In the middle of June, the Sunday Times published a leak which suggested that the government was rowing back on commitments to reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004. Proposed reforms, over which a huge national consultation was launched in 2018, included reducing the archaic, expensive and needlessly stressful process trans people are required to endure to change their gender. Trans people should be able to self-identify as their affirmed gender.
Due to be published on July 30, publication of the government’s report into reform of the
Gender Recognition Act has now been delayed until September. This delay brings nothing but uncertainty for trans members of our union and trans people in our communities; the government has promised no roll-back of trans rights without saying what exactly that means. Pronouncements by Tory Minister Liz Truss suggest the government is planning to oppose self-ID, to deny medical services to trans children and to make it harder for trans women to access public services.
Even Tory pronouncements that should command unanimous support, such as a potential ban on the barbaric practice of gay conversion therapy, are being met with calls that a ban should not include conversion therapy aimed at trans people.
Ahead of publication of the government’s report, members of the union’s NEC had sought to propose and pass a motion which would have made clear the union’s opposition to Tory backsliding, to the divide-and-rule tactics and full support for self-ID instead of the current over-medicalised process by which trans people have to be diagnosed with a mental disorder (gender dysphoria) before they can self-identify as their affirmed gender.
Unfortunately, despite being proposed three NEC meetings ago, this motion has still not been debated by the NEC. PCS President, Fran Heathcote, keeps scheduling very short meetings, or refusing to schedule meetings every two weeks as was agreed as NEC policy earlier in the year, and the President also chooses where on the agenda issues are debated.
The current Left Unity/Democrat leadership of the union has not had the best record on trans rights. The NEC was censured in 2019 by Annual Delegate Conference over the General Secretary placing his signature on a letter in the Morning Star which deliberately misrepresented trans people as the perpetrators of violence rather than the true position, which is that they are overwhelmingly the sufferers of violence.
Tory delays give us another opportunity, however, to mobilise the union behind efforts to improve trans rights. Organisations such as Amnesty International and Stonewall have already published condemnations of the Tory retreat on GRA reform, and there have been demonstrations by trans people and their allies across the country.
Members of our union can be encouraged to get involved, but we must also recognise that more must be done if we are to win ground in the battle for trans rights. Trade unions must be mobilised to defend public services, and thereby to defend a vulnerable minority.
Liberation struggle is class struggle: oppose divisive Tory tactics
Right-wing attempts to drive a wedge into the LGBT+ movement have been noted above; the other big tactic employed by the right is to attempt to drive a wedge between trans people and women over the question of access to public services.
A minority of vocal anti-trans activists, who claim to speak for women, have sought to portray trans women as predatory men whose consuming obsession is changing their gender so as to get access to public services such as refuges. In the context of austerity, where organisations such as Rape Crisis and Women’s Aid have faced huge cuts and are unable to meet existing demand from women for support, this lie has found an echo amongst a layer and it needs to be refuted.
To give just one example of the extent of this lie, a Scottish government survey of all 12 regulatory bodies that cover women’s refuges for the whole of the UK found that the existing safeguards in the Equality Act 2010, which allow for certain spaces to exclude trans women, had never needed to be used. The bodies also reported that, although trans women had been accessing their services for years, there had been no incidents involving trans women reported in any refuge throughout the UK. Meanwhile every study available shows the horrendously high rates of assault, domestic violence, sexual assault, rape and murder suffered by trans women.
The trade union movement must fight for all who need access to fully funded public services to support them against domestic abuse and against rape. Housing needs to be available to allow those who are domestically abused to escape their abuser immediately. The law needs to be changed to protect those who suffer from domestic abuse from further victimisation by their employer. The fight for these services, against austerity and against prejudice, is one that should fall squarely on the shoulders of the trade union movement.
Perpetuating myths such as those told by opponents of GRA reform can only serve to divide those who should be united in opposing Tory austerity and cuts to public services. They serve to increase the isolation of trans women and the evidence suggests that during the period of the consultation, in which mainstream press pages have resounded with attacks on trans women, instances of physical attacks on trans people have increased. Nor do these ideas offer a way forward in the fight to defend public services against the austerity onslaught, which falls on working class women disproportionately.
In our own union, there have been examples of senior union reps who deliberately refer to trans people by the wrong gender, or by the wrong name. Combating prejudice and misinformation, and building a powerful, united campaign to improve the lives of trans people is possible, and our union must play a leading role.
It is a mistake to do anything that exacerbates divisions in the working class – along the lines of gender, sexuality, race, etc – as the proponents of identity politics and anti-trans ideas do. The defenders of capitalism already use division to weaken our struggles against exploitation, austerity and oppression. Instead we need to fight for the maximum unity of the working class in struggle around a socialist programme of jobs, homes and services for all.
We call on the leadership of PCS to publish a statement which outlines the steps the union’s leadership is planning to take in line with Annual Delegate Conference policy to support and campaign for reform of the GRA, to demand self-ID for trans people, to demand high quality public services to support all women against domestic abuse and violence, especially in the era of Covid-19 when women have been isolated with their abuser, and to oppose the divisive lies being spread by the media and by the government about trans people.
PCS Broad Left Network 