Our Founding Statement

The situation for trans people in Britain is critical. We face a barrage of billionaire bankrolled abuse in the media. We endure decades long waiting lists to access limited healthcare, with dehumanisation and pathologisation built in to the system. In the job market, we are met with discrimination, lack of opportunity and stagnating pay. We are excluded from housing, healthcare, employment, leisure - now even our use of bathrooms is policed. Something must change.

For trans people, today’s politics is exhausting. The major political parties have used and discarded us time and time again. Too often, exclusionary figures are embedded in leadership capacities, and even in progressive parties, those on the fringes can spew hatred unchallenged.

We say no more. This cannot happen in Your Party. The liberation of all marginalised people can only be achieved through their active and equal participation in class struggle; there can only be a precarious freedom for some under current conditions.

We are the Trans Liberation Group and we are fighting to ensure Your Party, in its current and future iterations, explicitly advocates for trans liberation, and encourages the political participation of trans people.

We know there are prominent figures who have been platformed under the banner of Your Party who hold regressive, misinformed and dangerous views on trans people. We are here to show them that this is our party, and we will fight tooth and nail to prevent this oppressive politics from taking root.

Therefore, in the build up to the founding conference, we are supporting campaigns for member democracy. This is because:

1. We know the average person in Your Party stands in solidarity with us in the fight for trans liberation. They are as revulsed as we are by comments made by MPs, such as Adnan Hussain, and other less prominent individuals jockeying for position in the party.
2. Through member democracy, we have a safeguard against individuals using positions of influence to embed transphobia in the party’s policy programme and create a hostile environment for trans party members.
3. A democratic, member-led foundation can make trans liberation an integral part of the party programme, and use collective might to overthrow any self appointed party kings who believe their personal bigotry should undermine both our rights, and the principles of party democracy.

By campaigning for a democratic party with a member led founding conference, there is an opening for trans people to make a significant intervention in what could become the largest political party in Europe. We do not need to beg for patronage from an MP for a seat at the table, we can organise and claim our own place as members. That is why we are urging you, whether trans or cis, to join our struggle.

This is a once in a generation opportunity - we must take it!

Trans Liberation Group

JOIN US