It Is Not Just Us

It is a global phenomenon being pushed by conservatives and the Christian far-right.

Grassroots trans group uncovering EHRC ‘attacks’ and the UK’s well-connected anti-trans movement

A collective of journalists, activists and analysts is shining a light on the UK’s anti-trans movement, to reveal who is pushing the agenda, where the money comes from, and how it’s all linked.

Pink News UK

By Maggie Baska

May 24, 2023

[…]

Recently, the UN’s independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity, Victor Madrigal-Borloz, published a damning report on LGBTQ+ rights in the UK.

As well as the government’s delays on banning conversion therapy and politicians fuelling anti-trans rhetoric, he specifically called out the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the UK’s equality watchdog, for what he called an attempt to help the government “carry out discriminatory distinctions currently unlawful under UK law” against trans people.

TSN [Trans Safety Network] director, Jess O’Thomson, a human rights lawyer, was among the researchers, human rights defenders and LGBTQ+ advocates to meet with Madrigal-Borloz.

“We’re able to draw links that other groups might potentially not notice across different points of anti-trans organising. We can match up exactly how these strategies support one another, and that’s very helpful. 

“Very quickly after reading our research, people who do not have a background in LGBT research can start to get an idea of exactly who’s behind all this, where all the money’s coming from, what different strategies are being employed, who the big names are, the big organisations, who’s in them and how all these things are linked together.”

Now tell me if any of this sounds familiar…

The organisation’s network of volunteers have tracked the surging online hate directed towards trans people and allies. They’ve also been sharing information about the right-wing figures in prime minister Rishi Sunak’s Cabinet and the increasingly close ties between anti-trans figures within British politics. 

Researchers have also uncovered how an anti-trans campaign group promoted conversion practices in guidance for parents, the increasing problems with the NHS provisions on gender-affirming healthcare and how the far right are showing support for prominent anti-trans activist Posie Parker. 

O’Thomson says there’s an “active, very well-funded, very well-organised contingent of people who want to roll back” trans rights in the UK, and “certainly want to prevent us from obtaining any more”.

Now where else have we seen a link between politicians and the Christian far-right? Wait don’t it is right on the tip of my tongue… wait, wait… I know here! Here in the U.S.!

He reported that an EHRC commissioner conceded that its only “intended meaning” of “biological sex” is “to define women as ‘women who are not trans’.”

[…]

The incident has widely been seen as a precursor to an inevitable move by the UK government to strip trans people of protections.

[…]

The EHRC refutes that its work promotes the exclusion of trans people.

It is spreading.