The inaugural PinkNews Politician of the Year award, announced on Wednesday, has attracted controversy as one of its recipients – Tina Stowell, a Conservative member of the House of Lords – has been called out for her anti-trans stance over the course of the passage of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013. The award was shared with Labour MP Yvette Cooper, the Shadow Home Secretary.

Liberal Democrat politician Sarah Brown and activist Natacha Kennedy were among the first to point out Baroness Stowell’s staunch anti-trans defence of the “spousal veto” amendment in the equal marriage legislation.

https://twitter.com/auntysarah/status/393279957428076544



Does @Pinknews' honouring of Stowell mean they now endorse the #spousalveto for trans people? If so #equalmarriage is not equal marriage. — Dr Natacha Kennedy (@natachakennedy) October 24, 2013

Under the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act, trans people require the permission of their spouses to obtain a full Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) that allows the holder to change their gender on official documents. What their spouse is agreeing to is the conversion of their “heterosexual” marriage into a “homosexual” one, codifying a distinction between the two in spite of the popularity of the phrase “equal marriage.” Without it, they can only obtain an interim GRC unless they divorce their spouse

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Placing the legal rights of trans people in the hands of their spouses has deeply damaging consequences. According to the 2013 survey “Spouse Reactions to Transsexuality” by Zoë Kirk-Robinson, commissioned by T-Vox.org, only 49% of trans people who came out to their partner or spouse received positive responses in the long term. Only 46% of those with children are allowed to see them upon divorce or separation, and 26% of respondents stated that a spouse has made a divorce difficult, while 44% of partners or spouses have actively attempted to prevent their partner from transitioning.

This event is not without precedent: in 2008, Stonewall gave its Journalist of the Year award to Julie Bindel, in spite of her infamous transphobic 2004 article “Gender benders, beware” for The Guardian. While Bindel has apologised for that article, she has published yet more damaging pieces since and has been making transphobic remarks up to just a few months ago. However, unlike Stonewall, an LGB charity which has always excluded trans people – if not steamrolled over their interests altogether – PinkNews does address the trans community in its aim to be the “premier LGBT news outlet in the UK and beyond.”

The Politician of the Year honour was one of two judged awards, the other being Business Network of the Year. The remainder of the awards (Community Group of the Year, Advertising Campaign of the Year and Parliamentary Speech of the Year) were voted on by readers.

Here is the list of the judges for the Politician of the Year award:

Iain Dale, Presenter LBC

Mike Freer, MP for Finchley and Golders Green

Tom Copely, London Assembly Member (Labour London wide)

Baroness Olly Grender

Anna Doble, Head of Online, Channel 4

Paris Lees, Columnist GT (Gay Times), Diva and the Independent

Simon Topham, Managing Director GT and Diva

Donna Halkyard, Head of Diversity, BAE Systems (Business network award)

Tom French, the Scottish Equality Network

Corinne Pinfold, former reporter, PinkNews, policy officer, School Leader Support Service

Of the panel of 10, only one (Paris Lees) is a trans woman, which PinkNews mentioned in defence of the outcome.

@auntysarah jointly with @YvetteCooperMP. And picked by an independent panel of judges — PinkNews (@PinkNews) October 24, 2013





PinkNews has yet to make any further comment on the matter. Lees has apologised for what she calls her “ignorant mistake.”

It seems I've been incredibly stupid. I didn't know about Stowell's anti trans stance. I voted for her. Please forgive my ignorant mistake. — Paris Lees (@parislees) October 24, 2013





…& please don't be too harsh on @pinknews & @benjamincohen, they appointed judges & we voted. I should have known better. Put my hands up. — Paris Lees (@parislees) October 24, 2013





@zoeimogen I'm not terribly political… but I agreed to be a judge so I should have researched better. I've had a lot on recently. My bad. — Paris Lees (@parislees) October 24, 2013

It seems this decision arose out of oversight rather than malice, and it is, of course, unfair to place the blame squarely on Paris Lees. The judging process highlights the difficulty of appreciating the nuances of what support for the same-sex marriage legislation really means: unless you were following the passage of the Bill closely, you would see little cause to question Baroness Stowell’s advocacy of it.

This does not, however, let PinkNews off the hook. Having only one trans person on the panel of judges, especially one that had multiple straight allies, placed an unfair amount of pressure on one individual to represent a core part of the LGBT community. Furthermore, as Lees acknowledged, she isn’t “terribly political.” In a vote for a political award in the same year that a significant piece of LGBT legislation passed, one which had different consequences for different groups under the LGBT banner, it is puzzling why PinkNews did not select someone who did follow the passage of said Bill closely.

In response to this, activist Zoe O’Connell is accepting nominations for an alternative Politician of the Year award, recognising those who have championed the rights of trans people.