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”.

Start the letter like this:

I followed the Mass Rally for members of our community to meet with their MPs on June 25th at the House of Commons and discuss with them our shared concerns about the EHRC’s proposed guidance in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling last April 16th. To see almost one thousand people queuing up quietly, peaceably and in good spirits, with absolutely no disturbance at all, was amazing and historic.

I wish to add my voice to say that, should the EHRC guidance after consultation be anything like the interim guidance, it will have a substantial negative impact on the lives of every trans person in the UK and run quite counter to established law, both national and supernational. There is considerable FOI data proving that there are no issues in hospitals, toilets, or changing rooms, and this evidence is available on Translucent’s website (translucent.org.uk).

The real impact of the letter comes from the middle section of your letter. The middle is where you tell your/ 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/they have obtained a Gender Recognition Certificate, then the benefits it has given.
• Were you/they able to marry a partner, able to adopt or have children without having to fight every step of the way?
• What educational qualifications or workplace training have you/they taken up since transition?
• When you/they needed hospital care, were you/they placed in a ward of your affirmed gender, without any issues arising.

Other things you might include in your story are

• If you/they transitioned before 1996, it could include memories of what it was like to not have any rights and the discrimination experienced.
• If you/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 EHRC 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 and discriminatory attacks on your right to peacefully go about your life – express how urgent this matter is.
• Tell your MP 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.