Life

Angela Rayner MP: “Transgender women’s rights are women’s rights”

By Conor Clark

18th July 2022

As the rights of transgender people dominate the Tory leadership contest, Angela Rayner has shown her support for the community.

The Deputy Leader of the Labour Party made the comments in response to a trans caller on LBC asking whether or not a Labour government can “fix” the issues facing members of the community today.

“It’s like we’re being used as some kind of political football,” the caller told her, referring to how the contenders in the race for Prime Minister are treating trans rights.

“It feels like no matter what, over the next two years at least, I’m just going to lose more rights.”

Rayner passionately responded to the concerns being raised, stating that she finds “the whole toxicity of the debate really frustrating.”

She continued: “I think it is really devastating and nasty and really harmful for people.

“Now, I get that there are genuine concerns out there over women-only spaces, et cetera, et cetera, and I get that there’s a huge amount of scaremongering that’s going on as well, and I just think that we were the party of, you know, equal marriage, we were the party of the Equalities Act, we got rid of Section 28 back when that was disastrous legislation against the LGBT community, and we’ve got to make a stand now.

“I think using the trans debate at the moment and transgender women as some sort of politcal football to abuse and debase, I think is absolutely appalling and I don’t think the vast majority of the general public are on that side either.”

She further declared that “transgender women’s rights are women’s rights and it is our women’s moment collectively that can have the solution to that and can work with each other to it.”

Despite trans and non-binary people only making up an estimated 1% of the population, their rights have dominated parts of the contest so far – particularly in relation to self-ID and the Gender Recognition Act.

You can read more about where the contenders to be leader of the Conservative Party, and ultimately Prime Minister, stand on LGBTQ+ issues here.