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"THERE IS NO DEBATE": JEREMY CORBYN GIVES SIR KEIR STARMER A LESSON ON ALLYSHIP DURING TRANS AWARENESS WEEK
Jeremy Corbyn MP with members of LGBT+ Socialists (Image: Paul McGowan)
Published 15 November 2022
While neither the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak or the leader of the opposition Keir Starmer have shared any messages of support for Trans Awareness Week, the former leader of the Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn continues to show them what true leadership and allyship looks like, taking to twitter to describe the trans community as an “inspiration” and also calling for people to celebrate their “strength and joy” in a short but powerful message.
Jeremy Corbyn also used this post to draw attention to the “endless marginalisation” of the trans community for Trans Awareness Week, which is held in the lead up to Transgender Day of Remembrance on 20 November, when we remember trans people lost to global transphobic violence.
“The resilience of trans people in the face of endless marginalisation is an inspiration to us all,” Jeremy said on Twitter. “This Trans Awareness Week, let’s empower trans communities in their struggle for justice, and celebrate their strength and joy. “There is no debate: Trans rights are human rights.”
Jeremy Corbyn took to Twitter to voice his support for trans people (Image: Twitter)
The widely admired and respected former Labour Party leader has a long history of standing up for LGBTQ+ rights, voting against the introduction of cruel Section 28, often sharing his pronouns in interviews, and more recently calling on women and equalities minister Kemi Badenoch to “ban conversion therapy”.
“Kemi Badenoch could have used her first appearance as women and equalities minister to ban conversion therapy, demand better trans healthcare and condemn the rise in LGBT+ hate crimes,” he said in a recent Tweet. “Instead, she attacked the CEO of PinkNews. The entire LGBT+ community have my full support.”
Jeremy in 2021 also met with the LGBT+ Socialists team in Liverpool to discuss the ongoing violent hate crime attacks against LGBT+ people in the Liverpool City Region. He also pledged his support for our Reclaim Pride campaign and for our alternative pride march in Liverpool organised after the attacks, stating: "All the best with the protest, and all the best with the way you have approached it. If market interests like Barclays are sponsoring something, it's not going to be much of a protest, it's not going to be a protest whatsoever.
LGBT+ rights were only ever won by very brave people standing up and protesting, I grew up in an era of most appalling levels of homophobia, it was brave people who stood up to get their name recognized. Your protest is in that rich tradition of people who stood up and made life better, maybe not for themselves, but those who came afterwards"
LGBT+ Socialists having a team meeting with Jeremy Corbyn in Liverpool (Image: Paul McGowan)
Portrait of Jeremy Corbyn, wearing a LGBT+ Socialists badge (Image: Paul McGowan)
Jeremy Corbyn with an activist at London Pride in 2016
(Image: Jeremy Corbyn/Twitter)
The current Labour Party leader, Sir Keir Starmer, has also to his credit spoken out in support and also made pledges regarding trans rights in the past – but those pledges and messages of support have widely been seen as empty promises gestures, that have also been met with contradicting statements of support in some cases only days later.
At the 2022 PinkNews Awards, Mr Starmer pledged, that a Labour government would ban conversion therapy once and for all, as well as appointing an international LGBTQ+ rights envoy. However he recently did a controversial interview with Mumsnet discussing healthcare for trans youth. During this interview they discussed trans youth healthcare on which Starmer said: “Children shouldn’t be making these very important decisions without consent to their parents, I say that as a matter of principle as a parent.”
This led to prominent LGBTQ+ figures within the party and the labour movement to condemn his comments, such as journalist Owen Jones who said, responding to these comments: "For those of us with LGBTQ+ friends who had their well-being and their lives damaged or frankly wrecked by their parents failing to affirm them, this is beyond aggravating." he also took aim at what many see as Starmer's dilitante attitude to discussing LGBTQ+ issues: "You don’t understand LGBTQ+ people at all, and you should do your homework or say nothing"
Owen continued taking aim at Starmer's quote of "Parents know what is best for their kids” saying that it: "is not a universal rule. Some parents are child abusers - and that includes parents who don’t affirm LGBTQ+ kids." he then called on Starmer to "meet LGBTQ+ people abused by their parents and retract his comments."
He also broke down Starmer's troubling comments, asking: "if you oppose social transition for young people without parental consent? Do you oppose Gillick competence and want teenage girls to have parental permission before having an abortion?" before telling Sir Keith that his position is "completely at odds with Labour’s position on abolishing conversion therapy. Do you not understand this? It’s almost as if you have marched into something you fundamentally do not understand".
Keir Starmer has also claimed he wants to “modernise the Gender Recognition Act” while “respecting single-sex spaces”, he has also on the topic of trans inclusion in sports, claiming that “biological women need to be safeguarded”, and when he was questioned about the cycling world governing body's decision to ban transgender cyclist Emily Bridges from competing in the women’s event at the British National Omnium Championships, he responded that "yes I think that is is very important to protect the integrity of sport, the right decision has been made".
The Labour Party under Starmer's leadership, has also seen an increase in public support for homophobic and transphobic individuals and organisations from a number of Labour MPs and members. Three examples of those were the comments and behaviour of Stephen Timms MP, Rosie Duffield MP and Lord Philip Hunt who have all publicly engaged with baiting behaviour, or expressed a positive attitude towards - or even endorsed what we consider to be homophobic or transphobic behaviour, and to this date, no action has ever been taken to address this.
In April 2021 Keir Starmer also made a controversial visit to Jesus House Church in London, where the church’s senior pastor, Agu Irukwu, has spoken out against same-sex marriage and equality legislation, which has lead to condemnation from LGBTQ+ groups. In 2006, he signed a letter to the Daily Telegraph opposing laws that would protect LGBTQ+ people from discrimination and, in 2013, he was also one of the signatories on another letter to the Telegraph opposing same-sex marriage legislation. Starmer praised the church after the visit as a a “wonderful example” of a church serving its community.
This visit and praise for the church lead to LGBT+ Socialists (then still the Labour Party LGBT+ Network) wrote an open letter signed by elected LGBTQ+ reps and members within the party to the leadership of the party, asking them to take urgent action to repair Labour’s relationship with LGBTQ+ communities and address the discrimination and harassment that we are experiencing. To this date, we have only recieved an email from General Secretary David Evans' office to let us know that he had received our email, other than that, we have had no response.
Trans Awareness Week 2022 runs from 13 November to Saturday (19 November).