Responding to Monday’s parliamentary debate on non-binary rights (23/5/22), Keyne Walker, a spokesperson on non-binary issues for TransActual said: “It is clear that the debate today was almost entirely disconnected from what non-binary legal recognition would mean in practice.
“There was a great deal of scaremongering about children being ‘groomed’ to transition. Not only are such fears entirely groundless, and not backed by evidence. They are also deeply transphobic and homophobic, invoking fake narratives around predatory queer people. They also give the game away as to why this government is not supporting a conversion therapy ban. Because more than one speaker was out endorsing conversion therapy so long as a child does not end up trans!”
“Non-binary legal recognition is primarily to do with issues around ID, voting access, privacy and discrimination. It is about putting an end to the invasive medical procedures and offensive stereotypes at the heart of current gender recognition. It is nothing to do with today’s overblown and irrelevant rhetoric.”
Helen Belcher, Chair of TransActual added: “Conservative back benchers showed an alarming desire to ignore the subject under debate, preferring instead to claim that women should be fearful of trans women. Front benchers understood that non binary people are not a new phenomenon and deserved to be treated with respect.
“It is therefore disappointing in the extreme that government is still calling for evidence and data on non-binary people’s lives, and continuing to kick the can down the road”.
“At the same time, non-binary people would be right to feel that an opportunity to discuss the issues which face them was completely derailed by false concerns around trans women’s access to women’s spaces and trans people’s access to medical treatment.”
TransActual is one of the UK’s leading trans-led campaigning and advocacy organisations. In advance of yesterday’s debate it circulated a briefing note on non-binary issues to MP’s.
Additional notes
For further information contact TransActual’s press office: press.transactualuk@gmail.com.