny and temperate climes of the south coast on Friday morning. I had planned an afternoon on the beach but then remembered that there is a hop-on, hop-bus tour that goes from West Cliff Road. My friend came with me. We “hopped off” in the very chic Sandbanks, home to Harry Redknapp and a Rick Stein restaurant.

Jazz Café, SandbanksWe had the most delicious smoked salmon sandwich I have ever had in my life at the Jazz Cafe. Perfect sunshine, right next to a golden beach and lovely wine. What more could you want? Though the inevitable happened – Scottish person steps into the sunshine for 5 minutes and turns into a lobster. My nose will be peeling by Tuesday no doubt.

The bus tour is really interesting if you fancy a break from Conference and you can also get to Sandbanks on the 50 bus.

Saturday started with Vikki Slade MP and Cllr Millie Earl, her successor as leader of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council opening Conference.

The following report back session from Federal Conference Committee and Federal Policy Committee annoyed me slightly. There were many questions listed in Conference Extra but they only got to 2 of them. There could have been more time for answers if the Committee Chairs had spoken for less time. Something to think about for the future?

Then came the thing that I had been worrying most about. A constitutional amendment proposed by members of a fringe anti-trans group to limit the quota places in Federal Committee elections to what they refer to “biological” and women and erasing the provision for non binary people completely.

It’s worth mentioning that this motion only appeared on the agenda because it had to. Constitutional amendments have to be taken, even if they are dreadful. The Federal Conference Committee can simply reject policy motions that are inaccurate wrong, but they don’t have that power with constitutional amendments.

This fringe group  tried this once before, in York a couple of years ago. Conference voted overwhelmingly then to Move to Next Business, something that had happened only once before in living memory on a motion to give the leader a veto on policy voted for by Conference.

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The first freedom: Autonomy of the Body

By Esther Foulsham | Wed 17th September 2025 - 10:25 am

The First Freedom: Autonomy of the Body

If you cannot respect another person’s right to do with their body as they please, liberalism has no place for you.

Most people who consider themselves liberals will consider a (usually unspoken) list of rights they hold sacred.  Freedom of speech is usually the first to come to mind.  But what about the others?  The right to a fair trial?  The right to privacy?  The right to own property?

While often rarely cited, we passionately believe bodily autonomy is the right that is foundational to all others, thus we, as liberals, have a duty to defend it.  Although we must defend a wide plethora of human rights, including a core commitment to freedom of expression, we must, however, be clear: free speech should never be used as a justification to undermine other fundamental liberal values.  This includes, above all else, our right to bodily autonomy and the freedom to define our own identities.  But rights don’t exist in isolation; they are always tested in the tension between individual freedom and state control.

To understand the liberal commitment to bodily autonomy, we can contrast it with a more conservative principle: paternalism.  Paternalists claim that the State should determine what people can and cannot do with their bodies.  This is most glaring in the United States, where attacks on abortion rights are justified under the guise of ‘protecting the rights of the unborn’, and gender-affirming care for minors is (being increasingly restricted) in state legislatures across the country, reflecting an increasing desire of the State to exert control and insist that kids and their parents do not know best.

In the UK, paternalism takes subtler forms—often cloaked in the rhetoric of so-called “gender critical” activism, found across all political parties, including our own.  It also manifests in outdated legal structures: for example, many are unaware that under current UK law, even with the decriminalisation of abortion, a pregnant woman must still obtain the approval of two doctors in order to access a safe and sanitary abortion.   This is control wearing a convenient freedom-shaped disguise.

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Rebecca Jones

For a lot of trans people, it’s hard to feel pride right now

By Rebecca Jones | Sun 8th June 2025 - 9:08 am

Just a few years ago it looked like our country was moving in the right direction. There was a broad consensus for trans rights, things were moving forward. Yet now, not only have trans rights not progressed,  they have actually regressed. Even for the few thousand of us that have gone through the burdensome procedure of getting a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC), we still almost no legal recognition of our true gender.

In the aftermath of the UK Supreme Court ruling, trans people are experiencing a roll back of our rights at a pace not seen since Section 28.  With many companies even instituting ‘bathroom bans’ for trans people – akin to far-right Republican states in America. It’s an incredibly scary time to be trans in the UK right now, and for many of us it seems like it will only get worse. Just recently we saw Conservative politicians proposing amendments to forcibly change all trans people’s identity documents to reflect their birth sex instead of the gender they live as now.  This barely scratches the surface of the tide against us. It’s incredibly difficult to be positive about it all.

And to be honest, we’re scared. I’m scared.

As a community, we have no faith in the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) to uphold our rights, with their leadership repeatedly speaking out about trans exclusionary policies. Many of us hoped things would get better after Kishwer Falkner leaves office, but the Labour Government seems determined to install someone who looks like they could be equally opposed to our rights, freedoms and equalities. For many of us, we feel little hope of the situation getting that much better as Labour continues to chase the far right at the expense of vulnerable groups in society. I speak to a lot of trans people, who really cannot see much hope right now, and I don’t have much I can tell them. 

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The Voice

Christine Jardine requests meeting with Minister over LGBTQ+ rights

By The Voice | Fri 18th April 2025 - 3:43 pm

Official portrait of Christine Jardine @HouseofCommons/Roger HarrisLib Dem Women and Equalities Spokesperson Christine Jardine has written to Women and Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson to ask for an urgent meeting to address the implications for the LGBTQ+ community in the wake of this week’s Supreme Court judgement.

On social media, Christine said:

I am increasingly disappointed that the concerns of the #LGBTQ+ community over what the Supreme Court judgement means for them are not yet being addressed. I have written to the Government asking them to make clear how trans and non binary rights will be protected.

In her letter, she asks that before any decisions are made, trans and non binary people are fully comsulted. She said:

I therefore urge your government to bring forward urgent guidance on how existing legislation will protect those rights, whether fresh legislation is envisaged and how the ruling’s practical implications will be resolved.

This must include significant steps to provide trans and non-binary people with the reassurance they deserve. To do this, the guidance must ensure rights that trans people have freely used for decades are not overturned.

These steps should also include open consultation with trans and non-binary communities, to better understand the ruling’s impact and whether any further legislative or policy change is needed to ensure that everyone’s rights are protected.

The full text of her letter is below.

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Chris Northwood

We have just entered a civil rights emergency

By Chris Northwood | Fri 18th April 2025 - 1:19 pm

As the shockwave of Wednesday’s bombshell Supreme Court decision has landed, we are now seeing the rapid erosion of some civil liberties in the UK. Although the court’s decision itself ruled on a fairly narrow part of Equalities Law, we are now seeing huge confusion as people pore over the full implications of the ruling and some seem to capitalise to restrict the rights of trans people, without regard of the side effects on the wider LGBT community, or women.

We have now seen initial responses from people like the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission Baroness Falkner, which appear to be taking a worst case interpretation of the ruling which does nothing but erode hard fought rights for trans people, claiming that we should be excluded from spaces we have existed in without issue for decades.

The British Transport Police have been fast off the mark to change their policies regarding strip searching of trans people. Male police officers can now strip search women if they believe they are trans (regardless of what genitalia that person might actually have). As a councillor I have seen officers in my council take weeks at the fastest to fully evaluate the impact of changes like this before introducing them, so find it impossible to believe that this policy has been introduced as a result of careful consideration of the implication of the ruling given the speed at which it has been done. It is clear that systemic transphobia remains embedded high in many public institutions, which are now rushing to bring in policies which harm vulnerable trans women.

I have no doubt that we will see more transphobic policies introduced under the guise of this ruling, rather than as a result of any careful consideration of the implication of it. These policies will hurt not only trans people, but be harmful for society in general as an erosion of liberty. Women in particular will be hurt by these decisions, shamefully championed by transphobic hate groups which masquerade as “women’s rights” campaigners, when inevitably authorities may make a judgement about their sex which turns out to be wrong. This has happened in the US through other trans-exclusionary definitions of women in bathroom bans. Legal recourse after the fact for redress is no compensation, and will remain open only to those with the pockets to fund it.

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Caron Lindsay

Statement from LGBT+ Lib Dems

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 19th March 2025 - 4:30 pm

LGBT+ Lib Dems co-chairs Charley Hasted and Luke Allan have issued a statement concerning distressing incidents that took place at Federal Conference in Brighton. 

At the Liberal Democrat Federal Conference in Autumn 2024, a volunteer for Liberal Voice for Women harassed two members of LGBT+ Liberal Democrats on two separate occasions. The volunteer in question admitted waiting until our members, one of whom was an autistic woman less than half his age, were alone on our exhibition stall to target them. We are pleased that a disciplinary panel recognised his behaviour for what it was and upheld a complaint against him.

We are disappointed, though, that when his behaviour was raised with members of LVfW- including members of their committee, both at the time and after the fact, our concerns about this man’s behaviour towards a vulnerable woman were roundly dismissed by them.

For an organisation that claims to care about women’s safety, it is hypocritical in the extreme for them to dismiss concerns about a man’s behaviour towards a woman being harassing or intimidatory, when the basis for their dismissal seems only to be his age and/or that they agree with the opinions that led to him harassing our members.

LGBT+ Lib Dems stands firmly behind the principle that targeted harassment of the kind our members experienced is unacceptable, regardless of the age or views of the person doing it. Moreover, we have been consistently clear that we expect our volunteers to behave decently towards all attendees at Conference, and have worked productively with Party Leadership at various levels to ensure this is the case, and try and minimise conflict.

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Caron Lindsay

Caling all trans allies in Brighton – show support at 1pm today

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 15th September 2024 - 10:58 am

Jude Parker spent two days this week sewing a huge trans Pride flag with the help of Douglas, her much loved sewing machine. It’s pretty massive 15 metres and weighs 4.5 kg. She carried it to Brighton along with the rest of the merch for the LGBT+ Lib Dems stall. It was a real labour of love in response to the blow of hearing that an anti trans group had been allowed to have a stall at Liberal Democrat conference.

This flag will be unfurled outside the Brighton Centre at 1pm today in a show of solidarity with trans people in our country and in our party. Everyone who supports trans rights is welcome to show support.

We are proud of our history as a party that has always stood up for LGBT+ rights, as we’ve stood up for women’s rights, for racial equality and human rights generally. It’s in our core.  So what on earth are we thinking allowing in a group that does not align with our values?

This group have been wanting to have a stall for some years and we have turned them down. In fact, the Federal Conference Committee turned them down again for this Conference. Unfortunately, the legal advice the party sought was apparently clear that we could be liable for significant costs and damages if, as was considered likely,  this group sued us.  They seem to have the resources to do so, and, unfortunately, LGBT+ people in the party do not have access to such deep pockets. So, FCC was over-ruled and they were given a stall.

There is surely an issue around access to justice in all of this. If only the rich can take action which sets legal precedents, there is a clear power imbalance which should worry us.

Some would argue that the party should have said, as Harry Willcock famously did in 1950 when asked to show his ID card “We’re liberals and we’re against this sort of thing.”

I can definitely see the logic in that and a bit of me wishes we had the courage to stand up against an unfair and illiberal law, even if the sums involved in defending a legal action makes me, as a recovering state party treasurer, wince with pain. Even if you win your case, you rarely get all your costs back and it’s expensive and time consuming.

Our conference exhibition is our shop window to the world. A law which compels us to include people who do not share our values on the grounds that they have a “protected belief” seems ridiculous. As a political party, we surely should have the right to choose who sits in our shop window.

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Chris Northwood

Debunking the “gender critical” myth

By Chris Northwood | Sun 1st October 2023 - 12:32 pm

“Sex is binary and immutable” is the great myth that underpins “gender critical” ideology.

At first glance, it might appear to be plausible, but anything beyond a cursory inspection shows it to be shallow and incorrect.

Biology is a complex system, and although broad classifications like sex can be useful for a lay understanding, it falls apart at edge cases and under scrutiny. Intersex people exist, other differences of sexual development do happen, and of course there are also transgender people.

Medical science is wonderful and has helped us overcome constraints of biology. Vaccinations help us develop immunity, LASIK corrects poor eyesight, and trans health care helps transgender people transition their biological sex into that which best aligns with their gender identity.

Every morning I wake up and take 5mg of estradiol valerate, and every night before I go to bed, I take 200mg of progesterone. As a result, more of my body is female than male, and this is monitored every 6 months through blood tests at my GP.

Not everyone who is trans undertakes medical intervention that alters their sex, but using hormones to bring about these changes has been done for more than a century. To deny that it exists and is effective is to deny the reality of medical care.

This is not a controversial view. The most recent legal precedent on this was the employment tribunal “Forstater vs CGD” appeal which confirmed that “there is significant scientific evidence that wrong” and called them “profoundly offensive and even distressing”. It is the duty of us as liberals to challenge and call out these beliefs for the lie that it is, especially when they become expressed as justification for transphobia. “Gender critical” beliefs are not protected from challenge, and can not be used as a justification for discrimination or harassment.

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Caron Lindsay

Lib Dems should stand up against EHRC claims on sex and Equality Act

By Caron Lindsay | Sun 9th April 2023 - 2:39 pm

In February, the Women and Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch wrote to the Equalities and Human Rights Commission to ask them to consider the current definition of “sex” in the Equality Act.

It should not be a surprise that the EHRC replied this week identifying eight areas, ranging from book clubs to sport to access to single sex spaces in which amending the Equality Act so that sex means what they call “biological sex” would bring “greater legal clarity.”

It is not an exaggeration to say that this, if implemented, would have a massive impact on trans people’s ability to live their lives. Not only that, but women who aren’t trans, but who don’t look “feminine enough” could face challenge in single sex spaces. It would essentially make life more miserable and dangerous with no gain for anyone.

Not only that, but part of the requirement for getting a Gender Recognition Certificate is that you do use single sex spaces after you have transitioned. So restricting those to sex on your original birth certificate creates a Catch 22.

The EHRC is led by Kishwer Falkner, who was once a Liberal Democrat Peer but now sits in the Lords as non-affiliated after leaving the Party over our continued opposition to Brexit. She was appointed by the Government to her current role in December 2020 and the organisation has been adding to the anti-trans mood music since.

I have spent my adult life campaigning for women’s rights and I’m far from being done. The Scottish Lib Dem Women constitution cites smashing the patriarchy as an aim and I am here for that.

I know what it is like to be on the receiving end of threatening behaviour from men in a public place and to actually fear for my life.

None of that makes me think it is ok to stop trans women accessing women’s spaces, or fail to do them the most basic courtesy of respecting their identity. Because if you don’t accept them as the women they are,  how on earth are they supposed to go about their lives? What facilities are they supposed to use?

Falkner says in her letter to the Government that she wants to see a more informed and constructive debate on these issues. One way to do that would be to target the misinformation and fear being spread by anti trans groups and to recognise that this is part of a global effort to undermine women’s rights and LGBT rights.

Liz Barker pointed this out in her International Women’s Day speech in the Lords:

Women have different life experiences, different economic circumstances and all sorts of differences between us, yet we have common aspirations for safety, health, autonomy and prosperity. It is important to bear that in mind as we have this debate, because it takes place against the background of a campaign originated and orchestrated by Christian nationalists in the United States, Europe and across Russia, which is very definitely about curbing the aspirations and autonomy of all women.

In the United States and places like Poland and Hungary the focus is on anti-abortion activities. In Africa, the focus is against equality and LGBT rights. In the US and UK, the key focus of this campaign is anti-gender.

The constant drip feed of anti trans stories in the media brings to mind the constant drip feed of anti EU stories over many years. And we know that didn’t end well.

It is therefore hardly surprising that trans people are worried and fearful about their safety in this sort of environment as hate crimes against them soar.

Women are equally understandably worried and fearful about their safety as violence against women and girls increases. The threat to women’s safety is not trans women though – it is predatory men in a society structured in such a way that those men are rarely  held to account for their behaviour.

If we turned our attention to dismantling the power structures and the culture that enables that to happen rather than picking on trans women, the world would be a lot safer for all women.

EHRC officials met LGBT representatives the day after the letter was released. And it is fair assessment, from Jane Fae’s account, that they do not fully understand what they are talking about. I am in awe of our own Helen Belcher for keeping her cool through that meeting and calmly and forensically questioning them on their assertions:

Well, I can understand that might be an aspiration but when your letter talks about reasons for, erm, excluding trans women from women’s spaces, how, how do you expect me to live my life? How do you expect me to be a councillor and represent my constituents? How do you expect me to do my work in Parliament if I cannot use women’s facilities? …

That’s a really basic element of human rights and the proposal seems to me to demand that I am openly identifiable as trans in any interaction with public services. So how does that square with my right to privacy?

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James Belchamber

It’s time for gender critical people to leave

By James Belchamber | Sun 19th March 2023 - 2:53 pm

This spring conference season Lib Dems filed into the auditorium to hear a motion that would amend this piece of the constitution, to remove all references to self-ID and non-binary people:

Whenever this Constitution provides for the election by party members to a Federal Committee, not less than 40% or, if 40% is not a whole number, the whole number nearest to but not exceeding 40% of those elected shall self-identify as men or non-binary people, and self-identify as women or non-binary people respectively.

And this spring conference, a weary bunch of Liberals – tired of the constant, fundamental attacks on our values from a determined and illiberal minority – moved to ignore it entirely, a vote that passed with such a staggering majority that you could weigh the result.

The message was clear: “go away”. And now it’s time for those critical of gender identity – in the footsteps of those critical of sexual identity – to leave the Liberal Democrats.

The writing is on the door – there is no space for bigotry in this party. And while our byzantine machinery has allowed this motion to reach the conference floor, no representative auditorium will pass it.

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The Voice

Lib Dems amend definition of transphobia – LGBT+ Lib Dems vow to resist

By The Voice | Wed 16th November 2022 - 7:03 pm

The Federal Board announced yesterday that it had amended its definition of transphobia in light of recent legal advice. The new wording can be found here,

However, LGBT+ Lib Dems, the official party body for gender and sexual minorities, has vowed to resist it, saying that the party had been unable to stand by its values when confronted by well-funded and organised transphobia. They said:

Like many reading this, the team at LGBT+ Liberal Democrats are disappointed and frustrated with the recent revisions to the Liberal Democrats definition of transphobia. While some tidying up of it may have been needed to protect against vexatious legal challenges, we are sad that our party has been pushed so far backwards.

As a party, we see ourselves as having the longest and strongest record on advocacy for trans rights and the wider LGBTQ+ community. Only last month our leader, Ed Davey MP, met with trans and non binary activists in the party to talk about trans people’s lives in the UK today. Many, many people throughout our party are staunch trans allies – be that in Parliament, the Council chamber, or party staff. And yet institutionally we remain risk-averse, unable to fully stand by our liberal values (as clearly laid out in the preamble to our constitution) as an organisation when confronted by well-funded and organised transphobia.

This process began earlier in the Autumn, and LGBT+ Liberal Democrats were sought for consultation on these changes. Naturally, we had a strong line on any changes that might be made, but sadly these do not appear to have been reflected in the final version. Key points that we raised in our response included:

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Jack Meredith

LGBT+ Allies need to step up

By Jack Meredith | Sun 3rd April 2022 - 12:30 pm

On March 31 2022, Boris Johnson announced he was U-turning on the government’s pledge to ban conversion “therapy”; a form of abuse that seeks to undermine someone’s gender and/or sexual identity, and gaslight them into believing how they view themselves is wrong and must be “corrected”.

Due to backlash from politicians across the House; including a number of Tory MPs, and LGBT+ pressure groups Johnson acquiesced – to a point. He has promised to uphold the ban on gay and bisexual conversion therapy but has failed to do the same regarding trans conversion therapy. What has been made very clear is that the LGBT+ community is viewed as nothing more than a vehicle to gain votes for Boris Johnson. The way he is willing to make such rash, disgusting decisions that compromise the rights and safety of individuals serve to highlight that now, more than ever, LGBT+ allies need to rally around the community and bolster our support.

We cannot expect trans people to shoulder the burden of standing against societal, and now state-sanctioned oppression alone. If we want to see real change, we must create platforms that amplify trans voices. We need to contact MPs, MSPs, MSs, MLAs, Councillors, Mayors, anyone and everyone that is integral to our political system and encourage them to speak up against such prejudice. We must listen, not to respond, but to understand and learn from trans people, the negative experiences they face and what we can do to mitigate them. It is our moral responsibility to defend and uphold the individual freedoms of all people – a responsibility that our government has abandoned.

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Sam Al-Hamdani

Sex, gender and everything in between: why we need new language to help people understand trans rights

By Sam Al-Hamdani | Thu 10th February 2022 - 3:22 pm

I am a trans ally. Trans rights are human rights, and we should be doing everything that we can to ensure that they are enforced and everyone is given the respect and dignity they deserve.

Unfortunately, all too often when engaging in this area one of the first hurdles is getting past inaccessible language.

First of all, there is the term “assigned”. People are “assigned a sex at birth”. That’s a really misleading phrase. What we actually mean is that they were assigned a description of their sex – typically male or female, based on characteristics that they have.

But that’s not really very accurate. I have a daughter, and we definitely didn’t go through a process of checking levels of oestrogen, progesterone and testosterone. We didn’t check her chromosomes, there was no extensive check for genital abnormalities. We “assign” a description of their sex, based on a whole raft of assumptions. It can be years later that people figure out that that was inaccurate.

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Christopher Stafford-Smith

Liberals and the cancel culture

By Christopher Stafford-Smith | Tue 28th July 2020 - 9:44 am

The sujet du jour; at least on Twitter, seems to be “cancel culture”.

I’m a newbie on Twitter and as I have scrolled through my feed and seen various threads; I’ve noticed a schism between Lib Dems, on this particular issue. On one side there are Lib Dems, advocating the necessity to protect the individual, human and civil rights of the oppressed and that freedom of speech doesn’t come with freedom from consequence. On the other side are those Lib Dems who see freedom of speech as a key tenet to liberalism. An article by Tim Farron (advocating the latter), exemplified this schism with Tim being supported and rounded on, in equal measure. However, this isn’t a divide about free speech – it is a divide in the discourse of what is morally absolute and what isn’t.

Within social justice, liberals will always seek a moral universalism when advocating human rights for the oppressed minorities. The danger is, this advocation can fall into absolutism and that those opposing the perceive moral truths by absolutists are not only wrong, they are immoral; leading to those opposing their worldview to be swiftly labelled “racists,” “bigots,” “Nazis,” etc. In a democratic society our cultural norms, ethics and morals, evolve over time through societal discourse. Absolutists, in shutting down what they perceive as immoral; shut down the debate. In effect, they break the social contract that allows for moral consensus to be agreed upon.

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Kobe Bibbon

Young, Liberal and ready to fight for trans representation on Manchester city council

By Kobe Bibbon | Wed 8th April 2020 - 11:50 am

Manchester – a city of equality and fairness. A place where the Tories homophobic section 28 had no chance without a fight. Known for our world-famous gay village, we aren’t a city that shys away from ensuring that representation matters, are we?

We are home to the largest group of Labour Councillors in the country and we, Liberal Democrats, were close to taking control of Manchester City Council at one point before the coalition. Yet, Manchester has never seen an openly trans politician. Ninety-six seats on our council and not a single openly trans, non-binary or gender diverse councillor insight.

You would expect a city so liberal and diverse like Manchester to have had many trans politicians by now, but because we haven’t, I’m here to say that enough is enough. No more hollow words on trans rights – but real progressive action. Just imagine being a young trans person who has little hope in society and feels that not a single politician truly represents you, because that’s what it’s like for me and so many right now.

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