Trans people feel increasingly unsafe in the UK, research reveals

LGBTQ+ people feel increasingly unsafe in the UK, according to a report from trans-inclusive underwear brand Zoah.

The study showed that 72 per cent of transgender and non-binary people do not feel safe because of their gender identity.

The survey, which included the views of almost 400 transgender men, trans women and non-binary individuals, also found that students and young people were less than half as likely to feel safe and confident going to school or college than their cisgender peers.

Published on Tuesday (19 November), the new research showed that 49 per cent of trans and non-binary people felt their lives had been negatively affected. Issues raised ranged from healthcare to finding work.

The statistics, while shocking, are hardly surprising given the rise in transphobic rhetoric within politics and the media.

Following the release of the annual hate crime statistics by the UK Home Office in 2023, officials admitted that the sharp rise in hate crimes against trans people over the past five years has been influenced by trans people being “heavily discussed by politicians, the media, and on social media.”

Several nonprofits and activists have also argued that recommendations in the controversial Cass Review – a report into trans healthcare for under-18s in England and Wales – could also further restrict trans healthcare.

An open letter signed by hundreds of experts in October expressed a “deep lack of confidence” in the review, which it said had failed to consider trans people.

“Trustworthy government review of the evidence base for a particularly controversial policy, especially in the medical field, do not look like the Cass Review,” the letter read. They do not exclude members of the patient cohort and those with long-term experience in the field from being part of their team or consider professional or lived experience ‘bias’.”

Those fears have only been compounded by the recent appointment of Wes Streeting as Health secretary considering the Labour MP’s track record on trans rights.

Streeting, who once said he believes that trans women are not women, has been accused of throwing trans people under the bus in an attempt to cater to anti-trans groups.

The health secretary has also, on a number of occasions, extended a ban on puberty blockers in England and Wales and intends to make the ban permanent.

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