MP Nadia Whittome: “The attack on trans women harms all wome…

Feminists have fought this battle before. They fought against gender essentialism – the idea that men and women are fundamentally different due to their biology and therefore have inherent characteristics. This struggle is part of that same fight. The push to exclude trans women from public life and vital services, including domestic abuse shelters and women’s health spaces, is not about women’s safety but control. I truly believe that those driving anti-trans campaigns aren’t interested in protecting anyone. Their goal is to divide women and pit marginalised groups against one another. To stall progress and distract from real issues: poverty, inequality, and gender-based violence.

Almost immediately, to something far more sinister: where trans people are allowed to exist. In just a matter of days, the focus has turned to restrictions on which single-sex spaces trans people can access, where they can go to the toilet, and how they can participate in public life.

To be clear: there is currently no law that forces trans people to use public toilets aligned with their sex assigned at birth because it’s not a crime. And frankly, enforcing such a law would be near impossible without resorting to deeply invasive and authoritarian measures. To put it bluntly: the only way to police bathroom use would be to require everyone to carry identification at all times – or worse, to submit to physical checks at the door. But the so-called “gender critical” lobby argues that even trans people who have had gender-affirming genital surgery don’t count if their sex assigned at birth is different, so what should they do? Provide proof of chromosomes? Even when those don’t always match people’s genitals, which is the case for intersex people? These ideas and questions aren’t just absurd, they’re inhumane and do not belong in a democratic society.

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The endless debates about who can go in which toilet prove that none of this is actually about “protecting women”. If it were, instead of eroding the rights of a tiny minority of people, gender critical “activists” For Women Scotland who brought the case to court would use the money backing their political project to campaign for better funding of domestic abuse services, fixing the criminal justice system’s abysmal record on sexual violence, and protecting women’s rights in the workplace. These are real, material issues that affect all women’s safety. Instead, they’re focusing on a manufactured threat — the false idea that trans people pose some kind of danger to women, and in doing so, they’re making all women less safe.

The immeasurable harm from this ruling, and the media reactions that have followed, will have dangerous consequences for trans people. Anti-trans rhetoric has been steadily escalating for years, with a uniquely hostile UK media environment that routinely misrepresents and demonises trans lives. Nearly half of trans people already report feeling unsafe using public toilets. This ruling, and the hostile atmosphere around it, may force more trans people to avoid public spaces altogether, simply to protect themselves. For others, the result will be even more discrimination, more harassment, and more violence.