Conservative MP, Crispin Blunt – who has served as a representative for Reigate since 1997 – wrote a piece for Politics Home, discussing the need to address and tackle the growing inequalities trans people are facing in the UK. Written in honour of Trans Awareness Week 2020, Blunt argued the government should pay greater attention to the needs of the trans community, saying: “We shouldn’t ignore the continued inequalities trans people face. 2020 could have been the year when the route to real equality of rights and services opened. On rights, it didn’t.”
A recent report from Transrespect versus Transphobia Worldwide (TvT), published in the run up to the Trans Day of Remembrance, says at least 350 trans people have been killed so far this year, compared to 331 last year, making 2020 a record year for anti-trans violence. Futhermore, a new UK specific study by LGBTQ+ organisation and anti-violence charity, Galop, found four in five transgender people have been the victim of a hate crime within the last 12 months. 70% said they did not report transphobic incidents to the police as they felt authorities would not help them.
Blunt wrote: “Trans, non-binary and gender diverse people exist and have always existed. We need to respect and rejoice in the diversity, as well as acknowledge the profound challenges transgender people can face both in exploring their gender identity, and in the discrimination and violence they can face throughout their lives…Everyone should be safe to be themselves in modern Britain. Trans people deserve recognition of their status, access to healthcare and measures to combat hate crime and bullying in schools, just as much as everyone else.”
