Skip to navigation – Site map

HomeIssues XXX-3The Transgender Debate as a Symbo...

The Transgender Debate as a Symbol of Political Instability in the United-Kingdom between 2020 and 2024

Le débat transgenre comme symbole d’instabilité politique au Royaume-Uni entre 2020 et 2024
Maëlyn Marliere

Abstracts

In 2022, the Scottish National Party introduced a bill that would allow transgender individuals to legally change their gender on the basis of self-identification, therefore making the lives of transgender people easier by de-medicalizing the process. This prompted the Conservative government to use Section 35 of the 1988 Scotland Act to veto the bill. This bill is a symptom of a broader public debate surrounding gender, sex and the supposed gender ideology that goes with it. Since 2020 and the publication of J.K. Rowling’s manifesto on sex and gender, the matter of transgender rights has become a major topic in British politics and it was used as an argument by both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party in the 2024 general election campaign. Indeed, transgender issues were framed as an issue that could win votes for either party. This paper aims at analysing not only the rhetoric employed by both parties in the years leading up to the general election but also the policies enacted to allegedly protect women and children. Furthermore, the article discusses the role of gender-critical discourses spread by TERFs in the United-Kingdom and their weight in the political landscape.

Top of page

Full text

Introduction

1On March 2, 2022, the Scottish National Party and its then leader First Minister Nicola Sturgeon introduced the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, which would allow transgender individuals to legally change their gender based on self-identification. Thanks to this bill, anyone over the age of 16 living in Scotland would have had the right to change their legal gender marker simply by asking the National Records of Scotland. The target demographic of the bill was individuals who felt that their lived gender did not match their assigned gender, which represents approximately 260 000 people according to the 2021 census. The measure builds upon the 2004 Gender Recognition Act passed by the Parliament under Tony Blair to make the lives of transgender people easier by de-medicalizing the legal transition process. On January 16, 2023, Scotland Secretary Alister Jack – Conservative Party – announced he would seek the use of Section 35 of the 1998 Scotland Act for the first time since devolution. The latter allows the central government to veto a bill by the Scottish Parliament, even on devolved matters such as gender and sex. In a statement published on January 17, 2023, the Sunak government issued a document listing several reasons justifying the use of Section 35. The document raises several questions in relation to the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, but it also mentions potential adverse effects. Among others, reason number 34 is especially relevant for this paper. Indeed, the statement refers to the risks for single-sex associations, and, by extension, single-sex spaces:

“The Bill will adversely affect the operation of the 2010 Act by changing the effect of its requirements on single-sex associations, who will be required to accept, without discrimination, members from a new, larger and different cohort, who would not have met the requirements currently set out in the 2004 Act”1

2The issue of transgender rights in Scotland is associated with a broader public debate surrounding gender and the supposed gender ideology that goes with it. Indeed, the use of Section 35 to block a bill made the transgender issue a national matter, becoming more and more prominent in national media. While it is hard to give a precise date for the beginning of the transgender debate, the year 2020 saw the intensity of the discussion increase, notably with the publication of J.K. Rowling’s manifesto on sex and gender.2 In a 2023 article published in the Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies, Briar Dickey argues that “various discursive repertoires are used to justify antitransgender arguments, including appeals to religious morality, family values, selective scientific claims and human rights.”3

3Out of the categories mentioned above, this paper claims that, in the United-Kingdom, much of the antitransgender movement claims to be protecting human rights while at the same time using selective scientific claims.

  • 4 Transgender Exclusionary Radical Feminism

4Between 2020 and 2024, every political party mentioned transgender people in their speeches, however, this article mainly focuses on the Conservative Party and the Labour Party. Indeed, transgender rights were a recurring topic of discussion during the 2024 General Election campaign that began in May 2024. However, if we are to fully understand the place occupied by trans people in the campaigns of each party, we need to examine the years leading up to the General Election. This paper therefore raises the following question: How and why have transgender rights progressively become a sign of instability in the public discourse in the United-Kingdom in the years leading up to the 2024 general election? To answer this question, this piece intends to analyse the rhetoric that shaped most of the policies in relation to transgender issues between 2020 and 2024, especially the discourses known as TERF4 or gender-critical (or GC). Much like the measures adopted by the Conservative government and upheld by the Labour government, the GC rhetoric focuses on two distinct issues which we intend to discuss: firstly, the problem of single-sex spaces, and secondly the supposed safeguarding of transgender children. Indeed, as we shall demonstrate, one of the most interesting things regarding the transgender debate in the United-Kingdom is how gender critical beliefs appeal to traditionally progressive arguments to back up their claims. Notably, they conjure up the political topics of women and children’s safety. As several scholars argue, this is something very specific to the United-Kingdom and has not been observed in other western countries such as the United-States or France, where transgender rights are rejected mostly by right-wing and alt-right politicians and voters.

The issue of single-sex spaces in British political discourse

5In a 2024 article published in Parliamentary Affairs, Anna Sanders and Francesca Gains theorize that

  • 5 Anna Sanders and Francesca Gains, “Weaponizing women and gender: Party appeals to women voters ahea (...)

“The Conservatives’ focus on trans rights ‘weaponizes’ the issue of gender by seeking to appeal to women voters through the exclusion of others (in this case, members of the trans community).”5

6For the Conservative Party, the focus on trans rights is a way to gather the votes of women, notably by referencing their safety. On March 13, 2024, former Home Secretary Suella Braverman published an opinion piece in The Telegraph. In this editorial, she praises gender critical activist and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and writes the following:

“That’s why when it comes to using single sex spaces, access to sports and the protection of children in schools, there is a level of confusion about where the line is drawn and where a trans woman is, for all intents and purposes, still to be treated as a biological man. That’s why we need to clarify the Equality Act to ensure that sex means biological sex”6

  • 7 Claire C.A. House, “'I'm Real, Not You': Roles and Discourses of Trans Exclusionary Women's and Fem (...)

7According to Braverman, changing the meaning of sex in the Equality Act would eliminate the possibility for transgender women to enter women-only spaces such as toilets and hospital wards. Under the current version of the 2010 Equality Act, which distinguishes sex and gender reassignment as two protected categories, a transgender woman with a Gender Recognition Certificate could use the women’s restrooms or be placed in a women’s ward in the hospital. This rhetoric that frames transgender women as intruders in single-sex spaces depicts them as predators trying to use their gender identity to abuse women. Indeed, in those discourses, “trans women and girls […] are repeatedly portrayed as predatory, creeping or otherwise dangerous7 thus creating a division between cisgender women and transgender women. The aim of this division is to appeal to women voters who may fear for their safety or the safety of their daughters. The debate surrounding single-sex prisons was largely amplified in the 2020’s due to the Isla Bryson case. In January 2023, Scottish transgender sex offender Isla Bryson was remanded to a women’s prison, which sparked controversy. This case demonstrated that

  • 8 Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte and Fraser McMillan, “‘Protect the women!’ Trans‐exclusionary feminist issu (...)

“Trans women […] are also sometimes portrayed as a threat to women's physical safety and mental well-being, with their presence alone said to pose a risk due to, for example, prior sexual trauma.”8

  • 9 Suella Braverman, 3 October 2023 Conservative Party Conference, Manchester.
  • 10 Julia Serano, Whipping Girl, (New York City, Seal Press, 2007), p. 239.

8Eventually, in reaction to the backlash, Nicola Sturgeon declared on 26 January 2023 that Bryson would be sent to a men’s prison. In the wake of this trial, Suella Braverman announced at the 2023 Tory Conference that the Conservatives “will bring forward legislation to prevent registered sex offenders from changing their identities9 to capitalize on the security of cisgender women who oppose the right for transgender women to use single-sex spaces. According to transfeminist scholar Julia Serano, this situation stems from “traditional sexism10. For Serano, this form of sex discrimination considers that men – and for anti-trans activists, this includes transgender women – are violent because they are seen as stronger than women and thus may represent a danger for them if they manage to enter their spaces. These discourses, however, fail to consider the reality of transitioning from male to female, which often assumes that one gives up their status in a male-centered society.

9Furthermore, in the rhetoric employed by the Conservative Party around transgender issues, appeals to so-called common sense and the truth are recurring. At the 2023 Conservative Party Conference, former Prime Minister and Conservative Leader Rishi Sunak stated that

  • 11 Rishi Sunak, 3 October 2023 Conservative Party Conference, Manchester.

“Patients should know when hospitals are talking about men or women. We shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want. They can’t; A man is a man and a woman is a woman – that’s just common sense.”11

10During the same conference, former Education Secretary Gillian Keegan spoke in a similar manner on the topic of curriculums and single-sex spaces in schools:

  • 12 Gillian Keegan, 3 October 2023 Conservative Party Conference, Manchester.

“It’s common sense to be able to say that parents should be able to see what their children are being taught in schools. It’s common sense that girls should have separate toilets from boys”12

11The language used by members of the government during the Conservative Party Conference is revealing of the way they portray both transgender people and trans rights activists. The discourse by members of the Conservative Party has become increasingly anti-trans as the campaign progressed. To fully understand the place of common sense in anti-transgender discourse, we need to turn to Gayle Rubin, who defined the sex/gender/sexuality system as “the set of arrangements by which a society transforms biological sexuality into products of human activity”. Such a system, which ensures cisgender and heterosexual dominance, is endangered by the existence of transgender individuals. Therefore, using appeals to common sense is an attempt from the Conservatives to gather the votes of people who believe that transgender people are dangerous for the norms of society. This includes gender-critical voters, but also traditionalists and religious groups.

  • 13 Alan Mabbutt (ed.), The Conservative and Unionist Party Manifesto 2024, (London, 2024), p. 42.
  • 14 Alan Mabbutt (ed.), op.cit, p. 59.

12Lastly, the Conservative Party manifesto included several references to gender and sex. The focus on single-sex spaces highlights the choice of the Conservatives to appeal to women and their safety. On page 42, the following is written: “We will amend the NHS Constitution so that it recognises every patient’s right to request single-sex accommodation”.13 In the same fashion, there are recurring mentions of biological sex, notably at page 59 where the Conservatives vow to “introduce primary legislation to clarify that the protected characteristic of sex in the Equality Act means biological sex”.14 This rhetoric, which frames transgender women as a threat for cisgender women and their single-sex spaces stems from the gender-critical belief that accepting trans women in female-only spaces

  • 15 Brian Fanning, Public Morality and the Culture Wars, (Leeds, Emerald Publishing Limited, 2023), p. (...)

“would invalidate the distinct experiences of women (menstruation, pregnancy, miscarriages and giving birth) that have also been the basis of the kinds of sex inequalities (in education, employment, politics) that have been challenged by feminism since the Enlightenment.”15

13The Conservative party’s 2024 election campaign thus largely plays on the apparent conflict between women’s rights and transgender rights, opposing, on the one hand the supposedly real, cisgender women, and on the other hand, transgender women, who may be dangerous.

  • 16 Alan Mabbutt (ed.), op.cit, p. 59.
  • 17 Ibid.

14The Conservative manifesto also argues that while “attempts at so-called ‘conversion therapy’ are abhorrent16, they would not pass a trans-inclusive ban immediately, calling for “more time before reaching a final judgement17, presumably due to the ongoing rows surrounding transgender issues.

15The matter of transgender rights also permeated the discourses within the Labour Party and its supporters. As a matter of fact:

  • 18 Anna Sanders and Francesca Gains, op.cit, p. 704.

“the issue of trans rights and tensions between ‘trans inclusive’ and ‘gender critical’ perspectives has also been a divisive and turbulent debate in public and internal Labour Party policy discussions”18

16As Sanders and Gains point out, transgender issues are a point of contention amidst the Labour Party, and this was largely increased during the 2024 general election campaign. Former Labour MP for Canterbury Rosie Duffield resigned her party whip on September 28, 2024, less than three months after the general election. Duffield claimed that she resigned due to disagreements with Keir Starmer’s leadership, calling his policies “cruel and unnecessary” in her resignation letter. However, she had been under fire for her gender-critical declarations. Duffield, who believes that the Labour Party has a “woman problem” and attended the first annual conference of anti-trans group LGB Alliance, was criticized in January 2024 by 33 student Labour clubs after liking a tweet by comedy writer Graham Linehan in which he called transgender comedian Eddie Izzard a “straight man”.19

17Labour leader Keir Starmer’s shifts in stance may be seen as symbols of the ongoing debates around gender and sex. Up until July 2023, Sir Keir Starmer supported reforms to the gender recognition process, however, he progressively changed his stance within a year, presumably to win the votes of gender-critical feminists. On July 26, 2023, Starmer announced he had no plan to include self-identification if Labour won the general election. Starmer then repeatedly expressed his support for single-sex spaces, notably on the eve of the general election. On June 29, 2024, J.K. Rowling, a long-time Labour supporter, published the following post on X (formerly Twitter): “Do biological males with gender recognition certificates have the right to enter women-only spaces? It’s a simple yes/no question, @UKLabour.”20 Keir Starmer answered Rowling’s question on July 2, 2024, when he clarified that “no, they don’t have that right. They shouldn’t.”21 Sir Keir Starmer’s position can be seen as an attempt to win the votes of gender critical women by appealing to their concerns for safety, even if that means doing U-turns on matters such as LGBTQ+ rights. Indeed, J.K. Rowling announced she would not support Labour unless Starmer adopted a clear stance on transgender rights. Fearing they might lose many supporters – Rowling has close to 15 million followers on X – Labour decided to voice their care for women’s right to single-sex spaces.

18Nonetheless, as announced in their manifesto, the Labour government vowed to pass a trans-inclusive ban on conversion therapies and the matter was mentioned in the King’s Speech on July 17, 2024. This announcement sparked concerns amidst gender-critical voters, notably because it presumably undermines the possibilities for the treatment of transgender children and teenagers.

The safeguarding of transgender children

  • 22 Daniel D. Lewis et al., “Cultural Threat, Outgroup Discrimination, and Attitudes toward Transgender (...)
  • 23 Lisa Littman, “Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid on (...)
  • 24 BBC News, 16 May 2024 https://www.bbc.com/news/education-69017920, consulted 12 February 2025.

19The topic of transgender minors – particularly children – was also a recurring subject during the 2024 electoral campaign, with both major parties focusing on the safeguarding of transgender minors. According to the 2024 study known as the Cass Review, more than 5000 referrals were made to the Gender Identity Development Service of the NHS in 2021/2022, compared to less than 300 in 2011/2012, which represents a 1600% increase in the span of ten years. For some conservative and right-wing observers, this increase, especially among young transgender men, is a symbol of the fact that “cultural threat from transgender people is evident in concerns about ‘social contagion’ of transgender identities”.22 For them, this rise in referrals is due to what is known as Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria. This controversial notion, coined by American public health researcher Lisa Littman in a 2018 article, defines the idea according to which gender dysphoria among young people develops quickly through social contagion, because teenagers see it as trendy.23 The Conservative Party, in the months leading up to the general election, referred on several occasions to this concept of rapid onset gender dysphoria. On 16 May 2024, 6 days before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a general election, a BBC News article reported on a draft paper from the Conservative government which aimed at changing school programs. When discussing the draft guidance, Rishi Sunak labelled gender identity a “disturbing content24 that should not be mentioned in classes, as it could confuse pupils. This rhetoric depicts school as a place where children learn that they can change their gender and the Conservatives believe that banning the topic from classrooms will prevent social contagion of transgender identity among young children and teenagers. The goal of this measure is to protect children, which echoes the gender-critical belief that no child is born in the wrong body. The Conservative manifesto also states that gender identity should not be taught in schools since it is a “contested concept”.

20The notion of social contagion is not explicitly mentioned in Labour speeches and manifesto. However, on June 24, 2024, Keir Starmer declared that he would not scrap the Tory guidance to prevent “ideology” from being taught in classrooms.

  • 25 Cal Horton, “The Cass Review: Cis-supremacy in the UK’s approach to healthcare for trans children”, (...)

21Instead, both Labour and the Conservatives emphasize on the matter of medical transitions for transgender minors, with a focus on puberty blockers, a group of drugs which aim at preventing puberty in patients who suffer from gender dysphoria. When discussing this issue, both parties rely on the same source: the Cass Review. Released on April 10, 2024 – a month before Rishi Sunak announced a general election – “the Cass Review was cited by the British government to justify plans to exclude trans people from legislation to ban conversion therapy”.25 The Cass Review, an independent analysis of gender services for minors in the country, was welcomed by both the Conservatives and Labour as evidence of the issues surrounding transgender children and teenagers. The review notably recommends exploring the underlying issues that may cause gender dysphoria in a young patient:

  • 26 Hillary Cass, Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people: Final r (...)

“Whilst the Review’s terms of reference do not include consideration of the proposed legislation to ban conversion practices, it believes that no LGBTQ+ group should be subjected to conversion practice. It also maintains the position that children and young people with gender dysphoria may have a range of complex psychosocial challenges and/or mental health problems impacting on their gender-related distress. Exploration of these issues is essential to provide diagnosis, clinical support and appropriate intervention.”26

  • 27 Cal Horton, op.cit, p. 4.
  • 28 Daniel D. Lewis, op.cit, p. 2417.

22This approach, known as Gender-Exploratory Therapy, is regarded by transgender activists as a form of conversion therapy, which “encompasses any approaches that deny, delay or problematize a person’s identity”.27 By looking for outside causes such as mental health issues, autism or family instability, this process actively denies someone’s gender identity by declaring it a consequence of something else. Gender-Exploratory Therapy is a major focus of the Conservative Party, since, for right-wing movements, “LGBTQ cultural threat has a significant negative association with attitudes regarding medical transition care for children.28 Upon the publication of the Cass Review, Dr. Hillary Cass met Kemi Badenoch, then Minister for Women and Equalities and warned her about the dangers of a potential trans-inclusive ban, which would be a de-facto ban on exploratory therapy. In the name of safety, both the Conservative Party and the Labour Party oppose the use of puberty blockers for transgender youth.

23Based on the evidence found by Dr. Cass – more so the lack of evidence regarding the actual efficiency of such medications –, the Conservative government passed a temporary ban on puberty blockers for transgender minors in May 2024. This ban became a discussion topic throughout the election campaign. Both parties’ manifestos vow to implement the recommendations of the Cass Review regarding puberty blockers. When interrogated on the matter by PinkNews on July 2, 2024, Sir Kir Starmer stated that Labour would “implement the expert recommendations of the Cass Review in full to ensure that young people are receiving appropriate and high-quality care”,29 essentially upholding the ban. In December 2024, after the Labour victory in the general election, newly appointed Health Secretary Wes Streeting announced that the ban would be made indefinite, blocking access to puberty blockers for transgender children and teenagers.

24If the policies of both parties regarding transgender minors look similar, the rhetoric surrounding them is largely different. Indeed, the approach of the Tories is deeply rooted in a fight against the so-called gender ideology. This is evidenced in the words used by members of the Conservative Party in interviews and speeches. For example, on April 13, 2024, Kemi Badenoch wrote the following in a piece published on her website:

“Had those who warned that gender services in the NHS had been hijacked by ideologues been listened to instead of gagged, children would not have been harmed and the Cass Review would not have been required”30

25For Conservatives, the issue of transgender children is an extension of the risk transgender rights represent for society at large, and the focus is on protecting the children from being exposed to harm. In Labour speeches, this ideological concern is not present, and their apparent focus is on creating safety measures for transgender minors. If the Labour Party can adopt this stance despite being a progressive left-wing party, it is because

  • 31 Briar Dickey, op.cit, p. 35.

“Whilst anti-transgender sentiment has often been associated with the right, in the UK in particular much anti-transgender legislation is framed as vehemently feminist rather than conservative.”31

26Indeed, in the United-Kingdom, gender critical beliefs are usually associated with the protection of women and children rather than social conservatism as it is the case in the United-States, for example. This makes it acceptable for Labour MPs to adopt a gender-critical stance and for a Labour government to support policies which restrict access to puberty blockers for minors.

“TERF” discourse and British politics

  • 32 Janice Raymond, The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-male, (Boston, Beacon Press, 1979), p (...)

27Most of the rhetoric and policies adopted by mainstream parties in the United-Kingdom in the years leading to the 2024 general election can be traced back to what is commonly known as TERF discourse. This movement largely developed in the early 2020s on X/Twitter, where moderation, hence why most of our examples come from the website. The modern gender-critical feminist movement takes its roots in the works of radical feminist thinkers from the 1970s and 1980s. One of the most notable influences of trans-exclusionary radical feminists is Janice Raymond’s 1979 book entitled The Transsexual Empire, in which she analyses the societal role of transgender identities, with a focus on transgender women. Raymond writes the following when discussing the male-to-female transition process: “The male-to-constructed-female transsexual exhibits the attempt to possess women in a bodily sense while acting out the images into which men have moulded women.”32 The wording “male-to-constructed-female” echoes the phrase trans-identified-males sometimes used by TERFs to describe transgender women. This terminology can notably be found on several posts on the X profile of gender-critical activist and writer Julie Bindel, who actively opposed the Gender Recognition Reform Bill in Scotland. As Brian Fanning writes:

  • 33 Brian Fanning, op.cit, p. 160.

“Gender-critical feminists reject the legitimacy of socially-imposed gender roles but emphasise that inequalities experienced by women cannot be addressed without acknowledging physical and biological differences between men and women.”33

28This rejection of gender as a social phenomenon leads TERFs to believe that it is impossible to change sex and therefore shapes their discourse. For critics of gender, since transgender women are not born female, they are socially constructed, and therefore artificial. This artificiality places them in a different category, since they do not face sex-based discrimination caused by biology. Both Janice Raymond and modern-day TERFs firmly believe that transgender women reinforce gender roles by acting female in stereotyped ways. This is evidenced in a X post by J.K. Rowling published on April 25, 2024, in which she asserts that transgender women consider femininity as “a purchasable costume, a porn-influenced stereotype or an idea in a man’s head.34 This implies that transgender women have a twisted vision of femininity and thus represent a danger for women, which they perceive the same way a man would see them.

  • 35 Briar Dickey, op.cit, p. 40.
  • 36 Kathleen Stock, Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism, (Fleet, 2021), p. 71.

29Indeed, the gender-critical movement largely builds its arguments upon notions of safety and equality: “For TERFs, the supposed erosion of protection for single-sex spaces, sporting categories and services is seen predominantly as a rights issue, bolstered by appeals to fairness and justice.”35 This can notably be seen in the way they regularly refer to women’s safety in single-sex spaces and to equality in women’s sports. Gender-critical activists argue that women’s sports are being invaded by men who failed in male categories and then transition, as shown by philosopher Kathleen Stock, who wrote the following in 2021: “Trans activism has succeeded in convincing at least some professional bodies that sex is not relevant to sporting categories.”36 According to Stock and other anti-transgender advocates, transgender women are men who want to access women-only spaces without being oppressed because of their biological sex, which, according to TERFs, should replace gender as a legal basis.

30Most of the communication by gender-critical feminists focus on transgender women and the danger they supposedly represent for single-sex spaces and sports. Transgender men are rarely mentioned by TERFs, and most references to female-to-male transgenders are linked to the topic of minors with gender dysphoria. Anti-transgender activists indeed oppose the medicalization of children and teenagers, and notably believe that puberty blockers are harmful. As evidenced in a 2024 article, “LGBTQ cultural threat has a significant negative association with attitudes regarding medical transition care for children37 and members of the TERF movement assert that gender transition for teenagers is a new form of gay conversion therapy. To support this claim, on December 7, 2023, author Helen Joyce congratulated Kemi Badenoch for speaking out “against the ‘epidemic’ of gay children being encouraged to change gender38. As stated by Joyce, who is the Director of Advocacy for anti-trans charity Sex Matters, teenagers change gender because they think it is easier to be transgender than to be gay or lesbian, and this frames transgender rights as a danger for lesbian, gay and bisexual people.

31TERFs also reject the methods of transgender activism, which they assimilate to censorship and bullying. Indeed, “TERF ideology depends on a particular form of white feminism that employs victimhood as a tool for political power”,39 which is highlighted in the way the X account of Sex Matters calls the no-platforming of Kathleen Stock by the University of Sussex a “bullying campaign40, showing gender-critical feminists as victims of a system that tries to erase women and prevent them from talking publicly.

32As noted by Thomas Billard, “TERFs’ avoidance of the most extreme conspiratorial and fascist refrains […] contributes to its liberal veneer and mainstream acceptability in the British context41 and this feminist depiction of gender-critical movements allowed them to enter the British political scene in the 2020s, notably thanks to charities such as Sex Matters or the LGB Alliance, the latter being praised by several MPs including Rosie Duffield, Joanna Cherry (SNP) and former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. This political acceptability is encapsulated by the weight of J.K. Rowling, who demanded that the Labour Party included some guarantees for the protection of women to publicly support it. Furthermore, in 2023, self-proclaimed woman’s rights activist – who opposes the label “feminist” – Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull – also known online as Posie Parker – created the Party of Women. Officially registered in February 2024 ahead of the May 2024 local elections, the Party of Women is a single-issue party focused on transgender issues. Under Keen-Minshull’s leadership, 16 candidates stood for the party at the 2024 general election, including Posie Parker herself in the Bristol Central constituency. The platform of the party, which can be accessed on its website, states that the concerns of the party are, among others, “men who claim to be women […] in female-only spaces42 and the fact that “women are not able to speak freely […] without fear of intimidation or punishment”,43 which echoes the fact that TERFs “repeatedly bring into coalition or co-optation a set of actors who claim to be the legitimate and representative voice of real, regular, ordinary, material, or concrete women.44

33The Party of Women indeed tried to earn gender-critical votes by appealing to women and unsupportive parents of transgender children by claiming that trans people are a threat to both categories. Rather than framing safety as a social concern, Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull and her party actively adopted TERF rhetoric as a means for political victory.

34Even though the Party of Women only managed to score 5,077 votes in the general election, the increasing weight and the trans partisan quality of TERF discourse in the United-Kingdom led major politicians to adopt means of communication close to gender-critical feminists. This is evidenced in quotes from Sir Keir Starmer and former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who both claim to defend women and children.

35It is relevant to acknowledge that, unlike the Labour Party and the Conservative Party, smaller parties, for the most part, reject TERF discourses. The examples of the Green Party and the Liberal Democrats are especially interesting. Indeed, both parties have chosen to endorse pro-transgender views. In 2021, during its party Conference, the Green Party voted in favour of self-identification for transgender people. In a 2021 article by Chris Jarvis published in Bright Green in 2021, the motion is detailed:

“The Green Party believes that trans, non-binary, genderqueer, third gender, and intersex people should have their gender legally recognised and be empowered to update their birth certificate and any other official documents, without medical or state encumbrance.”45

36This motion, which was voted despite internal divisions, highlights the fact that the more a party leans towards the left-wing of the political spectrum, the more likely it is to support self-identification for transgender individuals.

  • 46 Paul Oakden (ed.), Our Contract with You (London, 2024)

37On the other hand, Reform UK – whose score in the polls rose from 644.257 votes in the 2019 general election to more than 4 million in the 2024 general election – consistently embraced anti-trans views. According to its manifesto, in the 2024 platform published by Reform UK, the matters of sex and gender are mentioned on several occasions. It first appears in the introduction of the manifesto, where Reform UK affirms that “transgender indoctrination is causing irreversible harm to children.”46 In its platform, Reform UK adopts a very strong anti-trans stance and uses the argument of children’s safety to back their position. However, the use of the word “indoctrination” suggests that transgender rights are inherently political for Reform UK. In this sense, Nigel Farage’s party resembles other right-wing parties because he frames the rejection of pro-trans views as a fight to protect political stability through the upholding of gendered social traditions.

  • 47 Paul Oakden (ed.), op.cit, p. 11.
  • 48 Ibid., p. 11.

38This political stance is reaffirmed strongly on page 11 of the platform. When referring to school curriculums, the party writes the following: “No gender questioning, social transitioning or pronoun swapping. Inform parents of under 16s about their children’s life decisions. Schools must have single sex facilities.”47 The manifesto’s writer and party then-CEO, Paul Oakden, paired the topic of gender in schools with the need for a “Patriotic curriculum in primary and secondary schools.”48 This reinforces the idea that transgender rights go against an established order that must be protected to guarantee the country’s stability.

39The examples of smaller – albeit rising quickly in the case of Reform UK – parties show how the issue of transgender rights has become salient in the British political world, despite only affecting a very small proportion of the population.

Conclusion

  • 49 In the 2021 census by the Office for National Statistics, 262.000 people identified as transgender (...)

40In the years leading up to the 2024 general election, transgender issues progressively became a point of contention, not only in the United-Kingdom, but throughout the western world. However, in the UK, the rhetoric surrounding sex, gender and sexuality is very specific because British feminists and politicians largely appeal to progressive values rather than conservative ones to justify their anti-transgender stances. Topics such as single-sex spaces, women’s sports and, perhaps more importantly, puberty blockers for minors were largely discussed during the 2024 electoral campaign. As this paper shows, those issues, despite affecting less than 1% of the population,49 were heavily amplified in political speeches and social media, particularly by gender-critical activists and Conservatives, but also, and perhaps more surprisingly, by members of the Labour Party, for whom the safety of women is deeply rooted in progressive beliefs.

41For supporters of transgender rights, this culture war surrounding trans individuals echoes the times of Section 28, a bill passed in 1988 under Margaret Thatcher’s Premiership which prohibited the promotion of homosexuality. The announcement by Keir Starmer that he would not scrap the Conservatives’ draft that removes mentions of gender identity in school curriculums sparked fear among trans people, who see it as a form of censorship.

42Since this piece focuses on the political discourse surrounding gender in the 2024 general election and the years prior to the campaign, studying the pro-transgender rhetoric did not seem relevant, since very few Conservative or Labour politicians openly and unconditionally embraced such views. However, those views were very much present in the public debate, especially on social media such as X, which played a large role in the spread of TERF ideas.

43It is undeniable that, despite a very negative big picture, transgender rights are slowly progressing in the western world, with self-identification being slowly introduced in several countries such as Spain or, more recently, Germany. This begs the question of whether the pushback against gender in the United-Kingdom will keep its momentum as the years pass. However, the Supreme Court decision of April 16, 2025, seemed to enshrine transgender rights as a field of political instability in the United-Kingdom. Indeed, the UK Supreme Court chose to side with gender-critical group For Women Scotland in the For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers case, stating that, in the 2010 Equality Act, the word “sex” should be interpreted as “biological sex”. This ruling means that transgender people can now be legally prevented from entering single-sex spaces, even with a gender recognition certificate.

Top of page

Bibliography

Badenoch, Kemi, Gagging of the brave has let gender ideologues seize control, 14 April 2024, https://www.kemibadenoch.org.uk/news/gagging-brave-has-let-gender-ideologues-seize-control.

Billard, Thomas J., “‘Gender-Critical’ Discourse as Disinformation: Unpacking TERF Strategies of Political Communication”, Women’s Studies in Communication 46 (2023), pp. 235-243.

Braverman, Suella, Speech at the 2023 Conservative Party Conference (Manchester, 2023)

Braverman, Suella, Fix the Equality Act to restore sanity to the trans debate, 13 March 2024, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/13/fix-equality-act-restore-sanity-to-trans-debate/.

Cass, Hillary, Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people: Final report, 10 April 2024, https://cass.independent-review.uk/home/publications/final-report/.

Dickey, Briar, “Transphobic Truth Markets: Comparing Trans-hostile Discourses in British Trans-exclusionary Radical Feminist and US Right-wing Movements”,DiGeSt – Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies 10 (2023), pp. 34-47.

Evans, Alice, Schools told not to teach about gender identity, 16 May 2024, https://www.bbc.com/news/education-69017920.

Fanning, Bryan, Public Morality and the Culture Wars (Leeds, Emerald Publishing Limited, 2023)

Government Equalities Office, Statement of reasons related to the use of section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998, 17 January 2023, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statement-of-reasons-related-to-the-use-of-section-35-of-the-scotland-act-1998.

Halberstam, Jack, Trans*: a quick and quirky account of gender variability (Oakland, University of California Press, 2018)

Horton, Cal, “The Cass Review: Cis-supremacy in the UK’s approach to healthcare for trans children”, International Journal of Transgender Health (2024), pp. 1-25.

House, Claire C.A., “‘I'm Real, Not You’: Roles and Discourses of Trans Exclusionary Women's and Feminist Movements in Anti-gender and Right-wing Populist Politics”, DiGeSt – Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies 10 (2023), pp. 15-32.

Jarvis, Chris, Green Party backs self-identification for gender recognition certificates, 7 March 2021, https://bright-green.org/2021/03/07/green-party-backs-self-identification-for-gender-recognition-certificates/.

Joyce, Helen, “I almost wept with relief when Kemi Badenoch spoke out against the 'epidemic' of gay children being encouraged to change gender”, Daily Mail, 7 December 2023, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12839437/Kemi-Badenoch-against-epidemic-gay-children-change-gender-HELEN-JOYCE.html.

Keegan, Gillian, Speech at the 2023 Conservative Party Conference (Manchester, 2023)

Keen-Minshull, Kellie-Jay, About Us, 01 April 2023, https://www.partyofwomen.org/about-us

Lewis, Daniel C. et al,, “Cultural Threat, Outgroup Discrimination, and Attitudes toward Transgender Rights”, Political Behavior 46 (2024), pp. 2401-2426.

Littman, Lisa, “Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria”, PLOS ONE 14 (2018)

Mabbutt, Alan (ed.), The Conservative and Unionist Party Manifesto 2024 (London, 2024)

Oakden, Paul (ed.), Our Contract with You (London, 2024)

Perry, Sophie, “Keir Starmer: Trans women don’t have right to use women’s spaces – even if they have a GRC”, Pink News,  2 July 2024, https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/07/02/keir-starmer-labour-trans-single-sex-spaces/.

Perry, Sophie, “Labour’s Keir Starmer promises ‘reset moment’ on ‘toxic’ trans discourse if elected”, Pink News,  3 July 2024, https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/07/03/keir-starmer-labour-2024-general-election-lgbtq/.

Raymond, Janice, The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-male (Boston, Beacon Press, 1979).

Rubin, Gayle, “The Traffic in Women: Notes on the ‘Political Economy’ of Sex” in Rayna R. Reiter (ed.), Toward an Anthropology of Women (New York, Monthly Review Press, 1975), pp. 157-210.

Sanders, Anna and Gains, Francesca, “Weaponizing women and gender: Party appeals to women voters ahead of the 2024 UK general election”, Parliamentary Affairs 77 (2024), pp. 686-712.

Serano, Julia, Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity (New York City, Seal Press, 2007)

Stock, Kathleen, Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism (Fleet, 2021)

Sunak, Rishi, Speech at the 2023 Conservative Party Conference (Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2023)

Turnbull-Dugarte, Stuart and McMillan, Fraser, “‘Protect the women!’ Trans‐exclusionary feminist issue framing and support for transgender rights”, Policy Studies Journal 51 (2023), pp. 629-666.

Top of page

Notes

1  Government Equalities Office, 17 January 2023 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/statement-of-reasons-related-to-the-use-of-section-35-of-the-scotland-act-1998, consulted 25 January 2025.

2  J.K Rowling, 10 June 2020 https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/, consulted 25 January 2025.

3 Briar Dickey, “Transphobic Truth Markets: Comparing Trans-hostile Discourses in British Trans-exclusionary Radical Feminist and US Right-wing Movements”, DiGeSt – Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies 10:2, 2023, p. 35.

4 Transgender Exclusionary Radical Feminism

5 Anna Sanders and Francesca Gains, “Weaponizing women and gender: Party appeals to women voters ahead of the 2024 UK general election”, Parliamentary Affairs 77:4, 2024, p. 704.

6  The Telegraph, 13 March 2024 https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/03/13/fix-equality-act-restore-sanity-to-trans-debate, consulted 27 January 2025.

7 Claire C.A. House, “'I'm Real, Not You': Roles and Discourses of Trans Exclusionary Women's and Feminist Movements in Anti-gender and Right-wing Populist Politics”, DiGeSt – Journal of Diversity and Gender Studies 10:2, 2023, p. 27.

8 Stuart Turnbull-Dugarte and Fraser McMillan, “‘Protect the women!’ Trans‐exclusionary feminist issue framing and support for transgender rights”, Policy Studies Journal 51:3, 2023, p. 634.

9 Suella Braverman, 3 October 2023 Conservative Party Conference, Manchester.

10 Julia Serano, Whipping Girl, (New York City, Seal Press, 2007), p. 239.

11 Rishi Sunak, 3 October 2023 Conservative Party Conference, Manchester.

12 Gillian Keegan, 3 October 2023 Conservative Party Conference, Manchester.

13 Alan Mabbutt (ed.), The Conservative and Unionist Party Manifesto 2024, (London, 2024), p. 42.

14 Alan Mabbutt (ed.), op.cit, p. 59.

15 Brian Fanning, Public Morality and the Culture Wars, (Leeds, Emerald Publishing Limited, 2023), p. 183.

16 Alan Mabbutt (ed.), op.cit, p. 59.

17 Ibid.

18 Anna Sanders and Francesca Gains, op.cit, p. 704.

19 Graham Linehan [@Glinner], X, https://x.com/Glinner/status/1638651592827105281?lang=en-GB consulted 25 January 2025.

20  J.K. Rowling [@jk_rowling], X, https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1807035407680360787 consulted 25 January 2025.

21  PinkNews, 02 July 2024 https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/07/02/keir-starmer-labour-trans-single-sex-spaces/, consulted 25 January 2025.

22 Daniel D. Lewis et al., “Cultural Threat, Outgroup Discrimination, and Attitudes toward Transgender Rights”, Political Behavior 46:4, 2024, p. 2405.

23 Lisa Littman, “Parent reports of adolescents and young adults perceived to show signs of a rapid onset of gender dysphoria”, PLOS ONE 14:3, 2018, p. 4.

24 BBC News, 16 May 2024 https://www.bbc.com/news/education-69017920, consulted 12 February 2025.

25 Cal Horton, “The Cass Review: Cis-supremacy in the UK’s approach to healthcare for trans children”, International Journal of Transgender Health, 2024, p. 2.

26 Hillary Cass, Independent review of gender identity services for children and young people: Final report, 10 April 2024, p. 150.

27 Cal Horton, op.cit, p. 4.

28 Daniel D. Lewis, op.cit, p. 2417.

29  PinkNews, 03 July 2024, https://www.thepinknews.com/2024/07/03/keir-starmer-labour-2024-general-election-lgbtq/ consulted 26 January 2025.

30  Kemi Badenoch, 13 April 2024, https://www.kemibadenoch.org.uk/news/gagging-brave-has-let-gender-ideologues-seize-control consulted 25 January 2025

31 Briar Dickey, op.cit, p. 35.

32 Janice Raymond, The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-male, (Boston, Beacon Press, 1979), p. 99.

33 Brian Fanning, op.cit, p. 160.

34 J.K. Rowling [@jk_rowling], X, https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1783462863014649961?s=46 consulted 18 February 2025.

35 Briar Dickey, op.cit, p. 40.

36 Kathleen Stock, Material Girls: Why Reality Matters for Feminism, (Fleet, 2021), p. 71.

37 Daniel D. Lewis, op.cit, p. 40.

38  MailOnline, 07 December 2023, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-12839437/Kemi-Badenoch-against-epidemic-gay-children-change-gender-HELEN-JOYCE.html consulted 18 February 2025.

39 Thomas J. Billard, “‘Gender-Critical’ Discourse as Disinformation: Unpacking TERF Strategies of Political Communication”, Women’s Studies in Communication 46:2, 2023, p. 238.

40  Sex Matters [@SexMattersOrg], X, https://x.com/sexmattersorg/status/1456247286552485893?s=46 consulted 18 February 2025.

41 Briar Dickey, op.cit, p. 43.

42 Party of Women, 01 April 2023, https://www.partyofwomen.org/about-us consulted 18 February 2025.

43 Ibid.

44 Claire C.A. House, op.cit, p. 17.

45  Bright Green, 07 March 2021, https://bright-green.org/2021/03/07/green-party-backs-self-identification-for-gender-recognition-certificates/, consulted 03 June 2025

46 Paul Oakden (ed.), Our Contract with You (London, 2024)

47 Paul Oakden (ed.), op.cit, p. 11.

48 Ibid., p. 11.

49 In the 2021 census by the Office for National Statistics, 262.000 people identified as transgender in the United-Kingdom.

Top of page

References

Electronic reference

Maëlyn Marliere, “The Transgender Debate as a Symbol of Political Instability in the United-Kingdom between 2020 and 2024”Revue Française de Civilisation Britannique [Online], XXX-3 | 2025, Online since 15 September 2025, connection on 15 December 2025. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/rfcb/14552; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/14qkk

Top of page

About the author

Maëlyn Marliere

UR 4399 CREW, Sorbonne Nouvelle

Maëlyn Marliere is a PhD student working on the body, gender and sexuality in the punk subculture in the US and the UK. Her work focuses on gender and queer studies in popular music.

Top of page

Copyright

CC-BY-NC-ND-4.0

The text only may be used under licence CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. All other elements (illustrations, imported files) may be subject to specific use terms.

Top of page
Search OpenEdition Search

You will be redirected to OpenEdition Search