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Editor’s note: This article was submitted anonymously. George Cooper is a pseudonym. He informed me that the article was previously submitted to another Liberal Democrat supporting website but he was told that it would not be published if he did not reveal his name. He is unable to do this. After reading the article, I decided to publish it in the interest of open debate. At Liberal Voices we aim to showcase all strands of opinion in the party. It could be argued that the views in the article are close to reductio ad absurdum. That is for you to decide.
I have been getting increasingly frustrated with the approach taken by many campaigners in the party recently. Let’s be blunt, last year’s Supreme Court ruling was a huge blow and the recently published EHRC guidelines only serve to confirm what we already knew. Powerful forces are at work across the land and they are determined to reverse the gains that trans people have made in society in recent years. Brutally, they want to push everyone back in the closet.
There is currently an Early Day Motion opposing the adoption of the EHRC guidelines before parliament that is gaining signatures, including those of many LibDem MPs. This is pointless.
Even if it succeeds, it will not change the law. The law will still be in place and the law is the problem. Sex is a protected characteristic and as long as this remains the case, people will argue that sex matters and that some people who care about biological sex will push for special exemptions that prevent trans people from living a full, normal life.
As a party we should be campaigning to amend the Equality Act and removing sex as a protected characteristic within it. The law needs to recognise that gender and gender identity matter. If we all have an internal identity that may conflict with our outer appearance, this must be clear in law and superficial physical characteristics that imply a sexual identity must be disregarded. Only by amending the law in this way, will the future of trans people in our society be assured. We have been on the back foot for too long. It is time for the LibDems to adopt a clear policy to amend the Equality Act in our campaign literature and future manifesto. Nothing less than this is acceptable. We have a proud history of campaigning for human rights. It is part of our DNA. There is no time to waste.
George Cooper is a longtime armchair LibDem supporter and sometime leaflet deliverer. Employment restrictions currently prevent party membership.
