Gender Self-identification

Siân Berry Excerpts

Monday 19th May 2025 Westminster Hall

[Siân Berry (Brighton Pavilion) (Green)]

It is a pleasure to take part in this debate under your wing, Mr Mundell. I too thank John Baic for launching this petition and congratulate him on getting enough signatures to secure this debate.

I associate myself with the compassionate, thoughtful, rigorous, clear and helpful contributions that many hon. Members have made so far. I know that the Minister is here in Westminster Hall to listen to this debate, but I hope that the Government more widely are also listening hard to it, because it shows that we can have a practical debate with compassion and inclusion at its heart.

I see many colleagues here today from constituencies whose citizens have signed this petition in large numbers, but it will probably be of no surprise to other hon. Members that my Brighton Pavilion constituency has by far the largest number of signatories; indeed, when I last checked, it had almost twice the number of signatories of any other constituency. In fact, every petition related to trans rights that I could find on the parliamentary website demonstrates just how trans-inclusive Brighton Pavilion’s residents really are and how much they care to keep things that way. Trans inclusion runs through Brighton like the letters through its famous rock. I am immensely proud to represent such a famously compassionate city and constituency.

However, agreeing with this petition is not just a Brighton thing. The policy of the Green party, voted on by our members, is to allow transgender people to self-declare their gender without facing barriers to securing their rights. It is also formal Green party policy to recognise non-binary and intersex people on legal documents, something countries such as Iceland, Germany and Malta already do.

Of course, as others have already reminded us, the context for this debate is a highly worrying and uncertain time for trans people and their rights in the UK. Daily lives are being conducted in the shadow of the Supreme Court’s ruling on sex and gender in the Equality Act 2010. In what ways guidance for institutions and businesses will be changed permanently, and how that ruling’s decision on one act affects the whole basis of the Gender Recognition Act 2004, is still under debate and facing legal challenge. Meanwhile, my inbox is full of words such as “shock”, “disbelief” and “fear”, used by Brightonians worried about what the future may hold for themselves and the people they love.

As always, however, my brilliant constituents are coming together in solidarity. As their MP I tabled an early-day motion last week that was co-written with a trans woman in my constituency. So much of this debate happens without trans voices playing the part they should, and I am grateful to every Member who has brought a trans voice into this Chamber today. Our EDM is a simple call for solidarity and respect, recognising that

“transgender transition liberates trans people to be their true selves”,

and I believe that every hon. Member in this House can and should sign up to it.

Ahead of this debate, my constituent Abigail, who volunteered on the doorstep during my campaign last year, wrote to me telling me more about what this issue means to her. She said that

“I transitioned in April 2002. Before then, I drifted through life wanting to die, sometimes suicidal. Now, I know who I am and what I want.

Before, life was black and white, and it changed to full colour. Everyone has heard of ‘gender dysphoria’, the pain of pretending to be who one is not, trying to be ‘masculine’ and feeling wholly inadequate, but on transition we feel trans joy, the liberation of being who we really are. It is a gift to society: there are people, being truly ourselves. Many people do not manage that.

Before, I could not form relationships because I could not reveal who I am. Now, I have close friends and a loving partner.

I am a woman. I cannot explain that, it is simply true.”

Let us bear Abigail’s words in mind and try to build back to a consensus on these issues. The fact that trans people are real and have rights, including the right to have their gender legally recognised in a fair process, was something that Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May acknowledged in 2017 and brought forward for consultation. The fact is that the current process of obtaining a gender recognition certificate remains protracted, complex and very unnecessarily intrusive. The question asked then was how to change the process to make it better, not whether to change it. The plans were officially dropped in 2020—by Liz Truss, I understand, during Boris Johnson’s Government—and no Equalities Minister has yet officially gone back on that decision and relaunched the reform.

I hope that this Government will reconsider. That is the question I ask the Minister today. Even though the benefits of people having their true gender legally recognised are now in question, we can continue those arguments. Reforming the process is still sorely needed, so I ask the Government, “Please support my constituents, the petition and trans people across the country today, and get the reform moving again.”