‘Another day, another empty and unworkable threat from the Tory Government against trans people.’
Those were my thoughts yesterday as the dying regime of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, aided by top minister Kemi Badenoch, turned up the culture war by announcing changes to the Equality Act and trying to attack Keir Starmer for ‘not knowing what a woman is.’
Badenoch said she wants to ‘clarify’ that sex as mentioned in the Equality Act would only relate to biological sex, while Sunak said there was confusion over the way sex and gender are defined.
Well as a trans person, for me the only confusion is why the Tories seem so genuinely obsessed with us.
It really is pathetic to focus so much of your energy on a group that makes up an estimated 0.5% of the population.
Why can’t they just leave us alone?
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It’s very clear this is to distract from their own failings, as the upcoming General Election looks set to boot them out of office after 14 years of disaster.
Instead of addressing the fact that they’ve failed to tackle the cost of living crisis, pushed the NHS to a breaking point, and completely let people down across the country, they seem determined to go down swinging at an easy target – trans people.
This latest attack is not only offensive, it is politically naïve.
A recent poll showed that just 1% of voters think a political party’s position on trans rights is a factor on who they vote for, so this hyper-focus on trans people is completely irrational.
They aren’t appealing to the general public, but a very small section of hardline voters and radicalised groups.
So to me this isn’t about pushing forward a policy that will actually become a reality or influence the outcome of the July 4 vote, but another attempt to simply stir up transphobia, incite fear and do as much damage as possible.
They are set to lose, and lose badly, so will have no power to push through such a drastic change.
Because if we are to entertain this policy even for a moment, it becomes quite clear how unworkable it is.
In this misguided attempt to ‘protect women from males’, their plans would literally mean that hairy, bearded and masculine trans men would now be forced to use the women’s toilets and services.
For all their cries about protecting women from men, do they honestly believe that will make women feel more safe?
So instead of looking at reality, they would instead force women such as myself to use the men’s toilets and services, placing us at risk of harassment and violence.
And as someone who moved from Iceland to the UK after having all my documentation changed there over 15 years ago, I also struggle to see how this would ever work for me.
The only information stored about me is that I’m female, and people don’t know I’m trans unless they are told. I navigate society as a woman and I’m treated as such by everyone I meet, for better or worse.
Unless the government plans on having a security guard at every single women’s toilet and service and checking whether all the women using them have XX chromosomes, they can never truly enforce it.
Reducing women down to such rudimentary and arbitrary standards is also deeply unfeminist and degrading – which is why it makes it so galling to have the Equalities Minister leading this charge.
No matter what this dying government says, I know for one I’m not going to stop using services and spaces I’ve been using since I was a teenager, and no policy is going to change that.
Service providers aren’t worried about this, so why is the government so fixated on it?
In my opinion, while this policy will never become a reality, it is still dangerous.
Because it will still continue to stir up transphobia and incite fear against a small and vulnerable group in society that are simply trying to live their lives in peace.
It is truly worrying that Tory politicians, all the way up to the Prime Minister, would truly stoke such a war against trans people, putting us at risk of exclusion and being ostracised from our communities.
It’s disgraceful, and they should be ashamed of themselves and their heartless disregard for those different to them.
The Tory Government will not be remembered for making any meaningful changes for people in this country, but rather for completely failing the public while trying to scapegoat a vulnerable minority that need support, understanding and compassion.
They will be remembered for their cruelty, and anyone supporting them will soon find out that not only were they voting for the losing side, but that they have been taken for a fool by an uncaring party.
Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk.
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