As somebody who has been interested in politics for a long time, I am very excited for my first chance to vote in a General Election in my life. Whilst most people are focusing on this purely as a ‘Brexit election’ (which is a flawed idea in so many ways) there is one issue that is close to my heart that is probably going to show up at some point in the next six weeks: trans rights and healthcare. Recently the debate over trans rights has got particularly heated in the UK, even going so far as to involve several MPs and MSPs as well as a host of ‘famous’ people and most of the British press, so I’ll be very surprised if it doesn’t appear before December 12th.

What I want to do today is go through each of the parties’ histories on trans rights and what they are promising. Hopefully by comparing those two things you’ll be able to get an idea of whether or not what they say is what they will do. So that you can look for yourself, I’ll link manifestos in the title of each area.

As a quick sidenote, I am not a member of any party but I do support the Labour Party in its current iteration. I’m going to try and keep this objective as possible but there’s a chance my personal bias might show – please feel free to call me out on this!!! Also I’m only going to cover the Great British parties because I don’t feel qualified to talk about the Northern Irish parties.

Unsurprisingly the Brexit party don’t have a section on any form of equality in their 27-page ‘contract’. The ‘contract’ does feature some vague promises to improve and defend the NHS, but doesn’t specify anything to do with LGBT healthcare. Originally the party had two trans MPs running, but both were standing in constituencies in which the party has stood down for the Conservatives. Despite this seemingly positive (although it could just be tokenism), high up figures in the party, including its co-founder Catherine Blaiklock, criticised the party for this decision. Nigel Farrage, the party’s leader, has not said anything directly transphobic that I have been able to find, but given his history of homophobic and racist language it would not be too much to assume that he does not have the most healthy views on trans people.

The Conservatives have not done much to advance trans rights during their nine years. In 2017 then prime minister Theresa May announced reform of the GRA; however, given the controversy that this developed the party got noticeably more quiet about trans rights (a similar thing happened with the Scottish government under the SNP). Boris Johnson has said on several occasions that ‘we need to do more to ensure that trans rights are protected’ but his party has not promised much in their manifesto. Overall, the Conservative party’s manifesto mentions LGBT people twice, and does not specifically mention trans rights. They promise to ‘vigorously combat harassment and violence against… LGBT people’ and to host an international LGBT conference.

I cannot find much talking about the Green Party’s history with trans rights. As far as I can tell they haven’t had any issues with transphobia in the party like certain other parties. In the past, they have had a trans woman, Aimee Challenor, run for deputy leader in 2017. In this election the party have two non-binary MPs and one trans MP running (although none of these are in any of the few seats where the Greens have a chance of winning).

In terms of policy the Greens are pretty explicit in what they are promising (at least in England and Wales). They want to focus funding to improve mental health care, in particular for LGBT+ and BME people, as well as increasing funding for the parts of the NHS which LGBT+ people rely on more heavily, like gender identity clinics. Green GRA reform would do a lot to improve trans rights: by removing spousal veto, adding a non-binary/intersex option to be added to passports, and allowing trans youth and non-binary people to get legal recognition through self-declaration. I find the specifying of youth here a bit strange, but that’s my only real issue with this. One thing that I do particularly like about the Green manifesto is that in their proposal for a new press regulator to let woman make complaints about media coverage that would encourage misogyny, they stress that misogyny affects all women (including trans women).

The Independent Group for Change (or whatever they’re called now)

At this point TIGFC only has three candidates running for election. As far as I can tell none of them have done anything horrifically transphobic that has been reported upon, but none have been vocally supportive of trans people either. Their seven page ‘2020 vision for change’ says about as much as they have about trans rights, that being nothing.

Labour are an interesting case. Jeremy Corbyn has a great record of standing up for, and voting for, LGBT rights. Equally other senior Labour figures, such as Dawn Butler, have been very vocal in their support for trans rights. The manifesto promises several things, such as: ensuring NHS services are accessible to LGBT people, creating a Department of Women and Equalities (with a full time secretary of state), GRA reform, and funding mandatory LGBT+ relationships and sex education. I was particularly impressed by the manifesto’s recognition that homelessness disproportionately impacts LGBT+ people (something other parties did not include in their LGBT+ section).

Unfortunately there is one cavait. In literally the next sentence after it promises to make the NHS more accessible to LGBT+ people, the manifesto says that Labour will end single-sex wards. For most people this probably sounds quite innocuous, but suggesting that trans people or GRA reform endanger women’s single-sex spaces (despite the fact trans people have been using them for years) is a popular TERF line. This was furthered by John McDonnell’s interview with Mumsnet (known for being a breeding ground for transphobia in the UK) where he suggested that GRA reform ‘opens up a whole debate about [single sex spaces]’.

The party has one trans and one non-binary candidate standing in this election.

The Liberal Democrats have a decent record on trans rights. Jo Swinson has been quite vocal during this election period about the need for GRA reform. In terms of their policy, most of it is similar to that of the Greens and Labour, but they do go into more detail about what their GRA reform would look like and talk about helping LGBT+ asylum seekers. Much like with Labour, there is one issue that also happens to relate to Mumsnet. Recent Conservative defector Philip Lee said during his interview with the site that trans prisoners should be segregated.

The Lib Dems have one trans and one non-binary candidate

Maniffesto cymraeg

Plaid Cymru’s leader Adam Price, the only gay leader of a major British political party, has been vocal in his support of trans people. In a speech this summer he likened the contemporary abuse of trans people to that the gay community faced in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. Obviously Plaid’s promises are mostly specific to Wales, so their trans policies do include making Wales’ gender identity clinic accessible to more people and working with Welsh sports clubs to reduce transphobic behaviour. On a more nationwide note, they do promise to support GRA reform.

Most people have probably heard something about the extent of transphobia in the SNP. Whilst Nicola Sturgeon and Mhairi Black have both been vocal about their support for trans rights, other prominent figures like MP Joanna Cherry and MSP Joan McAlpine have been vocal in their opposition to GRA reform and other advancements in trans rights. Recently this has gone much further, with McAlpine inviting several notorious transphobes like Dr Sheila Jeffeys and Megan Murphy to speak at the Scottish Parliament.

This division in the party is reflected in the lack of policies related to trans rights and LGBT+ rights more generally. The 2019 manifesto only mentions LGBT+ rights once, in reference to reform of the asylum system; however, it only specifies individuals escaping countries where homosexuality is still criminalised. Other than that there is literally nothing on how the SNP plan to help trans people or LGBT people more generally.

This took longer than I thought it would, but it has been quite enlightening to research. I hope it is useful in informing your decision on December 12th if you have not decided who you are voting for yet. No matter who you are planning to vote for please get out and vote next Thursday (unless you are voting Tory, sorry!). We have a chance to make a real change, to end nine years of damaging Tory government, but that will only happen if people (especially young people) actually get out and vote. The Tories rely on complacency and apathy to win elections.

I would also recommend voting tactically to make sure that your vote is not wasted (unfortunately FPTP means we have to do that). There are some really good websites that you can use to see which party has the best chance of beating the Tories in your constituency (I’ll link one here, but there are others). One final request: if any voters who live in Edinburgh South-West are reading, please vote to unseat Johanna Cherry!