Trans rights and the Tories
I should declare an interest here. I am not a Conservative voter. I can think of few circumstances where I could be induced to vote Conservative, short perhaps of a Tory v Laurence Fox style run off.
Nonetheless, I find myself feeling pretty strongly about what is happening in the race to be Conservative Party leader and ultimately, Prime Minister.
Yes, it is tempting to cheer on the person I think most likely to end the Conservative term in power. But there is so much at stake for those of us who have been involved in the struggle for equality: from equal pay to equal marriage, from the race relations act to the disability discrimination act. I could go on.
Like many people, I breathed a sigh of relief when Kemi Badenoch failed to progress, but my relief is tempered with the unedifying spectacle of the final candidates in the field squabbling over the rights to the mantle of most socially regressive.
This ‘anti-wokery’ dogma is pretty depressing stuff. It indicates that rather than moving on from the toxic culture wars nonsense that dogged the Johnsonian regime, we are likely to see a doubling down on an issue that the public neither thinks about much, and cares even less about.
We are in the middle of a climate emergency, a cost of living crisis and dealing with the aftermath of one of the most significant health disasters the world has ever seen. Is the biggest issue facing the country really who pees where?!
This moral panic, imported at least partly from the likes of Ron De Santis, Florida’s right-wing governor and would-be presidential candidate is vastly out of kilter with the country. Out of kilter even with the US population which is traditionally believed to skew right on social issues. Recent polling showed 70% of the US population now support same sex marriage, and a large chunk of Republicans in the House of Representatives recently voted for constitutional protection for same sex marriage in the wake of the dismantling of abortion rights.
In the UK. polling shows that people in constituencies from the red wall to blue wall, and the oft-overlooked bits in between, people care most about their ability to feed their family and pay important bills. The so-called ‘trans agenda’ is keeping very few people awake at night. A recent focus group in Oldham run by More in Common put the people who had heard or cared about Trans rights row in the Tory leadership campaign at the grand total of zero. How’s that for a tumbleweed, Kemi?
Trans people are amongst the most marginalised and vulnerable in our society. Never mind levelling up, going after them seems like the ultimate punching down to me.
Of course, there are challenges to be navigated in protecting hard fought women’s rights. But we need a mature conversation, empathy and leadership. I can’t see either of the Conservative leadership candidates delivering any of these.
My advice for the new PM? Try governing for the people, not the fringes of your party. Inclusion isn’t the enemy of aspiration and prosperity; it’s actually an agent.
