Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has declared trans women a threat to “biological women” and has promised a new legislation that would tackle any confusion over the legal definition of sex. He wants female spaces to be “safe” for women therefore has promised to write the The Equality Act so that people will only have the rights attributed to their biological sex.
Funnily enough his ideology of keeping women safe doesn’t seem to transfer over to his own cabinet of MPs, who many of are under investigation for sex crimes. Nor his police force, of which more than 1,100 officers are under investigation for sexual and domestic abuse in England and Wales in the last year alone.
He also doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to fix the fact that only 2% of reported sexual assaults in the UK lead to a conviction. It’s extremely interesting that his concern for women extends only as far as his disdain for trans women and that his knowledge of “biological sex” doesn’t go beyond that of a year 4 student. Not only does his narrative exclude intersex people, it is actively damaging to the trans community who already suffer at the hands of the government’s callousness and ignorance regarding trans-people’s well being. Trans people are disproportionately effected by mental health difficulties, with being 5x more likely to have a long-term mental health condition compared to their cisgender counterparts.
When dealing with issues like sex and gender, many will die on the hill that sex and gender aren’t only mutually exclusive, but binary. When in fact, the binary approach to sex is an 18th century invention that was created to propel ideologies like eugenics and scientific racism. Before this, ancient Greek scholars wrote about sex in a way which understood men and women not as two separate sexes, but variations of a singular sex. Now, our modern society has segregated trans people, making them a vulnerable group as they label them “dangerous” and even until 2013, mentally ill. Our governments release legislation after legislation to endanger and worsen trans people’s quality of life - for Rishi Sunak to release inflammatory and damaging statements like this, especially on Pride Month, is disappointing but not surprising. This is where we remember the first Pride was a riot, and we must keep using our voices to protest and fight for our community’s rights.
At Queer Edge, we want to voice our unconditional support for the trans community, we love you and stand by you.
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