Conference is soon, deadlines imminent. Submit “Trans rights now!”, join us in Liverpool, and more!
Labour Party conference is coming up, and the deadline for submission of conference motions is looming even closer! We're organising to make Labour resolutely champion trans rights, and to get the below motion passed at conference. Please submit it to your Constituency Labour Party (CLP) and join us at or outside conference to campaign for it there. More info on all this below.
Trans rights now!
Conference notes:
Labour’s 2024 manifesto promised to “remove indignities for trans people”.
Hate crimes against trans people have risen by 186% in the last 5 years, according to ONS.
Average waiting times to access healthcare at NHS gender identity clinics at least doubled between 2018 and 2023.
The UK’s system of gender recognition is difficult and degrading to navigate, with a European Commission study of 2020 finding that the UK is the second most difficult country in Europe for trans people to legally transition.
On 12 July 2024 Health Secretary Wes Streeting declared the Tory ban on puberty blockers would be permanent.
Conference resolves
To condemn the growth of divisive and demonising rhetoric about trans people in society
To affirm that trans women are women, and trans men are men.
To call on our new Labour cabinet to commit to reducing waiting lists to access gender identity clinics to the NHS 18 week target.
To call on our Labour cabinet to ban all forms of conversion therapy including a ban on this practice being carried out against transgender youth.
To adopt a definition of transphobia based on the definition advocated for by TransActual and Labour for Trans Rights which is already used in transphobia training for CLPs.
To end the blanket ban on puberty blockers for trans youth, allowing for evidence-based case-by-case decisions by medical professionals.
(237 words)
Motion criteria
Conference motions must be submitted by CLPs by 12 September. If your CLP is meeting between now and then, it will probably be days or more earlier, plus there may be a deadline for you to submit it to your CLP — so start trying to submit it now!
Motions must be less than 250 words, must refer to something since 5th of July, and other criteria outlined here. If you, or anyone in your meeting, wants to amend the above motion, please make sure it sticks to the same criteria.
Submitting a motion
Find your constituency here. For every constituency, there is a CLP. Find out when the next meeting is, and who your CLP secretary is, and email them with a copy of the above motion, to submit to conference. You’ll need someone, a member of the same CLP, to “second” the motion. If you can’t get anyone in advance of the meeting, someone there may agree to second it (i.e. state they also support it), on the day of the meeting. You’ll then need to attend the meeting and make the case for the motion.
Some CLPs require that motions and decisions are made by the Labour Party branches within it, with delegates sent from them to the CLP. If that is the case, find out your ward, find your branch’s next meeting and branch secretary, and submit it there instead.
If you’re too late to submit it as a motion to conference, it is still worth trying to get your CLP or branch to pass it as a CLP/branch motion. Or Labour for Trans Rights’ CLP motion on puberty blockers. (That isn’t eligible as a conference motion, but can be passed locally.)
Unsure about any of this? Get in touch!
After submitting…
Please let us know if it gets passed! And check that your CLP secretary sends it in before the deadline.
Come to conference
CLPs submitting the motion is just the first step. Conference delegates need to prioritise the subject area, and then vote for the motion. We’ll be organising outside as well as inside the conference to make that happen. We’re also supporting L4TR's protest outside conference and planning to organise a fringe meeting on the same issues. If you can come to Liverpool for all or any of the conference Sunday 22 September to Wednesday 25 September to help with this, please do and contact us to co-ordinate in advance! If you can’t come, but would like to help us, please donate towards the cost of leaflets etc.
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