Labour LGB welcomes the NEC guidance on the Supreme Court Judgment recently published on the Labour Party website. No-one can be in any doubt that the Party will now implement the Equality Act on the basis that biological sex is the protected characteristic.
Labour LGB spokesperson said:
“Lesbian, gay and bisexual people have been central to the final SC judgment, and we thank the Lesbian Interveners for their tremendous work enabling the court to see that biological sex is at the core of our existence. We trust that the Labour Party will now accept that LGB same-sex attracted people are not the same as TQ+ people who are expressing a gender identity”.
It therefore makes no sense for us to be force-teamed under the same “LGBTQ+” heading, as our needs are very different. Sexual orientation is one of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act whereas gender identity is not. Rather it is gender reassignment which is protected.
The proposed Conversion Practices Bill would have to unravel this entrenched confusion and risks, as Cass argued, having a chilling effect on the clinical practice gender questioning young people so badly need.
The Cass Review found that over 80% of young people treated for gender dysphoria at the Tavistock Clinic expressed same-sex attraction. It is known that the Tavistock Clinic used gender non-conformity – a trait often seen in same-sex attracted young people – as an indicator that a patient was “transgender”. This practice resulted in the conversion of lesbians and gay men into ‘heterosexuals’, with one Tavistock clinician quoted as commenting that “soon there would no longer be any gays”.
In schools, young boys who display stereotypical ‘feminine characteristics’ are now being taught that they could be born in the wrong body and are really girls. We argue that these young boys will have a strong chance of growing up to be happy and healthy gay men. The conflict between these two groups (LGB same-sex attracted and TQ+ gender identity), makes for an incredibly dangerous situation for a young LGB person to find themselves in. There are no longer LGB youth groups; these are now LGBTQ+ where many LGB are accused of transphobia if they say they are same-sex attracted. TQ+ has become the dominant narrative.
A young same-sex attracted person has to accept this narrative to avoid being ostracised – an example of compelled compliance. They find themselves swept along a road of conformity resulting in poorly-informed decisions leading to life-long medical intervention and irreversible surgery. When those who make this mistake realise, for many, it’s too late. Medical and surgical transition with the use of cross-sex hormones is irreversible. Increasing numbers of lesbians and gays who have been subjected to these treatments now regret the decisions they made when they were too young to understand the consequences.
The Labour Party, having accepted the Supreme Court ruling, now needs to recognise our legal right of association as LGB and we look forward to full engagement with current and future consultations on behalf of Labour LGB members both current and new.
