blog > getting into arguments

22nd April
from: me
subject: Herne Hill byelection

Dear Cllr Browne,

I live in Herne Hill and recently had a leaflet through my door from your colleague Stephen Clark, asking for my support at the upcoming by election. Apologies for getting in touch with you, but I couldn’t find his email.

I am considering my vote, and would appreciate you passing these questions on to Stephen -

- What is his reaction to the recent Supreme Court decision concerning trans people, as a former human rights lawyer?
- How would he advocate for the trans community in Herne Hill and Lambeth if he was elected councillor?

I look forward to his response.

Kind regards,

[REDACTED] Hemmings

27th April
from: me
subject: Herne Hill byelection

Dear Stephen,

I was lucky to catch up with your colleague Deepak on Shakespeare Road earlier, and discussed the recent Supreme Court ruling and my deep disappointment in the Labour leadership's failure to hold to its manifesto promise to ‘remove indignities for trans people who deserve recognition and acceptance’.

I appreciated his straightforwardness and honesty, but I was surprised to hear from him that this issue has not been discussed in the local party at all and that it hasn’t come up from constituents (despite me emailing your colleague Cllr Manley-Browne about it five days ago - below). This was especially surprising considering that, as Deepak made me aware, your colleague Isla Wrathmell is a trans woman (cc’d) - and that you were campaigning with LGBT Labour yesterday.

I am a long time former Labour voter and a very recently out trans woman (my decision to come out was partly prompted by the Supreme Court ruling itself). I feel deeply hurt and worried by the party’s enthusiastic acceptance of a ruling and guidance that will restrict my right to transition, and to exist in public at all.

I would appreciate reassurance from you that (if elected) you will oppose the leadership’s stance, and work to make sure that Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction, and Lambeth as a whole, remains a safe and welcoming place for trans people. Please see my specific questions below.

Kind regards,

Isobel Hemmings

27th April
from: Stephen Clark (Labour candidate)
subject: Herne Hill byelection

Dear Isobel,

Thank you for reaching out to me - but also for your courage in coming out given the current context. When I came out as bisexual to my friends and family, I was terrified - and that was without the pressure of the kind of discourse that surrounds trans women today.

I'm still in practice as a human rights lawyer, so I have read the Supreme Court judgment and been following some of the reaction while I've been out campaigning. I can sum up my position as follows:

1. Trans men and women have the right to live with equal status and dignity. As a Labour movement, we've stood for the advancement of LGBT+ rights for decades and we shouldn't resile from that now. I've always understood my own rights as being inextricably linked to those of my trans friends and colleagues.

2. Nothing in the Supreme Court judgment requires that trans people should be subject to blanket bans on accessing single sex spaces. It continues to be that a trans person should only be denied access to those spaces when it is a proportionate measure in pursuit of a legitimate aim. I haven't had chance to read the EHRC interim guidance over the weekend, but any new guidance must be developed with trans people and not imposed on them.

3. I'm proud to live in a community which is a safe and welcoming space for the LGBTQ+ community. As both a party member and a councillor, that is an absolute minimum for what we should be and I can promise you I will work to keep it that way. Lambeth supported the opening of the first LGBTQ+ affirmative retirement housing recently. I know that in the past the Lambeth Allies programme worked with Trans Matters to provide socials and space for trans people along their transition and to provide a safe space.

I'll try to get you more details on what we're currently doing, but given you'd tried to reach out before and the reaction to the Supreme Court ruling, I just wanted to respond and acknowledge your email and provide an immediate response.

Best wishes,

Stephen Clark

30th June
from: me
subject: Local impact of Supreme Court ruling on trans constituents

Dear Deepak,

I hope you’re well.

It was good to talk with you about the recent Supreme Court ruling on the rights of trans people to exist in public spaces, in the lead up to the Herne Hill and Loughborough Junction by election. I’ve attached the reassuring response I received from your candidate Stephen, for reference.

In the time since we spoke, the ruling has been widely condemned by progressive organisations:-

• Human Rights Watch branded the ruling ’severely regressive’.
• The British Medical Association passed a motion at their Resident Doctors Conference stating that the ruling was ’scientifically illiterate, made without consulting relevant experts and stakeholders, [and] will cause real-world harm to the trans, non-binary and intersex communities’.
• London Pride have banned your party from attending any pride events, in solidarity with the trans community.
• Major local government unions (Unison, Unite and GMB) have all raised ‘deep concerns’ about the ruling and it’s impact on their trans members.

Considering this, I was disgusted to see your leader’s comments today that he ‘accepted and welcomed the Supreme Court ruling’, encouraging public bodies to ‘get on with it’. These comments are being predictably reported by the right wing press as calls to ‘Ban trans women from female lavatories now’ (explicitly counter to the reassurance that your candidate gave me on blanket bans), without challenge from the national party.

As the PM is well aware, our political system is not American, and there is no requirement for the government to defer to the Supreme Court’s ruling. Despite your justice secretary saying it is ‘absolutely unacceptable’ to criticise the Supreme Court decision, the power to overrule the court by an act of parliament is unambiguously within his authority, should he wish to do so.

Raising this issue with you and your colleagues at election time, I was repeatedly told that this is a national issue, and not relevant to local politics. However, across Lambeth, 2,513 people (0.93%) reported a gender identity different from their sex registered at birth (census data). This ruling affects each and every one of us, at the local level as well as nationally. For example:-

• Transgender employees of Lambeth Council face a breach of their right to privacy, should they be required to disclose their gender identity, as well as restrictions on their ability to work should they be forbidden from using the facilities appropriate for their gender. (Your colleague in parliament Meg Hillier raised this scenario, giving an example of a constituent who is an employee of the ambulance service, who ‘has long lived as a woman, uses women’s changing rooms in her job, and now fears being forced to tell colleagues she is transgender’). Your majority on Lambeth Council has the final decision on corporate policies addressing these situations.
• 25% of transgender people have experienced homelessness (Crisis). Local details on our rates of homelessness are unavailable, as Lambeth Housing Services have consistently failed to gather this information (70% of prevention/relief duties were recorded as ‘other’) Your majority on Lambeth Council will have the final decision on interpreting and implementing this ruling into Lambeth Council’s corporate policies, which will directly affect the ability of transgender people experiencing homelessness to access their local homelessness pathway.
• Transgender people experience significant health disparities - for example, this literature review found that trans people engage in less than half the amount of physical activity than cis people, and identified exclusion and discrimination from sporting facilities as significant factors in this disparity. Your majority on Lambeth Council have the power to review and provide guidance on Active Lambeth sporting facilities, to reject segregation and exclusion of trans people and prevent these damaging health disparities.

I would welcome the opportunity to meet with you and discuss how Lambeth Labour can verbally and practically support Lambeth’s transgender community, and oppose this Government's scientifically illiterate and regressive attack on our rights.

I’ve copied in the other two councillors for Herne Hill & Loughborough Junction ward, for information.

Kind regards,

Isobel Hemmings

30th June
from: Cllr Sardiwal
subject: Happy Pride Month

Dear Isobel,

As Pride Month this year draws to a close, I wanted to reach out. We briefly met in April while I was speaking to residents on Shakespeare Road. You raised the Supreme Court judgement in relation to the Equality Act 2010, which has understandably caused anxiety for the trans and non-binary community.

I respect the dignity in everyone and want all local residents to feel safe and included and to be able to be who they are. This outlook is informed by my own lived experience of exclusion as the result of my protected characteristics. Lambeth does have a strong history of leading on representation and equality, including electing – as far as anyone has been able to establish – the country’s first trans councillor, Rachael Webb, in 1986.

You shared that you had recently come out as a trans woman. While I haven’t gone through a similar experience, I imagine it has been a big change for you over the past two months. I hope it has gone well.

You raised legitimate questions for elected members. It has given me food for fought in terms of how I can listen more to the experiences and concerns of the local trans community during these difficult times, including how local council policies can enhance transgender rights. This isn’t an issue that always comes up on the doorstep or my inbox as a backbench councillor, which of course isn’t to say it’s not important or local people don’t care.

If you were interested in getting more involved locally yourself, I understand one opportunity is through The Lambeth Together LGBTQ+ Subgroup within their EDI Group. There might also be an opportunity to share your lived experience through the council’s various committees. The council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee, for example, has raised the pressing need for robust statistics for LGBTQ+ hate crime during a committee meeting on public safety last year.

With kind regards,

Deepak