Liebe Genoss:innen,
I’m speaking to you today about a crisis that’s unfolding in the UK. One that threatens and has taken the basic rights and safety of thousands of trans people.
Trans rights are under attack. A recent Supreme Court ruling has stripped away the ability of trans people to be legally recognized in their true gender. The so-called Equality and Human Rights Commission a body established to, “safeguard everyone’s right to fairness, dignity and respect’ has issued guidance mandating that trans people be barred from single-gender facilities that match their identity. Police forces nationally are now only conducting strip searches on trans people with officers that match their birth sex.
This is not dignity. This is not fairness. This is state violence.
And it doesn’t stop there. In the UK, transfeminine people sentenced to imprisonment, regardless of the status of their medical transition or legal documents are automatically sent to men’s prisons. Do you understand what that means? If I, as a trans woman, used a public women’s bathroom against a manager’s wishes, I could be arrested for aggravated trespass. I could be forcibly strip-searched by a male officer. I could be locked in a prison with men, exposed to sexual violence, endless isolation, or worse.
This isn’t just institutional cruelty. This is institutional madness.
Not long ago, the UK was a global leader in LGBTQ+ rights. In 2015, we ranked first in Europe for equality, with an 86% rating by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. Today, we’ve dropped to 22nd at 45%. Why? Because of our treatment of trans people and queer refugees. Because in 2025, the UK still does not recognize non-binary identities.
Access to basic gender affirming healthcare is in shambles. Thanks to internationally funded gender-critical feminists and cowardly centre-left Labour politicians, even the most basic support is being denied and delayed. The 2020 Cass Review, led by a paediatrician with no experience in trans healthcare OR endocrinology, resulted in an indefinite ban on puberty blockers for minors. For many young people, the only state-sanctioned “option” now is ‘exploratory’ or conversion therapy.
In Exeter, the wait time for a first appointment at a Gender Identity Clinic is over EIGHT years. That’s eight years of suffering. Eight years of living in a body that often can’t even begin to feel like our own. Most of us can’t wait that long, so we turn to the internet for hormones shipped from other countries – often unsafe, unregulated, and dangerous. And when we finally get an appointment to be diagnosed, often after a decade, we are interrogated about our sex lives, judged on whether we dress femininely or masculinely enough, questioned on our masturbation and promiscuity, and expected to meet their expectations of what a man or a woman should be.
Germany is a better place to live for trans people right now – but we must stand guard. On May 6, 1933, just months after Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft – then a trailblazer in sexology and transgender healthcare – was raided and its contents burned.
We are told from when we are young, that we should never forget the horrors of right-wing extremism in Europe. Yet, In the last election, the AfD, who the BfV had called ‘Right-Wing Extremist’, came second nationally, and in Saxony, they won, with nearly 40% of the vote.
In 2023 there was an increase of 50% of LGBT related hate crimes registered by the Bundeskriminalamt for a total of 1785. I do not know what the statistics will be this year, but I will be a part of them. A few weeks ago, I was harassed and spat on by a group of grown men in Alaunpark—for taking a walk. Teenagers threw glass bottles at me in Mitte for wearing a dress. I’ve had children scream “transgender!” at me while throwing eggs at a tram stop.
This is what transphobia looks like: meaningless, cowardly violence. Violence in our laws, in our institutions, in our streets – and in our silence.
And yet – despite it all – my community continues to rise. In the UK, my siblings protest with red-dyed hands to symbolize blood, with black tape over their mouths. They lock arms. They expose their breasts. They resist.
They show me what courage looks like.
I am afraid. I won’t lie to you. I am afraid things may get worse before they get better. But I also know this: we are not alone. When we stand together – trans, cis, lesbians, bisexuals, loved ones – we are powerful. We are resilient. We are the living proof that the future can be better.
So I ask of you: do not look away. Do not become numb. Do not let the slow creep of hatred become your new normal.
Stand on guard. Always be Ready. And when the time comes, FIGHT BACK!