Labour Vows to Simplify Gender Transition but Backs Down on Self-ID

Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds speaks on the first day of the annual Labour Party conference in Liverpool, on Sept. 25, 2022. Paul Ellis/AFP via Getty Images

Labour has vowed to make it easier for people to change their gender but has backed down on the idea of allowing self-identification without a medical diagnosis.

Writing in The Guardian, Labour Party chair and shadow equalities secretary Anneliese Dodds said her party “will modernise, simplify and reform the gender recognition law” and will “remove invasive bureaucracy and simplify the process.”

But she also promised to safeguard single-sex spaces and ruled out repeating the Scottish government’s ill-fated attempt to allow gender self-identification without a diagnosis.

‘Cavalier Approach’

The Scottish National Party (SNP) administration under Nicola Sturgeon pushed its gender self-ID legislation through the Scottish Parliament, but it was vetoed by the Conservative government in Westminster.

Ms. Dodds criticised the SNP for its “cavalier approach” to self-ID, saying the move “seemed to be more about picking a fight with Westminster than bringing about meaningful change.”

Scotland's then-First Minister Nicola Sturgeon during a press conference on winter pressures in the NHS, at St. Andrews House in Edinburgh on Jan. 16, 2023. Lesley Martin/PA Media

She added: “The safeguards that were proposed to protect women and girls from predators who might abuse the system were simply not up to scratch. As a result, the Scottish government is still picking up the pieces, with trans rights no further forward.”

The senior Labour MP said a medical diagnosis will still be needed under Labour’s gender reform plan.

“The requirement to obtain a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria remains an important part of accessing a gender recognition certificate,” she wrote.

Requiring a diagnosis “upholds [the] legitimacy of applications and confidence in the system,” she said.

“We need to recognise that sex and gender are different—as the Equality Act does. We will make sure that nothing in our modernised gender recognition process would override the single-sex exemptions in the Equality Act.”

She said that “there will always be places where it is reasonable for biological women only to have access,” adding, “Labour will defend those spaces, providing legal clarity for the providers of single-sex services.”

‘Remove Invasive Bureaucracy’

Ms. Dodds praised the Gender Recognition Act (GRA), passed by Tony Blair’s Labour government in 2004, which enabled people to legally change their gender.

The law, along with the 2010 Equality Act, were “one of Labour’s crowning achievements,” she said.

But she said the law needs reforming. “Now, in 2023, we have a much better understanding of the barriers trans people face.

“Changing gender is not a decision anyone makes lightly,” wrote Ms. Dodds. “The process is intrusive, outdated and humiliating. So we will modernise, simplify and reform the gender recognition law to a new process. We will remove invasive bureaucracy and simplify the process.”

She said the current process meant that “a panel of anonymous doctors” got to decide something of momentous significance “based on reams of intrusive medical paperwork and evidence of any surgery.”

“This is demeaning for trans people and meaningless in practice. A diagnosis provided by one doctor, with a registrar instead of a panel, should be enough,” she added.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer speaks to the Progressive Britain conference at Congress House, central London, on May 13, 2023. Yui Mok/PA Media

Changing Positions

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer announced in a 2021 interview that Labour under his leadership would be “committed to updating the GRA to introduce self-declaration for trans people.”

But he changed his position as Scotland’s Gender Recognition Reform bill sparked controversy.

In January this year, Mr. Starmer told the BBC that he had “concerns about the provision in Scotland, in particular the age reduction to 16, in particular the rejection of our amendment in relation to the Equalities Act.”

In April, Mr. Starmer told The Sunday Times: “The lesson from Scotland is that if you can’t take the public with you on a journey of reform, then you’re probably not on the right journey.”