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The LGBTQIA+ community are offended by Boris Johnson after a comment he made during Prime Minister’s Questions on 23 March.
After saying that when people transition, they should be treated with “generosity and respect”, the Prime Minister added: “When it comes to distinguishing between man and woman, the basic facts of biology remain overwhelmingly important.”
This has led to calls from the transgender community for more discussions within Parliament on trans rights.
Stacy Novak, MD at Transliving International (a magazine and support group celebrating gender diversity), said: “A lot of people are trying to be supportive of the trans community, but they don’t understand the true happenings or meaning behind the life of a trans person, which can make some of what they say sound a bit out of context.
“I think [the government’s] hearts are in the right place, they just don’t understand the ins and outs of it.”
Cleo Madeleine, communications officer at Gendered Intelligence (a charity that aims to increase understandings of gender diversity), said: “Boris Johnson’s comment suggests at best ignorance, and at worst contempt for trans and non-binary people.
“While we recognise that the Prime Minister couched his response in a call for kindness towards those who undergo transition, his reference to the ‘basic facts of biology’ recalls the worst arguments of anti-trans groups.”
She said how the remarks “dehumanise trans people by reducing us to our body parts and suggesting we run counter to the ‘basic facts of biology’.”
On whether she thinks the Government will try to make a positive change for the trans community, Cleo says that they have promised this “time and time again” but that “it’s hard to see how sincere they can be when their most senior members continue to challenge our existence. We hope, of course, for the sensitivity, tact, love, and care for which the Prime Minister calls, but when this is how trans people are talked about in Parliament it feels very far away.”
Boris Johnson’s controversial words came in response to a question asked by Angela Richardson MP regarding the interim report of the Cass Review, an independent review of gender identity services aiming to make sure young people questioning their identity can receive a high standard of care.
By contrast, Labour Party leader Keir Stamer recently said in an interview with The Times that, “A woman is a female adult, and in addition to that trans women are women, and that is not just my view – that is actually the law.”
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