Sarah Champion MP calls for urgent action to prevent discrimination against Trans people.
Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, Sarah Champion, MP for Rotherham, raised her concerns in Parliament today about the Government’s complete lack of commitment to tackle the endemic discrimination faced by trans people in today’s society.
A 2015 Select Committee inquiry revealed that trans people face hate crime and abuse, are routinely discriminated against when accessing public services, endure bullying in schools, and are being let down by serious failings in the NHS.
Trans and non-binary people still do not have access to full recognition or basic protection under the law and the 2004 Act, through which trans people can access legal gender recognition is now totally outdated.
Last year, the Government promised to review the Gender Recognition Act promising to ‘demedicalise and streamline’ the process, but has yet to set out any plans at all for these reforms.
Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, Member of Parliament for Rotherham, Sarah Champion, asked: “The Minister will be aware of the levels of persecution, intolerance and hate crime towards transgender people. Therefore, can the Minister confirm if she has plans to develop a new transgender action plan in line with the previous response to the women and equalities committee and also to the Government plan to conduct a review of the Gender Recognition Act of 2004”
Responding, Justine Greening, Minister for Women and Equalities, said: “We are going to be getting on reviewing the Gender Recognition Act.”
After the Parliamentary session concluded, Sarah Champion MP added: “Trans people continue to face the most serious forms of discrimination imaginable. The Government continues to offer vague commitments but there are no clear plan for a review – and no timetable for when the desperately needed reform will be finally undertaken.
The Government are still making all the right noises but have been doing that for months. The time for talking is over. They must now show trans people that they will deliver on the promise to tackle these inequalities without delay.”
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