Mass Struggle for Trans Liberation and Socialism Needed!
We can’t rely on the courts or the parties of the political establishment to defend our rights. Fighting the results of this transphobic ruling falls down to us.
The recent ruling from the UK Supreme Court that the terms ‘legal’ and ‘sex’ in the Equalities Act refer exclusively to “biological sex” are a devastating blow for trans people throughout England, Wales and Scotland.
The appeal also opens the way for further attacks on the 2004 Gender Recognition Act. This would be a historic setback for all gender non-conforming people.
While the full practical implications of the ruling are not yet entirely clear, it has already unleashed a flurry of reactionary transphobic rhetoric from the right and from transphobic ‘feminist’ groups.
Showing just how much the capitalist establishment are united in attacking trans people, the decision has been supported by both Kemi Badenoch (Conservative party leader) as well as Starmer’s government (so-called Labour).
Trans people are twice as likely as cis people to be the target of violent crime, and 62%–73% report harassment as a result of their gender identity. Drummed-up fears of trans women entering ‘women’s spaces’ has contributed to an atmosphere where the political establishment feels comfortable scapegoating transgender people in their ‘war on woke’.
We should be clear: such attacks do nothing to advance the cause of women’s liberation — nor that of lesbian, gay and bisexual people. While some groups celebrate the ruling as a defence of ‘women’s spaces’, the domestic violence shelters and healthcare services women rely on are facing underfunding and closures.
What’s more, the ruling comes in the context of an enormous international backlash against the gains of oppressed people in recent decades. This has included attacks on the right to get an abortion, the banning of Pride events and Trump’s recent crusade against Diversity Equality and Inclusion policies in the US, which saw thousands of marginalised workers sacked.
An injury to one is an injury to all. These setbacks only embolden the right to make further attacks. We can’t rely on the courts or the parties of the political establishment to defend our rights. This ruling is just the latest example of the fact that the courts are not on our side.
Fighting the results of this transphobic ruling falls down to us. Mass demonstrations targeting the MPs and transphobic lobby groups pushing for this legislation need to be organised, along with organised solidarity action from trade unions to show working-class solidarity in the face of transphobic hatred. School and college walkouts could take place to push back against the anti-trans climate in education.
To go on the offensive, a movement for trans rights needs to fight not only for legal changes, but material changes too. Council housing to provide trans youth with the freedom to leave abusive families and an end to years-long waiting lists for gender-affirming healthcare need to be fought for—and paid for by taxing the super-rich while kicking the private companies out of our NHS.
We need an independent working-class struggle for trans liberation, as part of a socialist struggle against the oppressive capitalist system as a whole, which enforces rigid gender roles, misogyny and violence.
