Why I fear anti-trans campaigns are just the start of a wider attack on our rights – Christine Jardine
For people to be humiliated because of they who they are is not acceptable
Newly elected in 2017, I wondered what my contribution to parliament would be. You go in with certain experience, with areas you think you will gravitate towards, but until you are on those benches you cannot know for sure.
To have later become my party's equalities spokesperson was an honour, and not expected. What I had expected even less, perhaps naively, was how bitter the debate about trans rights was to become.
In 2017 the combination of the Gender Reform and Equality Acts had created a situation, I believed, where trans men and women felt largely accepted in our, technically, liberal society. We seemed as a society to have reached an accommodation which allowed vulnerable people to feel valued and respected. We had come so far.
A national disgrace
I was wrong. The bitter controversy – which culminated in the Supreme Court ruling in favour of For Women Scotland and led to the Equality Act’s new draft code of practice for services, public functions and associations, laid before parliament last week – has been nothing short of a national disgrace.
I'm not about to add to it by indulging in the insult throwing that has characterised it. But I am angry.
The Secretary of State has dealt with this as best she could. I may not agree, but I respect that she has tried, and appreciate her assurances that this government will be “actively progressing broader initiatives across government departments aimed at improving the lives of trans people”. Most significantly, that laws protecting trans people remain in place.
Time will tell, but in the meantime too many people in this country will be left wondering whether they and their loved ones are being consigned to a second-class status. As equalities spokesperson, I sought to take the heat out the debate.
I listened to and appreciated the fears of those women who had been victims of predatory men. And the idea that female-only spaces are the only way to make them feel safe.
I get it. I sympathise. I understand. Yet, I also don’t want other, innocent individuals to suffer as a result. That has always been my issue. Why are innocent, vulnerable people being made to feel they are less than others?
Everyone is equal before the law
I read the Secretary of State’s explanation and appreciate that the new draft code is necessary because the Supreme Court ruled that the Equality Act means biological sex. I do not think that the Supreme Court wanted trans people to feel their daily lives were made more difficult, but that's where we are.
If there is a fault, I believe it lies in the fact that the Equality Act, as envisaged in 2010, and the 2004 Gender Recognition Act did not anticipate the assault on rights that we see emerging. Or the fear that well-funded anti-trans campaigns are just the first stage in a general attempt at revision of our rights.
What's next? Abortion, LGBT rights, anti-discrimination laws? This is not alarmist – who truly expected the conversation we are facing now? To have people in this country – human beings – humiliated because of they who they are is not acceptable.
Parliament has 40 days to consider the new draft guidance. There is much work to do to ensure everyone is equal before the law.
Christine Jardine is the Scottish Liberal Democrat MP for Edinburgh West
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