Why the British Conservative Party are targeting trans people.

Open any right-wing newspaper such as The Times, Telegraph or Daily Express and the chances are there will be “outrage” articles on “trans issues”. Indeed, in January  of this year, The Daily Mail published 115 trans related stories,  and in common with the other newspapers the large majority were trans hostile. Invariably these articles will be part of a campaign led by right-wing Tory think tanks.

But why?

The answer is straightforward – the Conservative party needs distraction from their failures and are creating outrage, fear and division. Sadly a side affect of all these negative articles is transgender hate crime which has risen by nearly 1300% in just ten year

The current tactics is one way of achieving diversion – the Tories operate the same policy against refugees. Also, the Conservatives have a fair share of far-right “Christian” MPs who are not too keen on LGBT people. 

MPs like Kemi Badenoch, who, within a few weeks of being appointed Minister for Women and Equalities, said she was delaying the ban against so-called “Conversion Therapy” because she wanted a review.

She was subsequently overruled by 10 Downing Street, but only because they needed to appease the LGBT community – for the first time in history, the Conservatives used the “nuclear option” and enacted section 35 of the Scotland Act to halt Gender Recognition Reform. And let’s be clear if and when a Conversion Therapy ban becomes law, the Conservatives will have it watered it down to be next to useless. 

The list of trans-hostile or LGBT+ hostile Tory MPs is a mile long, and while we are not suggesting all Conservative MPs are in the same camp, sadly, many of their colleagues are pretty happy to align themselves against LGBT+ human rights. Fiona Bruce, the MP for Congleton for example, writes on her website, “A privilege to speak at the ADF European Leadership Academy 2019“.

The ADF are a far-right American “Christian” group with an income of circa £60 million p.a. and named by a human rights organisation in the US as a LGBT+ hate group. The ADF have  their UK offices, just yards from 10 Downing Street.

Badenoch and Bruce share the same Christian beliefs, which, if taken to the extreme of their clique, equates to the elimination of trans people. Yes, one American Conservative, have actually called for trans folk and our allies to be executed by a firing squad.   

But it’s not just Kemi Badenoch and Fiona Bruce who are trans-hostile. The Independent newspaper reported this in June 2022:  

Boris Johnson has expressed support for excluding transgender athletes from competing in women’s events as his government applies pressure on sports bodies to impose bans. 

Johnson was, in short, creating outrage, flying in the face of the International Olympic Committee’s policy of trans inclusion. And let’s remember trans people became eligible to compete in the Olympic Games in 2004. Since then some 71,000 athletes have become Olympians – just one was a trans woman (Laurel Hubbard from New Zealand) and she came last. 

Up steeps in agreement with Johnson, is his best mate Nadine Dorries who encouraged UK Sport to exclude trans women from playing any sport, even though participating dramatically improves mental health of trans people in particular.

Can you name any trans women participating in UK Olympic eligible sports? Almost certainly not – because as of November 2021, 15,429 409 UK citizens were participating in these sports but there is just ONE trans woman.  

Enter one Dominic Raab. In January of 2023, he announced new policies where to house trans women prisoners, despite there being no problems whatsoever with the policy adopted by the Ministry of Justice in October 2019. Given historical evidence, it would appear Raab is sending trans women to be sexually assaulted in the male estate on average every thirty-three days. Also, let’s not forget that between 2015 – 2017 four trans women held in the male estate took their own lives. Does Dominic Raab care about trans women?

Apparently not. 

The anti-trans rhetoric by Conservative Ministers is deafening – blocking Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill courtesy of Rishi Sunak and Alister Jack because they don’t approve of self-determination, a system operated by eleven European countries including Belgium, Iceland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Norway and more recently Spain where from the age of 16  trans people can self-identify. 

Self-determination should be the norm in all UK countries, but the Conservatives blocked that too, despite a massive public consultation in support, with the BBC reporting in September 2020: 

Of the 102,818 responses received, 64% said there should not be a requirement for a diagnosis of gender dysphoria in the future because being trans was neither a medical nor a mental health issue.

But, in a statement, Equalities Minister Liz Truss said she believed the law as it stood provided the right “checks and balances”.

This news naturally devastated the trans community – just 2% of trans folk have been able to access a Gender Recognition Certificate because of horrific conditions within the 2004 Gender Recognition Act  – but the Conservatives don’t care a jot. Human rights are not on their agenda – they want conflict!

And now there is direct evidence that this is the case, with various newspapers reporting that Iain Anderson, the former Tory Governments LGBT champion has quit the party. The Independent reported this:  

“The Tories were “not the party it used to be”, [Said Iain Anderson] adding: “I can’t defend it.” 

In April of 2021, he quit his government role, warning that ministers’ decision not to ban conversion therapy for transgender people was “deeply damaging”.

But he has now left the Tory party as well, after nearly 40 years.

The business chief also said that discussions with party insiders had led him to believe that Rishi Sunak would ramp up so-called “culture war” tactics in the run-up to the 2024 election – with LGBT people among the likely targets.

“It was made pretty clear the plan is to run a culture war to distract from fundamental economic failings,” Mr Anderson said. “It’s not something I want any part of.”

As well as cancelling plans to ban conversion therapy for transgender people, the government has also moved to block the Scottish government from reforming the process by which a person can change their legal gender.

But I will leave the last word to one Lee Anderson, the Conservative MP for Ashfield, with the Daily Mirror reporting this on the 14th of February 2023: 

Conservative Deputy Chairman Lee Anderson, who was promoted by Rishi Sunak last week, said the Tories would likely put a ‘mix of culture wars and trans debate’ at the heart of its general election offer[ing]. 

Horrified? 

So you should be. 

Boris Johnson, Nadine Dorries, Dominic Raab, Fiona Bruce,  Richie Sunak, Alister Jack, Liz Truss, Lee Anderson and Kemi Badenoch together with many more Conservative MP’s appear to be more than happy to throw the trans community under the bus.

If the Conservative’s best is to attack trans people, a tiny minority of just 0.6% of the population – they don’t deserve to be in government. 

In fact, they don’t deserve to exist as a political party.