In an uncommon W for the U.K. Parliament on Thursday, members of the House of Commons called for LGBTQ+ equality and denounced anti-transgender “hysteria” from government officials and media outlets.
A group of MPs — the abbreviation for members of Parliament — from the Labour and Conservative parties used their debate time on February 2 to mark the beginning of LGBTQ+ History Month in the U.K., and express support for trans people specifically. Dame Angela Eagle, the second out lesbian MP in U.K. history, decried what she called “the disgraceful targeting and problematizing of transgender people” which she said would inevitably lead to the erosion of all women’s rights.
But the most emotional words of the day came from Nadia Whittome, part of the Labour Party’s Socialist Campaign Group and a self-described queer woman. In her remarks, Whittome compared the current wave of anti-trans sentiment to the infamous Section 28, which from 1988 to 2003 forbade any mention of LGBTQ+ identities or history in U.K. schools.
“It’s thanks to years of tireless struggle, including by people in this room, that people of my generation could grow up without [Section 28],” Whittome said, appearing to hold back tears. Today, she continued, there is another generation of LGBTQ+ children growing up in what the MP called a “dangerous climate of hostility,” specifically calling out that trans children hear their existence as up for debate daily. “Some of the tropes against trans people today sound awfully familiar, like attacks used against gay people in the 1980s,” Whittome said. And it’s opening the door to wider homophobia, too.”
