Trans Lives 2025: Continuing to endure the UK’s hostile environment

In December 2024 and January 2025, TransActual asked trans people in the UK to take part in a survey, building on the findings of The Trans Lives Survey 2021: Enduring the UK’s Hostile Environment. We asked them about their experiences at home, work, out and about in their communities, online and in healthcare settings. We also asked them about media transphobia and about their access to identity documents that reflect who they are.

Thank you to all 4,008 of our respondents and to The National Lottery Community Fund and the players of the National Lottery, whose support made this research possible.

The Trans Lives Report 2025 shows that trans people in the UK are still being catastrophically failed. Rising anti-trans hatred, from the media, politicians and in the streets, is creating a hostile environment. Major barriers to accessing healthcare and appropriate ID represent a failure of this Government to respect the fundamental rights of trans people.

The Government must take urgent steps to address the crisis facing trans people, worsened by the Supreme Court Judgement, or risk leaving a shameful legacy on LGBT+ lives.

Trans Lives 2025: Continuing to endure the UK’s hostile environment (PDF)

Trans Lives 2025: Policy Summary (PDF)

Press release

Key Statistics

Most respondents have a household income that is less than the UK median of £36,700.
Nearly one in four respondents reported having experienced housing insecurity, having slept rough, sofa surfed, or both.

98% of respondents who reported experiencing transphobia from family in 2024 also reported believing that media had impacted how family members treated them.
Nearly every respondent 99% reported that transphobia in the media had impacted their mental health or gender dysphoria.
99% of respondents had seen or heard politicians express transphobic sentiments, with 87% seeing or hearing it in 2024 alone.

56% of respondents felt more unsafe because their ID does not reflect their gender identity.
40% of respondents would like access to ID that doesn’t list their gender.

Of those who reported issues with their GP, 97% reported having had GPs who lacked knowledge around trans issues.
Of those that experienced transphobia or poor care from their GP, 60% had been refused non-transition related care because of being trans. People of Colour were nearly 50% more likely to report having been refused healthcare that was not related to medical transition
64% of respondents reported having avoided going to the GP, even if unwell.
44% of trans disabled respondents reported avoiding A&E, even when they needed urgent medical care.
More than a third of trans People of Colour reported experiencing racism in healthcare settings.
Nearly half of our trans disabled respondents had experienced ableism when accessing healthcare.

Recommendations

1. We call on UK political parties to work with trans communities to create a practical, working definition of transphobia with transparent mechanisms to hold elected representatives accountable to this standard.

2. We call on the Government to introduce tougher regulation and sanctions for social media companies that allow transphobia to proliferate on their platforms

3. We call on the Government to establish an independent statutory inquiry into media transphobia to examine the impact of press coverage on transgender people’s safety, wellbeing and rights and to introduce enforceable powers to ensure fair and non-discriminatory reporting.

4. We call on the Government to create an independent press regulator with statutory authority to address press transphobia, uphold accurate and ethical reporting on transgender issues, and ensure effective remedies for individuals and communities harmed by discriminatory media practices.

5. We call on the Government to provide specific ring-fenced funding for by and-for support services for trans victims/survivors of hate crime, including independent hate crime advocates to help victims/survivors navigate complex processes such as reporting to authorities and accessing appropriate support.

6. We call on employers to collaborate with trans organisations to design and implement robust trans inclusion policies, including clear transitioning at work procedures and mandatory staff training to protect the rights and wellbeing of trans people at work.

7. We call on the EHRC and Government to produce guidance that supports providers to include trans people in facilities and services in line with their gender.

1. We call on public bodies and service providers that record people’s names, titles and sex or gender markers to provide clearer information, implement simpler processes and waive application fees for trans people wishing to update their records.

2. We call on the Government to fund trans-specific organisations to offer trans people support to change their names, change or update their ID, and access legal gender recognition.

3. We call on the Government to proactively review systems of gender recognition and identity documentation to explore ways that trans and nonbinary people can navigate everyday life safely, with dignity, privacy and equal access to services, including the removal of gender markers on ID altogether.

1. We call on the Department for Health and Social Care and the NHS to work with trans organisations to develop an action plan that aims to reduce the health inequalities experienced by trans people.

2. We call on the Department of Health and Social Care and the devolved Governments of the UK to fund, and make mandatory, high quality training for healthcare staff that is anti-racist, intersex inclusive, inclusive of disabled people and explicitly trans affirmative.

3. We call on Universities, Royal Colleges, professional bodies for all healthcare workers, and other training providers to embed trans inclusion within your curricula, professional skills frameworks, and core competencies.

4. We call on the GMC, Royal College of GPs, the Department of Health and Social Care, and the NHS to empower and encourage GPs to initiate and maintain hormone prescriptions for trans people, providing the funding and training needed to do so.

5. We call on the DHSC, Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Assembly to explore ending the centralised and medicalised system of gender clinics, moving towards a model of locally provisioned gender services operating on the basis of informed consent.

6. We call on the Department of Health and Social Care to fund research into the healthcare experiences of trans people, with specific focus on those who are multiply marginalised.

Trans Lives 2025: Continuing to endure the UK’s hostile environment

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This research was made possible thanks to funding from The National Lottery Community Fund – the largest community funder in the UK. Thank you to them and to the players of the National Lottery.

Last updated:

3 March 2026