Author: Steph

Avatar photo

Steph Richards (she/her) is a 74-year-old human rights activist, intersectional feminist, and recipient of a 2023 Inspirational Women of Portsmouth Award. Holding a Gender Recognition Certificate and "post op", she is the founder and Chair of Translucent.Org.UK, which was named LGBT Organisation of the Year at the 2022 National Diversity Awards. Steph was also shortlisted as a Positive Role Model for Gender at the 2025 National Diversity Awards. Steph’s leadership spans political, healthcare, and community advocacy. She served as the Women’s and LGBT Officer for the Portsmouth Labour Party (2021–2024), co-founded the Women’s Action Network (Portsmouth), and is a former CEO of a women’s health charity. A passionate champion for women's healthcare, she possesses extensive expertise in baby loss awareness, actively defends UK abortion rights and is a member of "Women Against the Far-Right". Calling out VAWG, Steph has researched and written about 125 women and girls killed by a man. A prominent voice in national media and debate, Steph has been featured live on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Anti Social, Good Morning Britain, Times Radio, LBC, GB News, and Channel 4 News. In 2023, she debated trans human rights alongside Harvard biologist Dr. Carole Hooven at a prominent US university event.

HHLP

Hampstead Heath Ladies Pond and Transphobia.  It isn’t about privacy, dignity or safety. It is about prejudice, discrimination and hate. Not my words, but from people who have contacted me, since we made it clear that TransLucent will undertake legal action to defend trans inclusion at the Ladies’ and not to be forgotten, Men’s pond. Because what that ruling did, according to the purveyors of transphobia in the gender-critical ideology movement, is that trans people should, nay, must be excluded from both the Ladies’ and Men’s ponds based on their birth sex and consequent gender reassignment. Trans men with…

Read More
A Message From Our Founder

A personal opinion by our CEO – this post does not represent TransLucent policy.  Since when has a space suitable for one person with a lockable door not been a single sex space? This simple sentence underscores the significance of privacy in defining a single sex space, particularly in the context of toilets. It’s about being behind a closed, lockable door, a space where one can feel dignified and secure. Many, quite legitimately, will argue that “single sex” starts at the entrance of a loo. Opponents can argue that male cleaners occupy hand washing areas, so that area is not…

Read More
A Message From Our Founder

HAMPSTEAD HEATH LADIES POND – “It’s not about women. It’s about a trophy” These are not my words, but those of a cisgender woman who regularly swims at the pond and is utterly disgusted by a tiny minority of women who are transphobic and use the word “woman” as their weapon and shield. As CEO of TransLucent, I want to make it very clear that all the time I am in tenure, we will fight transphobia on the streets, in parliament and in the courts. As an organisation, we announced our intention with yesterday’s statement that TransLucent had intervened in…

Read More
A Message From Our Founder

A message from Rebecca Jones:  Attention UK-based people, I need YOU to help me challenge NHS Blood & Transplant’s policies towards Trans & Non-Binary people. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rAPx8gpSix5Msf_HOu5cZhg6qSamNZiCtlDZLDc17yE/edit?usp=sharing In July 2024, NHS Blood & Transplant changed its policy to test trans people’s haemoglobin levels exclusively like their sex at birth against scientific consensus. I have been investigating this over the past few months to understand why the NHS made this decision, and how we can make them change their policies. What I was told concerned me greatly, especially when the NHS acknowledged it was a problem and did not give me a commitment on when they would…

Read More
The Impact of Gender-Critical Ideology on Society

The Impact of Gender-Critical Ideology on Society In recent years, the debate surrounding gender identity has intensified, with gender-critical ideologies, which typically reject the idea that a person can identify as a gender different from their assigned sex at birth, emerging as a significant force in this discussion. The societal impact of these ideologies, which often undermine the validity of transgender identities, is profound, creating a hostile environment not just for trans people but also for anyone not conforming to traditional gender norms. Gender-critical ideology has also divided feminism, the consequence of which is that feminism has failed to overcome…

Read More
The Impact of Gender-Critical Ideology on Women and Society

The Impact of Gender-Critical Ideology on Women and Society: This text asserts that gender-critical ideology, despite its purported feminist origins, is damaging as it excludes transgender people, weakens feminist unity, diverts attention from patriarchy, and carries the risk of aligning with socially conservative viewpoints. Continue Reading The Impact of Gender-Critical Ideology on Women and Society

Read More