A Guide On How To Write A Letter To Parliament
A message from Professor Stephen Whittle OBE.
I’m sure you’ll know about the recent Supreme Court decision.
The Court confirmed the law as it has always been for most in the trans community.
Unfortunately, as we predicted, the usual anti-trans activists are now making calls for wide-ranging restrictions on the rights of trans people, people like me, to go about their ordinary lives.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission, the body responsible for protecting individuals from discrimination and ensuring their human rights, has recently issued new and very controversial Interim Guidance.
The EHRC guidance states that trans people be excluded from the workplace and public toilets, changing rooms of our affirmed gender. The Department of Health is now proposing a ban on us being placed in hospital wards of our affirmed gender. In both cases, they are proposing banning even those trans men and women who have obtained legal gender recognition.
Trans people have been using these services peacefully and respectfully for over 50 years without incident.
Four investigations from TransLucent, making Freedom of Information Requests to NHS Foundation Trusts covering a period of three years, three months, only ever found ONE minor complaint about trans women occupying a bed in a female hospital ward. Every year, over six million women are admitted to hospital, and the NHS receives around 200,000 complaints. The replies from the NHS Foundation Trusts, regarding our latest investigation covering 180 service providers, can be viewed on this website and downloaded as a PDF
In February 2024, TransLucent published details of an investigation in which we contacted the fifty largest local authorities in England, with a total population of over 20 million people, asking how many complaints they had received about a trans woman using a toilet or changing room under their direct control in 2022. For example, potentially in offices, sports centres and other locations. We found NO complaints. Again, copies of all the replies from the service providers can be viewed and downloaded as a PDF on this website.
We have one opportunity to fight this – the window is small.
There is one way that could impact decision-makers and turn this debate around.
It’s a simple thing; we’ve used it in the past, in 1999 and 2003.
Governments will ignore the thousands who take to the streets, and Politicians will file away our emails into a separate folder, to be answered with a mass-produced, non-committal message.
But there is one thing that our Members of Parliament cannot ‘file away ’….the constituent’s hard copy letter on paper.
A hard copy letter haunts the corner of your MP’s assistant’s desk. It is the letter that the assistant picks up and says to your MP ‘You really do need to read this, we need to know how to respond?’
If we want to impact the discussions that are currently being had about us, but without us, then trans people and trans allies, whether parents, partners, friends, neighbours and colleagues, need to send a paper letter that will haunt their desks.
How do you write such a letter effectively?
You DO NOT need to give your name or address (although it is certainly preferred), but you must tell your MP that you are their constituent. You can mark your letter “Private and Confidential”
- The start of the letter is a short paragraph to say how saddened you are to see the proposed interim guidance from the EHRC, as if it ever comes into force, it will have a substantial negative impact on the lives of every trans person in the UK.
- Refer to the fact that TransLucent has considerable FOI data proving that there are no issues in hospitals, toilets, or changing rooms, and this evidence is available on our website.
The real impact of the letter comes from the middle section of your letter. The middle is where you tell your (or their) story.
The good things you might include in the story are:
- The benefits that have come with transition.
- Examples of what you, your friend, or family member has contributed to their workplace or society since their transition
- If you (or they) have obtained Gender Recognition the benefits it has given.
- Were you (or they) finally able to marry a partner, or able to adopt or have children without having to fight every step of the way,
- What educational qualifications or workplace training have you (or they) taken up since transition?
- How, when you, (or they), have needed hospital care, you (or they) were placed in a ward of your affirmed gender, without any issues arising.
Other things you might include in your story are:
- If you (or they) transitioned before 1996, it could include memories of what it was like to not have any rights and the discrimination experienced.
- If you (or they) transitioned after 1996 but before 2005, it could include memories of what was experienced as a person clearly of one gender, but constantly held by the law to be of another.
Finally, this story should include your fears for the future if the guidance is made law.
- What the impact of being excluded from loos in the workplace or public settings might be.
- Whether going shopping will become a nightmare as you fear what might happen if you’re caught short and need the loo.
- Will theatre, concerts, gigs and festivals become a no-go area, because of fears of being challenged, and who might bring a complaint because of using the loo.
- What about being ill? What would be the impact if going into the hospital meant being placed on the ‘wrong’ ward? If urgent treatment is needed, how it is all very well deciding on a single room, but as the very few are usually reserved for the dying, undoubtedly any treatment will be delayed.
- How it will feel like segregation – a form of isolation, and apartheid.
- What it feels like to be a law-abiding citizen who is policed because those who don’t know Trans people have decided trans people could be frightening sexual predators.
I could give you lots of other ideas, but this middle section should be a life story that illustrates our successes, struggles, and fears.
It gives your MP something to talk about if they want to challenge these proposals, whenever they are raised in Parliament or at meetings of your MP’s political party.
The very final part of your letter.
- Ask your MP how they are going to protect you from arbitrary & discriminatory attacks on your right to peacefully go about your life- express how urgent this matter is,
- That you want to make an appointment to see them in their constituency surgery, and ask them to respond to you in writing within 10 days.
Other Info to help write your letter.
If you have to type your letter because your writing is illegible, but don’t have a printer at home or work, various places will print it for you at a very low cost.
Your local library or local Copy shop will usually copy and print on the spot for you at a very low price. High street stores that will copy and print include Ryman’s and Max Speilmans. Telephone them and ask in advance to save any wasted journeys.
Finally, you need seven copies of your letter, seven envelopes, and seven stamps. If this is all too much for you, you can email your letter, but this will have less impact. A quick Google search will reveal the relevant email addresses. To find out who your MP is, here is a link: https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP
You will need to send a copy to each of the following
1: Name of your Member of Parliament, The House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.
2: Right Honourable Bridget Phillipson MP, Minister for Women and Equalities, 20 Great Smith St, London, SW1P 3BT.
3: Rt Hon Wes Streeting MP, Minister for Health and Social Care, 39 Victoria St, London SW1H 0EU
4: Baroness Jacqui Smith of Malvern, Minister for Women and Equalities, The House of Lords, London SW1A 0AA.
5: Baroness Kishwar Falkner of Margravine, Chair at Equality and Human Rights Commission, Windsor House, 50 Victoria Street, London, SW1H 0TL
6: Sarah Owen MP, As Chair of the Women and Equalities Select Committee, The House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.
7: Joint Committee on Human Rights, Houses of Parliament, London, SW1A 0AA.
Let TransLucent know whether or not they reply, and share those replies on social media by emailing us contact@translucent.org.uk
