Under Starmer, Labour Has Let the Right Control the Debate on Trans Rights
It’s sometimes hard to remember that five years ago, both Labour and Conservatives were in general agreement about the need to expand rights for trans people. But since then, both parties have drifted to the right on LGBTQ politics.
A protester holds a placard stating “Trans rights are human rights” during a demonstration outside Downing Street, London, United Kingdom on January 21, 2023. (Vuk Valcic / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images)
In his thought-provoking essay “What Is Socialism?” (1946), socialist and literary icon George Orwell defines the archetypal socialist as one that cannot be “without liberty, without equality, and without internationalism.” In practice, Orwell’s inclusiveness had limits. His views on gender and sexuality matched those of a traditional conservative rather than a socialist radical. In his novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying (1936) he describes an effeminate male character as having tripped “nancifully in” to the room, inspiring the protagonist to wish that he would just as easily “float out again.”
Orwell can perhaps be forgiven for not aligning himself with the more progressive elements of the Left or the Labour Party. It was the 1930s, after all. Less forgivable has been the attitude that Labour’s current leader, Keir Starmer, has taken at the helm of the party. There he has allowed the culture war currently dominating British political debate around trans rights to rage unabated. For context, earlier this year the Conservative government put the kibosh on passing Scotland’s bill that offered a simpler process for trans people to legally change gender.
A battle then erupted, so Starmer suggested a reset on the Gender Recognition Act, defending his broadside with a supposed lack of public support for trans rights.
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