India Willoughby speaks out on trans rights under Labour: ‘They will come for the gays next’

The Tories are gone. Our new Labour government has declared the culture wars of the past five years officially over. The trans community should be waving our white pantaloons above our heads in VE Day-style celebrations – that’s VE for Victory over Exclusionists. Only we’re not. Not by a long chalk. 

Because despite yesterday’s King’s Speech, the UK trans population is cooked. Done for. Things are happening so fast; I’ve had to rewrite this article five times over the past week to keep up with events. Originally, it was going to be about Tony Blair emerging from the shadows like a Dickensian Ghost of Christmas Past, warning Keir Starmer not to get involved with trans issues.  

Then Wes Streeting revealed he plans to expand a ban on puberty blockers for young trans people – forcing them to go through puberties they do not want. All for the sake of complete strangers. More on Streeting later. 

“How on Earth did we all get Saint Joanne so wrong?”

Then Angela Rayner – who up until now had been perceived as a secret trans ally – said with a straight face that JK Rowling ‘supports’ trans people.

Yup, the same Wizard Lady who has repeatedly misgendered me online is pro-trans. How on Earth did we all get Saint Joanne so wrong? 

Next, Lisa Nandy. On day one of the new Labour Government, Nandy announced that the culture war was officially over – hurray! But by day seven, Nandy was on Talk TV insisting Wes Streeting was right to make trans kids go through the puberty they didn’t want.

“Would you be willing to undergo ‘exploratory therapy’ to see if you are really gay?”

Which brings us to now – and the King’s Speech. In which Labour announce they are bringing in a trans-inclusive ban on so-called ‘conversion therapy’. Only it isn’t trans-inclusive because they’ve taken away our meds, and any trans person of any age now approaching the NHS for help will first have to undergo something called ‘exploratory therapy’. A rebrand of you-know-what. 

‘Exploratory therapy’ involves long sessions spread over years quizzing trans people as to why they are trans and trying to find alternative ways to make them happy. 

I ask all gay people reading this: what does that sound like to you? Would you be willing to undergo ‘exploratory therapy’ to see if you are really gay and aren’t actually telling fibs?

“Trans health apartheid”

All this leaves the UK in a unique position. We are now the only country in the world where puberty blockers are simultaneously banned for one group of patients for being “dangerous and life-changing” – but the exact same drug and dosage is deemed perfectly safe for another. The NHS will continue to prescribe them to non-trans kids with precocious (early onset) puberty. Exact same med and dosage. 

Trans health apartheid. 

It also means up to 1,000 existing trans kids being effectively made to detransition during treatment.

“16 young trans people have killed themselves in less than three years as a direct result of their route to transitioning being removed”

The impact is already being felt. Barrister Jolyon Maugham, from the Good Law Project, has revealed that since the NHS turned off the puberty blocker tap for trans people following the Bell v Tavistock (2020) case [PDF], which restricted gender-affirming health for people under 16, 16 young trans people have killed themselves in less than three years as a direct result of their route to transitioning being removed. Another seven are currently known to be on suicide watch (based on information from trans parent groups that the trans org Translucent have been liaising with). Prior to 2020, there had been one suicide in seven years.

Given that Labour are just beginning their five-year term, and Wes Streeting has dug his heels in, this rate of attrition will inevitably lead to even further deaths. Even in the last few years with the taps turned off, trans people have been able to get puberty blockers. Sympathetic GPs or private providers have found ways. But what Wes proposes stops the flow completely. It becomes illegal.

“Trans people, trans organisations and gender specialists were banned from being part of the Cass Advisory Group”

All this because of a report – the Cass review – which was surely biased by the presence of gender critical figures in key positions within the NHS and the world of Equalities. To force through changes against “incredible opposition”. 

Trans people, trans organisations and gender specialists were banned from being part of the Cass Advisory Group – the cohort that would ultimately decide the fate of trans healthcare in the UK. 

Can you imagine a review of gay, Black or disabled healthcare where the NHS did not speak to anyone from those demographics? Impossible. But that’s what has happened to the trans population. 

It’s a medical scandal on a par with anything that has happened before. But because trans people are effectively banned in mainstream media, and the only narrative comes from gender criticals, none of this is being talked about – except in the LGBTQ+ press.

“The Cass review is the bible that Streeting has now adopted”

The Cass review is the bible that Streeting has now adopted. Perhaps he feels he’s saving souls. That being trans can also be cured by willpower. Or finding a hobby. Or buckling down and being the person everyone else expects you to be. 

Cass is going to be Wes Streeting’s equivalent of the Horizon system – the infallible computer introduced at the Post Office under Paula Vennells. Streeting will insist that it’s the trans families and patients complaining who are wrong: Cass doesn’t make mistakes. The inconvenient stats will rise but will be buried. Along with trans people who have lost hope. 

And at the end, after countless lives have been ruined due to a wicked experiment to reduce transition rates, the truth will out.  

Trans people will still exist, but they’ll be scarred. 

The same media who have been complicit in championing this ban will suddenly do a reverse ferret. They will ask “How could this possibly happen?” “Why did nobody listen to the people concerned?” There’ll probably be an ITV drama called Cass, with Sheridan Smith playing a grieving mum or grandma. But that won’t be for a generation.

“I know personally what it’s like to feel the despair of being trapped in a body where you don’t belong”

None of this affects me, but it breaks my heart. I was one of the lucky trans people who was saved by the NHS’s gender-affirming care in 2015 – just a few years before the window started to close. I know personally what it’s like to feel the despair of being trapped in a body where you don’t belong, with seemingly no way out. 

I tried to kill myself. Luckily, I failed. And once I transitioned, I was so glad my bid to end it all hadn’t worked, because my life lit up. Even with the daily abuse I now get, I wouldn’t go back to living a lie. As all LGBTQ+ people know, being your true self is the most important thing in the world.

“Labour’s relationship with the LGBTQ+ community now lies in tatters”

Labour’s relationship with the LGBTQ+ community now lies in tatters, and I’m not sure they can ever get it back. I was at the PEUGEOT Attitude Pride Awards last month, and the anger in the room from every speaker at what the Tories have done and Labour are now continuing was unanimous. The LGBTQ+ family is united on this. 

Instead of trying to rebuild that relationship, Labour have decided to side with evil – even if they don’t know it yet. Nothing will ever placate the gender criticals, short of trans people being wiped out. 

The worst nightmare for the gender criticals is trans women who don’t stand out. That’s why they want puberty blockers banned. They need trans women to grow tall, broad and hairy, with square jaws so they can be made fun of and demonised. 

Labour should be meeting the many trans people and trans families whose lives have been decimated over the past five years. Instead, they grant an audience to Rowling. 

Priorities.

“We are finished, if I’m being honest”

The well-connected attempts to erase trans rights by gender criticals and the religious right are going to continue and become more extreme.  

Donald Trump has already said he plans to criminalise simply being trans in the United States, making it the equivalent of sexually deviancy. He’s vowed to remove all trans rights from US legislation and to jail any doctor who helps trans people transition. 

Up until now, trans people have been the target. And sadly – due to no one coming to our aid – I think the right have succeeded. We are finished, if I’m being honest.  

But make no mistake, they will be coming for the gays next. It’s already bled into drag queens. Next will be surrogacy, and then gay marriage. 

The fact that some stupid people from the gay and lesbian communities have been supporting this – including Wes Streeting – is unbelievable.

“If Labour won’t protect us now, with more than 400 MPs, then we’re screwed”

If Labour won’t protect us now, with more than 400 MPs, then we’re screwed. Because make no mistake, the next time the Conservatives or Farage gets in, they will finish the job. 

We are now at the stage where trans families are fleeing Britain to travel to different territories, just to get autonomy over their own bodies. Much in the same way women are running from Republican states in the US, where abortion rights have been torched. 

If someone had said five years ago this would be happening, we would have laughed at them. Yet, here we are. What a thing for a Labour government to be presiding over. 

The Cass time-bomb is ticking – and I honestly don’t see how it can be stopped.