This week is Transgender Awareness Week – an annual week held between 13 and 19 November to increase understanding of transgender people and the issues their community faces.
This template Council Motion is adapted from a motion by Southwark Liberal Democrats. You can download their original motion here.
This template motion makes use of data from 2021 Census that breaks down the number of transgender people and LGB people in each local council area (please note these stats apply to England and Wales only).
This Council notes that:
- [AREA NAME] is the proud of home of a large, diverse and thriving LGBTQ+ community.
- Results of the 2021 Census show [AREA NAME] to have [XX,XXX] LGB+ people and the [XXXX] people identifying as trans or non-binary.
Council notes with concern:
- Hate crimes against trans people have increased by 186% in the past five years.
- The Home Office has stated that increased discussion of “transgender issues” could be behind the rise in anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes.
- The consistent attacks on the trans community by prominent members of the Conservative Government, Labour and Conservative MPs, and the media have created a regressive culture of fear for the trans community.
- The Labour Party’s decision to U-turn on their 2019 manifesto commitment to introduce self-ID is deeply distressing and worrying for people in the LGTBQ+ community and disappointing from a party that claims to stand for equality.
Council therefore resolves to:
- Call on national government to consider the de-medicalisation of the self-identification process for trans people.
- Produce and implement an LGBTQ+ Strategy in [AREA NAME] to address inequalities experienced by LGBTQ+ residents in the area.
- Ensure all staff and individuals dealing with the Council are offered the opportunity to be addressed using pronouns with which they are comfortable.
- Ensure comprehensive provision of publically accessible gender neutral toilets throughout [AREA NAME].
- Commit to continuing to give access to facilities such as changing rooms, homeless and domestic violence shelters to trans people based on their identified gender, subject to the same rules that govern any other service user.
- Assert, unequivocally, that trans men are men, trans women are women and non-binary genders are valid.