The Labour party have promised to remove the ‘intrusive’ law that states those who wish to transition their gender will have to live as their preferred gender for two years.
In a move for trans rights, the Labour party have promised that they will simplify the gender transition process for those wishing to transition, The Times has reported. The party also claims that they will also jettison the panel of doctors and lawyers which now approves GRCs, which only two per cent of transgender people have, according to reports.
A Labour source said to The Times: “Our intention was always that we don’t want to change how the diagnosis [of gender dysphoria] is made. It’s not about how it’s diagnosed but we do want one diagnosis.”
The source described the requirement to show two years’ worth of proof as “nonsense”.
They added: “We’ll replace it with a reflection period. It counters the idea that you can put on a dress and then the next day you’ve got a GRC. It’ll be a considerable period of time of two years. But of course you are still protected under the Equality Act even if you don’t have a GRC … There are protections so you can’t legally change your gender overnight.”
The news comes after Keir Starmer said earlier this week that he agreed with Sir Tony Blair that a biological woman has a vagina and a man has a penis, Starmer has also said in the past that 99.9 per cent of women ‘do not have a penis’ but the Labour leader has shifted his stance in recent months.
Under current rules, transgender people wishing to have their new gender legally recognised must have a gender recognition certificate (GRC), alongside this they are required to submit proof that they have switched genders, which can include official documents such as utility bills or passports, or even or supermarket clubcards.
In an interview with Sky News Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, pledged that Labour would set out “strengthened guidance” to protect women-only spaces saying: “I also believe that trans people have the right to appropriate care as well”.
Phillipson said Labour would revisit at guidance provided to schools on the teaching of gender identity. She said while the guidance had some “good and straightforward principles” it had also “drifted far too much into partisan and unnecessary language”.
She also guaranteed that a biological woman would not have to share a space with a person of the opposite sex. She told Sky News: “The Equality Act allows for that.”
She said: “I do believe in the importance of single-sex provision, but I also believe that trans people have the right to appropriate care as well. I don’t think it is about one or the other.”
Phillipson said she was “genuinely sorry to hear” of Rowling’s doubts and she had a “real degree of respect” for the author and added: “I would say really, do judge us on what we’ve done in the past to support women”.
The proposal of fresh legislation was met with criticism by Kemi Badenoch, the women and equalities minister, who said it would “unravel all the protections in the current system designed to protect women and girls” and create “loopholes for predators and bad-faith actors to infiltrate women-only spaces and put us at risk”, according to The Times.
Harry Potter author J.K Rowling, who has also been vocal about women’s rights meshing with that of transgender rights; wrote in The Times on Saturday she accused Labour of being “dismissive and often offensive towards women fighting to retain the rights their foremothers thought were won for all time”.
The author has been attacked on social media platform X, for stating views that suggests the rights of biological females are being forfeited in favour of emerging trans rights, whittling down ‘safe spaces for women’.
