Local residents and activists rallied against homophobic hate crime in Forest Gate on Monday (Picture: Guy Smallman)
Now it must channel that anger towards Keir Starmer’s new government and its slew of attacks on trans+ people. Labour has helped create a climate of increasing hostility.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) last week restated that employers can exclude people from jobs on the basis of their sex where the candidate must be a woman.
But it added that employers can exclude transgender women from those roles, even those with a Gender Recognition Certificate, if it is “objectively justifiable”.
The new guidance undermines all trans+ people and even the limited protections for them that existed in the 2010 Equality Act.
The EHRC decision comes after the Labour leader made clear during his election campaign that trans women should not have the right to use women’s spaces, such as toilets.
And it follows health secretary Wes Streeting saying that he was wrong to have previously declared that “trans men are men, trans women are women”.
But in a sign of Labour’s vulnerability on the issue, Streeting now says he is “treading cautiously” on his initial plans to permanently ban puberty blockers.
Meanwhile Trans Pride Brighton last Saturday was the first mass LGBT+ protest under the new government. It saw 40,000 people march to demand trans+ liberation. In 2023—the event’s ten year anniversary—30,000 marched.
Jasmine attended the event with a contingent from Hastings, Eastbourne, Brighton and Portsmouth. She told Socialist Worker, “What struck me was the enthusiasm for chants to free Palestine and against Israeli pinkwashing.
“The anger rivalled most Palestine demonstrations that I’ve been on. The only chants that better captured the mood were, ‘Fuck Keir Starmer’ and ‘Fuck Wes Streeting’.
“There were obviously a lot of people who felt failed by Labour. Lots of people held placards against the puberty blocker ban and the backwards Cass Review.”
When in power the Tories closed swathes of gender identity clinics, forcing people to join long waiting lists. Labour has done nothing to improve the situation—and the party leadership ignore the way the lives and mental health of trans+ youth are affected.
Trans Pride Brighton chief executive Sarah Savage said the new government must reach out to trans+ people and regain trust after a “bruising” election period.
“There’s a lot of trepidation about the new government. Both of the major party leaders said incredibly transphobic things,” she said.
Savage said it feels like a “scary time” to be trans+ in Britain. “I think Starmer has a lot of work to do to regain our trust and that can only be done by actions,” she said.
The hate and scapegoating of trans+ people flows from the top of society and has a violent impact everywhere. We must resist it. It will take a fight on the streets to push back Labour’s transphobia.
Gather for London Trans+ Pride on Saturday 27 July at 1pm at Langham Place outside the BBC, W1A 1AA
Anti-fascists plan to join after the counter-protest against Tommy Robinson.
Fight every attempt to exclude, isolate and attack trans+ people
The far right are stoking up fear and hatred of Muslims
