Mayor of London Sadiq Khan makes emphatic statement about transgender rights that’s impossible to argue with
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan waves during Pride in London 2019. (Mike Marsland/WireImage for Pride in London)
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has delivered a firm statement in support of trans equality.
The Labour politician made his stance clear after media attacks on the party’s leadership candidates over their firm support for trans equality.
Khan tweeted: “Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Non-binary people are non-binary. All gender identities are valid.”
Sadiq Khan praised for showing London how to be a trans ally.
The firm stance – which comes after anti-transgender Labour members dared the party to expel them for their views – was praised by LGBT+ activists.
Trans women are women.
Trans men are men.
Non-binary people are non-binary.
All gender identities are valid.
#LGBTHistoryMonth
— Mayor of London (@MayorofLondon) February 16, 2020
TELI, the Trans Equality Legal Initiative, wrote: “Thank you for your support it means a lot to the trans and non binary community at a time when we face so much hate.
“Knowing you would get abuse for this you still did it. What being an ally is about. We wish others were as strongly out spoken hopefully this will inspire them.”
Guardian columnist Owen Jones wrote: “We have a Muslim mayor of one of the most important cities on earth who unapologetically supports LGBTQ rights.
“It is a massive ‘f**k you’ to the worst bigots and extremists and we should be incredibly proud of it.”
Some of the Twitter reaction was depressingly predictable.
Of course, the message wound up all the most predictable people.
London Assembly Member David Kurten, formerly of UKIP, fumed: “London Mayor @sadiqkhan is wrong again, this time on basic Biology.
“There are two sexes – male and female – determined by anatomy and chromosomes.”
It’s unclear why Kurten feels he is qualified to give lectures about medical consensus, given he has previously made the baseless claim that homosexuality is the product of childhood sexual abuse.
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan on stage during Pride in London 2019 (Mike Marsland/WireImage for Pride in London)
Ex-UKIP leader Gerard Batten, self-identified male ‘gender critical’ activist Debbie Hayton, and perpetual disgrace machine George Galloway were also among those voicing their objections to Khan on Twitter – but given at least one of them has previously attacked gender-neutral sausage rolls, we’re not sure their views on anything are particularly worthy of repeating.
Labour women back trans rights.
So far, all of the women running in Labour’s leadership and deputy leadership races have signed pledges on trans equality from the Labour Campaign for Trans Rights, which was set up to campaign against transphobia within the party.
Candidates for leader Lisa Nandy and Rebecca Long-Bailey have signed the pledges, alongside deputy leader candidates Angela Rayner, Dawn Butler and Dr Rosena Allin-Khan.
Leadership frontrunner Sir Keir Starmer is yet to do so – as are deputy leadership candidates Ian Murray and Richard Burgon.
Sir Keir has signed up to a rival list of pledges drawn up by LGBT+ Labour, the party’s official LGBT+ affiliate, two days after the launch of the Labour Campaign for Trans Rights.
He wrote: “These pledges and @LGBTLabour have my full support. I stand in full solidarity with our LGBT+ members and the wider community, will defend LGBT+ rights and protections, and campaign with you for the changes rightly prioritised here. Look forward to the hustings!”
