The degradation of trans rights across the Atlantic

https://queercrimson.substack.com/p/the-degradation-of-trans-rights-across

What is going on in the UK is a frightening tell of whats to come in the States.

The UK high Court just ruled that the UK Equality Act, the law that outlined workplace discrimination protections, does not apply to trans women, effectively saying that in the eyes of UK law, trans women are not women.

Jesus Christ. A stunning rollback of trans equality in the UK, but something that's sadly becoming far too common.

But what is in this ruling exactly? How will it effect trans folk in the US, where it seems like our rights are being stripped with each passing day?

Let's go over it together.

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The case was initially brought forward by For Women Scotland, a “women's rights” organization (I put quotes around women since they don't see trans women as, well women.) in 2022.

The complete utter bollocks that was their argument is that the definition of men and women in the 2010 UK Equality Act, relate to biological sex, not gender identity.

Quick aside, in the UK, if you are a trans woman, you can get a Gender Recognition Certificate, which, put simply, says, yes she is a woman by UK law if your a trans woman, or yes he is a man, if your a trans man.

Back to the court case itself, FWS’s case was denied and they pushed all through the lower courts, until it reached the UK Supreme Court, which inevitably brought us to today and their ruling saying that the UK Equality Act of 2010 applies only to biological sex, not gender identity.

I am not a medical professional or provider, but this biological sex bullshit that the British GC’s are spouting just pissed me off honestly. Like being trans in and of itself is a case of biology.

Can I explain it? I could try, but I would have to consult a biologist. I at least admitted that I didn’t know what I was talking about. GC’s, and transphobes here in the States and everywhere, don’t. They talk out their own asses and have egos bigger than the damn Sun stopping them from admitting that they were wrong.

Look at one of biggest GC’s. She who shall not be named, I believe is what she’s called.

Constantly spewed shit out of her ass for months fuck, even years, with her recently saying asexual people aren’t real, going calling them “straight people who don’t fancy a quickie”.

Wow. I’m going to save any comments about her for a later date, since we would get far off topic quick, but I’m simply going to say that she is a rude, callous, and vile woman.

She’s not the only one contributing to the utterly shit environment for trans people in the UK, though. From Liz Truss, to Rishi Sunak, all the way to the present with Kier Starmer and the Equality Act ruling.

Its taken us a long road to get here to this point. By the way, it seems that PM Starmer has fully revealed himself as a bigoted asshat, with him saying flat out “trans women aren’t women” in the most unapologetic display of transphobia.

So what does this mean exactly for trans folk in the UK?

That is what I aimed to find out when I asked two queer British activists, Katy Montgomerie and Heather Patterson. Katy catalogues all the goings on related to British trans activism on her Bluesky (@katymontgomerie.com).

She also has a YouTube (psst, which you should go watch, its really good. www.youtube.com/@KatyMontgomerie. ) where she talks about a whole host of trans issues not just in the UK but across the world. I asked her what the situation is like in the UK after the Supreme court ruling In short, its terrible:

Yeah it's really, really bad here. Up until this ruling we have pretty good human rights across the board, but now we have lost most of them in one go. The court case was a total sham as it was solely about trans people's rights but they didn't let a single trans person be present at any stage, whereas they had multiple anti trans hate groups involved in the court case directly. Our current government is the equivalent of the democrats, aka meant to be center left, but they've gone far right on a lot of issues recently from immigration to healthcare and now LGBT rights. Their main opposition in the next election is way, way worse. Think of it like the Republicans under George Bush Jr Vs the Republicans under Trump. Our only real hope is mass protest (which the previous government basically made illegal) and/or the European Court Of Human Rights, which is the highest authority and has consistently ruled in favour of trans people.

Love to see the Democratic playbook being used everywhere. Clowns.

This brings me back to my initial point of GC’s being physically incapable of having anything that doesn’t suck them off and just agree with them, no questions asked.

Dare I say, they intentionally chose not to let a trans person be present for the case because they are physically incapable of being proven wrong, or having anything presented to the contrary of their point This almost entirely proves it.

I’m hoping maybe that the EU Court of Human Rights, of which the UK is still a member of, decides to step in as much as Katy is, since this ruling is a clear violation of human rights of trans people, but we will see.

I then asked the same question to Heather Paterson, the head of partnerships & development at Consortium, an LGBTQ outreach group in the UK.

I got a similar-ish response from Heather, with her balking at the supposed women rights angle GC'S are going for:

Honestly at the moment people are scared, angry, shocked and trying to figure out what the ruling is going to mean in practice. I am a cis woman - and this being framed as a women's rights/feminist issue angers me. This will not make women safer. Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets in recent days to oppose this transphobia and the harm it will do to all of us and to stand in solidarity with our trans friends, family and colleagues so that gives me some hope.

That’s another thing, trying to frame this as an issue of “protecting women”. It isn’t, as Heather pointed out. This callous bigotry, disguised as “protecting women”, is only going to put them in more danger.

Not an ounce of the logic bigots use, makes any god damn sense, its all reliant on their raging bigotry. You bring that down, their entire house of cards fall down. It’s so infuriating.

And the same sort of bigoted path is happening across the pond here in the States. Literally just yesterday, US AG Pam Bondi says that any doctors caught giving gender affirming care would be sentenced to 10 years on prison, framing it as “female genital mutilation.” That’s just a tiny piece of the bigotry puzzle happening in the States.

Trans rights are being stripped away in the US at a lighting pace, and it seems that the UK is beginning to take notes.

It’s is a depressing example of the fast pace trans rights are being stripped away at, and how we as a community need to stand tall, strong, and firm and not just keep our heads down.