Merseyside’s trans community are fed-up being used as a “football” in politics.
People within the community, including Luis Rowley, are demanding both the Labour Party and the Conservatives start seeing them as actual people “rather than political hurdles” to get over.
Luis, who lives in Everton, said they wish to live in a world where the trans community “aren’t weaponised” and “treated like a threat”. They told the ECHO: “We are living human beings with family and friends, my mum reads the news and worries so much about the world her transgender son is having to live in. Political parties need to see us as people and not political hurdles to get past.”
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Luis knew they were trans from the age of 13. It was when another student made a passing comment that things “clicked” for the 22-year-old. They said: “I wasn’t comfortable as a girl, I felt more comfortable being known more as a boy. Unfortunately, back then the only things I’d heard about the trans community were from transphobic jokes on TV, so I wasn’t able to put into words how I was feeling. In high school, I hung out with a lot of boys and one of them said I was like a boy who liked girly things and that comment always stuck with me.”
Despite Luis's experience, Sir Keir Starmer believes 16-year-olds are too young to change their legally recognised gender - despite being able to give consent, have sex, be married and join the army at the same age. The 60-year-old Labour leader was voicing his “concerns” about the Scottish government’s reforms to the Gender Recognition Bill, citing a potential impact on UK-wide equalities law.
If passed, the Gender Recognition Bill would change the process to get a gender recognition certificate (GFC) - a document that legally recognises a person’s gender is not the gender they were assigned at birth but is their “acquired gender”. It would have simplified the process for trans people by lowering the age limit from 18 to 16, removing the need for a medical diagnosis and evidence of having lived for two years in their acquired gender. However, the bill was blocked by the Conservative government with Rishi Sunak announcing the UK would use a Section 35 order to do so.
Jensen Parker, a transgender man who lives in the city centre, believes in years to come Section 35 will be a stain on the UK’s legacy on LGBTQ+ rights, similar to Section 28 - the legislation piece introduced by Margaret Thatcher which prohibited the "promotion of homosexuality" by local authorities.
The 20-year-old, who is from Hoylake, Wirral told the ECHO: “If cisgender people know that they identify with their gender at any age, why is it any different for trans people? At the age of 16, we are expected to make huge life decisions about what job we want in the future, but we're too young to decide who we are?”
The Liverpool John Moores drama student first realised he was trans when he was 11-years-old, however, he wasn’t aware of the term. The Wetherspoons kitchen associate recalled the “changing moment” for him was in his year six play when he played the male lead role.
He added: “When I played him, everything felt right and I didn't feel weird anymore. I came out as trans at the age of 15 when I was in year 10. If I had known the term, trans, it would have made so much more sense and it would have saved me a lot of trouble in high school coming to terms with who I was. I think everyone needs to be educated about the trans community because most of the hate and backlash comes from a lack of education. It feels like we're going backwards now.”
Tyler Sayle, from Garston, has always known he was trans but it wasn’t until his 15th birthday he would come out. The 20-year-old, who now lives in central Liverpool, wants to advocate for the younger trans generation to be supported on their self-discovery journey regardless of their age. The Hope university music student said: “Knowing you are trans is something that only you can know yourself, but not allowing people to present and be perceived how they would like to can cause a detrimental effect on their mental health.”
UK ministers claim they blocked the Scottish law because it would conflict with equality protections across Great Britain. The UK government's Scottish secretary Alister Jack set out the reasons for it in a statement to the House of Commons, citing concerns over its effect on legal rights to run single-sex clubs, associations and schools, as well as rules on equal pay for men and women
But Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon didn’t view the move in the same light. She called it a “full-frontal attack” on the Scottish Parliament and trans rights.
Lily-Rose Hunt, Chair of Liverpool trans support group, echoed similar anger to that of the first ministers. She told the ECHO: “The LGBTQ+ community don’t just deserve to be respected and celebrated in pride month, we deserve that same equal respect all year round. This government are causing great harm to vulnerable people. The Tory government should be ashamed of itself for peddling the myths about trans people. These disgraceful arguments are the exact same arguments used against the gay community back in the 80s, history doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.”
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LIly-Rose argues that the GRA bill “has nothing to do with women’s only spaces” but rather “only allows transgender people to live in dignity.” She said: “It allows transgender people to change the gender on their birth, marriage and death certificates. We believe that Section 35 is the new Section 28, rebranded and repackaged to target the minority of the day who is the hot topic to be scapegoated. It’s a tragedy that it seems we have learnt nothing from the past and our country is going backwards in many ways thanks to this government.”
LCR Pride Foundation, which supports the region’s trans community all year round, has reiterated its support for the trans community during these times. CEO and co-founder, Andi Herring, said: “Many trans people know they are trans from a young age, and the ability to affirm that gender and live as the person they say they are can be a life-saving and transformative act - it is a process that should be made as easy and respectful as possible. The lives of trans people in the UK are once again being used as a political football.”
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