Labour’s bridge building on sex and gender-based rights
In July of this year, the Labour party announced a shift in its position on sex and gender-based rights. The party’s new policy set out that a Labour government would:
Require a diagnosis of “gender dysphoria” to change gender, but simplify the process of doing so, with evidence and a diagnosis only needed from one doctor.
Ensure there remain single-sex services and places that only biological women can access.
This position is distinct from the current rules. Currently, Gender Recognition Certificates (which legally change a person’s sex) require a Gender Recognition Panel - made up of doctors and lawyers - to decide on applications, based on evidence from two separate doctors.
Existing polling has already shown that Labour’s new position closely matches that of the British public. However, it has been widely assumed that the Labour Party membership would not support requiring a medical diagnosis to legally change sex, or excluding transgender women from single-sex services and spaces in certain cases.
New polling, conducted by YouGov on behalf of Labour Together, shows decisively that this is not the case. The Labour membership supports the Party’s new policy position. In fact, the attitude of the average Labour party member on sex and gender rights is nearly identical to that of the average member of the public.
Key findings from the new research include:
The membership strongly approves (67%) of the recent change in Labour policy to reform the Gender Recognition Act by removing the involvement of a panel of doctors and lawyers, and changing the requirement for a diagnosis of “gender dysphoria” from the opinion of two doctors to just one.
Members also overwhelmingly support the right of people to identify as a different gender to that recorded at birth (75% support). And nearly every respondent (93%) supported Labour’s commitment to allowing all transgender people to live their lives free from harassment, abuse and intimidation.
A clear majority of the Labour membership (62%) believe there are some cases where transgender women should be excluded from single-sex services and spaces intended for women. Just 22% disagree.
On the question of single-sex spaces, this new polling with party members echoes Labour Together research with the general public from February 2023. This revealed that 55% of Britons thought it should be legal to exclude trans women from some single-sex spaces, which is in fact lower than current support amongst Labour members (as noted above: 62%).
Likewise, research from the pollster, Deltapoll, in January found that the general public supports the continued involvement of doctors in the process to legally change gender (58% support, 30% oppose). Amongst the Labour membership, as noted above, support sits at 67%.
A recent paper published by Labour Together, ‘Culture Clash’ by Sunder Katwala of British Future, argued that some of the tension when discussing the topic of sex and gender - as with most ‘wedge’ issues - can be cooled by encouraging more people to ʻlean inʼ and take a ‘bridge bridging’ position that balances competing claims and concerns.
The Labour Partyʼs new position, announced by Shadow Secretary of State for Women and Equalities, Anneliese Dodds MP, is a good example of this approach: both inclusive towards trans people and recognising a distinction between sex and gender.
Crucially, this distinction, based on the balancing of nuanced and complex views, is one that has a broad consensus within the party’s own membership as well as the public at large.
Methodology
These results are based on a survey of 1,101 adult members of the Labour Party. Fieldwork was conducted by YouGov between 24th and 27th October, 2023.
