Joint statement from Scottish Trans, Trans+ Solidarity Alliance and TransActual:
Today marks the end of the 40-day Parliamentary stage of the EHRC’s draft Code of Practice, with the government refusing a debate or vote. It is now due to pass automatically, despite widespread opposition.
166 MPs have signed a motion, EDM 240 tabled by Nadia Whittome MP, trying to stop the guidance – including more than 90 Labour MPs rebelling against the policy. We all know this guidance is harmful, unworkable and unacceptable. There are no trans voices elected to Parliament, with vanishingly few in politics at all, and every one of the 20,000 of you who have written to your MP, and every MP’s objection on the historical record, moves us closer to change.
The Code of Practice will not come into force today. The process now allows the minister to bring the guidance into force – and revoke the old Code of Practice – by order on a future date. This is not automatic or immediate, and it would not take effect straight away.
We’ve been clear throughout that this Code does not work in reality and will cause widespread harm. It does not protect trans people, it does not help service providers, and it will not uphold human rights.
The problem now is legislative; the legal framework is fundamentally broken – and the huge backlash you have driven against the Code of Practice opens up a vital sliver of hope for a better future in UK law. This is far from over.
Every action taken to resist this matters, and we will be right there with every person in our communities in continuing to speak out and demand better.
The Supreme Court’s decision last year has reversed decades of progress on LGBTQ+ rights and turned Parliament’s intent for the law on its head. Clearly the UK did not, in 2010, pass equality legislation that sought to enforce the exclusion and segregation of trans people from the services and spaces we need. And we did not, in 2004, pass gender recognition legislation that changed our sex in UK law – unless that law uses the words ‘man’ or ‘woman’.
This is not equality. At home and internationally, politicians, rights bodies, experts, businesses, charities and trade unions have said this is wrong. And most importantly, so has our community. We aren’t the only ones that will be harmed by this, but we are its target.
It’s also important to note that this is not the only anti-trans policy to happen under this government – even in this administration’s last weeks. ‘Keeping Children Safe in Education’, new statutory guidance for schools in England, was brought forwards yesterday that will make the lives of trans kids in schools harder and less safe. This is a pattern that must end.
Today is a low point in LGBTQ+ history in this country, but history is still being made.
Trans people aren’t going anywhere, and we will keep fighting for a better world.