Angela Rayner, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party, has once again shown her support for the transgender community by insisting that their rights are not at odds with those of women.
The MP for Ashton-under-Lyne also confirmed that Labour remains committed to creating a more “supportive process” to help people transition after the Party recently made a U-turn on its promise to introduce self-ID when in government.
When asked about Labour’s stance on trans rights, Rayner told BBC Radio 4: “I still stand by they are not in conflict with women’s rights.
“We have talked about the Gender Recognition Act, we have talked about reform, we have talked about a process. Of course there has to be a process for people that is supportive and that is when you get into the weeds of how you ensure that we do have trans rights that are compatible and compassionate and humane.
“At the moment the process isn’t, and we have acknowledged that, that there are problems with the process, and therefore there has to be a process that is a supportive process that recognises that people can transition and that we do that in a way that is supportive of those people.”
READ MORE: Does the UK’s Labour Party still speak for LGBTQ+ people?
Rayner added that the Equality Act has safeguards for “women-only spaces” that are “absolutely appropriate”.
“We have seen the conflict of what happens when those safeguards are not put in place,” she continued.
“We need to recognise that sex and gender are different”
Labour’s updated approach to gender ID was confirmed by Anneliese Dodds, Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, in an op-ed for The Guardian last month.
“Changing gender is not a decision anyone makes lightly. The process is intrusive, outdated and humiliating. So we will modernise, simplify and reform the gender recognition law to a new process. We will remove invasive bureaucracy and simplify the process,” she wrote at the time.
Dodds continued: “We need to recognise that sex and gender are different – as the Equality Act does. We will make sure that nothing in our modernised gender recognition process would override the single-sex exemptions in the Equality Act. Put simply, this means that there will always be places where it is reasonable for biological women only to have access. Labour will defend those spaces, providing legal clarity for the providers of single-sex services.”
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