Trans Exile Network and other organisations issue urgent travel advisory over UK civil rights crisis

This Press release is issued on behalf of the Trans Exile Network.

Today the Trans Exile Network, which is a mutual self-help group for the many people who have left or who are leaving the UK following the UK’s anti-trans laws coming into force, joins with TACC (Trans Advocacy and Complaints Collective), Compton’s Café CIC and Transpilot Ltd in issuing an urgent travel advisory which will be sent to all known EU and other global organisations which advise LGBTQ+ people or publish travel guides which include safety guidance for LGBTQ+ people, and numerous other significant global bodies and rights organisations.

Speaking from Ireland where she lives in exile Dr Victoria McCloud said:

“It is a sad state of affairs when independent organisations protecting and serving the civil freedoms of the trans and intersex communities, and other people including non-trans women and men affected by the UK’s anti-trans laws, feel they have to issue a warning to visitors for their own safety. This guidance gets the message out globally: the UK is now a hostile environment for anyone who is, or appears to be not of a conventional gender appearance, and especially trans people and non-feminine presenting women. In this guidance we make the following key points which are the tip of the iceberg. The message is: stay safe, stay away.”

Key points:

A legal change of sex/gender is no longer recognised as valid in the UK.
Any sexual contact between a trans person and a non-trans person can be regarded as a sexual assault or rape, due to a lack of consent, unless the trans person discloses that they are trans first.
It is official State guidance that if a trans person uses a facility for the sex they identify as, the business is likely to be committing discrimination against non-trans people and guidance stresses that this may be harassment of the non-trans person; this can be a crime as well as a civil wrong.
Trans women are being moved from female prisons to male ones, irrespective of whether they have had surgery, or other factors.
The Government has advised that signs be put up on doors, informing people of the restrictions on sex-specific spaces (in effect ‘no trans’ warnings).
The Government has advised that people may be questioned about their presence if they are believed to be ‘transgender’ based on their physical appearance. There are no documents in the UK which are regarded as proof of sex.
The UK police have introduced a policy that searches of trans people must be done by an officer of the same birth sex. For example a post-operative trans woman may be searched by a man.
In an emergency or for routine treatment on the National Health Service trans people must not be placed in single sex wards other than their birth sex (eg a post operative trans woman must be on a male ward).
Trans women no longer have the right to equal pay with men and correspondingly trans men no longer have a right to equal pay with women.
For visitors entering the UK for sports, association or club activity, whether amateur or professional there is a risk of issues over venues and competitions being obliged to exclude trans competitors or treat them in a way different from their home countries.

Download the full press release here