Jenny Black explains the new challenges
In 2017 Theresa May made a pledge to the LGBT+ community to reform the Gender Recognition Act, paving the way to self ID for trans people. May’s pledge was expected to succeed given Corbyn’s Labour Party had a similar manifesto commitment, assuring widespread support in parliament.
These commitments were made against a backdrop of rising tensions and hostility towards minority groups in the UK following the Brexit Referendum, although as a trade unionist and trans woman I remained optimistic regarding positive progress. But less than 10 years later we are now portrayed as the biggest threat to the fabric of society.
What I wasn’t expecting was the growing influence of the gender critical movement and its alignment with the political far right in the UK. The anti-trans pseudoscience espoused by white supremacist and Christian fundamentalist movements has gained traction in mainstream UK politics, with politicians frequently voicing their opinions on the need to protect young people and children from the social contagion of identifying as trans. Trans women in particular are presented as a physical and sexual threat to the safety of women and children, without any evidence to support this. While these views are more commonly shared amongst far right Conservative and Reform UK politicians, the need to appear in touch with public opinion has meant there is now significant cross-party support for gender critical thinking.
Reform UK’s links with the gender critical movement are well established, maybe not formally but certainly in a cross over of policy and ideology. Not only do both movements publicly support each other, gender critical views are firmly established in Reform UK’s policies, pledging to remove “trans ideology” from public institutions, including UK schools with the aim of preventing trans identities being recognised in the school environment.
The portraying of trans people as a threat is nothing new, it’s a tactic consistently used by the far right. The supposed threat to the fabric of society is the same argument pitched in the last 75 years against the rights of lesbian and gay people, civil rights for black people and the women’s liberation movement to name but a few.
In the UK Labour frequently remind us that they are the party that implemented the Equality Act 2010, yet they stood silent as Conservative governments talked about dismantling it.
For trans people it was evident that the writing was on the wall under Starmer’s Labour leadership. With his own MPs publicly supporting gender critical ideology, Starmer and his front bench crumbled when challenged to answer the question “what is a woman?” and they stood against the Scottish Parliament’s introduction of self-ID, resulting in the 2023 veto by the UK Parliament under Section 35 of The Scotland Act 1998.
It should not surprise anybody that since taking power the Labour Government’s position has not changed. In fact, their support of the EHRC’s disturbing guidance on implementation of the Supreme Court’s 2025 judgement on the definition of “sex” exemplifies this. The Party reacted by banning trans women from attending its next women’s conference, and was then forced to cancel the entire conference.
The inability of the Labour Government to stand in solidarity with the trans community only adds weight to the arguments of the far right.
Historically the trade union movement has been the one area of consistent support for trans people. In 2025 the TUC Congress voted overwhelmingly in support of trans rights. However, the recent successes of the gender critical movement in the courts, the shifting position of the Labour Party and the growing popularity of Reform UK within union ranks could weaken the ability of unions to honour this commitment.
The union movement will be put under more pressure in the coming years as the far right will undoubtedly fund legal challenges against those who allow its trans members to take up women-only seats within their structures. For many unions the fear of a costly court case may be enough for them to walk away from this equality battle, putting any realistic chance of equality for trans, non-binary and gender diverse people in jeopardy.
But now is the time to stand strong. Despite what the media and politicians tell us, the vast majority of people are supportive of trans rights, even more so once they are educated on the subject.
During my time in UNISON, I was at the forefront of its incredibly successful Trans Ally Training Programme. Launched in July 2022, we delivered training across the country to 9000+ members. They in turn have gone on to educate their comrades and colleagues about trans equality, and we now have 800+ more activists who have had the courage to come out as trans, non-binary or gender diverse as a direct result.
Unions must keep fighting for trans equality, and specifically for a change in the law regarding self-ID. This fight is formidable, but isn’t that what the trade union movement is all about: fighting for the oppressed minority, taking on those in power and holding them to account?
Postscript
Backed by a group of Labour MPs, the Good Law Project is supporting a legal challenge against the equalities regulator’s new code of practice on single-sex spaces, which came into effect on 5th August.