Anti-trans (bio)politics in the UK

In 2017, the UK Government announced its intention to reform the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) to make it easier for transgender people to change their legal gender. This precipitated a ‘toxic’ public debate that has now spanned several years. This period saw existing anti-trans sentiment within some sections of UK feminism coalesce into a highly organised ‘gender critical’ movement, initially driven by resistance to GRA reform but now extending well beyond this to oppose progress towards trans liberation across many different fronts (and in some cases, to actively lobby against existing trans rights). Concerningly, this movement appears to have accrued substantial influence over UK Government policy-making. After delaying its response to the GRA consultation several times, the Government eventually announced in September 2020 that it would introduce only marginal reforms to the gender recognition process (having initially leaked in the summer of 2020 that it was considering introducing new restrictions on trans lives and healthcare). Subsequently, the Department for Education released new guidance for schools that appeared to proscribe the use of classroom materials produced by trans advocacy groups. ‘Gender critical’ claims now appear to have purchase across multiple areas of policy, and reports have emerged of senior personnel within the Government Equalities Office making anti-trans comments. This paper will present the findings of a research project surveying lobbying and policy networks in this area, with the aim of understanding the events and influences that have led to this point. The paper has two aims. First, it examines the ‘gender critical’ movement’s orientation towards governance and power. Much has already been written about the movement’s ideology. The contribution of this paper, however, is to identify the movement as a biopolitical movement; that is, a movement invested in the surveillance and management of trans lives and bodies, which it views as threatening to destabilise a feminist biopolitical project. Second, the paper documents how these ideas and claims about trans rights and identities have moved into political arenas, influencing policy governing trans lives.