This week I wrote a letter to Wes Streeting to express my thoughts about the indefinite puberty blocker ban. It was mostly written out of emotion. I didn’t bother to recount the many scientific and medical arguments against his cruel decision. I simply wrote out my feelings to express my discontent.
This was part of an organised campaign to flood his email and phone line with objections to the ban. If you wish to contribute, use these three emails: dhsc.publicenquiries@dhsc.gov.uk, wes.streeting.mp@parliament.uk, wes@redbridgelabour.org.uk 😉 Here is the campaign link. Even though the day of action has passed, do it anyway.
I would also like to highlight a petition brought forward by Labour for Trans Rights, which we at WTT?! have signed.
If you choose to send your own email, you may also wish to title your email something not-immediately obvious, as we know that Labour uses email filters that pick up on certain words in the email’s title and shunts any emails using it into a separate folder.
Some parts of the letter have been redacted for publication.
Dear Wes Streeting,
Do you agree with the phrase “your body, my choice” that many right-wing men in America are currently hurling at women?
I would hope not.
So why are you saying exactly that with your actions to transgender young people?
I am a transgender adult living in the UK. I am writing to you in order to express my outrage at you indefinitely banning puberty blockers for transgender youth.
I have personally met the kids who have been leaving paper coffins at your constituency office. In fact, I helped decorate some of those coffins. Each one of them represents a trans death: whether it is one that has already happened or one to follow as a result of your actions.
I also know that you have met with trans kids directly and listened to their concerns. Then you banned their life-saving healthcare anyway. Shame on you. It is as cruel and heartless as it is unscientific, especially as cisgender children remain able to access the exact same treatment. Let’s call it what it is: hatred, bigotry, transphobia.
You have betrayed the LGBTQ+ community, and history will not remember you kindly. I hope you are aware that hundreds of people hate you from the bottom of their hearts for what you have done, and rightfully so. I will not mince my words: there is blood on your hands, Wes.
But there is still time to turn back. Reverse the ban now and start listening to the experts and to trans people themselves. Otherwise you will go down in history as a villain and a traitor to the LGBTQ+ community, either a devout bigot or a sellout who gave up his morals for cheap points from right-wing think tanks and press.
History will not forget what you did. You are actively hurting and endangering children with this ban.
I await your response to the question at the beginning of this letter.
