Gender assignment: Abigail Maxwell on what it would take to offer a truly welcoming space

‘Much reporting on trans is propaganda.’

(Warning: contains strong language)

When people spread fear of trans people or oppose trans rights, it is anti-trans campaigning. This is normalised in British society. As a trans woman, I want Quakers to learn about this, and call it out when they see it. Trans is not a debate, trans is people – many of us terrified.

I am a woman. I have no idea why I feel this, any more than a lesbian might know why she is attracted to women. I know my transition is an expression of my inner light, which helps me escape the rigid control of my childhood into increasingly-free responsiveness that friends find beautiful.

In the most recent England and Wales census, 48,000 people identified as trans women, 48,000 as trans men, and 30,000 as nonbinary; 262,000 said their gender identity was different from the gender assigned at birth. This is a tiny proportion of the population. Can society accommodate people with an experience of ourselves so different from most people’s? Do we recognise that complex humans do not fit rigid binary classifications? If so, everyone benefits, as everyone’s idiosyncrasies might be acceptable too. Or, do we allow the political establishment to make trans people an ‘out-group’ that it is acceptable to hate and fear, alongside asylum seekers and climate protesters?

Anyone who honestly says she is a woman, is one. We know who we are.

Trans women are entitled to use women’s services from the moment we decide to transition. So says the Equality Act, and the statutory code of practice the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) published in 2011. This remains an authoritative statement of the law. If predatory males wanted to use trans rights as a pretext to enter women’s services, they would be there already. So the scaremongering about gender recognition reform – that it would allow predators into women’s services – is false.

The Scotsman newspaper printed an advertisement claiming ‘Self-ID gives predators the green light’, fomenting fear of sexual crime if Scottish gender recognition were enacted. Imagine how horrific that is for trans people. Ordinary people detest alleged sexual predators, and may attack them. Increasingly, we live in fear. A man in the street shouted at me, ‘I’ll kill you, you fucking poof. You need killing.’ A New Zealand tribunal ruled it would be ‘unduly harsh’ to return a trans woman to the UK after she outran her residence permit. I have considered claiming asylum in Dublin.

There were three consultations on the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, showing overwhelming support from Scottish civil society, including the Church of Scotland, trade unions, Scottish Women’s Aid, and Rape Crisis Scotland. The bill passed the Scottish parliament with a huge majority, of all parties except the Conservatives.

Sexual predators have not used trans rights to enter women’s services, but the Westminster government, without evidence, asserted that they might, in its order blocking the bill.

Reporting on the Scottish government’s court petition against that order, the BBC claimed the issue was ‘what it means to be a man or a woman’. That is false. The issue is the Westminster government’s powers to block Scottish legislation. The judge will not define ‘woman’. But the BBC’s account implies women’s rights could be reduced if the definition of ‘woman’ changes. I believe I have found many examples of BBC journalists showing prejudice against trans people and trans rights.

False, trans-excluding interpretations of the law are widespread, including from the EHRC. In 2022 the Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions recommended that the EHRC address its vulnerability to political influence in recruitment and funding, and work with civil society organisations including those supporting LGBTI+ people and asylum seekers. The EHRC has failed to do so.

Much reporting on trans is propaganda. When Abertay University investigated allegations that Lisa Keogh had expressed transphobic prejudice, she sued them. The Sheriff dismissed the case as having no basis in law, but The Times published eight adulatory articles about her, including one reporting that she was standing in local elections. She came tenth.

There is a vast amount of money available for anti-trans campaigning. Allison Bailey, a barrister, raised half a million pounds to sue her chambers for objecting to her anti-trans tweets, and won £22,000. The Guardian reported this as a victory for freedom of thought and expression. Bailey failed to get judgment against Stonewall, the LGBTI+ charity, whose Diversity Champions scheme advises employers about LGBTI+ rights in work, so that employers do not breach those rights and become liable to a claim. Success against Stonewall would have made employers wary of seeking their advice, greatly reducing the charity’s funds. The government calls on the NHS and other employers to leave Diversity Champions.

Anti-trans campaigners work to prevent trans people from transitioning, and to exclude trans women from women’s services, but they rarely mention trans itself. Instead, they use a code which Quakers should be aware of, so you can challenge it. For example, they say they want ‘biological men’ excluded, as if cis men generally might enter, or being trans does not matter. Or, they claim ‘sex-based rights’, women’s rights from a rigid definition of biological sex, excluding trans women. Slogans like ‘Sex matters’ or ‘Sex is real’ reinforce their belief that they respect a reality that trans allies wilfully deny, but trans people exist.

Some groups claim to want to ‘protect girls’, but this can mean preventing trans boys and nonbinary children from expressing themselves in their true gender, and encouraging other pupils to refuse to use their pronouns. One had three demands for the local elections, all of which related to trans exclusion. Some Quakers thought they were a women’s rights group – anti-trans campaigners try to make their work sound innocuous and reasonable, to anyone not affected by their fear and hate.

Yes, fear and hate. If I use a women’s loo, I go into a private cubicle then wash and dry my hands. Sometimes I adjust my makeup. It affects nobody else. But some are so triggered by trans women’s mere existence that they work constantly to exclude us, getting enraged on social media, though they rarely see us in real life.

If Quakers want to provide a ‘welcoming space’ for trans people, they should imagine how trans people react to the slogan ‘Sex Matters to Quakers’. When I see that among Friends, I see a person who supports trans exclusion. It is unwelcoming. It hurts to explain this. I would like cis allies to do the explaining.

After years of relentless anti-trans hate, there is a great amount of complex anti-trans argument. Quakers should not get lost in the weeds. If Friends have concerns about trans, they could read The Transgender Issue by Shon Faye, anything by Julia Serano, or Trans Britain edited by Christine Burns. When trans people accept our nature, we are enabled to live fully. When you read such people’s writings, you will see trans enriches society.

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