In response to yesterday’s Supreme Court judgment, LGBT Humanists issued the following statement:
The promise of the Gender Recognition Act, enacted over twenty years ago, was clear: to provide transgender people with Gender Recognition Certificates recognition and associated protections against discrimination based on their legal sex.
That recognition was the culmination of tireless human rights campaigning. This week’s judgment undermines it.
For transgender people facing growing hostility in society, this decision is not just a shock – but a frightening setback that makes us fear for the future.
As humanists, we are guided by reason, compassion, and respect for individual autonomy. LGBT Humanists reaffirms that transgender people are entitled to full human rights and equal treatment under the law. Trans people have the same basic right to dignity and equality as everyone else. Should this ruling lead to any practical reduction in equality, society must take steps to see that legal protections are put in place.
It’s also important that people understand the scope of this judgment and that it not be deployed mistakenly or deliberately to further erode trans people’s rights and freedoms. The law continues to prohibit discrimination on the basis of whether a person is trans, or whether they are perceived by others to be male or female. In all other scenarios where previously a Gender Recognition Certificate was a declaration of a trans person’s legal sex, such as getting married or applying for benefits, that remains the case.
Our commitment to fighting for the equal rights of all trans people remains unwavering.
Notes
Since 1979, LGBT Humanists has fought for equality for LGBT people. Founded in response to Mary Whitehouse and her private prosecution of Gay News for ‘blasphemy’, it has consistently worked for equality for LGBT people and challenged religious opposition to LGBT rights. Across its long history, the organisation campaigned to equalise the age of consent, for same-sex marriage, and for decades has campaigned to ban the horrific practice of ‘conversion therapy’.
LGBT Humanists is a section of Humanists UK.