A group of trans activists staged a die-in at Victoria Station last week, protesting the UK government’s decision to extend its ban puberty blockers till December 31.
Members of Trans Kids Deserve Better, the organisation which went viral in October after releasing insects at anti-trans organisation LGB Alliance’s conference, lay on the floor of the station, each with a cardboard headstone “in memory” of them. Behind them, they displayed a banner reading “kids can’t be kids if they’re dead.”
The action comes in response to UK Health Secretary Wes Streeting’s decision to extend the ban on the prescription of puberty blockers from private doctors, originally introduced by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Trans Kids Deserve Better have been placing cardboard coffins outside of Streeting’s office since late August. He has not responded to their calls to meet with them.
“We are a tapestry of young people each with our own interests, hopes and ambitions. Let us achieve our dreams. Stop the ban,” the group wrote on Instagram.
“We want to be safe, and we want to be healthy, but Wes Streeting and the DHSC have decided that we have to be forced into changes to our bodies we never wanted. We deserve autonomy, and we deserve to be heard without having to die to prove a point. Doctors and patients should make medical decisions, not politicians, and taking away our healthcare only puts us at risk.”