Labour needs to do much more to achieve equality for trans* and intersex people

The Labour party has rightly been at the heart of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual (LGB) equality for years. In 1967, the party helped to decriminalise homosexual relations practiced in private (under the condition that both people involved were 21 years-old or over). They also helped to revoke the despised Section 28, which banned the “promotion” of homosexuality in our schools. They helped bring in Civil Partnerships for gay couples, equaled the age of consent for homosexual acts, included homophobia in the list of hate crimes, signed the Treaty of Amsterdam (which gave the EU powers to end discrimination based on sexuality), allowed LGB&T* people to serve in the army openly and enacted a law against hate speech based on sexuality.

All of those achievements are fantastic for LGB people in the UK – the party should be proud of this history Although, there is  obviously much to do for LGB equality, for example achieving Same-Sex Marriage in Northern Ireland. Yet, despite the fact that Labour has been at the forefront of LGB equality, are they really the party that has achieved trans* equality too?

At the face of it, you could say absolutely. The most prominent showing of support for trans people and their rights by Labourites was the 2004 Gender Recognition Act; recognising trans* people if they’ve transitioned for 2 years (although this is too long, in my opinion). However, there are however exceptions made for this recognition with regards to sport and religion.

What’s more, in their 2001 Election Manifesto the party never mentioned trans* people at all. The only reason why the Labour Party proposed the 2004 Gender Recognition Act was due to a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights in 2002 via the “Christine Goodwin v The United Kingdom, Case No 28957/1995”. This stated that “the UK Government had discriminated based on the following: Violation of Articles 8 and 12 of the European Convention on Human Rights” and thus the UK had to introduce new legislation. Such came the Gender Recognition Act.

It is important to say, however, that LGBT Labour have introduced a trans manifesto into their doctrine. This includes the repealing the trans spousal veto (shame on Labour for supporting this in the first place) and reviewing the 2004 Gender Recognition Act. I fully support both of these measures from LGBT Labour but there is still a lot to be done when it comes to trans rights. I believe neither the party or is ‘LGBT Labour’ are giving sufficient focussing and energies to this strand of the battle for gender rights.

We need detailed reforms to the 2010 Equality Act to end the transphobic elements within the law. We need laws against hate speech based on gender identity. We need to end discrimination in the army against gender identity, just like sexuality. We need to give trans people better and easier access to healthcare, such as Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT) and Sex Reassignment Surgery (SRS) if they so choose. And, as with sexuality, we need the recognition of gender identity in asylum.

In the UK, the problem at the moment is that trans* rights are 10-20 years behind LGB rights. That’s why on laws against hate speech, discrimination in the army, asylum and marriage, trans people are discriminated against or do not have any protection whatsoever, contrary to those protections given to LGB’ers. Labour need to correct this and ‘LGBT Labour’ need to be at the heart of this in encouraging highly influential Labour Cabinet members to supporting this.

Then there is the issue of non-binary people. It’s often assumed that people who want to transition are binary trans people – and by binary, a man or a woman. This is wrong because there are people who feel neither they’re neither gender, or there are those who feel they’re both both. We need to move away from this binary trans view, which says that no non-binary people transition, or at least partially. We need to recognise non-binary people’s gender, as we do with binary trans people. With this in mind,  we should include non-binary people in the Gender Recognition Act. And  we should amend the 2010 Equality Act it to include all gender identities i.e. Agender, Genderqueer etc, and not just trans people who are transitioning. Our current definitions aren’t good enough; they’re not inclusive and they only recognise the mindset of those who don’t understand the diversity of gender.

The landscape much looks the same for intersex rights. Labour and LGBT Labour should be fighting for recognising intersex people, like they do in Germany and Australia. Labour should also be pushing for measures that would allow intersex people a third gender option on their passport. After all, we’re the party of equality.

This is why ‘LGBT Labour’ should be expanded to include all gender identities and intersex people, too. Similar to what UKIP & Lib Dems have done with LGBT*/LGBT+, by fighting for LGBT+ equality.

In the Labour Party, we’re very good at focussing on LGB equality, but when it comes onto trans* (Trans, non-binary people and those of all gender identity) and intersex issues, the party seems very quiet or tokenistic.

Let’s take a small example. A couple of days ago, London Pride 2014 occurred. It was fantastic. It included lots of people of all sexualities, gender identities etc people who are proud of who they are and they’re not scared of showing it.

Ed Miliband, the Labour Leader, wrote a small article regarding this, saying that “Pride shows Britain at its best”. I agree.  It’s fantastic he’s mentioning significant LGB achievements and talking about wanting to do more for LGB rights. But aside from mentioning “trasnphobic bullying” he failed to talk trans rights, nor did he mention the desire to protect non-binary people or Intersex people.

I’m not saying the Labour Party is hostile to trans* and intersex rights. What I am saying is that there is not enough focus on it. This is why ‘LGBT Labour’ need to expand to include all gender identities, sexualities and intersex people, instead of focussing solely on LGB issues, which is gradually becoming obsolete as more visibility for non-binary and intersex people is coming to fruition.

Achieving cis LGB equality such as equal marriage is fantastic, but we need to go further. We need to focus more on achieving trans* and intersex rights that, at the moment, I feel the party is letting down. So, let’s be that beacon of equality in Britain, fighting for the end of all discrimination against all peoples, of all sexes, of all sexualities, of all gender identities. Because surely deep down in our hearts, that’s Britain deep we in the Labour party truly envisage.