By Conor Tormey
Last week, Wes Streeting, the Labour Party Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, announced that the Labour government would keep the emergency ban on Puberty blockers. This was announced in a high court statement regarding a legal challenge against the ban from TransActually UK—it is a truly shameful decision.
This decision is part and parcel of increased attacks on trans healthcare in the UK since the interim Cass review in February 2022. This report, despite including provisions that we would agree with, such as moving away from a centralised model of care, gave legitimacy to TERF and far-right fear-mongering about trans teens. Packed within this report is a suspicion of the possibility of young people being trans or being able to question their gender, a damaging aspect of the report for young trans people.
Dangerous elements
This report, under the guise of being evidence-led, has significant impacts on the bodily autonomy of trans people. The report recommended that people shouldn’t be referred to adult services until they are 25, potentially restricting HRT until then, an extreme attack on bodily autonomy.
Dr Hilary Cass has connections with TERF (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminists) figures, including Stella O’Malley, a hugely controversial figure who has used her position to sue opponents of her transphobia into silence, including Socialist Party TD Mick Barry. Dr Cass was chosen to lead the report to have an unbiased voice. However, biased anti-trans figures were included on the board of the review, while trans people and organisations were blocked from giving evidence.
This attack on trans healthcare is having a very real effect on trans people. An NHS whistleblower has revealed that there has been a substantial increase in the number of suicides for young trans people on the NHS waiting lists that the health services are covering up.
Attack on trans community
Before 2020, one person died by suicide in the previous seven years; since 2020, there have been 16 deaths, all ignored by the Cass review. This is no doubt caused by increased restrictions on trans healthcare and by an oppressive culture hellbent on attacking trans people and returning to “traditional family values” and rigid gender norms.
The culture of trepidation, horror, and distress within the trans community wasn’t helped by the Tory Party seeking to foment a right-wing backlash and outlook towards women, trans people, migrants, and other oppressed groups.
However, the Labour Party is no alternative to the trans community; far from being a sigh of relief, it is continuing the destructive policies and rhetoric of the Tories. This decision to keep the ban on puberty blockers shows that they can’t be trusted to protect trans rights. Despite being the most diverse cabinet on record, the Labour Party is no friend to oppressed people. They are committed to maintaining a capitalist system, whose rule is being increasingly maintained by stirring up hatred and division.
Trans and Intersex Pride
The anger in the trans community internationally is palpable; the recent action by “Trans Kids Deserve Better”, a group of teens who occupied the NHS England offices in London, shows this.
The Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin March last Saturday was held in the context of an international backlash on our rights and gains by the far-right in the recent local elections. International solidarity is a core element of our march; we stand in solidarity with all trans people facing oppression and solidarity with the Palestinian people facing genocide.
A statement from Trans Kids Deserve Better was read out on the day. To quote that statement, “ We are one community, and we are rising. They try to stop us, but they can’t even comprehend the power we hold”
We need to utilise this power and build a movement in our community against all capitalist politicians who cede ground to the far right. Trans and Intersex Pride Dublin co-founder Ollie Bell put it best on Saturday: “We also can’t rely on liberal parties who talk about how it’s time for a change. But were quick to let everyone know they oppose “open borders””
We urgently need to build a movement, led by the trans community, against the rise of the far-right and transphobia. This movement must also be explicitly anti-capitalist, and we must build in our communities and workplaces a socialist alternative to the capitalist system that perpetuates transphobia and oppression of all groups.
