IN indefinitely extending the ban on puberty blockers for trans young people, Labour have enacted the first piece of anti-LGBT legislation to come from Westminster in 36 years.
And like the ban on teaching of LGBTQ+ identities enacted in 1988, it is grounded in little more than a moral panic that harms young people.
Health Secretary Wes Streeting claims that the decision to extend the Conservative Party’s ban on something which is a reversible and safe means to give young people the time and space to decide what is right for them was taken after receiving expert advice. But the Government’s own consultation process tells another story.
If, as the Government’s proponents are so quick to say, we must take the heat out of the so-called transgender debate, the route to doing so must surely be through expert opinion and by listening to the experiences of young trans people themselves.
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Yet skipping through the list of names invited to respond to the Government’s targeted consultation on the indefinite ban, a number of chosen invitees are objectively the last people who should be near such a consultation – anti-trans organisations, conversion therapy advocates and groups with ties to far-right American evangelism.
The list of groups and organisations invited to take part included charity the LGB Alliance, which was labelled by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) as a hate group in 2022.
GPAHE – which was formed by two former members of the respected US Southern Poverty Law Center – highlighted the LGB Alliance among other groups such as the Official Proud Boys Ireland and the Iona Institute as setting out to “demean, harass, and inspire violence against people based on their identity traits”.
The Government also invited the Bayswater Support Group to respond – a favourite go-to of the far right that pushes conversion therapy and advocates abuse toward trans youth “for their own good”.
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