Labour vows to ‘modernise, simplify and reform’ Gender Recognition Act

Labour will overhaul an “outdated” law to make it easier for transgender people to transition while maintaining protections for single-sex spaces, the party’s chair and shadow equalities secretary has said.

Writing in the Guardian, Anneliese Dodds accused the Conservative party of seeking to stoke “culture wars” by pinning its hopes for electoral success on “demonising vulnerable LGBT+ people”.

She set out Labour’s commitment to trans people and women in the aftermath of the party’s national policy forum in Nottingham, which saw delegates back a platform to be put before activists and members at the autumn conference in October.

Dodds accused Lee Anderson, the Conservatives’ deputy chair, of trying to “stoke division” when he suggested in an interview prior to his appointment that the Tories should focus on “a mix of culture wars and trans debate” to hold on to power.

“Changing gender is not a decision anyone makes lightly,” wrote Dodds. “The process is intrusive, outdated and humiliating. So we will modernise, simplify and reform the gender recognition law to a new process. We will remove invasive bureaucracy and simplify the process.”

The Gender Recognition Act was passed by Labour in 2004 but Dodds said that “now, in 2023, we have a much better understanding of the barriers trans people face”. She pointed to the legislation passed by Tony Blair’s government, and the 2010 Equality Act under Gordon Brown, as among Labour’s “crowning achievements”.

Dodds accused the Scottish National party of a “cavalier approach” to reforming gender recognition laws, following the Scottish government’s drive to support a system of self-identification that was endorsed by Holyrood but blocked by the UK government.

The move “seemed to be more about picking a fight with Westminster than bringing about meaningful change”, claimed Dodds, adding: “The safeguards that were proposed to protect women and girls from predators who might abuse the system were simply not up to scratch.”

Labour would not make the same mistakes, she vowed. Dodds wrote: “The requirement to obtain a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria remains an important part of accessing a gender recognition certificate. That’s especially the case now that gender dysphoria is no longer classified – and stigmatised – as a psychiatric disorder.”

She said that requiring a diagnosis “upholds legitimacy of applications and confidence in the system”.

Dodds said the current process meant that “a panel of anonymous doctors” got to decide something of momentous significance, “based on reams of intrusive medical paperwork and evidence of any surgery”. She added: “This is demeaning for trans people and meaningless in practice. A diagnosis provided by one doctor, with a registrar instead of a panel, should be enough.”

In a nod to the different views among some in Labour on the topic of gender and sex, Dodds said: “We need to recognise that sex and gender are different – as the Equality Act does. We will make sure that nothing in our modernised gender recognition process would override the single-sex exemptions in the Equality Act.

“Put simply, this means that there will always be places where it is reasonable for biological women only to have access. Labour will defend those spaces, providing legal clarity for the providers of single-sex services.”

Dodds acknowledged there was unlikely to be universal support for the move, suggesting “these policies will not please everyone” – and attacked by those acting both “in good faith and bad”.

She added: “Responsible politics is not about doing what is easy, it’s about doing what is right … Everyone deserves to be accepted, without exception and treated with respect and dignity in society.”