I wrote the following letter to my MP, Labour's Catherine Fookes.
Dear Catherine,
My name is George Harold Millman; I am a writer and social justice campaigner based in your constituency, and I write about politics under the blog name The Rebel Without A Clause. We have met a number of times, largely through my partner Owen's disability rights campaigns. I am writing to you concerning Early Day Motion 240, which has been put forward by your Labour colleague Nadia Whittome, and sponsored (amongst others) by your other Labour colleagues, Stella Creasy, Kate Osborne and Lorraine Beavers. The EDM proposes that the Draft Code of Practice for Services, public functions and associations, be disapproved.
As you probably know, the relevant code is highly contentious because it concerns access to public spaces, including gendered spaces, for transgender people. This is a subject that has become increasingly talked about in recent years. Your Labour colleague Samantha Niblett appeared on Politics Live this week to talk about compassion and respect for the trans community, and one thing she said that really stayed with me was that in 2017, there were only three organisations actively campaigning against trans rights. There are now 51 - for a group of people which makes up around half a percent of the UK population.
The new Code of Practice is both discriminatory and unenforceable. It states that gendered public services, such as toilets and changing rooms, must be used in accordance with biological sex rather than gender identity. One thing I need to make clear straight away is that 'biological sex' is not something that is all that quantifiable, because there are multiple different means of judging biology (chromosomes, hormones, genitalia, primary sex characteristics, secondary sex characteristics, and more besides) and they don't always fit into neat boxes. In fact, most of us don't know all of these things about ourselves. I am a cisgender man, in the sense I was assigned male at birth and have never doubted my gender identity, but I don't know if I produce XY chromosomes - as with most people, I've never had any reason to get my chromosomes tested and find out. We cannot quote an accurate figure as to how much of the population is intersex, because many people go through their whole lives without ever knowing this about themselves - all we can know is that it's likely to be far more than we're aware of. Although I'm not any kind of expert (and it certainly needs more research), it is my belief that being transgender is likely to be a form of being intersex - if you can be born with characteristics of more than one sex, it's not a great leap from there into being born seemingly with all the physical characteristics of one sex but to know inherently that you're the other. Being transgender is biological, and we cannot and should not use the phrase 'biological sex' to suggest that it isn't.
The Code of Practice does not make clear exactly what transgender people (who have been using spaces corresponding to their gender forever) should do in this situation and what facilities they should use. Transgender people, commonly fear-mongered about as potentially being perpetrators of sexual assault, are actually far more likely to be the victims of violent crime than the perpetrators. This is of course of particular concern for trans women, who if forced into male spaces are potentially putting themselves into an extremely dangerous place. The situation is even more confusing for trans men - technically, the new guidance says that they should use women's spaces, irrespective of how far through transition they are and how indistinguishable they are from a cisgender man (which also means a cisgender man could pretend to be a transgender man to gain access to women's spaces, the exact thing the guidance is supposedly to stop them doing). Unofficially, trans men have been advised not to do this - so what exactly is the advice? What are trans men meant to do in these situations? Trans men seem to have been mostly entirely ignored in the whole discussion, which only serves to highlight how flawed the discussion is and how it's focussed more on 'vibe' than on actual clear evidence and situational considerations.
The Code suggests that trans people should, ideally, use a third space. There are a very high number of problems with this. Firstly, not every facility has a third space, nor the resources to build one. Secondly, having a third space just for trans people would mean trans people would be forced to out themselves if they used it, which is discriminatory to any trans person who does not wish to be upfront about their trans status. Thirdly, it causes problems for disabled people - much of the time, a 'third space' will be the disabled facilities, which then increases demand for these facilities and means disabled people will have less access to them. Being trans is not a disability, and particularly as a disability rights campaigner, I have to make clear that we must not pit one vulnerable group against another. Fourthly, this is just immoral anyway, and bears some resemblance to apartheid South Africa. We must not have trans people in a separate moral category to cis people - doing that is completely at odds with a fair and just society.
Every year, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA) publishes the Rainbow Map - a map of all the countries in the world according to the quality of life for LGBTQ+ people living there. From being first in Europe in 2015, shortly after having legalised same-sex marriage, the UK is now 22nd out of 49 countries - just above halfway down. As someone in a same-sex relationship, I am dismayed to see us fall so far in such a short space of time. But looking just at the gender recognition category, we are doing even worse. In 2005, we were first in Europe, having just passed the Gender Recognition Act. Socially, public acceptance of trans people had been affirmed quite strongly by the victory of trans woman Nadia Almada on the TV programme Big Brother, which at the time was one of the most watched television programmes in the UK. From having given a trans woman a massive popularity boost 21 years ago and sent a strong message of acceptance to the trans community in the UK, we now place 43rd out of 49 on gender recognition. I think most people would struggle to name 42 European countries, let alone 42 European countries who are more accepting of their transgender communities than we are.
My opinion of your Parliamentary work since being elected in 2024 has, truthfully, been mixed. There have been some things I have approved of, and some I haven't. However, I have been generally quite optimistic about your position on trans rights. So far, I haven't seen anything from you on this that has given me cause for concern. I have been glad to see you speak up on behalf of the trans community in Monmouthshire in Parliament. Hence why I was hoping to see your name on Early Day Motion 240. At the time of writing, it has 75 signatories, 31 of whom are Labour MPs. I really hope to see your name on it before long. Together, we can defeat transphobia and stand up for an extremely vulnerable and increasingly marginalised community of people, a community that I know you have great compassion for.
Thank you for your attention,
Best wishes,
George Harold Millman
P.S. This is written as an open letter, so I will be publishing it on my blog, The Rebel Without A Clause. I will also publish any response I receive from you, if any.
