A group of LGBTQ+ charities have requested an urgent meeting with prime minister Keir Starmer to discuss the possibility of a looming “crisis” for trans and non-binary people in the UK.
14 LGBTQ+ charities, including Stonewall, Scottish Trans, the LGBT Consortium, and more, wrote to the prime minister urging him to meet with representatives to discuss the rise of transphobic rhetoric in the UK and how to prevent what it describes as a “genuine crisis for the rights, dignity and inclusion of trans people in the UK.”
It comes following a UK Supreme Court ruling in April, which argued that the legal definitions of women and sex in the 2010 Equality Act are related only to “biological women” and “biological sex,” excluding trans women.
Responding to the ruling a week later, Starmer said he was “really pleased” at the “clarity” that the ruling had produced, later saying he no longer believes trans women are women and trans men are men.
However, the collective of charities argued in the letter, reported by The Guardian, that the judgement had instead created “confusion” and a “lack of clarity” on how it could impact businesses, single-sex spaces, services, and civil society.
It added that the 2010 Equality Act has been turned “completely on its head” through the ruling’s implications, which it said had created “a legal framework that simply cannot uphold the dignity, protection and respect of trans people.”
The letter also criticised the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) after it published non-statutory guidance calling for trans people of all gender identities to be banned from all gendered toilets, male or female. it described the guidance as inconsistent with the UK’s obligations under the Human Rights Act and said it amounts to “significant overreach.“
While the guidance is not legally enforcable, the EHRC’s position as an advisory board on human rights laws in the UK suggest it could be used to justify future legislation.
The organisation’s chair, Kishwer Falkner, wrote that criticism of the EHRC’s guidance is “unacceptable,” while saying it is wrong to “question the integrity of the judiciary, or indeed the regulator, as some have done.”
An internal investigation of the EHRC over claims of “bullying, transphobia and harassment” was launched in 2023 after claims of a “toxic culture” were shared by Channel 4. The investigation was later suspended.
The Supreme Court judgement is currently facing a legal challenge from the Good Law Project, a non-profit which aims to uphold human rights equity through the law.
So far, the charity has raised more than £306,000 for an upcoming legal complaint, which it says will challenge the ruling for “disgracefully” refusing to speak to a single trans person during the case.
The decision, it says, “shamefully deny the reality of trans existence and will lead to daily humiliation for trans people and for cis people who choose not to dress ‘normally’. And they will not make anyone safer, cis or trans.”
Trans judge, Dr Victoria McCloud, who also plans to challenge the ruling through the European Court of Human Rights, said that she and other trans people had petitioned to be heard during the case, but were denied.
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