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21st century anti-trans movement in the United Kingdom

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The early 21st century saw a rise in and increasing organisation around anti-transgender sentiments in the United Kingdom, with the most common strain being that of gender-critical feminism.

Background

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Gender-critical feminism

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Main article: Gender-critical feminism

Gender-critical feminism, also known as trans-exclusionary radical feminism or TERFism,[1][2][3][4] is an ideology or movement that opposes what it refers to as "gender ideology",[5] the concept of gender identity and transgender rights, especially gender self-identification. Gender-critical feminists believe that sex is biological and immutable,[6] while believing gender, including both gender identity and gender roles, to be inherently oppressive. They reject the concept of transgender identities.[7]

Gender-critical feminism has been described as transphobic by feminist and scholarly critics,[1][4] and is opposed by many feminist, LGBTQ rights, and human rights organizations.[8][9] The Council of Europe has condemned gender-critical ideology, among other ideologies, and linked it to "virulent attacks on the rights of LGBTI people" in Hungary, Poland, Russia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and other countries.[10] UN Women has described the gender-critical movement, among other movements, as extreme anti-rights movements that employ hate propaganda and disinformation.[11][12]

In several countries, gender-critical feminist groups have formed alliances with right-wing, far-right, and anti-feminist organisations.[13][14][15][16]

History

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In 2016, the House of Commons' Women and Equalities Committee issued a report recommending that the Gender Recognition Act 2004 be updated "in line with the principles of gender self-declaration".[17] Later in 2016, in England and Wales, a proposal was developed under Theresa May's government to revise the Act to introduce self-identification, with a public consultation opening in 2018. This proposed reform became a key locus of conflict for the emerging gender-critical movement, seeking to block reform of the Act, however 2018 found a significant majority of respondents in favour of the GRA reforms.[18]

Another key locus of conflict for the emerging movement was the stance of LGBTQ rights charity Stonewall on trans issues. In 2015, Stonewall had begun campaigning for trans equality, with Stonewall head Ruth Hunt apologising for the organisation's previous failure to do so.[19]

Media involvement

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Beginning in the late 2010s, British media outlets across the political spectrum began publishing pieces positioning transgender rights as being directly at odds with the rights of women and children.[20][21]

According to Professor Lisa Tilley of the University of London, the British media has created an environment where “male violence is also displaced from the real culprits onto vulnerable transgender people, who are demonized collectively as abusers, rather than more accurately represented as victims and survivors of abuse”.[20]

Christine Burns, author of Trans Britain: Our Journey from the Shadows, stated in a CNN article that The Times and The Sunday Times newspapers in particular published "six trans related pieces in 2016" but "over 150 in 2017 and similarly each year since” which painted trans rights as dangerous and censorious. Other news outlets that took part included Sky News, The Guardian, and the BBC.[21] [20] Burns would later describe this as a "trans backlash" stemming from 2015.[22]

In December 2020, the Independent Press Standards Organisation released a report stating that the average number of UK media stories about trans rights had jumped 414% between May 2014 and May 2019, from 34 per month to 176 per month, and that in the preceding year of research that number had risen to 224 stories per month.[23]

Moving into the 2020s, the British media climate in the U.K. grew further hostile to trans people.[24]

One high profile example of this hostility came in the form of the 2021 BBC article "We're being pressured into sex by some trans women", in which the BBC cited a social media poll from an anti-trans activist group to say that cisgender lesbians were being forced to have sex with transgender women under fears of being labeled transphobic. The article included statements from the LGB Alliance, and from an individual who would shortly after the article’s publication call for all trans women to be executed. The article included no statements from any trans people.[25][26][27]

Organisations founded

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In the late 2010s, a number of groups were formed in response to the proposed GRA reform, including Fair Play For Women, For Women Scotland, and Woman's Place UK.[18]

In 2019, the LGB Alliance was founded in opposition to Stonewall’s 2015 pivot towards supporting trans rights, accusing the organization of in doing so having "undermined women's sex-based rights and protections" and attempting "to introduce confusion between biological sex and the notion of gender".[28][19]

The year 2019 also saw the formation of the Women's Declaration International (formed as Women's Human Rights Campaign) by noted gender-critical feminist Sheila Jeffreys and co-founder Heather Brunskell-Evans. The group published a manifesto titled the Declaration on Women's Sex-Based Rights, which argued that recognising trans women as women "constitutes discrimination against women" and called for the "elimination of that act".[29][30]

In 2021, the group Genspect was founded in close affiliation with the American lobby group The Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine - both of which have since been designated as anti-LGBTQ hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.[31][32]

Restrictions on healthcare

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Bell v. Tavistock

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In 2020, The High Court issued a ruling banning transgender patients under the age of 16 from receiving puberty suppressing medication for the purpose of preventing the development of unwanted secondary sex characteristics. This led to many patients having their care cut off, and consequently having to undergo the puberty of their assigned gender at birth.[33] Many more patients over the age of 16 also had their gender-related healthcare cut off, even if that care did not take the form of puberty blockers.[34]

In late 2021, the ruling was overturned on appeal, and puberty suppressing treatment was allowed to resume.[35]

Education

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In December 2021, the Girls' Day School Trust, the largest network of girls' private schools in the UK, issued a blanket ban on trans girls being admitted to any of its schools.[36]

In August 2022, Attorney General Suella Braverman opined that it is lawful for schools to misgender, deadname, ban from some sports, reject from enrollment based on their trans status, and refuse any and all other forms of gender affirmation to trans kids, and that to recognise their identities as trans could qualify as "indoctrinating children".[37]

Sports

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In September 2021, the UK Sports Council Equality Group issued new guidance saying that in their view, trans inclusion and "competitive fairness" cannot coexist in sports. The SCEG based its guidance on 300 interviews regarding personal opinions on the matter, conducted across 54 sports and 175 organisations, with only 20 of those interviewed being trans people.[38] In June 2022, the then UK Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Nadine Dorries met with the heads of UK sporting bodies and told them that "elite and competitive women's sport must be reserved for people born of the female sex".[39]

References

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  1. ^ a b Thurlow, Claire (2022). "From TERF to gender critical: A telling genealogy?". Sexualities. 27 (4): 962–978. doi:10.1177/13634607221107827. S2CID 252662057.
  2. ^ Williams, Cristan (2016). "Radical Inclusion: Recounting the Trans Inclusive History of Radical Feminism". Transgender Studies Quarterly. 3 (1–2): 254–258. doi:10.1215/23289252-3334463.
  3. ^ Rogers, Baker A. (2023). "TERFs aren't feminists: lesbians stand against trans exclusion". Journal of Lesbian Studies. 28 (1): 24–43. doi:10.1080/10894160.2023.2252286. PMID 37679960. S2CID 261608725. many lesbians despise TERF ideology
  4. ^ a b Bassi, Serena; LaFleur, Greta (2022). "Introduction: TERFs, Gender-Critical Movements, and Postfascist Feminisms". Transgender Studies Quarterly. 9 (3): 311–333. doi:10.1215/23289252-9836008. S2CID 253052875.
  5. ^ Pearce, Ruth; Erikainen, Sonja; Vincent, Ben (2020). "TERF wars: An introduction". The Sociological Review. 68 (4): 677–698. doi:10.1177/0038026120934713. hdl:2164/18988. S2CID 221097475. Archived from the original on 20 November 2021. Retrieved 7 December 2021.
  6. ^ UK Parliament. "Employment Tribunal rulings on gender-critical beliefs in the workplace". House of Commons Library. Archived from the original on 11 May 2024. Retrieved 22 October 2023.
  7. ^ Sullivan, Alice; Todd, Selina (10 July 2023), "Introduction", Sex and Gender (1 ed.), London: Routledge, pp. 1–15, doi:10.4324/9781003286608-1, ISBN 978-1-003-28660-8, retrieved 20 October 2023
  8. ^ "Our Feminism is Trans Inclusive. | Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights". Archived from the original on 12 June 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  9. ^ "Les signataires - Toutes des Femmes". 25 February 2020. Archived from the original on 8 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  10. ^ "Resolution 2417 (2022): Combating rising hate against LGBTI people in Europe". Council of Europe. 25 January 2022. Archived from the original on 19 November 2022. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
  11. ^ "LGBTIQ+ communities and the anti-rights pushback: 5 things to know". UN Women. 28 May 2024. Archived from the original on 28 June 2024. Retrieved 15 June 2024.
  12. ^ "UN Women says gender-critical activists are 'anti-rights movement'". The Times. Archived from the original on 16 June 2024. Retrieved 16 June 2024.
  13. ^ Butler, Judith. "Why is the idea of 'gender' provoking backlash the world over?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 November 2021. Retrieved 17 November 2021.
  14. ^ "'Rights aren't a competition': Anti-trans hate is on the rise in Canada, activists and advocates say". CTV News. Archived from the original on 29 November 2021. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  15. ^ Alm, Erika; Engebretsen, Elisabeth L. (15 June 2020). "Gender Self-identification". Lambda Nordica. 25 (1): 48–56. doi:10.34041/ln.v25.613. hdl:11250/3048285. S2CID 225712334.
  16. ^ Studnik, Joane (24 January 2023). "Was bedeutet TERF? Wie linke Transfeindlichkeit Rechtsextreme stärkt" [What does TERF mean? How left-wing transphobia strengthens the far right]. Der Freitag.
  17. ^ Women and Equalities Committee (8 January 2016). Transgender Equality (Report). House of Commons. Archived from the original on 28 August 2024. Retrieved 1 November 2021. Within the current Parliament, the Government must bring forward proposals to update the Gender Recognition Act, in line with the principles of gender self-declaration that have been developed in other jurisdictions. In place of the present medicalised, quasi-judicial application process, an administrative process must be developed, centred on the wishes of the individual applicant, rather than on intensive analysis by doctors and lawyers.
  18. ^ a b King, Daniel; Carrie Paechter; Maranda Ridgway (22 September 2020). "Reform of the Gender Recognition Act — Analysis of consultation responses". Her Majesty's Stationery Office. pp. 8–9. CP 294. Archived from the original on 5 October 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2021.
  19. ^ a b Gani, Aisha (16 February 2015). "Stonewall to start campaigning for trans equality". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 26 April 2015. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
  20. ^ a b c "Analysis: Anti-trans rhetoric is rife in the British media. Little is being done to extinguish the flames". CNN. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  21. ^ a b John, Tara (4 April 2020). "The quest for trans rights has exposed a deep divide in the UK. Scotland may show a way forward". CNN. Archived from the original on 5 December 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2020.
  22. ^ Burns, Christine. "Witness Statement re Edinburgh Employment Tribunal involving Katherine O'Donnell". Plain Sense. Archived from the original on 29 October 2020. Retrieved 16 October 2020.
  23. ^ Tobitt, Charlotte (10 December 2020). "Report charts UK press coverage of trans issues becoming more respectful yet 'heated'". Archived from the original on 1 July 2022. Retrieved 22 July 2022.
  24. ^ Lavietes, Matt (15 February 2023). "Transgender community mourns death of British teen found stabbed to death". NBC News. Archived from the original on 15 February 2023. Retrieved 15 February 2023.
  25. ^ "BBC 'scandal' after interviewee goes on to call for trans women to be 'executed'". The National. 2021-11-03. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  26. ^ Craggs, Charlie. "Charlie Craggs: "I'm A Trans BBC Presenter. The Organisation's Transphobia Hurts"". www.refinery29.com. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  27. ^ "Lesbians stand by trans women in open letter after 'dangerous' BBC article". NBC News. 2021-10-28. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  28. ^ Hellen, Nicholas (22 September 2019). "'Anti-women' trans policy may split Stonewall". The Sunday Times. London. Archived from the original on 1 February 2021. Retrieved 13 February 2021.
  29. ^ "MPs urged by anti-trans 'women's rights' group to eliminate 'transgenderism' and scrap Gender Recognition Act". Pink News. Archived from the original on 22 September 2022. Retrieved 2 December 2021.
  30. ^ "Declaration on Women's Sex-Based Rights: Full Text - Women's Declaration International". Archived from the original on 7 December 2021. Retrieved 8 December 2021.
  31. ^ Blade, Special to the LA (2024-06-05). "Genspect, SEGM designated anti-LGBTQ hate groups by SPLC". Los Angeles Blade: LGBTQ News, Rights, Politics, Entertainment. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  32. ^ Dixon, Hayley (2021-06-26). "CBBC's trans messaging is damaging children, says mother". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  33. ^ Andersson, Jasmine (2020-12-08). "Families of trans children 'broken' after sudden puberty blockers rule changes". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  34. ^ Andersson, Jasmine (2020-12-21). "Treatment plans at gender clinics have 'effectively stopped' for young trans people, warns clinician". inews.co.uk. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  35. ^ Siddique, Haroon (2021-09-17). "Appeal court overturns UK puberty blockers ruling for under-16s". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-10-30.
  36. ^ "Leading group of private schools introduces 'unwise' ban on trans girls". PinkNews. 3 January 2022. Archived from the original on 25 January 2022. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
  37. ^ Wakefield, Lily (12 August 2022). "Suella Braverman 'misinterpreted' equality law in 'ideological' attack on trans kids, barrister says". Archived from the original on 12 August 2022. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  38. ^ Powys Maurice, Emma (October 2021). "Glaring holes emerge in new UK trans sports guidance as athletes fear for their future". Archived from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  39. ^ "RFL and RFU ban transgender women from competing in female-only forms of their games". 29 July 2022. Archived from the original on 30 July 2022. Retrieved 30 July 2022.
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