Happy International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia*. The occasion has probably passed most people by – but the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan was quick to wave the rainbow flag this morning. Khan said it was ‘unacceptable’ that the UK has fallen to 17th place in a European league table of LBTQ+ rights. ‘LGBTQ+ people’s fundamental rights are under attack around the world,’ he warned. Khan continued:
‘If we’re not vigilant, the progress that has been made in the past century can be reversed. I urge the Government to take the concerns of the LGBTQ+ community seriously. My message to the LGBTQ+ community in London and around the world is clear: I stand with you – today and every day.’
Sadiq Khan
Khan’s language was emotive, but as a trans person I find his depiction of LGBT rights – at least as far as the UK is concerned – hard to recognise. Yes, there are places around the world where gay and lesbian people face appalling oppression. In some countries, homosexual acts remain a capital offence. This is terrible – and it is right to speak out against them. But Khan is elected to serve London – and this is where his priorities must lie.
When it comes to London and, indeed, the UK, LGBT rights have come a long way in recent years. Khan warns that progress here risks going backwards, but in Britain there is little sign of that. Same-sex relationships have an equivalent status in law to heterosexual relationships, while both sexual orientation and gender reassignment are protected characteristics. Quite rightly, it is illegal to treat LGBT people less favourably than others – and nobody in authority is proposing to change that. Within the UK, at least, we have much to celebrate, not least that we can still – for the most part – speak freely and express our concerns about law and policy that affect LGBT people.
So why did Khan indicate that the UK is slipping down the rankings when it comes to LGBT rights? London’s mayor appears to be referring to the Rainbow Europe country rankings published every year by ILGA-Europe, the European Region of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. Top of the table is Malta, followed by Belgium and Denmark. It’s perhaps no surprise that the table is propped up by the likes of Turkey and Russia. But what is Malta doing that we are not?
ILGA-Europe explain that the rankings are based on ‘how the laws and policies of each country impact on the lives of LGBTI people.’ Or – perhaps more accurately – how ILGA-Europe think that people like me are impacted by law and policy. That is not necessarily the same thing.
In its annual review this year, ILGA-Europe complains about ‘continued hostile reporting in [UK] mainstream newspapers’. They call it ‘anti-trans rhetoric’; for the most part, I’d call it evidence-based reporting and insightful comment. Along with newspapers, politicians in the UK also came under fire. The report says of the Prime Minister:
‘Incoming PM Rishi Sunak’s previous anti-trans statements, including “trans women are not women”, were covered by media after his appointment in October.’
ILGA-Europe
Sunak is clearly not transphobic – and yet we live in a world, it seems, in which even saying something that most people agree with can be deemed unacceptable. Among the criteria ILGA-Europe uses to measure countries is ‘self-determination’ – being able to say which gender you are – and a ‘legal gender recognition procedure…for minors’. Does this last point mean sex changes for ten-year olds, on their own say-so? If so, on that – thankfully – the UK is failing to deliver. Let’s hope it stays that way, and recognise that – maybe – this is not a league table the UK wants to make it the top of.
Debbie Hayton is a teacher and journalist.
* This article was first published by The Spectator on 17 May 2023: Is Sadiq Khan right about the UK’s LGBT rights regression?
Debbie Hayton 
6 replies on “Is Sadiq Khan right about the UK’s LGBT rights regression?”
If men want to be accepted as women why do they seem to be so antipathetic towards them? If I lived in Spain and wanted to be accepted as part of the community I wouldn’t be standing in town squares holding banners and complaining that my failure
to integrate was their fault. We all need to take responsibility for our own feelings and behaviour and make an attempt to understand each other. The facts are that there are far more murders of women by men than murders of trans women by anyone. Therefore women are always going to be defensive of their safe spaces and worried when they see the possibility of ‘ bad actors ‘ taking advantage of situations we have fought long and hard for. Why can’t trans women understand this?
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I’ve mostly given up trying to give this kind of thing a fair reading. I did try briefly with this one, and it just confirmed that there’s little point. The people involved in these reports are lost in gender ideology so deep they may never get out again. The links are to similarly irrational articles from dangerous organisations pushing gender transition. The link about anti-trans media went to Facebook, then redirecting me to a Mermaids page that said they were not going to respond to an article in the Telegraph (IIRC), with no indication of what it was, and then apparently responding by telling any reader landing there how binders were really great compared to unsafe measures or worsening gender dysphoria.
A bit of – I suppose – praise, said the UK had joined in the call for LGBT people not to be “incarcerated” – a rather bland statement. Digging a bit more, it was about LGBT people being at risk when imprisoned with others (there was some mention of deportation to Rwanda thrown in). This is mental. We can’t just let people out of prison if there’s a legitimate reason for them to be there, so campaign for adequate protections in those cases instead.
At that point, it seemed best to stop reading. They are literally gone, these people. It’s like dealing with a bunch of conspiracy theorists who are convinced 9/11 was in inside job, or they were abducted by aliens. Reason just bounces off them, picking up a sticky residue of paranoid hatred of you as a “transphobe” as it does so. Argue with a 9/11 conspiracy theorist and you’re a shill for the government. Argue with a trans activist or one of their allies and you’re encouraging trans genocide. Nope, that would be the doctors sterilizing the gender confused doing that.
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Watching film of some of the ‘ Pride parades’ so far this month I can’t honestly see a lot to be proud of. I’m not religious or particularly prudish but I cannot celebrate adult fetishes displayed in public often in front of children and don’t see why I should be admonished for this. I am not a bigot but I do believe that there are some activities that should remain private and can only assume that this public display is arousing to the participants. This obsession with the celebration of sexual activity is bizarre and appears to be leading to the highest rates of gonorrhea and syphilis in decades. Is this an achievement we can be proud of?
I get that this is a separate issue to the rights of people who want to live their lives the best way they can but unfortunately the two are being conflated by combining the whole alphabet group into one identity and people like Khan putting an official stamp on it.
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I’ll get my coat……..
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Homophobia could increase due to the mistakes that are made because of transgender ideology. As J. K. Rowling wrote, transgender activism is an incredible opportunity for the far right ( https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1663272294070865925 , see 3rd paragraph). When homophobic countries see which severe mistakes we are now doing after having stopped persecuting LGBT people, it doesn’t incite them to change their politic, on the contrary. People won’t believe homosexuals anymore when they say that homosexuality is not a choice, because now we say the same about transgenderism (though it is very different: fashion trends, autogynephilia, etc.)
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Good point, same sex attraction is not the same as transgender which seems to have a very loose definition. I don’t understand why they are lumped together. It just confuses the recognition that gay and lesbian people have achieved.
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