A community living in fear

LGBTQ+ people’s responses to the Supreme Court Ruling on the Equality Act

Front cover of Community Living in Fear report
Front cover of Community Living in Fear report

Click here to download your copy of the Community Living in Fear report.

LGBTQ+ people are preparing for the worst in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, including making plans to flee the country, hide their identity, avoid going to hospitals, and find other ways to make a living if they can no longer have dignity in their workplaces. 

In the days after the ruling, trans people and their families sent us descriptions of how the ruling had impacted them and the changes they anticipated making to their lives. The result is as predictable as it is heartbreaking: verbal abuse in the workplace, on the street and at home. A significant uptick in anti-trans violence.

Following on from the Trans Segregation in Practice report, which detailed the impacts of early implementation of the EHRC’s draft ‘bathroom ban’ guidance, this report demonstrates not only the emotional toll, but the degree to which trans people are having to reshape and limit their lives to avoid the new dangers posed to us in the UK.

What we are hearing

  • trans people are planning to flee to safer countries
  • many expect to lose jobs
  • yet more fear being driven out of public spaces by a constant stream of humiliation
  • people are telling us of panic attacks and being afraid now to go outside. There is a widespread feeling that this a breaking point; culmination of a decade of growing hatred and persecution
  • there is frank discussion of suicidality directly linked to this ruling and the policies it will enable
  • We are getting anxiety from gender non-conforming people about being policed at every turn ‘like it’s the 1970s’
  • there is much sorrow and anger from cis women that this has been done in the name of “protecting” them from their sisters.

Spotlight on fear

Every story is deeply concerning. Download the full report to understand the awfulness. Below are just a few of the stories we spotlight in this report:

“I am a Trans Woman and whole heartedly disagree with this ruling and its potential implications for my life. Over the last week I don’t believe there has been a day in which I haven’t cried from the worry and anxiety it has brought. I have felt I can’t go out in the same way I once did.

“I only started social transitioning a few years ago and have been on hormones for just over 7 months now. My confidence had skyrocketed and finally felt I am the person I should be. I have a young family and a supportive wife.

“My life was ticking along in a happy joyous way, then this ruling happened…. I am now on edge, I’m back to judging the way everyone looks at me, I question if I should speak just in case my voice outs me and it may cause a scene.

“I haven’t been to a toilet outside of the house since because now I am scared, is this my future?

It upsets me if my little boy needs the toilet that I’m unable to take him, just in case someone harasses me, I don’t want my 3-year-old exposed to that.

“When I drop him off at school etc will the parents at the gate be different? Will my work change policies to make my day harder? Will I be forced to use the disabled loo? If I were to lose my job for any reason, would I be able to find another?

“I didn’t have these worries until this ruling. Because I was seen as a woman as that is what I am, no matter what others say.”

TRANS WOMAN, MOTHER TO A 3-YEAR-OLD SON

“As a Jew, there’s something there in my blood that  senses the creeping rise of my dignity and humanity being taken away. It’s why I got a GRC in 2019.

It’s why, the same day that I heard the Supreme Court announcement, I went straight out of work, to Timpsons for passport photos and completed an application for a new passport that day. I afforded to pay for it by cancelling some private therapy sessions. ‘I was thinking of you’, my counsellor said when I told him why I was getting a new passport as quickly as possible.

“I was getting 10 more years on an ID that shows me as I have been for most of my life: a man. I was seeing a worst case scenario future: the abolition of trans people’s correct gender markers on documents, outing us as trans and exposing us to violence. Some may call it overreacting. This Jew calls it getting my papers in order.

“I am worried that I would need to become a criminal; a second class citizen if I were to keep ‘involved’ in male single sex spaces rather than scaring women or the rigmarole of asking for and taking up a disabled stall (which I never care to use as it’s simply easier to use men’s loos and changing rooms whenever I need to – as I said, it’s never been an issue in 16 years). I’ve always been law abiding, but this thrusts me into a new space where trans people living our lives are now forced into choices we never wanted. I don’t want to advocate for neutral spaces, great though they may be. I want less hyper focus, less scrutiny and to be left alone to exist.

“I’ve decided, ultimately, to go stealth. I explained this to my partner.

“I’ve taken down the fact that I am trans off of social media. I’ve asked my Jewish community’s website to remove a blog I wrote about celebrating getting my GRC. The rabbi agreed with me. Especially around Pesach, the similarities of preparedness, of community decision-making and discussion, of trying to live our lives in the face of danger, are all those things we know too well as Jews.

“While the ruling’s impact is uncertain for now, I at least want a few things to be certain. My safety and the ability for me to ‘continue as normal’ is now up in the air, and I’m trying hard to fix things for me and my family before they become broken. We are standing on the edge of something. I hope we all fight back, whatever personal decisions trans people are making.”

TRANS JEWISH MAN

“On Tuesday I was legally a woman with the right to use women’s loos, be admitted to women’s hospital wards. I was just a married woman like 1000s of other married women.

Now? I have no idea even if my marriage is still legal? Am I going to get a letter that says it now counts as a civil partnership of husband and husband? Will it be allowed to stand as it is? Or will I just find it had been annulled with the swipe of a pen?

“And when I am admitted to my over stretched hospital, are they going to have to put me in a possibly non-existent private room or leave me in a corridor somewhere? I have already told my family that under no circumstances am I going into a men’s ward. I have lived as a woman. I fully intend to die as one.

“To say the ruling has broken me is no exaggeration. Whilst I am trying to remain as positive as possible (it is well known that stress makes COPD worse) I am finding it nearly impossible.”

MARRIED TRANS WOMAN, 62 TRANSITIONED IN
2000

“I am non-binary trans masculine, and Iam not recognised by law.

“When I heard about the recent UK Supreme Court ruling, I was so distressed that I was very seriously considering performing my own self-mastectomy.

“I am terrified for myself and for my community about the implications of this archaic legislation, and what it means for LGBTQ+ rights and feminism in this country. Transphobia hurts us all and is deeply misogynistic, sexist, racist and queerphobic by nature.

“I fear that we are following a similar trajectory to the US and not so slowly descending into fascist territory. I feel that those in power are trying to make it impossible to be trans, whether through inaccessible healthcare, removal of protections or through the active hindering of our ability to safely exist in public spaces.

“They are essentially attempting to push us into our graves. We can’t let this happen.”

NON-BINARY TRANS MASCULINE PERSON

“I am a woman by birth and will always be a woman. But I have PCOS. So I have high testosterone.

“If you saw pictures of me growing up you would see I have excess facial hair. Because of this I was bullied at school. I was called a man. It really affected me.

“This ruling will not only affect Trans women. It will affect me and I will go onto that soon. And I fear for trans people. It will now be the case that people could abuse trans people! Trans have had abuse before the ruling as well.

“And I fear I could go back to the days in school when people could call me a man as I don’t look like a typical woman. The abuse if I went to the women’s bathroom could be real.

“I truly fear that this ruling has been confused by the media and will cause many problems.”

CIS WOMAN IN NORTH WALES, IN HER 50S

Click here to download your copy of the Community Living in Fear report.

NOTE: a hardcopy version of this report will be released in due course that you may purchase for your library or academic institution. Email press@transactual.org.uk for details.

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