Pro Trans Rights Open Letter

The following is an open letter of support written by April Preston. We at Lib Dem Women are displaying it here as a statement of our own support for trans rights. Click here to add your own name to the bottom of the original letter.

Liberal women - pro trans rights open letter

As women and liberals we wish to make clear that we do not believe there is any conflict between women’s rights and trans rights.

In light of the ongoing campaigns against trans people we want to reassert our strength of feeling, which is in line with Liberal Democrat policy, that trans rights are indeed human rights.

We would reiterate that the Liberal Democrats are committed, and have been every time the matter has come before conference, to supporting trans rights. Since 2015, it has been the party’s agreed position https://lgbt.libdems.org.uk/en/page/transgender-and-intersex-health-charter that:

1. Variations in sex and gender, however they manifest, are a simple fact of human physiology and psychology, and neither the state nor society should pass judgement on people who deviate from what is considered the norm.
2. It is irresponsible at best and malicious at worst, to refuse marginalised people such as the transgender community the right to organise or access sheltered accommodation.
3. Every person has a right to receive prompt medical care that is free at the point of service.
4. No person, and especially no child, should be made to undergo unnecessary medical treatments without their informed consent.
5. We have a responsibility as liberals to represent and liberate the most marginalised people in society.

Moreover, the party recently adopted a definition of transphobia https://www.libdemvoice.org/liberal-democrats-adopt-definition-of-transphobia-65868.html which states that “Requiring trans people to be separate from society, using segregated facilities, or denying them access to facilities” or “Advocating the withdrawal or defunding of access to transition-related medical treatment for trans people” are transphobic actions. As such, any suggestion that trans women be segregated or restricted on the basis of their trans identity is a transphobic one.

Regarding single sex spaces, we maintain that any individual, cis or trans, who commits acts which harm others can be dealt with under existing laws and policies. Where existing law is insufficient to protect women from harm, we should seek to address this in ways targeted at specific harmful behaviours, not at groups of people. Trans women have the same right to exist in women’s spaces as any other woman; to say otherwise is dehumanising and places them at significant risk from others.

As a question of basic human rights, we do not believe that advocacy of transphobic positions is a matter for friendly debate; transphobia has no place in this party, either in the context of personal bullying and abuse, or in the wider context of advocating positions which seek to eliminate the space for trans people to exist in society.

We the undersigned stand shoulder to shoulder with our Trans, Non-binary, and gender-nonconforming friends.

Signed,

April Preston
Cllr Alexandrine Kantor
Christina Morgan-Danvers
Hannah Arnold
Janey Little
Liz Jarvis
Sue Vincent
Natasha Chapman
Penny Goodman, Chair, Leeds North West Liberal Democrats
Molly Nolan
Hannah Perkin
Jennie Rigg
Monroe Templeton
Jasmine Joséphine Sakura-Rose
Louise Ankers
Sharron honey
Rebecca Forrest
Rachel-lee Mackenzie
Helen Cross
Maria Pretzler
Dipa Vaya
Gemma Coton
Amy Gaskin
J.I.E.M.
Alison Hopkins
Carol Hayward
Anne Wellington
Leena Sarah Farhat
Emma Walker
Ruth McElroy
Cllr Avril Coelho, LDDA Chair
Sakeena Sanders
Tara Copeland
Abby Dank
Emily Baker
Cllr Sarah Medley
Elizabeth Morgan-Danvers
Elizabeth Bain
Jade O’Neil
Deborah Willemen
Anna Fryer
Meenakshi Minnis
Phylis Federowicz
Caron Lindsay
Rebecca Procter
Jenny Wilkinson
Hannah Bettsworth
Ellie Hudspith
Jayne Richmond
Lisa-Maria Bornemann
Jo Watkins
Laura McCarthy
Hannah Whitehouse
Nukey Proctor
Jemma Joy
Christine Whelan
Fiona Dryburgh
Jill Reilly
Jennie Coggles
Jacquie Bell
Rhian O'Connor
Sally Pattle
Elizabeth Barnard
Katie McManus
Helen Tamblyn Saville
Rebecca Bell
Aisha Mir
Miranda Roberts
Amanda Jeyaretnam
Elaine Ford
Rabina Khan
JLW
Lucy Tonge
Julia Fletcher
Aude Boubaker-Calder
Susan Murray
Florence MacDonald
Sarah Halsted
Alice Mason-Power
Rachel Bonnington
Cass Macdonald, Non-binary LD member
Emma Gallagher
Jo Ramsay
Clio Toogood
Hannah Downs
Fiona Phillips
Gill Cleeve, Chair of Stratford & South Warwickshire LDs
Kathy Grant
Philippa Gray
Victoria Alcock
Eva Mackenzie
Eileen Hutchinson
Will Millinship
Gillian Douglass
Caitlin Richardson
Amy Finch
Cllr Manuela Perteghella
Brogan Simpson
Elizabeth Payne
Rachel Bishop-Firth
Heather Richards
Sally Yalden
Anne Winstanley
Sarah Lucy Dobson
Jo Holt
Samantha Carpenter
Candy Piercy
Bernice Roust
Fran Knowles
Jackie Biggs
Carrie Hynds
Kate Pothalingam
Dan Widdon
Rhiannon Karen Webb
Celia Banannas
Rebecca Taylor
Ruth Coleman-Taylor
Hannah Land
Arran Angus
Chris Bradley
Cllr Louise Harris
Sarah Classick
(names last updated: 13:49 Sun June 13th)