Ben Chacko
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CONGRESS backed gender self-declaration today.
Moving, TUC LGBT+ committee chair Maria Exall said trans people should not be subject to intrusive medical procedures in order to have their transition legally recognised.
Aslef’s Deborah Reay said the movement should recognise that viewing transgender identities as a mental illness requiring a diagnosis was outdated and Unison’s Jenny Harvey made an impassioned call for an end to the “humiliating and offensive red-tape nightmare” that people face when transitioning.
TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady backed the motion in a general council statement that condemned “all forms of discrimination, bigotry and stereotyping.”
While the debate on self-declaration had at times been “bitterly divisive,” the labour movement was strongest when coming together, she said, adding that protections for women’s spaces under the Equality Act would remain unaffected.
Michelle Codrington-Rogers of NASUWT said the movement should move on from a “toxic” debate in which people had been “bullied and intimidated” to one where space was provided to “hear all voices respectfully.”
