Health secretary and, as the late Dawn Foster referred to him, “right wing lickspittle cunt” Wes Streeting has launched a transphobic diatribe. His comments confirm, were it ever in doubt, that Labour are committed to eliminating trans people from public life.

Streeting spoke to Mumsnet founder, Justine Roberts, for an interview featuring questions from Mumsnet users. The site is renowned as a radicalised hotbed of vicious transphobia. As far back as 2018, the moderators of the site were forced to put tougher rules into place. At the time, Roberts said:

Mumsnet will always stand in solidarity with vulnerable or oppressed minorities. Mumsnet is also committed to freedom of speech. Sometimes these two issues come into conflict, rarely more so than in the recent debate about what is acceptable to say, or not to say, about trans people.

Roberts’ remarks show a fundamental misunderstanding of free speech. Transphobes and racists often clamour to claim that they’re being silenced – chance would be a fine thing. However, free speech doesn’t protect from discrimination against other people. And, seven years later, Mumsnet has remained steadfastly committed to being a place for transphobes to gather and spew their vitriol.

Doesn’t sound like much of a conflict.

Streeting lays out transphobic vision

Given the above, we won’t be linking to Mumsnet. Streeting spoke to Roberts to answer questions from users of the site. One question read:

It’s been five months since the Supreme Court ruled that sex in the Equality Act means biological sex. Why does the NHS still operate policies that state that male adults and children will be admitted to female wards, changing areas and toilets if those male people identify as trans, and she [the user] works in an NHS Trust where that’s still happening.

As of April 2024, changes to the NHS Constitution for England guidelines propose that:

transgender people, whose gender identity differs from their biological sex, may be provided single rooms, where appropriate

patients will have the right to request a person of the same biological sex delivers any intimate care

The caveats for this guidance are as they have always been for the NHS: single-sex spaces can be breached when “there is a clinically urgent need to admit and treat a patient.” The NHS is on its knees – already ravaged by privatisation, facing a hostile environment that puts passports before patients, rocketing waiting lists, and severely insufficient funding.

But trans people are the problem? Trans people, who make up 0.5% of the population in England and Wales?

Safe for who?

Undeterred by the fact that trans people are continually being scapegoated, and instead of refuting the question, Streeting replied:

So I don’t think it should be happening, and we’re still waiting for the EHRC guidance, but on single sex spaces, before we get to the gender identity issues, on single sex spaces, more generally, are seeing far too many breaches. I mean, Karin Smyth, the Minister for Secondary Care, is all over this, because even if put to one side the gender identity issues, there are far too many cases of men and women being on the same ward, and it’s not appropriate, dignified or safe. So we’ve got to deal with that.

That would be the same Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) guidance that is facing a legal challenge from the Good Law Project. Civil rights group Liberty have also launched a legal challenge against the guidance as they believe it does not “comply with the law.”

Streeting continued:

That is often about capacity constraints, resources. So I’ve got to be honest with people watching, it’s going to take time to eliminate that, but the objective is to eliminate it.

And there it is, confirmation that Streeting wishes to direct whatever little funding remains for the NHS towards demonising trans people and removing them from public life.

Outrageous remarks

Unfortunately, Streeting continued:

Then we get onto the gender identity issues. Now I think this is primarily an issue about women’s rights, voices and spaces, that’s where the real tension and conflict has arisen, and so we’ve got to make sure that the guidance has real world application. I don’t think anyone, for example, would think it desirable for a trans man, so someone who’s born female, but to all intents and purposes, you know, hairy arms, beard, voice, identity, then wanders into women’s toilets or goes to a women’s ward or another women’s space.

I think that would be undignified and unpleasant for everyone concerned, this is really about women’s rights, voices and spaces. That’s where I think we’ve got to try and find a way to make sure that trans women are a space that is dignified and safe and inclusive for them, that doesn’t impact on women’s sex based rights and spaces…

Where to begin? Perhaps with Streeting’s description of a trans man as “hairy arms, beard, voice, identity” who then enters women’s spaces. This is precisely why Liberty call the guidance “wholly insufficient” in its failure sufficiently account for differences across the gender spectrum.

The Mumsnet interviewer then intervenes to say:

That sounds like third spaces?

Streeting responds:

I think for trans women, yes, I think that is where we’re looking. And I know there will be lots of people, probably some Mumsnet users, and there’ll be lots of people in the LGBT community and allies who would say that that’s outrageous, I can’t believe you’re even saying that, and you’re a gay health secretary, how could you countenance this?

Well, yes. According to Streeting, trans women should be segregated into third spaces. The implications for this are cataclysmic: segregation is never something that can be countenanced. And, putting aside the legality of such a move, it’s a practical nightmare for existing businesses. How will Streeting magic into existence the physical space and the practical necessities for such a system to work? Perhaps his next venture will be to privatise coffee shops with shady American funders who can sell modified paracetamol in individual bathroom spaces.

But, honestly, fuck the practicalities. A Labour MP, the health secretary for the nation, has just proposed shoving trans people into “third spaces” in an attempt to cosy up to the users of a site known for venomous transphobia.

Allyship is not a given with transphobic Streeting

Streeting then makes it clear that despite being a gay man, that’s no reason to consider him someone who would respect trans people:

And I think the, you know, I understand obviously, you know, being a gay man the context of LGBT equality and the struggles that our community has been through. But I don’t think there’s been nearly enough dialogue, empathy and understanding for different perspectives. I think we’re getting to a better place as a country now, and if we can do that in a way that’s level headed, rational and considerate and compassionate, I think we’ll be in a better place and will arrive at common sense.

There’s certainly been more than enough dialogue which sets out how gender non-conforming people are increasingly second class citizens. And, there has been far too much empathy and understanding for transphobes who use women’s safety as an excuse to vilify trans people. Just as freedom of speech must have limits when it comes to discrimination, so must empathy and understanding come to a halt when we’re asked to deploy it in service of people who would much rather stamp trans people out of existence.

TransActual have already demonstrated through their comprehensive report that trans people are already being stigmatised, othered, and harassed when they move around public spaces. For Streeting to agree that a ‘third space’ is somehow a solution to the unholy mess unleashed by the EHRC is a disgrace. It’s wildly misguided, misinformed, and outright sickeningly dangerous for gender non-conforming people.

Featured image via YouTube screenshot/ITV News

By Maryam Jameela

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