When future generations look back on our current political climate, they'll be disgusted by the rampant transphobia that has come to define it. And the 2023 Conservative Party conference will be cited as a hotbed of such prejudices.
In his speech today, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said, “We shouldn't be bullied into believing people can be any sex they want to be; they can't. A man is a man, and a woman is a woman.”
The day before, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said, “Trans women have no place in women’s [hospital] wards or indeed any safe space relating to biological women […] This is about protecting women’s dignity and women’s safety and privacy.”
She's right to be concerned about women's safety. Just last week, Elianne Andam, a 15-year-old girl, was stabbed on her way to school. A 17-year-old boy has been charged with her murder. In February, Brianna Ghey was stabbed in broad daylight. Two teenagers deny charges of her murder. In the year ending March 2022 (the most recent data available), police recorded 1.5 million domestic abuse-related incidents and crimes in England and Wales. Oh, and the people who are supposed to protect us? The Casey Review determined that the Met Police are “failing women and children” – as well as being “unable to police itself” and fostering an environment of“institutional racism, sexism and homophobia”.
(Incidentally, in her speech at the Conservative Party conference, Braverman bragged about putting more police officers on the streets – as well as giving them a pay rise.)
Our privacy is seriously under threat, too. The rise of deepfake technology and intimate-image-based abuse leaves women vulnerable to appearing in non-consensual pornography. And last week, the UK Information Commissioner called on organisations to improve their data handling to avoid putting victims of domestic abuse in danger, after reprimanding seven organisations for data breaches affecting victims of domestic abuse.
But what's the Conservative party focusing on? Rewriting the NHS website to exclude transgender patients. In his speech at the Conservative Conference, Health secretary Steve Barclay announced that sex-specific language will be restored to online NHS advice pages. “I ordered a reversal of unacceptable changes to the NHS website that erased references to women for conditions such as cervical cancer,” he said, adding that he also, "stopped the NHS ordering staff to declare pronouns to each new patient.”
The threats to women's safety and privacy largely come from men – usually cisgender men (although most research simply states “men and boys”). And yet, if you believe what the Prime Minister, Home Secretary and Health Secretary say, you might be forgiven for thinking that transgender people, specifically transgender women (whom Braverman stigmatises as “biological men”), are the biggest threat to cisgender women's lives. This is patently untrue.
Trans people are doubted and maligned, just as cis women have always been.
Less than a month ago, an analysis by the University of Exeter, the University of Surrey and the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery found evidence of female surgeons being sexually assaulted at work. Maternal mortality for Black women is currently almost four times higher than for White women. NHS doctors and radiographers are striking over unsustainable working conditions, leading to concerns of “causing significant risk to patients” (via Sky News).
There is no evidence of cisgender women complaining about transgender people in hospitals. An investigation by TransLucent – which submitted freedom of information requests to 102 NHS Foundation Trusts – found that no cisgender women had complained about sharing a ward with a transgender person.
Transgender men already face significant cultural and systematic barriers when accessing healthcare, from not being invited to cervical screenings to transphobia from NHS staff. As if to underline the Conservatives' worrying disregard for transgender people, the government's 125-page Women’s Health Strategy, published last year, makes no mention of transgender women.
A spokesperson for the LGBT charity Stonewall described the announcements as “a cynical attempt by the secretary of state to 'look busy' instead of getting on with the graft of implementing the women's health strategy,” adding, “Besides being unworkable, all it will achieve is to restrict access to healthcare for trans women, by making it humiliating and dangerous (via Sky News).”
You know what would make women feel safer when accessing the NHS? Doctors and NHS staff who aren't on the brink of collapse due to burnout; a reduction in waiting times so we don't have to postpone vital operations; more research into conditions like endometriosis, adenomyosis, and fibromyalgia; more mental health support for young women who are told they're simply being “too dramatic”; an unapologetically inclusive attitude to all transgender patients; and for Black women to feel like they can choose to give birth in hospital without risking their lives.
Most cisgender women – like myself – are not remotely bothered by the thought of sharing healthcare spaces with transgender people. As Jess Hacker previously wrote for GLAMOUR, “Trans people are doubted and maligned, just as cis women have always been.” We have far more to gain by recognising our shared struggles than allowing the likes of Suella Braverman to stoke division between us.
For more from Glamour UK's Lucy Morgan, follow her on Instagram @lucyalexxandra.
Healthcare models are still centred around cisgender white men, which should worry us all.
