Wes Streeting Suggests Segregating Trans People
Only days after declaring he feels terrible for all the trans people who have been hurt by some unknowable entity that’s definitely not him, Wes Streeting declares he’d like to segregate trans people.
Wes Streeting, soon to depart for Mars because he’s tired of these people, tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives…
Opinion by Aly Gibbs
I consider myself pretty savvy when it comes to the goings on of transphobic jerkoffs. I’ve been writing about them for years now, and like any good hunter, I’ve developed a keen sense for my prey’s next moves… which is why I’m not even a teensy tiny itty bitty bit surprised that, less than a full calendar week after declaring that trans people in the UK should feel supported and understood, Labour Health Secretary Wes Streeting has proposed the segregation of transgender people during an interview with the creator of one of the most virulently transphobic websites ever created.
Shot, chaser.
Mumsnet, for the uninitiated, is a forum created in 2000 by Justine Roberts for English mothers to communicate about child-rearing in the UK. In addition to that goal, the forum has developed a shockingly transphobic user base and found itself occupied by TERFs who have used the forums to network and plan transphobic stunts, while site moderators have discovered themselves unable (or unwilling) to effectively moderate their hateful users.
Fret not, that hasn’t stopped British politicians from regularly interviewing with Roberts and fielding questions directly from Mumsnet’s users, like Streeting did last Friday.
Roberts started the interview by telling Streeting that she had received “more questions for this webchat than almost any other,” which isn’t shocking. The UK’s nationalized health program, the NHS, is in dire straits and more Brits than ever are pissed about it. In fact, Streeting spends most of the interview acknowledging the ways in which the NHS has failed Britons, in particular women, and vowing to do better, lying through his teeth like any good politician.
Alas, more than halfway into the interview comes the trans-related question from a Mumsnet user: “It's been five months since the Supreme Court ruled that 'sex' in the Equality Act means biological sex. Why does the NHS still operate policies that state that male adults and children will be admitted to female wards, changing areas and toilets if those male people identify as trans?”
Streeting prevaricates greatly on this topic, stating initially that co-gendered “single-sex spaces,” particularly in healthcare environments, typically happen as a result of “capacity, constraints, [and] resources.” However, he does insist that these “breaches” are “not appropriate, dignified, or safe,” and insists that they will be eliminated.
He soon addresses the actual purpose of the question, however: removing trans people from spaces where cis people might have to see or interact with them. Moving on to “the gender identity issues,” Streeting says, “I think this is primarily an issue about women's rights, voices, and spaces ... so we've got to make sure the guidance has real world application. I don't think anyone, for example, would think it desirable for a trans man, so someone who's born female, but for all intents and purposes—hairy arms, beard, voice, identity—[to wander] into women's toilets or goes to a women's ward or another women's space. I think that would be undignified and unpleasant for everyone concerned. I think we've got to try and find a way that trans women are in a space that is dignified, and safe, and inclusive for them, that doesn't impact on women's sex-based rights and spaces.”
“So that sounds like third spaces,” Justine Roberts helpfully points out.
“I think, for trans women, yes, that is where we're looking,” Streeting confirms. “I know there will be lots of people, probably some Mumsnet users and lots of people in the LGBTQ community and allies, who would say that that's outrageous, I can't believe you're even saying that, you're a gay Health Secretary, how could you countenance this? I'm trying to find a way through all this that maybe not everyone loves, but everyone can live with, and treats people with dignity and respect. I think where this conversation went so badly wrong was a lack of understanding of why, in a women's rights context, the majority of our population ... feels strongly about protecting [single-sex spaces].”
Congratulations, Wes, you’re right. I do think you’re a weaselly little sell out for suggesting trans women should occupy some separate but equal third space. We are, as we have always said, women. We should occupy the same spaces as any other women, and if any of the Mumsnet users concerned with protecting “single-sex spaces” could point to cases of trans women assaulting cis women on hospital wards, believe me, they would have done it by now.
Streeting rounds out his answer by saying, “I don't think there's been nearly enough dialogue, empathy and understanding for different perspectives. I think we're getting to a better place as a country now, and if we can do that in a way that's level headed, rational, considerate and compassionate, I think we'll be in a better place and will arrive at common sense solutions.”
I have to disagree, Wes. I don’t think you’re getting to a better place, and I know it’s because cowards like you are all too eager to sell out trans Britons for fear of a very vocal minority group using the vast wealth of an evil woman to unseat you from your political position.
Trans Britons, like all trans people, deserve far better than this. So I’m afraid I must say it a second time: Go to hell Wes Streeting, you dickhead.
Aly Gibbs (She/They), formerly Alyssa Steinsiek, is a trans writer who reports on news important to the queer community.
