Dear [name],

I hope you are well?

I am writing to you as I am shocked and dismayed at today’s Supreme Court decision regarding the definition of gendered terms and effectively removing recognition of transgender people as their acquired gender.

As a trans woman constituent I am personally deeply worried about the impact this will have and what will potentially follow next from this precedent and feel I must speak out. I really appreciate the consideration you demonstrated when I last wrote to you and so wanted to thank you for that and to raise these concerns with you.

This ruling abandons decades of gains for recognition of the LGBT+ community and effectively nullifies our equality legislation. It amounts to making Gender Recognition Certificates (GRCs), an already flawed compromise solution that locks so many trans people out of marriage and other legal functions, practically useless. It does absolutely nothing to increase safety for anyone and actively creates safety issues for swaths of the population.

That this ruling can be made without hearing from a single trans person is daming. Enumerate hate groups which have openly called for the stripping of trans people’s recognition were consulted and yet we were effectively barred from standing up for ourselves. Had we been represented we would have easily won, yet instead we got the Scottish minister’s advocate, who was clearly nowhere near prepared for the task.

The proposal to check GRCs and / or birth certificates as a way of gatekeeping protected spaces would be laughable if it were not being seriously proposed. Neither documents can legally be used as identification and in legal matters, a GRC is privileged information making it illegal to request. In practicality this idea is not actually about solving the “problem” of segregated spaces, but gives those intent no discrimination carte blanche to arbitrarily bar anyone from accessing services if they are deemed ‘too masculine’ / ‘too feminine’. This will not only harm trans people in vulnerable situations but also any cisgender person who does not meet an ever shifting criteria of acceptable presentation.

Regarding the term “biological sex”, there is no legal definition for what this means. “Sex” as a purely biological definition is a homeostatic property cluster containing a multitude of characteristics that can and do change with medical transition. The idea that there is a single, unchangeable attribute, observable at birth, that cleanly and undoubtable separates male from female until death is simply not valid.

I must strongly condemn in the harshest terms the spread of this term throughout the media and government. The fact that it was used in this ruling is a condemnation of the integrity of our legal system. This ruling therefore seeks to separate out trans people from our real genders based purely on vibes, and will cause untolled arbitrary harm, loss of dignity, and loss of safety not just to trans people.

Aside from a tangible effective loss of rights, this ruling contributes to an ever increasing hostile environment for trans people in this country, many of whom are very scared of what the implications will be, and what will come next.

When Labour was elected in 2024 I sincerely hoped that we would see a return to more evidence based politics that would, amongst other things, see an end to the vicious rhetoric surrounding trans people. Yet I have been deeply disappointed by the continued vilification of our community as part of a desire to court more right-wing voters.

Recent guidance by the EHRC has bolstered anti-trans talking points and ignored the international condemnation lobbied at it by human rights organisations and medical organisations alike. Recent guidance published for the NHS has effectively told GPs to push people away from seeking gender related health care and has insidiously begun using the term “gender distress” which implies that trans people are somehow unwell or delusional.

Wes Streeting has managed to introduce the first piece of anti-lgbt+ legistlation since Section 28 ended, unlawfully banning puberty blockers for trans youth, leaving them to suffer years of unnecessary distress and irreversable physical changes, against all international best practice.

Streeting has also been a large promoter of the term “biological sex” and his recent comments, that medical records should (somehow) be forced to include a permanent marker of sex assigned at birth, is jingoistic and dangerous. If enacted it would create a vector for discrimination and inadequate healthcare for NHS patients that would follow them for the rest of their lives.

The supposed basis of this, the Sullivan report, is yet another transphobic report commissioned from the anti-trans lobby group “Sex Matters” for the express purpose of pushing transphobic policies. On top of the Cass Review, which has been universally condemned as anti-science and basic on bunk research by international medical communities. The fact that these two publications have not been unanimously thrown out by Westminster is shameful and makes a mockery of our democratic processes and commitment to human rights. 

I will also be writing to the Scottish health secretary asking what steps can be taken to ensure the continued access to vital healthcare in light of this ruling and the points above.

I appreciate this is a bit of a diversion from the original point of this letter, but I wanted to use the above to implore both the national Labour and Scottish Labour parties to change their attitudes on trans rights, to recognise the harm they have contributed to and try to do better.

I would like to specifically appeal to Sir Keir Starmer to recognise that attempting to court bigoted sentiments only serves to bolster Reform and the Conservatives, as these elements within society will never see Labour as a more attractive option to express their bigotries. I encourage him to move back to a more evidence-led and compassionate approach, and to stand up against what seem like easy rhetorical wins.

I would also implore both parties to seek out and genuinely listen to groups representing the transgender community in good faith, to listen to the things we struggle with, namely accessing healthcare, and to stop meeting with recognised hate groups and US backed anti-trans campaigns.

Thank you very much for reading this far and for taking the time,

I hope you have a great rest of the day,

Sincerely,

Robyn Veitch