TL;DR: Just days after the UK parliament instituted a ban on Trans+ people using bathrooms that didn't match their sex assigned at birth, nearly a thousand people from all over the country queued for hours for a chance to meet MPs and warn them of the dire consequences segregating Trans+ people will have.
Nearly a thousand Trans+ people and allies queued in the summer heat to call on politicians to act urgently to stop so-called 'bathroom ban’ proposals, which have already begun to segregate Trans+ people into third spaces or functionally ban them from public services.
Organisers of the mass lobby day say 900 people attended to meet with MPs in parliament’s Westminster Hall on June 25. People queued for up to three hours for an almost unprecedented event, only paralleled in size by an action of its kind against Section 28 in the late 1980s.
Jess O'Thomson, legal expert and spokesperson for the Trans+ Solidarity Alliance which organised the event, told QueerAF about the atmosphere of camaraderie at the event. "The parallels with that anti-gay moral panic and the legislation that followed are huge, and we now look back on that with shame. This is no different."
Activists travelled from as far as Scotland and Cornwall to meet MPs and share their views on the EHRC’s proposals, which, after they resolve statutory equalities guidance open for consultation until the end of June, will then lie with politicians to implement.
"We think the most powerful thing was MPs having to look their trans constituents in the eye, and hear about the real human impact this guidance is likely to have. We make up a tiny percentage of the population, and so some MPs may have never knowingly spoken to a trans constituent before."
Thomson said they'd seen several politicians and constituents posting reflections and photos of their meetings on social media that showed many "were really meaningful and positive".
Parliament instituted a bathroom ban just days before
In the days leading up to the lobby, parliament updated its guidance on which toilets Trans+ people could use. The page, updated at the start of the week the lobby was taking place, now reads:
"Members of the public should use facilities that correspond to their biological sex or the gender-neutral toilets."
Speaking to activists planning to attend the event, it’s clear that the move shook the community.
Grey Collier, a former EHRC Legal Director who attended the lobby day, said the EHRC's guidance that led to the change by parliament was a "cynical attempt to undermine the will of parliament," adding that "The intent of parliament in framing the Equality Act 2010 and its original code of practice was clear: to protect people from discrimination, including trans people. It is completely contrary to the intent and ethos of the Act to use it to bring statutory guidance that enforces discrimination and exclusion."
Analysis: Hate may have changed the policy, but hope will define its legacy
It's not a coincidence a bathroom ban of this kind was instituted just days ahead of nearly a thousand Trans+ people attending the building. Indeed, it comes after a number of instances of Trans+ people facing harrassment in parliamentary bathrooms that have put this into the spotlight.
There have now been a number of occasions Trans+ people attending parliament have been accosted by anti-trans activists for using the bathroom, or mainstream media turning Trans+ people's use of the bathrooms in parliament into a news story.
In that context, it speaks volumes that hundreds of Trans+ people attended the seat of government to have their voice heard, bolstered by celebrities like Kate Nash and Abigail Thorn, and MPs including Sian Berry and Olivia Blake.
I often write about the power of meeting and knowing Trans and queer people. And for MPs, for whom Trans+ people make up a tiny percentage of their constituents, meeting a trans person, looking them in the eye, and understanding the pain transphobic decisions create in their lives will be powerful.
That's why this lobby day will be looked back on as a critical piece of work from a grassroots Trans+ organisation that pulled off something no queer sector organisation has done for decades.
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