21st-century anti-trans movement in the United Kingdom

This article or section is in a state of significant expansion or restructuring. You are welcome to assist in its construction by editing it as well. If this article or section has not been edited in several days, please remove this template. If you are the editor who added this template and you are actively editing, please be sure to replace this template with {{in use}} during the active editing session. Click on the link for template parameters to use. This article was last edited by Raladic (talk | contribs) 11 seconds ago. (Update timer)

Part of a series on
Transgender topics
Outline History Timeline
Gender identities Androgyne Bissu, Calabai, Calalai Burrnesha Cisgender Gender bender Hijra Non-binary or genderqueer Gender fluidity Kathoey Koekchuch Third gender Bakla Faʻafafine Femminiello Khanith Māhū Mudoko dako Mukhannath Muxe Travesti Two-spirit Winkte X-gender Trans man Trans woman Fakaleitī Mak nyah Rae-rae Transgender Youth Akava'ine Transsexual
Health care practices Gender clinic Gender dysphoria in children Causes Sex assignment Hormone therapy feminizing masculinizing Puberty-suppressing hormone therapy Gender-affirming surgery female-to-male male-to-female Facial feminization surgery Facial masculinization surgery Hair removal Pregnancy Assisted reproductive technology Voice therapy WPATH Standards of Care
Rights and legal status Gender self-identification Legal gender Non-binary gender Rights movement Organizations Political office-holders United States Asylum Healthcare Military service South Korea United States Prisons Toilets Bathroom bills Unisex Anti-gender movement Anti-trans movement in the UK Gender-critical or trans-exclusionary radical feminism Discrimination Non-binary Parental rights movement Transgender men Transmisogyny Genocide Inequality Violence Murders Trans panic defense Yogyakarta Principles
Society and culture Events and awareness Awareness Week Beauty pageants Day of Remembrance Day of Visibility Flag March more Culture Anatomical terminology Fictional characters Film Literature Media portrayals People non-binary Publications Religion Sports Television
Theory and concepts Androphilia and gynephilia Blanchard's typology Childhood gender nonconformity Cisgender / cissexual Cisnormativity Cross-dressing Deadnaming Gender binary Gender detransitioning Gender expression Gender transitioning Gender identity Gender nonconformity Gender-sexuality questioning Postgenderism Rapid-onset dysphoria Studies Transfeminism views Transmedicalism Transmisogyny
By country Rights Argentina 2012 law 2021 law Australia Brazil Canada 2016 bill China Finland France [fr] Germany 1980 law 2018 law 2024 law India 2014 bill 2019 act Tamil Nadu Iran Ireland Pakistan 2017 bill 2018 act New Zealand Norway 2016 act Singapore South Africa 2003 act South Korea Spain 2022 law United Kingdom Anti-trans movement in the UK 2004 act 2022 bill United States Disenfranchisement Title IX Transphobia History Argentina [es] Australia Re Kevin Brazil China Finland Nazi Germany Singapore United Kingdom United States Legality elected officials Cafeteria riot Stonewall
See also Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric Gender Gender studies Intersex Queer heterosexuality LGBTQ Sex Sex–gender distinction Sexual orientation Social construction of gender
Transgender portal LGBTQ portal  Category
v t e

The early 21st century saw a rise in and increasing organisation around anti-transgender sentiments in the United Kingdom, the most common strain being that of gender-critical feminism. This has led to some referring to the United Kingdom by the nickname "TERF Island".^[1]

In 1970, a judge ruled that transgender people could not change the sex listed on their birth certificate. Following cases by trans rights organizations, the European Court of Human Rights issued a ruling that the UK government's policy was in breach of human rights. This led to the implementation of the 2004 Gender Recognition Act (GRA).^[2] The GRA allowed trans people to change their legal sex with the requirement they be medically diagnosed with gender dysphoria and having lived for two years as their "acquired" gender.^[3]

In June 2020, the European Commission argued these to be "intrusive medical requirements" out of line with international human rights standards.^[4] In 2021, the House of Commons women and equalities committee and the United Nations Independent Expert on sexual orientation and gender identity concurred and called for gender self-identification to be the policy.^[3]

Gender-critical feminism, also known as trans-exclusionary radical feminism or TERFism,^[5][6][7][8] is an ideology or movement that opposes what it refers to as "gender ideology",^[9] the concept of gender identity and transgender rights, especially gender self-identification. Gender-critical feminists believe that sex is biological and immutable,^[10] and believe gender, including both gender identity and gender roles, is inherently oppressive. They reject the concept of transgender identities.^[11]

Gender-critical feminism has been described as transphobic by feminist and scholarly critics,^[5][8] and is opposed by many feminist, LGBTQ rights, and human rights organizations.^[12][13] The Council of Europe has condemned gender-critical ideology, among other ideologies, and linked it to "virulent attacks on the rights of LGBTI people" in Hungary, Poland, Russia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and other countries.^[14] UN Women has described the gender-critical movement as among several extreme anti-rights movements that employ hate propaganda and disinformation.^[15][16]

In several countries, including the UK, gender-critical feminist groups have formed alliances with right-wing, far-right, and anti-feminist organisations.^{[17][18][19][20]}

In 2016, the House of Commons' Women and Equalities Committee issued a report recommending that the Gender Recognition Act 2004 be updated "in line with the principles of gender self-declaration".^[21] Later in 2016, in England and Wales, Theresa May's government developed a proposal to revise the Act to introduce self-identification, with a public consultation opening in 2018. This proposed reform became a key locus of conflict for the emerging gender-critical movement, seeking to block reform of the Act; however, a significant majority of respondents were in favour of the GRA reforms in 2018.^[22]

Another key locus of conflict for the emerging movement was the stance of LGBTQ rights charity Stonewall on trans issues. In 2015, Stonewall had begun campaigning for trans equality, with Stonewall head Ruth Hunt apologising for the organisation's previous failure to do so.^[23]

Beginning in the late 2010s, British media outlets across the political spectrum began publishing articles positioning transgender rights as being directly at odds with the rights of women and children.^[24][25] According to Professor Lisa Tilley of the University of London, the British media created an environment where "male violence is also displaced from the real culprits onto vulnerable transgender people, who are demonized collectively as abusers, rather than more accurately represented as victims and survivors of abuse".^[24] Christine Burns, author of Trans Britain: Our Journey from the Shadows, stated in a CNN article that The Times and The Sunday Times newspapers in particular published "six trans related pieces in 2016" but "over 150 in 2017 and similarly each year since" which painted trans rights as dangerous and censorious. Other news outlets that took part included Sky News, The Guardian, and the BBC.^{[25] [24]} Burns would later describe this as a "trans backlash" stemming from 2015.^[26] In December 2020, the Independent Press Standards Organisation released a report stating that the average number of UK media stories about trans rights had jumped 414% between May 2014 and May 2019, from 34 per month to 176 per month, and that in the preceding year of research that number had risen to 224 stories per month.^[27]

Moving into the 2020s, the British media climate in the U.K. grew further hostile to trans people.^[28] One notable example was the 2021 BBC article "We're being pressured into sex by some trans women", in which the BBC cited a social media poll from an anti-trans activist group to say that cisgender lesbians were being forced to have sex with transgender women under fears of being labeled transphobic. The article included statements from the LGB Alliance, and from an individual who would shortly after the article's publication call for all trans women to be executed. The article included no statements from any trans people.^[29][30][31]

In 2019, the LGB Alliance was founded in opposition to Stonewall's 2015 pivot towards supporting trans rights, accusing the organisation of having "undermined women's sex-based rights and protections" and attempting "to introduce confusion between biological sex and the notion of gender".^[32][23]

The year 2019 also saw the formation of the Women's Declaration International (formed as Women's Human Rights Campaign) by noted gender-critical feminist Sheila Jeffreys and co-founder Heather Brunskell-Evans. The group published a manifesto titled the Declaration on Women's Sex-Based Rights, which argued that recognising trans women as women "constitutes discrimination against women" and called for the "elimination of that act".^[33][34]

In 2021, the group Genspect was founded in close affiliation with the American lobby group The Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM) - both of which have since been designated as anti-LGBTQ hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center; and both of whose activities focused primarily on lobbying, within politics and medicine, against access to gender affirming care.^{[35][36][37][38]}

In 2021, it was ruled in the landmark case Forstater v Centre for Global Development Europe that gender-critical beliefs are "worthy of respect" and qualify for discrimination protections on the same level as religion; but while this ruling made such views a protected belief, it did not grant the right for holders of such beliefs to discriminate against transgender people themselves.^[39] Maya Forstater, the plaintiff, had sued her employer, the Center for Global Development Europe, for not having her employment contract renewed after expressing gender-critical beliefs.^[40]

In April 2021, the British Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) submitted evidence backing Maya Forstater in Forstater v Center for Global Development Europe.^[40] The EHRC issued a statement saying, "We think that a 'gender critical' belief that 'trans women are men and trans men are women' is a philosophical belief which is protected under the Equality Act".^[41]

In the late 2010s, a number of groups were formed in response to the proposed GRA reform, including Fair Play for Women, For Women Scotland, and Woman's Place UK.^[22]

In January 2022, the EHRC released dual statements opposing the removal of administrative barriers for trans people to receive legal recognition in Scotland, and asking that England and Wales' ban on conversion therapy exclude such therapies for trans people.^[42][43] A month later, Vice News reported on leaked sections of an unpublished 2021 EHRC guidance pack, which advised businesses and organisations to exclude transgender people from single-sex spaces – including toilets, hospital wards, and changing rooms – unless they held a Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC). Vice reported that the guidance, due to be released in January 2022 but unpublished as of February 2022^[update], was aimed at "[protecting] women", and that just 1% of trans people in the UK held a GRC.^[44]

In June 2022, the EHRC stated that transgender people could be excluded from single-sex spaces as long as it serves a legitimate aim, such as "privacy, decency, to prevent trauma or to ensure health and safety".^[45]

In July 2024, the EHRC released guidance clarifying that sex-based occupational requirements included sex as modified by a GRC, but that under schedule 9 of the Equality Act 2010 employers were permitted to exclude transgender persons even with a GRC. The guidance stated that the basis and reasons for any occupational restrictions should be clearly stated in any advertisement.^[46][47]

In 2015, health organizations across the UK came together to sign the Memorandum of Understanding on Conversion Therapy (MoU), a statement outlining their opposition to conversion therapy for LGB people. It was updated to include conversion therapy for transgender people in 2017.^[48] In 2022, the conservative government under Boris Johnson backtracked on plans to include conversion therapy suppressing gender identity from an upcoming bill banning the practice following pressure from gender-critical lobbying groups. The coalition behind the MoU published an open letter condemning the decision and the government had to cancel it's first LGBTQ conference as the members dropped out in protest. Gender critical campaign group Transgender Trend criticized the letter, citing the Cass Review's interim report.^[49]

The Cass Review's interim report argued affirmative approaches aren't neutral, stated professionals were scared to take an "an exploratory approach or challenging approach due to perceived pressures from what some participants described as organisations taking an ‘ideological stance`" and stated "This can lead to a fear of being labelled transphobic if the professional suggests that it may be worthwhile trying to understand the possible meaning or origin of gender non-conformity in the child."^[50][51] In 2024 Hilary Cass, who chaired the Review, told Kemi Badenoch that the proposed conversion therapy ban was risky and told the guardian that she'd been "really clear with the government that any legislation would have to take inordinate care to not make workforce problems worse than they are".^[51]

In 2022, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and regional transgender health bodies released a statement in response to NHS Englands interim service specifications which followed the Cass Review's interim report.^[52][53] The statement argued

This document seems to view gender incongruence largely as a mental health disorder or a state of confusion and withholds gender-affirming treatments on this basis. WPATH, ASIAPATH, EPATH, PATHA, and USPATH call attention to the fact that this “psychotherapeutic” approach, which was used for decades before being superseded by evidence-based gender-affirming care, has not been shown to be effective (AUSPATH, 2021; Coleman et al., 2022). Indeed, the denial of gender-affirming treatment under the guise of “exploratory therapy” has caused enormous harm to the transgender and gender diverse community and is tantamount to “conversion” or “reparative” therapy under another name.^[52]

The Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA), a New Zealand professional organisation, said that the Cass Review made "harmful recommendations" and was not in line with international consensus, and that "Restricting access to social transition is restricting gender expression, a natural part of human diversity." They further said that several people involved in the review "previously advocated for bans on gender-affirming care in the United States, and have promoted non-affirming 'gender exploratory therapy', which is considered a conversion practice."^[54]

In November 2023, the UK Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP) published a statement on gender critical views that "Psychotherapists and psychotherapeutic counsellors who hold such views are likely to believe that the clinically most appropriate approach to working therapeutically with individuals who present with gender dysphoria, particularly children and young people, is exploratory therapy, rather than medicalised interventions such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or reassignment surgery."^[55][56] In April 2024 the UK Council for Psychotherapy withdrew from the Memorandum and membership of the Coalition against Conversion Therapy on the grounds of not wanting to oppose conversion therapy for trans young people.^[57][55][58] This was criticized by other signatories of the MoU and over 1500 UKCP members.^[58][55] The board was retained as only 20% of voters called for their removal.^[59]

In 2020, the High Court issued a ruling banning transgender patients under the age of 16 from receiving puberty suppressing medication for the purpose of preventing the development of unwanted secondary sex characteristics. This led to many patients having their care withdrawn, and consequently having to undergo the puberty of their assigned gender at birth.^[60] Many more patients over the age of 16 also had their gender-related healthcare withdrawn, even if that care did not take the form of puberty blockers.^[61]

In late 2021, the ruling was overturned on appeal, and puberty suppressing treatment was allowed to resume.^[62]

In 2024, the publication of the controversial Cass Review of youth gender services led to a criminal ban on puberty blockers, and a general shift in NHS policy towards gender exploratory therapy,^[63][64] which many experts say is a form of conversion therapy.^[65][66] The review's recommendations were generally welcomed by the British medical community, ^{[67][68][69][70][71]} however the international medical and academic communities generally criticised or rejected the review on grounds of both methodology and findings.^{[72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79]}

In December 2021, the Girls' Day School Trust, the largest network of girls' private schools in the UK, issued a blanket ban on trans girls being admitted to any of its schools.^[80]

In August 2022, Attorney General Suella Braverman opined that it is lawful for schools to misgender, deadname, ban from some sports, reject from enrollment based on their trans status, and refuse any and all other forms of gender affirmation to trans kids, and that to recognise their identities as trans could qualify as "indoctrinating children".^[81]

In September 2021, the UK Sports Council Equality Group issued new guidance saying that in their view, trans inclusion and "competitive fairness" cannot coexist in sports. The SCEG based its guidance on 300 interviews regarding personal opinions on the matter, conducted across 54 sports and 175 organisations, with only 20 of those interviewed being trans people.^[82] In June 2022, the then UK Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Nadine Dorries met with the heads of UK sporting bodies and told them that "elite and competitive women's sport must be reserved for people born of the female sex".^[83]

Since then, trans women have been banned from competing in women's sports in a wide array of disciplines, ranging from cycling to fishing.^[84][85]

In 2021 the Council of Europe's Committee on Equality and Non-Discrimination warned that:

ongoing social, political and legal debate [in the United Kingdom (UK)] about what constitutes harmful discourse when it comes to trans people and their rights, and arguments defending freedom of expression have been – and are still being – used as a tool to justify transphobic rhetoric, further penalising and harming already marginalised trans people and communities

and concluded the "'gender-critical' movement, which wrongly portrays trans rights as posing a particular threat to cisgender women and girls, has played a significant role in this process".^[86][87]

In May 2023, a United Nations investigation found that the British Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) had deliberately acted with the objective of reducing human-rights protections for transgender people who had legal gender recognition.^[88]

• 2020s anti-LGBTQ movement in the United States
• LGBTQ rights opposition in the United Kingdom
• Transgender genocide
• Transphobia in the United Kingdom