Suzy Eddie Izzard blasts U.K. conservatives for manufacturing an anti-trans “culture war”

Author: John Russell

Suzy Eddie Izzard has accused UK conservatives of waging a politically motivated “culture war” against the country’s transgender community.

Izzard’s comments echo criticisms of recent anti-LGBTQ+ statements made by high-ranking members of the U.K. government.

Last week, following U.K. Health Secretary Steve Barclay’s announcement of a plan to ban transgender patients from single-sex wards at National Health Service (NHS) hospitals, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told the crowd at the U.K.’s Conservative Party Conference that they “shouldn’t get bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be. They can’t. A man is a man, and a woman is a woman, that’s just common sense.”

In an interview with Sky News, U.K. Home Secretary Suella Braverman agreed with Barclay’s proposal, saying that “Trans women have no place in women’s wards or, indeed, any safe space relating to biological women.” Braverman characterized the move as necessary to protect cisgender women’s “dignity, safety, and privacy.” However, a recent investigation by trans advocacy group Translucent looked at data from 102 NHS trusts across the U.K. and found zero complaints from cisgender women about trans women being cared for on the same hospital wards between April 2020 and June 2022.

Braverman also recently sparked outrage when she suggested that fearing persecution in their home countries due to being a woman or LGBTQ+ should not qualify refugees for asylum. Her comments drew a rebuke from the United Nations and sparked protests in London. A coalition of more than 200 human rights organizations led by U.K. LGBTQ+ nonprofit Stonewall sent a letter demanding that the government commit to protecting women and LGBTQ+ asylum seekers.

Critics, including out actor Ian McKellen, have suggested that Braverman’s comments were calculated to boost her credibility with conservative voters and her chances of succeeding Sunak should the Prime Minister lose the next general election.  

Actual Story on LGBTQ Nation
Author: John Russell