Dear Sir Keir Starmer Leader of HM Opposition, Liverpool City Region’s Labour MP’s and Steve Rotheram, Mayor of the Liverpool City Region,
We are writing to you as Merseyside’s most established transgender peer support group, founded in the early 2000’s. Over the years we have helped thousands of transgender people within the city region and world by giving them a safe and supportive environment to socialise and meet new people as well as learn new information from the many influential guest speakers we regularly host and empowering our community on social media. We as a collective community are deeply dissatisfied that none of you have voted against the UK Government blocking the Scottish Parliament’s bill to Reform the Gender Recognition Act to make life easier for transgender people. We believe it is both shameful and lazy of you to not bother to vote in the interests of your LGBTQ+ constituents despite recent census data showing that in parts of Liverpool city centre, over 10% of the population identify as being LGBTQ+. This is a direct betrayal of the people you are supposed to represent both as MP’s and as Labour MP’s. The party that is supposed to stand up for the interests of marginalised communities. We understand that your leader, Sir Kier Starmer whipped you into not voting against the government blocking the Scottish Parliament’s proposals to help the trans community, but you must ask yourself what actually is your purpose then as His Majesties Opposition if you are not opposing the government, especially when they so callously and unapologetically attack and harm minority communities. You are acting far too complicit in being happy with the current trans hostile status quo and history shows us that political parties that are not proactive in standing up for the communities they were set up to represent are easily replaceable.
We have heard mass dissent among the LGBTQ+ community both on social media and offline over The Labour Party not defending the Trans Community from politically motivated attacks from the Conservative government. People quite rightly, feel betrayed and I would go as far as to say that it is irresponsible, neglectful, and dangerous of you not to use your platforms and power to stop this government from harming the trans community. The UK has become an increasingly hostile and scary place for the transgender community, particularly since the effects of us leaving the European Union have started to come into effect and the media and government have been looking for vulnerable minorities to scapegoat for the economic hardship that Brexit has contributed towards. Unfortunately, both Brexit and the Covid 19 pandemic have gave way to an increasingly reactionary, reality and science denying segment in our society that does not want to accept reality and science such as the fact that transgender people have and always will be part of natural human diversity. We also see other minorities such as migrants and refugees increasingly being used as a political football, like the trans community. To distract from government corruption and the failure of the promises of Brexit to deliver anything of much substance. We know that you are trying to appeal to people you see as being part of ‘Middle England’ or the ‘Red Wall’ who you do not think care much for the rights of minorities. However, let us tell you that most people in this country do not wish the kind of harm upon minorities that is currently being inflicted upon us by this government and media which you are also complicit in by not speaking out on the transphobic hate we face when you are able to do so, shame on you.
Much of the rhetoric around transphobia now is to do with concerns over ‘women’s and children’s safety’ the exact same arguments that were used against gay people in the 1980’s and 1990’s. Your party has a proud history of standing up for the rights of the LGB community by banning section 28 (we believe that ‘section 35’, the name for the UK Government Blocking the reforms to the Gender Recognition Act in Scotland is the new Section 28 to suit which minority is the moral panic of the day). You banned section 28, not because it was a popular thing to do at the time, (it was not due to, the media stirring up a moral panic at the time about book’s turning children gay, like what the Republican Party is doing now in many states across the US in banning LGBTQ+ friendly books from school’s). But because it was the right thing to do. You equalised the age of consent to 16 and you bought in the civil partnerships act. All wonderful progressive reforms. You have now trashed that proud history of championing the LGBTQ+ community all because your leader, does not have the backbone to stand up for marginalised communities and do the right thing. You need to ask yourself what your party is for if you are not going to fight for those who need it. You are letting down the British public, who will not allow either you or the Conservatives to take them for a fool. If your leader does not believe that 16-year-olds should be able to change their gender then he should also not believe that 16-year-olds in Scotland should be able to vote, get married and fight in the military, which they are all able to currently do. The hypocrisy and populist rhetoric people such as Keir Starmer (who should know better) spout when it comes to trans kids knowing who they are is ridiculous. The fact that Keir Starmer is happy to throw a minority under the bus because he thinks it is popular says a lot about his character and suggests that he only has his own best interest at heart rather than the UK’s. Not exactly good qualities in someone who wants to become Prime Minister. There is absolutely no harm in allowing trans kids to live in their true and authentic genders. There is much more harm in trying to suppress that which many in our community know about, which is why it is vital that you ensure this government bans conversion therapy.
In May, the city will welcome thousands of tourists for Eurovision, which will no doubt include lots of LGBTQ+ people from all over the world. What kind of message about Liverpool as a city are you sending to those LGBTQ+ people coming here who wish to be accepted and respected for who they are that you will not even bother to vote against legislation that explicitly harms them. Some of those people will come from countries that are seen to be less accepting towards them than the UK is, who should really be setting an example to the world in how we should treat people rather than weaponise them and use them for political gain.
We believe that history will judge your party and leader harshly for not supporting the transgender community in our time of need. You have lost much credibility of being an LGBTQ+ friendly party. We want to know why you think it is acceptable to side with a bigoted Tory government with an explicitly anti trans agenda. Rather than stand up for the people you are supposed represent (your LGBTQ+ constituents)? Why are you happy to be complicit with the so called ‘Gender Critical’ movements attacks on the trans community which are so like the abuse the gay community received 20 years ago? We do not even like to call them ‘Gender Critical’ because they are not critical of the social structures around gender as a social construct, or in favour of boosting women’s rights around the world. They are only interested in attacking the trans community and likening us with criminals. They are not at all critical of gender roles and are instead highly biologically essentialist, believing that people should never dare to step outside the norms of the gender roles they were assigned with. (It shares this quality with homophobia and many people in the GC movement are happy to collaborate with homophobes if it means they can harm trans people). It is a deeply reactionary movement, based on how they intimidate, threat, disrespect, and dehumanise the trans community. There is absolutely nothing at all moderate about the Gender Critical movement and the fact that your party’s leadership stance is to try and appease all sides is quite literally pathetic. It is even more of a dereliction of duty that none of the city region’s MP’s have voted against the trans community having their rights stripped off them across the border. You are currently complicit in the dehumanisation and denial of rights towards one of our society’s most vulnerable minorities. How any of you could call yourself a ‘progressive’ after failing to speak up, vote to protect our rights and defend one of our society’s most marginalised communities and siding with one of the most reactionary and hateful movements in history is baffling. You should be ashamed of yourselves, especially Keir Starmer who has a background in human rights law. What an irresponsible insult to your profession you have committed by not standing up for marginalised communities.
We are also disappointed in you for not being clear and transparent to the British public that the government are lying to us. They are lying to us in making us believe that the reforms to the Gender Recognition Act in Scotland affect trans peoples access to women’s only spaces. When in fact it does not. The only impact of this legislation is the ability of trans people to change their legal gender on their birth, death and marriage certificates and enjoy a bit of respect and dignity in life as our authentic selves as self-autonomous people. You are complicit in misinforming the British public. You are also complicit in denying Scottish people the autonomy over government themselves as a devolved nation. It is no surprise that both Scottish Labour and LGBT+ Labour are so upset with your party’s leadership now when you so obviously care little about the Scottish people and their rights to make their own democratically voted for laws however, they wish which is absolutely their prerogative. We also believe that both you and our government are furthering the legal case for Scottish Independence as it is none of your business to interfere with their laws that do not affect the wider UK. But it is absolutely your business to defend Scotland’s right to make its own laws and set an example to this disgraceful and regressive UK government on equality and diversity legislation.
Despite all the harm that you have so far inflicted upon our community amongst this whole toxic ‘debate’ (when was debating people’s human rights the thing to do in a so-called liberal and developed society?) we believe that there is still time for you as politicians and as a political party who are supposed to champion the rights of minorities to change course and start speaking up for the trans community, showing solidarity and being the ally’s you was always meant to be. You can start by not allowing your weak-willed leader to keep trying to appease all sides of the debate, which we believe is the equivalent of trying to appease both Black Lives Matter and white supremacists. It does not work and is a foolish approach to take that lacks foresight, judgement, and conviction. If you would like to start championing the Trans and wider LGBTQ+ community then you must start by listening to our voices. Too often, the debate in this country is centred around two transphobic people in the media sitting around discussing us as though we are a stereotypical artefact rather than actual human beings. This is so dangerous. If you care to reply to this email, we will happily invite you to our support group so you can learn more about the trans experience, our struggles and fight for autonomy in what is an oppressive political climate in which you have been contributing towards as of late. We believe that the root course of transphobia is ignorance and being uneducated on our lived experiences. Once you take the time to sit with us and talk to us, you become more enlightened, understanding and believe that standing up for our rights is the right thing to do. (If you are a decent person that is). We would also like to invite you to the Liverpool Trans Day of Visibility Celebration on Saturday the 1st of April at The Museum of Liverpool which is such an important time for our community as a time dedicated to celebrating our beautiful, diverse community for what brilliant people we are and why we are so much better than those who use hate filled rhetoric to oppose us. When they go low, we must go higher. We do hope that you will carefully consider the points made in this letter and think carefully about who is side you want to be on or more specifically what side of history you want to be on, – the side of the reactionary, bigoted, misinformed, moral panic induced, scapegoating, intimidating and disproportionately influential ‘Gender Critical’ movement. Or the side of 99% of the British public who are not actually bothered by trans people and want to respect our rights to live in peace and the trans community ourselves who deserve the same rights as everyone else. The fact that you are putting the demands of bigots who want to see our community eradicated ahead of the actual LGBTQ+ community who you have championed for years is quite literally abhorrent and inexcusable. We suggest you take a good look in the mirror and see what you are becoming and how far away it is from the values you were founded upon. Being an LGBTQ+ ally is not just about getting to participate in the ‘fun stuff’ like pride month or being an ally to us in the good times when it is politically convenient to you. It’s about being here for us during the challenging times and standing up for our community when we need it the most, not just taking the easy route that causes more harm in the long term. The fact that the Scottish GRA bill is the most debated and scrutinised piece of legislation ever to pass in the Scottish Parliament and is still being scrutinised now by both sides just shows how deeply transphobic our society still is and puts further emphasis on the fact that you must start being better trans ally’s.
Yours Sincerely,
Lily Rose Hunt
Chair of Spirit-Level Transgender Support Group
Chair of Liverpool Trans Day of Visibility
Community Champion at LCR Pride Foundation
BA (Hons) Contemporary Critical Sociologist at Liverpool John Moores University
