If Labour is truly the party of equality, it wouldn’t shut down the trans debate

Labour prides itself on being the party of equality. Yet at the party’s annual conference in Liverpool last week, a group of Labour women found themselves denied an exhibition stall. And to ensure that women could attend their fringe event safely, they kept its location secret until just before it started, worked with the police and hired security.

They are Labour Women’s Declaration, a gender-critical group of women who believe that biological sex cannot be replaced with self-declared gender identity, and that women have the right to access single-sex sports, spaces and services such as prisons and domestic abuse refuges.

The leftwing gender-critical women I know have concerns about charities and schools teaching gender non-conforming young children that liking things stereotypically associated with the other sex might mean they’re born in the wrong body; and concerns about the medicalisation of children with gender dysphoria with puberty-blocking drugs that have potentially serious long-term impacts for bone and brain health.

However, they are also clear about the importance of robust legal protections against discrimination for trans people, and that ensuring single-sex services are available for women and girls should not preclude the provision of, for example, gender-neutral services and open-category sports for those who would prefer them.

Their position on the conflict between sex- and gender-identity-based rights is essentially where current law stands. In recent years, however, organisations have yielded to heavy pressure from LGBTQ+ campaigners to commit to allowing anyone who identifies as a woman to use female-only services. One of the most glaring injustices that has resulted is male sex offenders who identify as women being imprisoned with vulnerable women.

These women’s concerns about children’s healthcare are increasingly being vindicated: a review by the distinguished paediatrician Hilary Cass raised serious concerns about the lack of evidence for puberty blockers. The Charity Commission has opened a regulatory compliance case into Mermaids, a charity that has promoted their use despite its lack of medical expertise, as a result of child safeguarding concerns.

Yet Labour women with these views continue to be bullied and hounded within their own party. Other equality groupings – such as LGBT+ Labour – were granted a stand in the exhibition venue; Labour Women’s Declaration’s application was blocked on “commercial grounds” despite 13 parliamentarians, including the chair of the home affairs select committee and a former Labour general secretary, signing a public letter asking their party to reconsider.

The event last week was primarily focused on how to promote women’s equality – but there was also much talk of the awful treatment women with gender-critical views have been subjected to. One Greater Manchester councillor – who does not want her name made public for fear of reprisals – faced a smear campaign from other members tarnishing her as a bigot when she ran for a party position; many others had similar stories of bullying.

Prospective parliamentary candidates have been asked in selection interviews to justify why they follow the feminist charity FiLiA on Twitter , and their support for the existing law on single-sex spaces – despite the fact it is the Labour party’s official position – has been flagged in the party’s due diligence. Another councillor, Nina Killen, has been disciplined by the party for abstaining on a motion that ran contrary to her gender-critical beliefs after she eloquently explained why, despite having secured permission to abstain. And Karen Ingala Smith – who runs a domestic abuse charity for vulnerable womenand who compiles the annual femicide census of women killed by men that is read out by Labour MP Jess Phillips in parliament each year – has had her membership application rejected three times because of tweets expressing gender-critical beliefs. There are similar stories about how gender-critical women have been treated in the trade union movement.

Through his failure to address this – and high-profile Labour feminists have raised it directly with him – Keir Starmer is sending a clear message to gender-critical women: you’re not welcome in our party. This matters. Not just because of the personal cost to these women, and not just because it potentially puts the Labour party on the wrong side of discrimination law (although it would take an expensive legal case to test this). But also because it cedes this ground to the political right. It allows what should be a calm conversation about balancing what the courts have recognised as a conflict of rights, in a way that respects the dignity and human rights of everyone, to be turned into a culture war.

This is not to say it is wrong for women on the left to work on a cross-party basis with other women who share their concerns but also believe in combating discrimination against trans people.

There are Conservative MPs rightly raising concerns about the teaching of regressive aspects of gender ideology – such that gender non-conforming children may have been born in the wrong body – in schools. But there are Conservative ministers who have clearly attacked gender ideology out of political opportunism, turning up the heat because it suits them rather than, as any responsible politician would do, trying to take the heat out. On the far right, there are men like Tommy Robinson, who object to gender ideology not because they think that gender non-conformity in children should be celebrated but because they think that girls and boys should conform to sexist stereotypes.

The more the left tries to silence women who want to find a dignified and respectful compromise, the more it empowers people with misogynistic, transphobic and homophobic agendas. The dreadful irony is that research suggests that the average member of the public is in broad agreement with leftwing gender-critical women. They do not think gender identity should replace sex in society – sex still matters to them in certain arenas – and have concerns about irreversible medical treatment for children. But they approach the subject with empathy and compassion: they think it is very important to find ways of promoting trans inclusion, for example through the provision of unisex third spaces alongside single-sex spaces. Yet Labour looks set to support legislative reform proposed by the SNP to enable people to self-declare as the opposite sex for most legal purposes in Scotland – which could be passed by the end of the year – without proper public debate. Many lawyers think it will clash with UK-wide provisions for single-sex services set out in the Equality Act.

In refusing to openly acknowledge that there is a conversation that needs to be had about how to resolve these rights conflicts in a way that balances the needs of different groups, Labour is failing everyone. It means it, too, is complicit in the culture wars. We deserve more from our politicians.

• Sonia Sodha is an Observer columnist

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