Summary
Dr Cal Horton's family forced to leave the UK because of transphobia.
Dr Cal Horton’s family forced to leave the UK
OPINION: From our chair.
It’s devastating to learn that Dr Cal Horton, someone whom I have long admired, along with their immediate family, is fleeing the UK, driven out by the relentless tide of transphobia.
Cal isn’t the only one: Dr Beth Upton and Dr Victoria McCloud have also been forced to seek a better life elsewhere.
The reality is that the UK is not safe for many trans people – it’s a tinderbox of hate, discrimination and segregation.
When a family uproots everything to move halfway across the world, it’s usually to pursue a dream. But in a raw, deeply moving essay titled “Leaving the UK with a heavy heart“ on the blog Growing Up Transgender, Cal reveals a far harsher reality.
Relocating to Australia (as did Dr Beth Upton) isn’t a leap toward new adventures; it’s a forced exile, as was the case with ex-High Court judge Dr Victoria McCloud, who was forced to move to Ireland because of transphobia, and the realities of living in the UK are becoming nigh impossible for some trans people.
Cal’s experience echoes that of countless parents of trans children who aren’t chasing opportunity, but are compelled by sheer necessity to protect their child’s safety, mental health, and basic dignity. Behind the headlines lies a relentless erosion of safety and rights: shifting school guidelines that compromise a child’s trust, severe restrictions on gender-affirming healthcare, and a toxic culture war that bleeds into everyday public spaces that every trans person encounters every day.
Cal’s post said:
“Trans children’s healthcare has been removed and criminalised, replaced with state mandated conversion. Medical doctors have been made to withdraw NHS prescribed healthcare that they know is important, against their own medical judgement, in ways that those same medical doctors know is deeply unsafe and harmful. Families are being targeted with social services investigations that feel deeply threatening.
Trans children who have been supported and included at school for years were told, bad luck, policy change. Rights were removed, children have faced humiliation and segregation. My daughter has been out of school since July, as have so many supported trans kids. Sport as leisure is already a no-go. We can’t use our local swimming pool without stress. Public bathrooms are a potential source of aggression. I’ve been screamed at to get out of toilets twice since the Supreme court ruled against trans life. Looking at the legal, medical, media and political landscape, I can’t see a safe, secure and dignified future for my daughter in the UK”
What makes Cal’s announcement so agonising is the sheer scale of the personal sacrifice – a career, the quiet heartbreak of packing up a lifetime of memories, saying goodbye to elderly grandparents who may never see their grandchild grow up in person, and abandoning siblings, lifelong friends, and the familiar comfort of home.
Venturing across the globe to a country where they have no guaranteed safety net or existing support network is daunting, yet remaining in a place that treats their child’s identity as a political battleground was no longer an option. Ultimately, Cal’s sad, moving post serves as an urgent, haunting call to conscience for all of us, but especially politicians.
Trans people face discrimination every day, in the media, in society, in healthcare and more recently, specifically at work.
The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Human Security has issued two statements regarding the UK
LINKS:
(1) https://www.lemkininstitute.com/red-flag-alerts/red-flag-alert-on-anti-trans-and-intersex-rights-in-the-uk
(2) https://www.lemkininstitute.com/statements-new-page/statement-on-the-anti-trans-and-anti-intersex-ehrc-code-of-practice-in-the-united-kingdom
Trans social genocide is a chilling reality in the UK – some other countries know this and shout it out. However, many UK politicians refuse to listen – indeed, some try to outdo each other and make it worse.
Culture wars stink.
Authored by Steph Richards, 4th October 2026
