Suzy Eddie Izzard says women’s and trans right ‘shouldn’t be fought against each other’
"That’s a right-wing ideology and they’re trying to set people against people, that’s just not good"
Suzy Eddie Izzard has warned that women’s and transgender rights should not be “fought against each other” and must exist together.
Izzard, who is gender fluid and goes by she/her pronouns, explained in a recent interview how they can often be pitted by gender critics as being things that cannot co-exist.
“Before marriage equality happened, there was a lot of anti-gay and lesbian ideas of couples being together [and people saying] ‘surely that’s a bad thing’,” she told Yahoo UK.
Izzard continued: “Then we went through marriage equality… and people realised ‘Oh, it’s about love’, and all those arguments have sort of drifted away.
“That’s a right-wing ideology and they’re trying to set people against people, that’s just not good” – Suzy Eddie Izzard
“Some transphobic people [are] out there and they’re gonna get very loud right at this moment, and then that time will pass and we will go through that and we will go to a place where it’s live and let live, and [we] just say ‘people exist’.”
She went on to note that “they shouldn’t be fought against each other,” and added: “That’s a right-wing ideology and they’re trying to set people against people, that’s just not good.”
It comes after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said earlier this month that people “can’t be any sex they want to be” in a new swipe at the trans community.
In his close speech at Tory Party Conference, he stated: “We shouldn’t get bullied into believing people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t.”
“A man, is a man, and a woman, is a woman, that is just common sense,” he added.
Elsewhere, Health Secretary Steve Barclay recently outlined plans to ban trans women from accessing female NHS wards.
This has since been backed by other senior Tories such as Home Secretary Suella Braverman.
Earlier this year, Izzard revealed she will be standing in Brighton Pavilion in the 2024 general election in a bid to become a Labour MP.
“Some transphobic people [are] out there and they’re gonna get very loud right at this moment”
However, it will be a tough battle to take the seat from its current Green Party stronghold. She will have to overturn the Green Party’s 19,940 majority.
Caroline Lucas – who is stepping down – has been the seat’s MP since 2010, with former co-leader Sian Berry set to run in her place.
Earlier this year, the 61-year-old said she would be using the name Suzy in addition to Eddie moving forward.
She said: “There’s another name I’m going to add in as well, which is Suzy, which I wanted to be since I was 10.
“So I’m going to be Suzy Eddie Izzard, that’s how I’m going to roll, so people can choose what they want. They can’t make a mistake, they can’t go wrong.”
In 2020, she publicly announced she would be using the pronouns she and her.