Andy Burnham publicly opposed the Supreme Court judgement on trans people and criticised the guidance issued by the Equality and Human Rights Commission that resulted from it. A judgement which was the bane of woke campaigners everywhere…
The Supreme Court ruled that “sex” in the Equality Act means biological sex, meaning a trans woman is legally a man and a trans man legally a woman for the purposes of the Act, regardless of whether they hold a Gender Recognition Certificate. The EHRC’s interim guidance directed that single-sex facilities must be restricted by biological sex, while stating trans people should not be left with no facilities. Burnham told LBC:
“I think it has become more confusing in the real world as a as a result. There’s a difference between those those two things and the interim guidance that was issued, I don’t think has has taken us forward at all. I think people need to take a breath here, not jump to any conclusions about it. We need a new sense of consensus about this. One thing that was very clear in the ruling was that both women and trans women, trans men are protected from discrimination in the law and that was made extremely clear and I think everyone needs to to work from that and and see how that principle can be can can be enacted.”
Some co-conspirators may remember that in 2019, Burnham penned a letter to the Conservative government along with mayors Sadiq Khan, Dan Jarvis, and Steve Rotherham calling for gender self-identification to become law as a means to “transform the lives of trans people.” Burnham said:
“Gender Recognition Act reform is a key step in addressing the marginalisation of trans and non-binary communities, by allowing them to more easily gain legal recognition of their gender identity…
The government has made commitments to ‘streamline and demedicalise’ the gender recognition process, a promise that was welcomed by trans and non-binary people across the country. We hope to see this reflected in the new legislation…
It is time listen to the voices of our trans and non-binary communities, and proceed with reforming this legislation to ensure that it benefits the communities it was intended to support… We welcome moves from organisations like LGBT Foundation and others who have been working hard for a number of years to ensure that reform of the GRA remains a top priority.”
He later reiterated this in a statement: “the Mayor continues to support the changes proposed to GRA as set out in his letter to the Secretary of State.” Overall, Burnham’s Manchester authority has spent £179,827 on DEI initiatives and funded the LGBT Foundation to the tune of £112,000 to deliver “non-binary inclusion” training and equality programmes. Is Burnham’s Makerfield campaign For Us or For They-Them?
Paula Barker, Liverpool Wavertree MP backing Andy Burnham, told Times Radio there wouldn’t be trouble from the markets under Burnham:
“The markets will have to fall in line.”