Transphobia is not feminism, it’s a dangerous distraction

Anti-trans rhetoric doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s part of a broader conservative movement that targets all forms of gender equality.

Many only seem to care about using women’s rights as a rhetorical weapon. Pic: Karollyne Videira Hubert

This week’s Supreme Court ruling on the definition of “sex” under the Equality Act has been heralded as a victory by those who claim to be protecting women’s rights. But let’s be honest about what’s really going on here: The sudden surge of political and media interest in trans people has never been about making women safer. It’s a distraction, and a dangerous one at that.

The ruling, that “sex” means biological sex in the Equality Act, was immediately seized upon by the right-wing press. The Daily Mail, which famously called declared judges to be “enemies of the people” during the Brexit process, is now celebrating their innate wisdom. The same papers that cheer this judgement will shrug when thousands of women fleeing domestic violence can’t find safety because of the under-resourcing of shelters, or when rape conviction rates remain at record lows and court backlogs grow. While printing headlines declaring biological sex is absolute, they never print front page splashes decrying the murder of two women, on average, a week in the UK, many at the hands of a partner or ex-partner.

You have to question their motivations: Many only seem to care about using women’s rights as a rhetorical weapon, so long as it targets trans people or immigrants.

The idea that trans women pose a unique and serious threat to women’s safety is not just unsupported by evidence – it obscures the real danger. Cisgender men overwhelmingly commit violence against women and girls [VAWG].

Trans people are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators. The spectre of the predatory man “posing” as a woman to infiltrate women’s spaces is vanishingly rare. And where it does happen, it should be treated with the seriousness we prescribe to violence against women and girls in any circumstances – for both the sake of cisgender women and transgender people. A small number of predatory individuals taking advantage of a system should never result in rights being stripped from an entire community. And let’s not forget that cis men don’t need to pretend to be anyone to hurt women, and they do it every day.

It’s telling that those most animated by this ruling are not women on the front lines of tackling VAWG – they have little to say about the material conditions that actually affect women’s lives. Instead, the conversation is dominated by a moral panic about the existence of trans people in public life. This serves no one, except those who want to deflect attention from the state’s real failures.

Anti-trans rhetoric doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s part of a broader conservative movement that targets all forms of gender equality. The far-right in the UK is now celebrating a ruling that chips away at the dignity and rights of a tiny, vulnerable population, but around the world, from the US to Hungary to parts of Latin America, the same groups erasing trans rights are also rolling back abortion access, defunding domestic violence services, and attacking sex education.

Lord Hodge, deputy president of the court, urged people not to see the decision “as a triumph of one or more groups in our society at the expense of another.” Labour must heed this warning. Just this week the Department for Health told GPs to withdraw blood tests for people accessing trans affirming healthcare. The ruling could easily give the government greater confidence in adopting increasingly anti-trans policies – but it must avoid falling into this trap.

The ruling isn’t about protecting women; it’s about controlling them. Once you start policing who counts as a woman, it’s opens the door to policing what women can do with their bodies. The anti-trans agenda is the tip of the spear in a wider assault on bodily autonomy and feminist progress.

What can we do now?

Much of the coverage and reaction to the Supreme Court ruling in the coming days and weeks will be designed to stoke fear. There is already the presumption that an increase of hate, anger and vitriol towards trans people is a foregone conclusion, but the strength of this community and their allies should not be underestimated. Now is the time for action and speaking up for those who hold less power.

• Read up on the detail of the ruling, what it actually means for trans people in the UK today, and the possible implications. The more you understand, the better equipped you will be to talk about this issue, voice your support, and challenge hostile viewpoints.

• Write to your MP asking them to uphold gender recognition legislation including the Gender Recognition Act 2004. Write a letter to your MP at: House of Commons, London SW1A 0AA. Or email them using the contact details in the Directory of MPs. Remember to always include your own address when you write to your MP so that they will know you live in their constituency.

• Read and support the work of trans and non-binary journalists – like this important piece from William Elisabeth Cuthbert on mutual aid and the resistance against social neglect.

• Join the protest in support of trans rights taking place in Parliament Square on Saturday at 1pm (April 19).

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